Major League Soccer team Atlanta United has extended its regional broadcast deals with Fox Sports South and Fox Sports Southeast until 2022.
The regional sports networks have televised all regionally-available matches since Atlanta United’s inaugural season in 2017. Terms were not disclosed.
As part of the deal, Atlanta United matches televised on the networks will also be streamed locally on the Fox Sports Go app, while there will be additional coverage on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
“Fox Sports South and Southeast have done a tremendous job broadcasting our matches since our inaugural season and we’re thrilled to continue our exclusive partnership going forward,” said Atlanta United president Darren Eales in a statement. “They’ve shown a commitment to produce the best local broadcast in MLS and that’s played a key role in cultivating our ever-growing fan base.”
The extension up until 2022 is notable. According to recent reports, MLS has instructed its teams not to sign any local rights deals that run beyond the end of the current national agreement [in 2022] in order to potentially package local and national broadcast deals to potential partners.
Elsewhere, the Seattle Sounders are looking for a new streaming partner after their deal with YouTube TV, the cable-free live television service of video-sharing company YouTube, expired at the end of the 2019 season. YouTube TV announced that the entire platform will be shut down, with fans losing access to all previous recordings.
The Sounders have linear TV deals with Q13 Fox and JOEtv.
Read this: Atlanta United use fans as ambassadors to enter global elite for attendance