Speaker 1: There is some great drama right now on Apple TV plus, but I'm not talking about a TV show. The drama is around Apple and sports. All the spectacle intention is around major leagues, soccer and college football, and maybe E S P N. There is a lot of buzz about what's going on with how Apple's getting the streaming rights to various sports content. Apple's gamble on Major League. Soccer [00:00:30] seems to be paying off big time, but not every sports team is a fan of having Apple at their games as one more perk to sell another streaming service to subscribers. This week we're gonna review Apple's big wins and losses for sports broadcast rights and all the latest rumors of what could be Apple's next play to make Apple TV plus a major sports streamer. I'm Bridget Carey, and this is one more thing. Streaming networks always have a hot show or two that pulls people into subscribe, but what's pulling [00:01:00] folks into Apple TV?
Speaker 1: Plus there's been Ted Lasso and Severance. Certainly Apple is throwing a lot of cash right now at Foundation. Forbes says the production looks like the most expensive show on tv, but the thing that could be pulling in the biggest subscriber numbers for Apple right now isn't anything from Hollywood. It's soccer. Last year, apple made a deal to be the only place you can stream all of the m l s games for the next 10 years. It's a deal reportedly costing Apple $2.5 billion. But come on Bridget, I can hear you now. [00:01:30] You're saying Americans don't really watch a lot of soccer, right? I would
Speaker 2: Like to introduce to you the best number 10 in the world, Leon Andress Massi.
Speaker 1: It just so happens that Global Soccer Superstar Massi just joined Major League soccer moving to South Florida to play on the Inter Miami team. He led Argentina to the World Cup title last year. He's pretty much soccer royalty and if you need someone to get people interested in tuning into M l S games, yeah, this is the guy you get. [00:02:00] But of course to watch him, you're gonna need Apple's. M l s Season pass subscription prices have been reduced to $13 a month or that's about $40 for the rest of the year. A special price so you don't miss out on the messy apple as reported pitched in payment to entice messy to move him to Miami. E S P N says the soccer star is getting a cut of revenue from new subscribers to Apple TV's M L SS season pass and it seems he's doing the job during Apple's last [00:02:30] quarterly earnings call.
Speaker 1: C E O. Tim Cook said we are beating our expectations in terms of subscribers and the fact that messy went to Inter Miami helped us out there a bit, so we're very excited about it. Apple TV plus isn't the only place you can see messy play. Fox and Univision also have the rights to play a few games on broadcast tv. Apple just has all the games. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out for Apple in sports streaming and if it convinces other sports leagues that streaming live sports [00:03:00] is the future, especially at a time where we are seeing some regional sports networks struggle financially, but it's not all sunshine and rainbows. Front office sports reports that some advertisers are having a hard time knowing how well their ad campaigns are performing because it's hard to get data on streaming compared to the metrics of measuring with traditional Nielsen TV ratings.
Speaker 1: The love of traditional broadcast also has put a bit of a damper on Apple's recent attempt to woo over some college football teams to the streaming side. The PAC [00:03:30] 12 College football conference has been through a lot of drama recently. Has there been several schools leaving the conference? Now, let's just say I am a tech news show, so if you want more on that, you should stream a sports news show. But I can tell you one of the issues around schools leaving had to do with the inability of the PAC 12 to come up with a lucrative media rights deal because schools get paid for each broadcast. Apple reportedly made an offer to be the streamer for PAC 12 games, but it wasn't enticing enough. The athletic [00:04:00] reported that the Apple deal was $23 million per school and apparently underwhelming, and yet the athletic says Apple also had incentives tied to how many subscribers signed up for a PAC 12 package.
Speaker 1: It's like the M l S season pass as E S P N reports. The University of Washington's president said it would leave the PAC 12 not just because of money, but that quote. This was about national visibility for our players being on linear TV so they can be seen so they can have national exposure. [00:04:30] Yeah, the athletic reported, there were no guarantees if Apple could simulcast certain games on broadcast tv, like how Fox gets some soccer games, so those conference games may not have gotten as many eyeballs. E S P N has 75 million subscribers and it's hard to think that Apple could get that many people to buy a Pack 12 package even before the recent exodus of schools. Speaking of broadcast, let's turn our attention to E S P N every month or so [00:05:00] it seems another article pops up online about how Apple may buy Disney, and that is a bit wild to say that Apple would even want such a giant company with theme parks and all rather, the latest speculation is that Disney might sell a piece of itself to Apple or just partner with Apple to give it a boost of content.
Speaker 1: Disney, c e o, Bob Iger told C N B C in July that he is open to finding a strategic partner for E S P N. Sure, Disney could make a deal with anyone, right? But Disney [00:05:30] and Apple have a long history and we just saw Iger at Apple's W D C saying Disney content is being made for the Apple Vision Pro headset and sports was teased to be included in that. The demo videos went so far as to feature E SS p n content on Vision Pro. Apple doesn't need to buy a studio, but perhaps it would really change the streaming game if it suddenly got a lot more content. What we will have to see is how all of this influences the next sports ball deals and all eyes are on basketball. [00:06:00] The National Basketball Association will need to make new broadcast and streaming deals for 2025. What happens now may determine what rights Apple will shoot for next. Has sports influenced your streaming share your thoughts, your wishes, your desires for sports streaming in the comments below, and I will catch you next week because like every week there's always one more thing to talk about with Apple.
