On Thursday, Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives wrote in a note to clients that despite Apple having no real history with big ticket acquisitions, it should make an exception for Disney’s ESPN as it hones its live sports focus on its Apple TV app and Apple TV+ service.
Dave Lee for Bloomberg Opinion:
The logic for a deal is this: Apple wants sports rights. ESPN has them. Yet with cord-cutters moving away from cable, owning ESPN would bring Apple more baggage than benefit. Instead, a significant partnership, one that would tightly integrate ESPN content with Apple’s services, could see each company solve the other’s pressing challenges…
ESPN boasts all four of America’s major sports leagues — football, baseball, basketball and hockey. Apple would have to wait many years to get a hold of those rights organically as deals expire…
If anything is to materialize between the two companies, one option would be for Apple to offer a portal to ESPN content through Apple TV+ and its other services, with Apple taking a slice of subscription revenue in return.
Apple would enjoy the best of both worlds, bringing heaps of blockbuster sports to its users, without the need for Apple to shell out $50 billion for the privilege. And of course, should it want, Apple could still bid big for sports rights in the future as and when they become available — as I’m sure it will.
MacDailyNews Take: Beyond buying or partnering with ESPN, Apple’s focus on global live sports remains a genius idea regardless of its age and provenance:
Cook should consider bidding for and winning NFL Sunday Ticket away from DirecTV, 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
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