BBC’s Lineker foul gives Apple and BT Sport a penalty chance

I hope Apple is paying attention to the palpable anger coming off the BBC’s front bench of sports commentators over the channel’s inconsistent policies when it comes to Gary Lineker’s perfectly reasonable assessment of a government bent on breaking human rights.

He wrote, “This is just an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the ’30s, and I’m out of order?”

As a result of which the BBC kicked him off his show, and his colleagues across the industry showed their support.

I think this is Apple’s chance to take over football broadcasting – unless someone else takes control first.

Apple has an urge for the beautiful game

I’m pretty sure it wants to. If we assume there is no smoke without fire, we’ve had plenty of gossip suggesting the company is quietly trying to build a bridge into the UK’s “beautiful game”.

In recent month’s we’ve heard speculation it considered purchasing Manchester United and the company has already acquired MLS streaming rights. It is also thought to be interested in acquiring rights to the UK Premier League.

This interest in bringing UK football to TV+ makes sense for plenty of reasons.

It would give Apple and its TV+ channel an instant audience, get the service into every football-loving nation and make a subscription to its channels essential anywhere football programming is currently shared.

In terms of future network evolutions (particularly around satellite and 6G) it gives the global company a global stance and another global product, and you just know it will help the company sell a lot of augmented reality goggles and iPhones.

That’s worth a huge amount of money.

Making an industry angry in one self-inflicted own goal

What’s changed is that the BBC, by angering its football broadcast talent, has given that talent a reason to think about where to go next.

The challenge may be that under UK broadcasting laws football events must be broadcast live and free-to-air on terrestrial TV, which means BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5.

But that protection doesn’t mean much if teams, pundits, commentators, and broadcast technicians don’t want to work with the channel. They want to work with people who will do the right thing.

When it comes to football talent, we can see that the BBC has upset them.

That means it’s reasonable to think it has upset people across the entire football industry.

Not only has that industry spent years – years – fighting racism on the terraces; but most reasonable people agree that standing up for the human rights Winston Churchill pledged the nation to support 70-years ago is simply supporting what we have already agreed to do, not entering a political debate.

Playing a poor game

The BBC doesn’t seem to agree, but it’s approach seems inconsistent, as noted by Sky.

https://twitter.com/SkyKaveh/status/1634288030658842641?s=20

These inconsistencies matter and are being noticed.

The end game is that the broadcaster has done huge damage to the loyalty it once enjoyed across the football (perhaps entire sport) ecosystem. That anger has reached players, technicians, fans, and staff. It will inevitably reach other sports and sports fans.

This is Apple’s chance to take the penalty

Many of these people will now have become far more interested than they were this time last week in finding alternatives. It’s a perfect storm as a result of which a whole industry seeks change.

That’s why it’s important that the current three-year contract of the Premier League TV ends in 2025 and negotiation for broadcast rights begin this year.

The cost will be high, but what has changed is that as of today, everyone bidding for those rights has an instant stable of respected supporting talent seeking a better deal; teams angry enough to turn their back on the BBC; and fans who are quite willing to pay for great quality sports programming from a broadcaster they trust.

It’s quite reasonable to think that Apple – and anyone else currently bidding for football broadcasting rights in the UK and beyond – will see this for what it is; An opportunity to make a deal.

(And, let’s be honest, it looks like BT Sports is taking full advantage of this open goal).

But future rights are up for grabs. Perhaps Apple (or BT Sports) can work with a terrestrial channel such as Channel 4 to deliver its premium football TV shows free in the UK via terrestrial television, featuring the football pundits we already love, while simultaneously streaming those shows globally for a fee.

As well as a terrestrial broadcaster, shows would be available on every Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Reality headset, and any other device that supports the Apple TV app, which at this point, is most of them. If you have a modern smart TV you can already watch Apple’s streaming shows. Including Ted Lasso.

That is global reach, and I imagine the UK (and international) football industry has never been more willing to embrace such an offer than it is today. For the BBC, this has been a sequence of seemingly mindless own goals. And, as Lineker himself once said, “If the mindless few defeat the thoughtful majority, we’re all doomed.”

It’s time that majority made more noise. The BBC does not deserve to win this match. #I’mWithGary.

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