Four years after largely disappearing from New England television, the Revolution will have eight of their remaining Major League Soccer matches this season aired as late-night replays on Fox 25, beginning on Monday night.
While live broadcasts of the team’s games will remain on the Apple TV streaming service, Fox 25 will re-air a selection of them for its audience at 11:30 p.m. the Monday after they’re played.
Outside of Monday night’s broadcast of Saturday’s 2-1 home victory over Minnesota United, all the replays will be after MLS’s two-month break for the World Cup, which begins June 11. (Fox has the exclusive English-speaking TV rights to the tournament in the United States.)
The re-airs are scheduled for July 27 (vs. Atlanta), Aug. 24 (New York City FC), Sept. 21 (Orlando City), Sept. 28 (Real Salt Lake), Oct. 12 (Seattle), Oct. 26 (Philadelphia), and Nov. 2 (the regular-season finale against Inter Miami).
The Revolution (8-4-1, 25 points) are off to a hot start under first-year coach Marko Mitrovic, third in the Eastern Conference entering their final pre-break match Saturday night at Charlotte FC. New England missed the playoffs each of the last two seasons.
MLS eliminated regional live broadcasts following the 2022 season. It replaced them with a 10-year, $2.5 billion agreement with Apple that put almost the league’s entire schedule on “MLS Season Pass,” an exclusive tier of the Apple streaming service that included studio coverage of the league and extra content.
The deal was significantly revised in November, its end date moved up 3½ years to after the 2028-29 season, and the coverage opened up to all Apple TV subscribers without an extra fee.
A limited selection of regular-season and playoff games have remained on broadcast TV under a four-year contract signed with Fox in December 2022, but the Revolution have rarely been featured. Lacking marquee stars and in a downturn following the departure of Bruce Arena in late 2023, New England appeared on the Fox networks just once last season, and its lone scheduled date this year was its April 22 victory at Atlanta.
At least a dozen of the league’s 30 teams have announced deals similar to the Revolution’s with Fox 25 since the start of last season, offering game replays as a way to increase local exposure.
New England’s other major pro soccer team, the expansion Boston Legacy of the National Women’s Soccer League, is in the midst of having 12 matches aired live this season on NBC Sports Boston. The team and network announced a “multi-year regional media partnership” last month.
NESN, which frequently airs live USL Championship matches for both Rhode Island FC and the Portland Hearts of Pine, also broadcasts replays of Liverpool matches from the English Premier League. (Both NESN and Liverpool are owned by Fenway Sports Group. John Henry, FSG’s principal owner, also owns the Globe.)
