Apple TV+ may gain rights to NFL, UEFA (Woos others too)

by Jonny Evans · July 14, 2022

Ted Lasso scores

Apple is apparently on the cusp of gaining rights to NFL’s Sunday Ticket, with whispers Cupertino is also chasing UEFA for Champions League action.

Defining the future of sports entertainment

Apple’s chief TV exec, SVP Eddy Cue, attended Sun Valley, according to Puck News. The report claims Apple will be the “likely winner” of the rights to NFL programming at a cost of around $2-3 billion.

(The company has reportedly been pursuing such a deal for some time now).

We have no insight into what Apple may (or may not) charge to access these shows, but they are currently made available by DirectTV at $290/year, so this may not be cheap.

The report also tells us Apple is exploring deals with other sports leagues, with UEFA’s Champion’s League mentioned as a potential target, once again in a multi-billion-dollar deal.

Bringing the team together

I’ve anticipated the company would take a deep dive into sports entertainment for some time. Doing so would certainly leverage the company’s existing platforms and technologies, and SharePlay is particularly built for sports fans who would be able to watch games together.

That’s even before considering more outlandish combinations of Apple platforms around these shows. I’ve always imagined the kind of data with which Apple could potentially augment its shows by simply gathering sensor information from a player’s Apple Watch, for example.

In 2018, Cue said Apple wants to augment sports content with interactive elements, notifications and games stats.

Melanie Newman becomes only the second woman to lead play-by-play duties for a national broadcast team.

Pushing hard as football fever hits America

Earlier this year, Apple reached a deal to offer Friday Night Baseball with MLB and it also offers Major League Soccer. What’s interesting in the latter is that Apple has secured the rights to broadcast every MLS game for the next ten years, and that it will charge a subscription for access to all of them. Some matches will be streamed for free. (More details on this are available here).

Apple’s services chief Eddy Cue is a football fan and in 2019 spoke with Sports Illustrated to discuss the company’s approach to sports TV. It is I think instructive to note that Apple has reached this deal as interest in soccer across the US and Canada is set to increase in the run up to the 2026 FIFA World Cup hosted by the US, Canada, and Mexico.

Also available on ROKU and elsewhere

What next?

It’s hard to ignore that the rights Apple is acquiring here will give it a powerful set of products to make available either on a per-sport basis, or as an all-new overall subscription package, presumably called Apple Sports, or some such.

This would of course play nicely with TV+, with a certain quantity of material made available to every TV+ subscriber at no cost, while other matches may be made available for a single fee.

Historically, this is a tried and tested playbook, given provision of sports-related content is precisely how other successful broadcasters built up satellite subscription services.

It is also likely worth noting that the billions of dollars spent on these deals suggests the company has secured global rights for the service. Which means anyone with a net connection can reasonably anticipate accessing sports entertainment from Apple via any device that supports TV+. Which is most of them(including Android).

If there is any truth in the notion that Apple is also exploring satellite networking for its devices that would make these shows truly internationally available to pretty much everybody. Which could become even more interesting, and will certainly contribute a few dollars more to Apple’s services-driven bottom-line.

It looks like Apple has lined the game up to secure a series of goals. Is Eddy Cue really channelling Ted Lasso?