“For years now, the Apple TV has felt like the odd one out in Apple’s product lineup. This is despite the fact that it has a lot of things going for it, and is in the middle of a growing market. Now, Apple has lowered the price to $69 and struck a deal three month exclusive deal with HBO for their HBO Now streaming service. This adds some immediate appeal, but isn’t enough to secure market supremacy,” Cameron Graham writes for Seeking Alpha. “If Apple wants to control the streaming device market, it should acquire MLB Advanced Media, the tech unit behind some of the largest streaming services.”
“MLBAM has recently expressed interest in a sale, and Apple has partnered with them numerous times for product launches, which provides a groundwork to build upon. This acquisition would position Apple as not just a streaming device maker, but as a first-class infrastructure provider,” Graham writes. “Apple would be able to offer a complete package (infrastructure and distribution) for publishers that want to launch subscription services, and would be able to leverage this advantage to give Apple TV a superior content lineup.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Among many other things, MLB Advanced Media is responsible for the MLB.com At Bat app which we’ve long praised.
More about MLB Advanced Media: www.mlbam.com
Or, put another way…
Apple should acquire MLB Advanced Media if it wants to fully enable users to cut the cords with big cable and rely solely on AppleTV.
Apple should buy MLB.
Apple has long been reluctant in this area.
Brainstorming:
1. Apple does not want future legal entanglements.
2. Apple has current legal entanglements.
3. Apple does not have sufficient faith in this area over long term plan.
4. Apple does not want the hassle, regardless of technology or legal issues.
5. Apple is in stealth.
6. Apple is waiting for some costs to drop or markets to expand.
7. Apple can’t get the wide variety of TV/movie media companies to play ball, and thus any planned Apple offering is on hold until these companies get their collective behinds in order.
LOL more stupid Apple Should Do this and that.
Apple TV is not only local thing, and baseball is sport that barely understandable elsewhere (or, even more correctly, it is incomprehensible almost everywhere else). So I am not sure that it would make sense to focus exactly on it.
I think you should look up what this company does. I don’t think it does what you think it does.
It has baseball in the name, so I can not be far off.
I think we will see more AppleTV announcements later this year. Tim Cook said that these announcements were just the beginning about the AppleTV. It was like he really wanted to say more but couldn’t. If buying MLBAM would help them get to where they want to go with AppleTV, I’m all for it. I think the lower price is to clear out inventory or make room for a more advanced model.
Maybe they are clearing inventory to release ATV4.
It’s been said that he most valuable part of owning an MLB franchise is 1/30th slice you get of MLBAM. You’d have to pry it from their cold dead hands…