Apple has reportedly has emerged as the favorite to land the NFL’s Sunday Ticket package, according to Matthew Belloni of PUCK.news.
An unnamed source told Belloni that the deal is actually done, and that it’s being kept under wraps at Apple’s request.
The price could land in the range of $2.5 billion per year.
DirecTV holds the Sunday Ticket rights through 2022. We’ve previously heard that the winner of the Sunday Ticket package possibly would be able to sell a sliver of the satellite rights, either to people in areas that lack high-speed Internet access or to bars.
MacDailyNews Take: If true, it’s a smart move, if we don’t say so ourselves:
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 boatloads of cash. — MacDailyNews, May 6, 2014
See also: MLB: Apple TV+ ‘Friday Night Baseball’ will deliver huge domestic and national audiences – April 13, 2022
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Yet another load of exclusives to a handful of Apple TV+ subscribers and a giant finger to the rest of us. After Friday night baseball launch I said there is point in subscribing to Apple TV+ for me anymore and this is just confirming this.
Care to tell us what programs you want Apple to deliver you? How many eastern europeans would sign up?
I have already signed up for Apple TV+. And is it too much to expect to have the same content and treatment all Apple TV+ subscribers? Got a problem with that? I do not see any reduction of monthly price Apple TV+ for these subscribers who are not the selected ones for exclusive treatment, but yet pay the full price for something which gets thinner and thinner. That does not make any sense for the rest.
And this is not for Eastern Europe only, but majority of Apple TV+ subscribers (in 165 countries to be exact).
Dude,
It’s not Apple. It’s country-by-country, sometimes regional, contractual issues on the part of the sports leagues. Each country has to be negotiated individually.
Just how many MLB / NFL viewers do you think are in eastern Europe?
Hint: Very few, relatively. Pretty much you and maybe three other guys.
That’s why Apple TV+’s “Friday Night Baseball” started in the United States, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico, South Korea, and the United Kingdom, and will expand to additional countries at a later date.
Subscribers are Apple customers, not countries.
If Apple decided to bend to MLB “rules” and thought dividing its TV+ customer base to permium subscribers and peasant subscribers then there is no point for me to keep financing this subscription anymore. t does not matter how many watchers are where I live. I paid the same price as the folks who get the exclusive.
Don’t worry. Under “Biden” (leftist oligarchic cabal), eastern Europe is likely to be a smoldering husk by the time the NFL season rolls around.
Congrats to you. If you are lucky and if I have not cancelled my Apple TV+ subscribtion by then and happen to be dead by shelling or something and my credit card keeps getting debited for an unknown amount of time for the same amount as you pay for Apple TV+, then Timmy Cook will have even more funds to buy exclusives available to you and not me (alive or not) 😀 You are a real winner, getting all the free shows partly paid by some dead folks who did not have rights to see it anyway. What a success 🙂
Don’t blame me. I didn’t write the NFL contracts and I voted for the guy who actually won had only legally-cast votes with a verifiable chain-of-custody been counted.
Good luck dodging the shelling engendered by a weak U.S. puppet installed by an oligarch.
I know Zuck bought elections, that not a topic.
85 million annually spent on that + $2.5B for NFL. Currently Friday Night Baseball is made available for TV+ subscribers in 9 countries but Apple TV+ subscribers in 165 countries (where Apple TV+ is marketed) are left out. Considering the feedback here, it looks the folks are very pleased with that.
Would be interesting to see if the reaction would be the same if the exclusives were not available lets say in 48 states (including Texas among the others). And I would happen to live in one of those two “exclusive” states. And I would say to anyone complaining the following “It’s not Apple. It’s state-by-state, contractual issues on the part of the sports leagues. Each state has to be negotiated individually, what do you exactly want? How many people from your state would sign up? You and your state will be dead soon anyway. Ha-ha”
Enjoyed the exchange of interesting information regarding invaders from the NFL from our shores over the pond to yours.
My European ancestors came through Ellis Island in the 1890s from Lithuania.
labas europos kaimynei!
Shut up and take my money…
Apple has the ability to pay for the NFL that DirecTV and most others just don’t have. The NFL is a direct money loser for TV broadcasters. It is generally believed they make up for that by getting NFL viewers to stay watching very cheap to produce shows. Streaming is making the sticking around part harder. Apple can afford the loss as a big picture revenue item. Getting people on AppleTV+ and Apple hardware and services is what it is all about. Statistics say every 10 they attract they hold onto just a bit more than 8 for many years.
Amazon can afford the loss too for the big picture. Unfortunately for big companies but tiny compared to Apple and Amazon, they can’t take the prolonged losses that Apple and Amazon can.
It smells like a loss leader.