Apple may kick off bidding for Premiership football rights

There may have been some grains of truth in recent speculation Apple considered bidding for Manchester United football club – the company now seems set on pitching for streaming rights to Premier League football.

Time for kick-off?

The action follows Apple’s launch of its football coverage with MLS Season Pass, which offers every single slice of US football action for a monthly fee and will do so for the next ten years. Many premier league fans would like that in here.

If Apple succeeds in reaching the deal it suggests the Apple TV app will become a lot more popular among football fans. In part this is because it will resolve the hodgepodge of paid services diehard fans must take out (Sky, BT, Amazon) to watch most of the matches, a clumsy and expensive arrangement many fans resent.

But these boots don’t come cheap

The report claims the existing deal is set to end in 2025, which means talks will begin this year. Apple will need to dig deep to secure the rights, however – the current rights package costs double the $2.5 billion Apple slapped on the table to secure MLS for ten years, but provides just three years of some, not all, matches. Apple would also be up against Sky Sports who have held onto these rights since 1992.

There are no guarantees any such a deal would go through. It is also quite possible this speculation is flawed and there may be no truth in these claims – but Apple quite evidently thinks it can provide great sports coverage while also building its streaming service reach.

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