SiriusXM today said it will broadcast every match of the 2026 MLS Cup Playoffs live, from the first Wild Card games on November 19 through the MLS Cup Final on December 18, and that all of it can be heard on its $5-a-month Sports Pass as well as its higher-priced plans. For every match before the final, the satellite radio company will carry the home club's own radio broadcast. The final gets an exclusive national audio production with a SiriusXM crew. The company is also moving "Studs Up," its newest soccer show, to a three-hour weekday slot from November 9. The release, issued from New York at 12:31 PM EST, says nothing about advertising.

In Short

SiriusXM says it will play the radio call of every game in Major League Soccer's playoffs this year, ending with the championship game on December 18. You can hear them with its cheapest sports plan, which costs $5 a month, and it is also turning a soccer talk show hosted by former players into a daily weekday program. For advertisers, this is another block of live sport on SiriusXM, but the company did not say how many people listen or how ads around the games are sold.

What SiriusXM will carry

The release promises live play-by-play of what SiriusXM calls "every single match of the MLS Cup Playoffs to listeners nationwide." That commitment comes in two parts, and they are not the same kind of product.

For the early rounds, SiriusXM is a carrier rather than a producer. According to the release, the playoffs "begin with the Wild Card matches on November 19 and SiriusXM will carry the home team's broadcast for every match until the MLS Cup Final." In practice that is a simulcast of the radio call made by whichever club is hosting.

The final is different. On December 18, according to SiriusXM, it "will produce an exclusive national audio broadcast of the title match." Keith Costigan will call the play-by-play, former English Premier League player Danny Higginbotham will be the analyst in the booth, and Toronto FC defender Walker Zimmerman will work as sideline commentator. A schedule of the matches is to be posted at SiriusXM.com/Sports.

The postseason sits on top of a complete regular season. A SiriusXM listening guide published alongside the release says the company carried every MLS regular-season game in 2026 before moving on to the playoffs.

How many matches "every" covers

The release gives no match count. MLS's own published format fills the gap. Eighteen clubs qualify, the top nine in each conference. The eighth and ninth seeds in each conference meet in single Wild Card matches on November 19, two games in all. Round One is a best-of-three series running from November 20 to December 2, which MLS says produces between 16 and 24 games. Four Conference Semifinals follow on December 5 and 6, two Conference Finals on December 11 and 12, and then the MLS Cup on December 18, hosted by the finalist with the better regular-season record.

Added up, the postseason runs to between 25 and 33 matches. That range is a PPC Land calculation from MLS's round-by-round figures, not a number SiriusXM published. All but one of those matches, between 24 and 32 depending on how many Round One series need a third game, will be a club broadcast. Only the final is a SiriusXM production.

One feed, not two

"The home team's broadcast" is a narrower promise than the one SiriusXM made for basketball a little over two weeks ago. When it set out its NBA coverage on October 19, SiriusXM said listeners on its app or in vehicles with its newest radios would get both the home and visiting team broadcasts for every game. Those radios run on 360L, SiriusXM's in-car platform that pairs the one-way satellite signal with an internet connection.

The MLS release mentions neither the app nor 360L. It does not say whether the visiting club's call is available anywhere, or whether the club broadcasts reach satellite-only radios as well as streaming listeners. For a supporter of the away side, the difference is whether they hear their own club's commentators or the opponent's.

Decision Day: four matches on Saturday

Before the playoffs begin, SiriusXM will air four matches from the final round of the regular season on Saturday, November 7, which MLS calls Decision Day. The release describes the selection as "including Western Conference matchups that will determine playoff standings." The schedule, in Eastern time:

  • 4 pm: Inter Miami against Charlotte, on SiriusXM FC, channel 188.
  • 4 pm: New York Red Bulls against Atlanta United, on SiriusXM channel 176.
  • 7 pm: Real Salt Lake against LA Galaxy, on SiriusXM FC, channel 188.
  • 7 pm: Seattle against LAFC, on SiriusXM channel 95.

Two kickoffs share each window, so the matches are split across channels. The soccer channel takes one game in each slot, and two other channels, identified in the release only by number, take the rest. The 4 pm pair are Eastern Conference fixtures; the 7 pm pair are the Western Conference games the release singles out.

"Studs Up" goes to five days a week

"In conjunction with" the playoff coverage, according to SiriusXM, it is moving "Studs Up," described as "its newest soccer show," to "a permanent five days a week schedule." Starting Monday, November 9, the show airs live every weekday from 10 am to 1 pm Eastern on SiriusXM FC, channel 188. That is 15 hours of live programming a week, a PPC Land calculation.

The hosts rotate. Former MLS midfielders Dax McCarty and Sacha Kljestan and former MLS winger Lloyd Sam make up the player side, and according to SiriusXM the three have more than 1,100 MLS appearances between them. They are paired with veteran soccer commentators Jack Collins, Keith Costigan and Tyler Terens. Costigan therefore appears twice in the release, once as a "Studs Up" host and once as the voice of the final.

What the release leaves out is the show's history. It does not say when "Studs Up" first aired, how many days a week it ran before this change, or whether the new slot replaces other programming. SiriusXM's channel page lists the show in a three-hour slot and names McCarty and Collins as its hosts, but carries no launch date.

The rest of SiriusXM FC

"Studs Up" joins, in the release's words, "a daily lineup of programming on the SiriusXM FC channel that covers the beautiful game as it is played around the world." Hosts named on the channel include Hall of Famer Eric Wynalda, former Premier League players Danny Higginbotham and Shaun Derry, Adrian Heath, Charlie Stillitano, Tommy Smyth and Tom Rennie. SiriusXM's channel page lists live match programming from the UEFA Champions League, the Premier League, the NWSL, MLS and the USL alongside its talk shows.

Zimmerman's role extends beyond the final. According to the release, he will serve as a contributor throughout the playoffs, "making appearances on various shows to discuss the latest results and preview upcoming matchups." He is described as a current Toronto FC defender, which makes him an active MLS player contributing to coverage of the league's own postseason.

Channel 188 and an older relationship

The soccer link between SiriusXM and MLS is not new. In July 2025, SiriusXM produced the exclusive national audio broadcasts of the MLS All-Star Game and the MLS All-Star Skills Challenge in Austin, Texas, according to a SiriusXM release dated July 16, 2025. Max Bretos called the play-by-play for the July 23 game against the LIGA MX All-Stars, Tony Meola was the analyst and Costigan worked as sideline reporter. Four years earlier, SiriusXM FC carried live play-by-play of MLS Cup Playoff games from Round One through the 2021 final on December 11, with Chris Wondolowski added as a special playoff analyst, according to a SiriusXM announcement republished by the San Jose Earthquakes.

Both of those broadcasts ran on channel 157. SiriusXM's US channel page now places SiriusXM FC on channel 188 and states that it moved from 157, and today's release uses 188 throughout. When the move took place is not stated.

Plans, price and geography

According to SiriusXM, listeners "can access soccer broadcasts with SiriusXM's most popular subscription plans, including Platinum, All Access and Music & Entertainment, as well as SiriusXM's new sports-focused subscription plan, SiriusXM Sports Pass, priced at $5 per month."

SiriusXM unveiled Sports Pass on July 29, 2026, at $5 a month or $49 a year for new subscribers in the United States, with a September 1 launch. That announcement listed every home and away NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL game by league, referred more generally to soccer from the United States and abroad, and counted SiriusXM FC among its 16 exclusive SiriusXM sports channels. MLS was not named. Today's release ties the MLS postseason to the $5 tier explicitly.

SiriusXM has published no Sports Pass subscriber figure. In the third quarter, it added about 5,000 self-pay subscribers, against a loss of 40,000 a year earlier, and its self-pay monthly churn was about 1.5%. Whether a $5 sports tier adds subscribers or moves existing ones down from pricier plans is not something the quarterly materials separate.

Geography is less clear than the price. The release's subheadline promises coverage to "fans across North America," while its first paragraph says "listeners nationwide." MLS includes Canadian clubs, Zimmerman's Toronto FC among them, and Sports Pass was described in July as a plan for new US subscribers. SiriusXM's Canadian website has a guide to 2026 MLS radio, first published on March 26 and updated on April 20, that covers regular-season games only and still lists SiriusXM FC on channel 157. The release does not say whether Canadian subscribers receive the playoff coverage on the same terms, or at what price.

Why it matters to audio buyers

SiriusXM's own advertising line has leaned on sport this year. In the second quarter, advertising revenue in the SiriusXM segment rose 8% to $41 million, an increase the company attributed to demand around the FIFA World Cup 2026 and college athletics, while consolidated advertising revenue reached $454 million, up 5%. In the third quarter the same segment line fell 5% to $37 million, on softer demand from news programming and direct-to-consumer advertisers that was partly offset by continued strength in sports. Consolidated advertising revenue was $456 million, against $455 million a year earlier. Monthly active sports listeners rose 4% in the quarter.

The release's own case for soccer is qualitative. "Coming off an exciting World Cup, and as the popularity of soccer continues to grow among North American fans, SiriusXM FC serves as a daily destination for those fans who want in-depth coverage of their favorite teams and players throughout the year," according to SiriusXM. No listening figure accompanies the claim. The measured data from the tournament, which ran from June 11 to July 19, 2026, is for television: iSpot counted more than 25 billion TV ad impressions across FOX, FS1, Telemundo and Universo, and found that nearly 70% of FOX's World Cup viewers watched at least one US men's match by the end of the semifinals. Nothing comparable has been published for audio, or for SiriusXM FC.

MLS fans are already sold as a segment elsewhere. When GumGum built audiences from verified sports logo views across nine US leagues in September, MLS was on the list with the NFL, NBA, WNBA, MLB, NHL, NWSL, F1 and NCAA Football.

The MLS announcement extends a run of sports moves at SiriusXM since the summer. In July it signed 42 Audacy stations across 29 US markets, 23 of them sports stations that went live on September 1, with 14 of those sports stations restricted to the app and 360L vehicles. Sports Pass followed, then the NBA season. By the third quarter, SiriusXM counted 24 local sports channels.

The boilerplate repeats that SiriusXM "reaches approximately 255 million monthly listeners across its platforms." That figure, which SiriusXM Media repeated at its Built With Audio event on October 6, includes the reach SiriusXM Media now sells through its exclusive US representation of YouTube's audio inventory, agreed in April 2026. It is not a measure of soccer listening.

What the release does not contain is any advertising detail. It names no sponsor for the playoff coverage, the final or "Studs Up." It gives no ad load and no audience estimate for SiriusXM FC. It does not say whether the club broadcasts air with their original commercial breaks or with SiriusXM's own inventory. For a buyer, it is a schedule, not a rate card.

Timeline

Summary

Who: SiriusXM, through its SiriusXM FC channel, with play-by-play voice Keith Costigan, analyst Danny Higginbotham, Toronto FC defender Walker Zimmerman, and "Studs Up" hosts Dax McCarty, Sacha Kljestan, Lloyd Sam, Jack Collins and Tyler Terens. Major League Soccer and its 18 playoff clubs supply the matches and, until the final, the broadcasts.

What: SiriusXM will air live audio of every MLS Cup Playoff match, between 25 and 33 in total on a PPC Land calculation from MLS's format, carrying the home club's broadcast until the final and producing an exclusive national broadcast of the MLS Cup Final itself. "Studs Up" moves to a permanent weekday slot, and four Decision Day matches air on November 7. The coverage is included in Sports Pass at $5 a month and in the Platinum, All Access and Music & Entertainment plans.

When: SiriusXM announced the plans today. Decision Day is November 7, "Studs Up" goes weekday from November 9, the playoffs start on November 19 and the final is on December 18, 2026.

Where: On SiriusXM FC, channel 188, plus channels 176 and 95 for two Decision Day matches, with a schedule at SiriusXM.com/Sports. The release says coverage reaches listeners "nationwide" and "fans across North America" but does not set out terms for Canada.

Why: Sport is the one category SiriusXM has named as a source of strength in its own advertising this year, from the World Cup lift in the second quarter to the partial offset in the third, and the company has spent the second half of 2026 adding live games to a $5 tier. The release gives no listener numbers, sponsors or ad load for soccer, so the commercial value of the coverage to advertisers remains undisclosed.