“Here’s an idea for what Apple should do with [a bit of] its $147 billion in cash: buy the digital rights to National Football League games,” David Goldman writes for CNNMoney.
“Apple already airs professional baseball, hockey and basketball games on the Apple TV. It also comes with the Watch ESPN app, which allows users to watch live tennis matches, golf tournaments and college football and basketball games aired on the Disney-owned sports giant. But in the United States, the NFL is the crown jewel,” Goldman writes. “Apple isn’t known for entering expensive, money-losing ventures. But there’s a chance it wouldn’t have to pay upwards of $1 billion for the deal [what DirectTV pays now, through next season]. For the exclusive mobile rights to NFL games, Verizon pays about a quarter of what DirecTV pays.”
Gosdman writes, “If Google bought the NFL rights [for the company’s YouTube], it’s possible that Apple TV users would still be able to watch football games via the YouTube app. But so could users of Roku, Microsoft’s Xbox, Sony’s PlayStation and so on. But if Apple won exclusive rights, it seems a good bet that Apple would sell many more of those $99 Apple TV set-top boxes. Well, in the United States anyway — the NFL hasn’t taken off in other countries that play the other [real] football.”
Read more in the full article here.
Because they should not…
It only enforces the already high price that is increasing all the time and will drive prices higher increasing the price for crap sports for everyone. The cost for sport is already out of controll and you can not remove the channel, everyone must pay for it essentially sponsoring idiots chasing after what looks like a brown fruit or squash and not a ball.
^^stupid. On multiple levels. DirecTV doesn’t pass on the NFL to all users, it charges a hefty $225 per season for TV only and $300 per season for TV plus mobile plus computer access (it does overlap Verizon slightly). Apple could charge the same, $225 per season for AppleTV only and $300 per season for AppleTV plus iPhone, iPad, and Mac access and lock out both DirecTV and Verizon. I guarantee that Apple would end up with more Sunday ticket subscribers than DirecTV and Verizon because simplicity. Apple would sell more of everything. Sports haters like KarlV would have nothing to complain about.
Currently I watch 3 or 4 pirate rips of games simultaneously (depending on whether my fantasy players are on the local feed) on my Mac connected big screen and my laptops. I will never hassle with a satellite provider when my cable company offers me 50mb down. An Apple solution plugs neatly into my ecosystem.
Yes. This is a great idea and one I have been hoping will happen, eventually. American Football is the most popular sport in the U.S. and having it on iTunes would be a big win for Apple. At present, I already have Game Pass (I live in Costa Rica) but if Apple were to offer it on the IOS devices and TV, they would likely improve upon the experience offered by the NFL and make it even more popular.
What I like most about Game Pass is the ability to stop or pause the stream while the game is live and/or view any game on demand the next day WITHOUT commercials. All in HD. Apple would find a way to make it even better in my opinion.
Dave, you were doin’ great until that last sentence…American Football IS football, not that pansy-ass Eurotrash horseshit.
In the vernacular “fsck you cowboy.” We Europeans were playing football before you lot learned to wipe your arses without the help of King George the third. And we were playing Rugby (which is like your gridiron game, but without the pansy-padding) before the first whistle blew on that mindless pile of tosh you play. Oh and we took REAL football to the rest of the world.
And they like us better that you.
pfft.
Owned.
pfft.
Boom.
Ah, xenophobia. How cute.
And when you say “You sound like a faggot” you sound like a homophobic twat.
And when you say “You sound like a faggot” you sound like a homophobic twat you sound like a gay rights fascist pig.
@Memetech, I’m trying to remember the last time the UK kicked America’s ass in a war. Maybe you could help me out with that?
And yet you got owned by Vietnamese and Koreans.
ha ha!
Have your toughest Rugby player put on a helmet and shoulder pads and play 1 or 2 NFL games. He will come back on a stretcher.
If American Football IS football, then how come they spend so much time doing everything BUT use their feet to kick the bloody ball?
And if they’re such rough-tough macho types, how come they have to wear so much padding and armour?
Now rugby, that’s a proper contact sport, no armour is permitted.
As the saying goes, ‘rugby players eat their dead’.
pfft.
How often are there head or spinal injuries in Rugby? Sounds suicidal to me.
They wear pads because they have guys like Ndamukong Suh and Patrick Willis and not David Beckham and Lionel Messi trying to tear their heads off.
Rorschach, by your definition soccer would then be called kickball.
Both sports are played on foot.
Oh! I forgot: we were even playing your game before you. But we do without the ball, or the “don’t hurt me!” armour.
We call it British Bulldog
pfft. pansy. ass. Eurotrash. horseshit.
it’s so pansy-ass, even the French play it.
American “football” is such a dumb game. They like to trumpet the “macho” nature of the game, yet what you see are largely overweight characters wearing layers of protection (when they are not shooting themselves or others) and grappling with each other. It’s nothing more than WWE with a ball. Just like wrestling, it is all fake. You have a whole small town on the sidelines wearing their stupid microphones and helmets instructing the “players” on exactly what to do during the four or five seconds of real play action that takes place once or maybe twice every minute. Did you know that there is an average of only 11 minutes of real play action during the three or four hours it takes to complete a “game”? The rest of the time you get to watch everyone milling about aimlessly – players running in and out of the field of play, the coach screaming at the umpires (there are more of them umpiring a game than there are players in a basketball or hockey team), the cheerleaders jumping around, the obese guy proposing to his girlfriend in the stands, the TV cameras focusing on the quarterback (important sounding term for a ball-thrower) strolling around on the sidelines, or officials running into the field carrying measuring chains to decide where the ball landed. Sheesh! Just call the game “mummies, tummies and dummies” already. The owners must be laughing all the way to the bank when they go to deposit their billion-dollar checks.
You mean like your soccer (sorry, I meant football) hooligans who kill referees, riot over match results, and love a game that no one knows when the match will end?
You obviously don’t know the rules of football or have any idea of the various positions and what they do, so keep your mouth shut.
You tell them Bizlaw. Besides chess and the college bowl, I’m not sure there’s a more cerebral competitive activity.
For those who know how to count, a (real) football game lasts 90 minutes – not nine hours of aimless milling about and pointing at each other. And you are right, when I go to watch sports, I don’t wait for two-legged rules to break out once the opening whistle blows. Positions? Cerebral? Are you kidding me? Throw ball, catch ball, try and run to the other end. Got body bulk, you’re a player. Nothing much else required.
As was stated earlier and even more evident as you continue to post, You obviously don’t know the rules of football or have any idea of the various positions or strategies of the game. American Football, Soccer and Rugby have evolved to be totally different game. Appreciate each for the excitement and pleasure they bring to their fans.
Or watch soccer and see the ball go up and down the field, with nothing actually happening. Then a few hours later it’s 1-0. No thanks. I’ll catch the one goal on a highlight and be done in 30 seconds.
Yeah. Maybe to get fans like you, they should count one goal as 7 points – God knows why! And at least the ball is going up and down the field all the time – not getting stuck under somebody’s fat tush every time something actually happens on the field.
And you finish games with a tie. Ughhhh
Put some pads on Abdullah, in fact put on two set of pads, and let Ndamukong Suh charge at you full speed. When you get up, if you get up, I’m sure you won’t be questioning the machismo of American football. If your opinion doesn’t change, you can always go back to enjoying that macho sport of cricket. By the way, American football is a very cerebral sport, if not one of the most cerebral sports around. To call it mindless is to be ignorant.
I think any overweight character crashing into you at full speed will cause damage. Is that all there is to the “machismo” of American football? Like I said, WWE wrestlers do the same thing without pretending to be anything else but people paid to crash into each other. As for cerebral, see my comment above. To tell you the truth, I seldom see too much cerebrality among the people watching NFL games.
@Abdullah, You’re beyond idiot stage
Whew! If I’m an idiot, I’m eternally grateful. But for the grace of God, I could have ended up a NFL fan.
so God made you a dickhead instead…pansy-ass Eurotrash horseshit.
The average career of an NFL running back is 3.5 years. Its the toughest sport in the world. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_kflEwPJgw
Apple should only include free streaming sports if they get 7 year deals in place. Once Apple turns on the sports spigot there is no turning back, especially when the leagues demand billion dollar payments. This is not something to dabble in without some serious planning.
Apple should have bought Disney a long time ago. The largest share holder after all is Steve Jobs and now his wife. Purchasing Disney would give them ABC, ESPN and all of Disney’s content. The purchase would be a Power Move that would disrupt all of Network TV.
I’ve been screaming this for years. $60B would get a controlling interest, and every cartoon, movie, story, etc. in the Disney library, along with ABC, ESPN, Pixar, etc. It’s a no-brainer. It’s pocket change. It would end the dumb pipe monopoly.
I wish and pray for this every couple of years. The Apple TV could go from a “hobby” to a media powerhouse with NFL Sunday Ticket. DirectTV has re-negotiated its contract with the NFL multiple times over the last 7-10 years. Why someone else hasn’t stepped in to offer a competitive bid is alarming. The PS3 has a NFL Sunday Ticket App and allows for purchase of a season pass without having DirectTV but it costs $350-400 dollars! Who the hell wants to pay that?? I would pay maybe $100 every year but not $300. I don’t know anyone who has a PS3 who actually bought that package. Sony will never release that info anyways. Apple should seriously try to venture into this territory.
Why would someone want to pay that much for access on the PS3? Maybe because they want to follow their favorite team(s) (or their fantasy team or the teams that they bet on) without having to subscribe to Directv?
YOU wouldn’t pay that much, but I can see plenty of others that would. After all, Directv already has close to 2 million subscribers on NFL Sunday Ticket, and their current price ranges from $225 to $300. About 70% of the pay TV audience uses a different carrier, so that’s a big number of non-Directv households that Sony can tap into.
Why do all these pundits that have ideas for how Apples should spend their money think that these funds are available to spend in the US? Most of these funds are held the country they were produced in or Ireland if memory serves.
Spectator sports are for losers and kill time better spent doing other more worthwhile things. Most jocks are mercenaries, in it for themselves and don’t want to be role models but instead bad boys without being judged for it. Screw those overpaid, pampered, wife cheating a-holes, let ’em work in a real job. And get off your fat duff and go out and get some exercise by playing the sport yourself. Just my humble opinion… 🙂
You obviously weren’t any good at sports and thus feel the need to lump everyone into a category that fits your limited brain capacity to understand what can be learned from sports. Too bad your personal sports experience wAs so poor that you harbor such anger. Watching sports often gets people want to go play sports.
That’s not a humble opinion and a world without spectator sports would be one boring ass world.
Forget the rights. With $140 billion, why doesn’t Apple buy the NFL?
Apple would have to pay something similar to DirecTV if it were possible. However, I suspect that the exclusivity in DirecTVs deal, which is why they are paying so much, would not allow another content provider for display directly to TV.
Note on Verizon’s service: “Currently, Verizon customers must pay $5 monthly for the premium app allowing them to watch the games live — a feature only available on phones.”
I suspect that Airplay and other “watch this on TV” methods are disabled in those apps.
In two years, when DirecTVs deal is over, I think it would be interesting for Apple to consider, but this is the only major US sport where the one provider model is not only possible (because of the popularity of the sport), but has a provider with motivation to lose money on it (it drives subscriptions for DirecTV). However, even then Verizon would have the exclusive on mobile devices, so this would not be on non-verizon iPhones or on iPads.
However, aside from driving more sales of Apple TV, I do not see the upside for Apple that justifies the expense. They would have to gain enough people currently outside the Apple ecosystem each year. So for the same reason the “Apple should make their own content” doesn’t make any sense, neither does this.
The NFL isn’t really sport, it is entertainment. A well choreographed little ballet of overpriced millionaires who think that every play deserves some kind of pat on the back, hence the stupid little celebrations. Don’t get me wrong, I am not a hater, I do watch it, but take it at face value. It is a business. A big business. And the players really don’t give a shit whether they win or lose, they get paid the same regardless. It’s the stupid sheep fans that make such a big deal about wins and losses and take this to heart. A bunch of stupid morons. Get over it already and get a life. Apple should stay out of it, the rest rape everybody else who foolishly sign up for direct ticket, etc.
Favorite MDN comment of the year. Thank you, lol!
Next, are you’re going to tell us that wrestling is fake, too? >(
Do you also tell kids that there’s no Santa Claus?
No, because at least Santa Claus has some redeeming value.
C’mon! Get a clue!
Those of us with fantasy teams and bookies don’t care one bit about wins and losses. It’s all about stats and point spreads. pfft
Hey, I think football is boring, but calling them all “millionaires” is a bit harsh.
According to http://work.chron.com/much-money-nfl-player-make-year-2377.html, the minimum salary is $375K. That sounds like a TON, but the players only play for a few years. Not all of them get TV gigs afterwards. Doe the NFL pay for health care the rest of their lives? I don’t think so.
Basically, again, I think it’s boring as heck too, but they’re NOT as rich as you think they are.
Yet another techie wet dream, written up by someone who hasn’t a clue about sports or the sports audience.
First off, when is this supposed to happen? Verizon has already reupped its deal with the NFL — $1 billion for another four years. The article ignores the fact that NFL broadcast rights are in the billions of dollars, and these “digital rights” to Verizon only include the national broadcasts (and starting next year, the local market games from Fox and CBS). The NFL also further handcuffs Verizon users by not allowing them to stream NFL games via HDMI connections.
The NFL Sunday Ticket package on Directv already includes mobile streaming, and it includes ALL out-of-market games, a difference that Goldman is apparently unaware of. The article states that Directv loses money on its NFL deal, and uses it primarily to attract and retain subscribers. Well, duh! Directv gives the package away for free to new subscribers, and they use it as a hedge to keep their subscribers from defecting to competing services. They already did the math, and found that their losses on the NFL package are more than made up by maintaining their subscriber base.
I don’t see Apple getting in bed with the NFL on a loss leader like this. Directv pays big money for Sunday Ticket rights, and those games are locked out of what Verizon currently carries. If Apple gets into this, they would need to outbid Directv (and other carriers) just for the OUT-OF-MARKET games. THEN they would need to entangle themselves with NFL Network, ESPN, CBS, Fox, and NBC to try and wrangle up the rights to stream local market games and national broadcasts. Now, you’re no longer in the “hundreds of millions” range, and I don’t see the value in this for Apple.
Apple’s media strategy always been about launching when they have the major players on board, and the broadest content availability. Slogging through the myriad of contractual entanglements and streaming rights for just one U.S. spectator sport doesn’t seem to fit.
Apple can avoid all of those entanglements and get a major benefit for the money by spending $60B for a controlling interest in Disney. That would give them the whole Disney library of content; movies, cartoons, TV shows, etc. It would give them Pixar, Touchstone, and Buena Vista. It would also give them two whole TV networks, the wholly owned ABC and its subsidiary, ESPN. Apple would get the NFL, NASCAR, college football, the BCS, Monday night football, etc. That would be worth $60B and much more to Apple, just for the content.
Apple is a global company. Only Americans watch NFL.
I love NFL football. Unfortunately I live in Cincinnati. But I sure wouldn’t pay hundreds of dollars for a seasons worth. They make plenty of money via commercials and ticket sales. We don’t need to all pay them more. Every time someone coughs up those hundreds of dollars, you ruin it for everyone else. If nobody paid for that service, I can guarantee you that NFL football would be on TV every weekend and twice during the week on network TV for free or as part of the cheapest cable service package. If everyone did without it for a season, the problem would be gone forever.
Uh, are my eyes deceiving me when I turn my rabbit ears to the sky and magically watch NFL football on CBS and Fox every autumn Sunday?
Of course, if I was an actual Cincinnati Bengals fan, I would most definitely want an option that allows me to watch those games out here in Cali.
Maybe they could do a test by acquiring the rites to stream NFL games in Canada for now. As a cable cutter I have been locked out of NFL in Canada.
Having the NFL on Apple TV is an excellent idea and would drive sales of the box. I don’t know if Apple has to shell out millions of dollars, however, to effectuate this.
What is Apple’s arrangement with MLB, NBA, and the NHL? I pay MLB about $120/year for access to out-of-market games and a similar amount to the NBA. I can then watch games on the AppleTV as well as my iPhone, iPad, and computers. As far as I can tell, these relationships are between me and the respective professional sports league. It’s not clear that Apple derives any revenue other than making AppleTV a more attractive device.
The NFL could develop a similar app. Why would Apple have to pay millions for the right to distribute the app?
It would drive sales in the US to the percentage of the population who watch, about 15 million. Whereas globally about 200 million watch the champions league. Sports broadcasting is not something I see Apple specialising in, and certainly not NFL.
“Watching TV is like living second hand.”
John D. Macdonald
This would be a good way for Apple to be called a monopolist again.
If the Jets are the only game on i’ll pay anything.
The NFL is going to need a truckload of money to settle the lawsuits over the delayed effects of traumatic brain injury from playing a heavy contact sport on asphalt and concrete (artificial turf surfaces are usually built upon paved surfaces with a thin layer of padding).
Apple should not join into the greedfest that is the NFL. Bigger Corporate Welfare Queens are not seen this side of the Pentagon or the Nuclear Industry.
The only pro football I see is when an SEC Football Game is on the tube. The Football Factories of the South sure not recruit based upon academics.
sure don’t not sure not.
Buying NFL rights would cement Apple’s dominance in America. As a business, Apple could sell game by game, team seasons, complete coverage, or whatever to recover as much of the cost as possible. Then they would sell a ton more hardware with a halo from Apple TV etc.
On the other hand, if Google gets it, the end of USA dominance will follow.
Instead of fooling with buybacks, Apple should be paying big for exclusive distribution in key areas: NFL, Disney Pixar, HBO, etc.
Is Larry Page smarter than Tim Cook about what’s happening? Jobs knew where the mindset of America was.