MLS on ESPN
MLS on ESPN is the branding used for television presentations of Major League Soccer on ESPN properties, including ABC and ESPN2. Major League Soccer on ESPN2 debuted in 1996, the league's first season, and is guaranteed to stay on the network until at least 2022. From 1996 to 2006, the weekly soccer match on ESPN2 was called "MLS Soccer Saturday", but in the new contract, that was replaced by "MLS Primetime Thursday". For the 2009 season and beyond, the Thursday telecast was replaced by a variety of primetime games on Wednesdays through Saturdays. Beginning in 2009 , until 2019, as part of ESPN's far-reaching strategy of moving sports programming to ESPN, all matches - including MLS Cup - are now aired on either ESPN or ESPN2. Since 2019, in odd numbered years, the MLS Cup aired on American Broadcasting Company. Regular season games returned to ABC in 2020. History. On August 4, 2006, ESPN reached a comprehensive multimedia agreement with Soccer United Marketing (SUM) for the rights to Major League Soccer through 2014. As part of the eight-year agreement, ESPN2 will televise 26 regular-season and three playoff MLS matches each year, all in primetime on  Thursdays. Highlights of the agreement include: Also in 2007, ESPN2's coverage of the MLS included new on-screen scoreboards, similar to those used on other sports telecasts. In 2008, another new score graphic was debuted, this time in the upper left hand corner of the screen. ESPN will join forces with Fox Sports and Univision to broadcast over 100 MLS games (combined), live and exclusive, from 2015 and 2022 in its new media rights deal. ESPN has been involved with the league since its inception in 1996. Technology. In addition, ESPN2 has numerous production enhancements to the telecasts. They  include: Criticism. ESPN was accused in 2011 by Soccer America writer Paul Kennedy of putting more emphasis on overall negativity and the more violent aspect of MLS games (such as two confrontations, two challenges and a player nursing a bloody head in its first six shots) in "Greatest Highlights of the Month" segment for their intermission reports.