“Apple has reportedly been pushing for years on cable companies and networks to provide their programming via Apple TV in an attempt to lour cord cutters to a more attractive selection and pricing model,” Mark Reschke writes for T-GAAP. “But Apple’s negotiations have fallen flat time and time again, as Apple has had little to no leverage to wield at content owners, but the market is finally starting to change.”
“Cable and Dish providers are losing roughly 70,000 subscribers per month,” Reschke writes. “The cord cutting trend will continue and it appears content providers like Disney [ESPN] are taking notice, with or without Apple.”
“ESPN has been experimenting with pay-to-play content without needing a cable subscription,” Reschke writes. “Roku, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV are all likely to be receiving the EPSN options, but why is Apple not out in front of this, locking up exclusive deals? … If Apple wants to dominate the living room, exclusive deals with sports content creators like NBA and NFL, or exclusive deals with the providers of this content need to be made. If not, Apple will just be another also ran in the living room streaming industry.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote back in May 2014:
Perhaps Cook should consider bidding for and winning NFL Sunday Ticket away from Direct TV, buying rights to Premiere League and La Liga games, etc. and making them Apple TV exclusives. Go directly to the sports leagues with boatlods of cash. Maybe that’ll grease the wheels [with reticent content providers]. It’ll certainly move a bunch of Apple TV boxes around the world in short order.
