Apple wants to make its TV+ streaming service more attractive through sports. The company has been broadcasting top-class baseball games from the USA for several months and has also secured soccer rights (Major League Soccer, MLS). According to a report, however, the attempt to expand this to include games from the American football league NFL has failed. Apple is said to have planned to offer NFL Sunday games to all customers of its service as part of the $7 a month subscription.
Apple wanted global rights for NFL games
In the meantime it already looked as if Apple would prevail here, the iPhone manufacturer even secured major sponsorship rights for the Superbowl. However, the NFL itself no longer seems to want to – apparently because the league would be too cheap for customers. As financial website Puck reports, the contracts are too inflexible for Apple. There were media reports before that Apple didn’t just want to be a “conveyor” for the games.
The NFL, on the other hand, did not want to grant worldwide rights to Apple, in contrast to the MLB baseball league. Even so-called “local blackouts”, in which local markets can only receive the games of “their” team via certain channels, were apparently too much for Apple. Furthermore, as mentioned, the package should be a free part of Apple TV +. This is how baseball is handled, the “Friday Night Baseball” games are always part of the subscription and can also be viewed later in recordings.
International sport on the agenda
Apple also seems to be increasingly interested in international sports rights, including football. Recently there have been rumors – not to be taken very seriously – that the iPhone manufacturer could acquire a large British club. The deal with Major League Soccer could be a model for the contracts. This is to run over a long period of time – ten full years – and will start next year.
Football is not as important in the USA as it is in other regions of the world, but it is attracting more and more fans. With its offer, Apple also seems to want to try to make the sport more popular in its home market. In addition to the games themselves, this also includes content in other apps of the group such as Apple News.
(bsc)
