Apple TV+ tech problems disrupt Lionel Messi's MLS debut

Lionel Messi [Inter Miami CF]

A live stream on Apple TV+ formally revealing soccer legend Lionel Messi had joined Major League Soccer's Inter Miami team was struck by audio problems — and the Internet is mad about it.

On Sunday night, Apple TV+ hosted a live stream of an event at DRV PNK Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The event was an official reveal that Lionel Messi, a legendary soccer player from Argentina, was joining the MLS team.

The stream, titled "The Unveil," featured Inter Miami co-owner David Beckham speaking to the crowd in attendance, accompanied by Messi himself and fellow new signing Sergio Busquets. While in-stadium attendees had a good experience despite bad weather, viewers of the stream were quick to complain about the event on social media.

Numerous tweets on Twitter objected to the stream's muffled audio, which made it hard to hear what any of the soccer stars said to fans. Instead of directly sourcing audio from the in-stadium system, it seems that ambient stadium audio was used instead, leading to poor audio quality.

The tweets also had issues with the presentation as a whole, including "weird camera angles, no video feeds during montages, and bad translation audio." Comparisons claimed it was worse than "local access cable" and "middle schoolTV productions."

The audio for the Messi introduction was absolutely horrible. @AppleTV could have done a lot better. #Messi #MLSSeasonPass
— AnDrew Levers (@andrew_levers) July 17, 2023

The stream's poor reception is a dampener for the relationship between MLS and Apple. As part of negotiations for Messi to join MLS, a revenue share for subscriptions to MLS Season Pass was apparently on the table, along with a four-part Apple TV+ documentary about his World Cup appearances.

It's also a blow to Apple's attempts to demonstrate it is a competent broadcaster, having previously put effort into showcasing the work behind the scenes.

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7 Comments

jgreg728 101 comments · 8 Years

About 9 months ago

Flipped this on for a couple mins out of sheer curiosity from the prominent ads about it on the TV App and immediately changed it to watch something else. There was a slow panning shot of the rainy field while…someone was saying…something in the background. You couldn’t understand or hear a thing and I thought maybe it was a weird transition thing they were doing. But nope apparently that was the show according to this article lol. This was Apple’s big moment to cement its place as MLS’ new home to the world, as well as show its place as the future of post-cable sports, with a high profile event like this and it BLEW IT. Another reason why they’re F-ing up their TV business so badly. What a disappointment.

thedba 764 comments · 12 Years

About 9 months ago

First off, all Apple has are the rebroadcasting rights. I don't think Apple has created its own teams of cameramen, studios, trucks etc.

While they are going to be blamed for this, I think technically the problems lie elsewhere.

@Jgreg728 How has Apple been f-ing up the TV business?

Their catalog is growing and many of the shows are good quality.

jgreg728 101 comments · 8 Years

About 9 months ago

thedba said:

@Jgreg728 How has Apple been f-ing up the TV business?
Their catalog is growing and many of the shows are good quality.

Never said the quality of their catalog was the issue. Apple has been dropping the ball majorly on making a true dent in the TV industry. As good as their shows are, they struggle to get the viewership they need because they A) don’t have a focused way of advertising their content, B ) they pretend TV+ is the only part of their TV service (they should be positioning the TV App and its channels as a whole as a contender against Netflix and Hulu, not just TV+), and C) they should be giving people reasons to cut the cord and lead the way to a post-cable life, but so far they haven’t done a thing to show why the TV App or TV 4K hardware is worth the move. Moments like this MLS blunder does nothing but add salt to the wound. and it’s so frustrating because the potential they have to disrupt television is immense.

BiCC 59 comments · 1 Year

About 9 months ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM0ql8360J4

No player comes close to Messi. And he got the Cup for his country. I won three grand on that bet.

thedba 764 comments · 12 Years

About 9 months ago

jgreg728 said:

thedba said:

@Jgreg728 How has Apple been f-ing up the TV business?
Their catalog is growing and many of the shows are good quality.

Never said the quality of their catalog was the issue. Apple has been dropping the ball majorly on making a true dent in the TV industry. As good as their shows are, they struggle to get the viewership they need because they A) don’t have a focused way of advertising their content, B ) they pretend TV+ is the only part of their TV service (they should be positioning the TV App and its channels as a whole as a contender against Netflix and Hulu, not just TV+), and C) they should be giving people reasons to cut the cord and lead the way to a post-cable life, but so far they haven’t done a thing to show why the TV App or TV 4K hardware is worth the move. Moments like this MLS blunder does nothing but add salt to the wound. and it’s so frustrating because the potential they have to disrupt television is immense.
A) don’t have a focused way of advertising their content,
You mean outside of Apple stores on local TV or papers? I don't see much advertising for some other providers either. Example in my area I have never seen an ad on TV or local papers for Netflix, or Amazon Prime TV nor Hulu. I may have on occasion seen for Disney+ but that's about it. Your area may differ from mine.

B ) they pretend TV+ is the only part of their TV service (they should be positioning the TV App and its channels as a whole as a contender against Netflix and Hulu, not just TV+
This may be counter to Apple's philosophy. What you're suggesting is that TV app become just another app. They've already succeeded in the sense that it already comes standard on many smart TV's today, however Apple wants more than "just another app" on your set top box or smart TV. They want you as part of the overall experience, call it eco system. The app part on smart TV's is just a window into the Apple eco system. The Apple TV 4K is the ultimate goal for Apple, because now the customer gets to be part of the experience. IMO it is the much better interface overall, far superior than Samsung TV, LG TV and Android TV, whom I've all tried.

C) they should be giving people reasons to cut the cord and lead the way to a post-cable life, but so far they haven’t done a thing to show why the TV App or TV 4K hardware is worth the move
This is huge and much more complicated than you might imagine. Take just one "sport" as an example. Golf.
If you want to bring that under 1 umbrella, you probably have to negotiate a) the PGA, b) PGA championship independent to (a), c) USGA (Us Open), d) Augusta National (the Masters) e) R&A golf club (The British Open) and you're not done yet. Now you have LIV in the picture as well as the DP World Tour, Asian Tour and let's not forget the LPGA
In each country you'd have to negotiate with regional broadcasters for streaming rights, CBS and NBC in the US, TSN in Canada, Eurosport in mainland Europe, BBC in Britain others in Korea, Japan, China, Australia. That list is endless.
Point is, that what Apple does, they want to do it on a global basis. They don't want to be just the exclusive broadcaster in the UK only, sort of what Amazon did for many Premier League games.
The MLS is just the beginning as far as Apple is concerned. The MLB and Friday night baseball is just sending out "feelers" to see how the market reacts and maybe expand on that. It may also be that that's all they could get from MLB.