NFL in Talks With Apple Over Live Stream of London Games

[MacRumors]

The National Football League is in talks with technology companies like Apple and Google as the NFL seeks out a partner for three London games that it plans to stream next season, reports Reuters. Apple is said to have expressed interest in purchasing the rights to conduct the stream, perhaps in an effort to secure the games for the Apple TV.

In December, news leaked suggesting Apple and other digital companies like Google, Amazon, and Yahoo had talked with the NFL about streaming "Thursday Night Football" games online on a non-exclusive basis. It is not yet known who secured those digital rights.

Over the past year or two, live-streaming has become important to technology companies who want to cater to sports enthusiasts and an ever growing number of cord cutters. In 2015, Yahoo partnered with the NFL to live-stream a London game for free to viewers, setting off a trend that is continuing this year.

The NFL believes last year's Sunday night streaming experiment was a success, with approximately 15.2 million viewers having tuned in as it was broadcast.

According to Reuters, it is not clear if the NFL plans to sell the rights to the three games as a package deal or split them up individually. The fee the NFL is seeking is also not known, but last year, Yahoo shelled out $15 million to stream a single game.

The three games that will be played in London include the Indianapolis Colts vs. the Jacksonville Jaguars on October 2, the New York Giants vs. the St. Louis Rams on October 23, and the Washington Redskins vs. the Cincinnati Bengals on October 30.

Article Link: NFL in Talks With Apple Over Live Stream of London Games

 

[b1wils1]

Yes, please. Wouldn't it be great to eventually be able to find all of your games on the Apple TV as opposed to having to go through DirecTV?

 

[flychild]

how about the entire NFL Season - London games are normally low rating weak teams.

 

[NachoGrande]

If the NFL moves to Apple TV get ready for metered internet usage. Sports are the lynch pin for many cable cutters... me included..

 

[ENduro]

These games are usually at odd times here in the states and feature subpar teams like my Lions. Rather than buy a new box most people will either go out to watch or not bother. I really doubt they're worth the price they'll command. I'd rather they focus on regular season MLB with no local blackouts, a Sling competitor or getting Siri to do something worth while on my AppleTV. Right now it's a gimmick to get me to the iTunes store not a feature.

 

[Algus]

That'd be crazy if Apple locked down the streaming rights. Don't get me wrong, it would be fine for me since I'm all in on Apple stuff but then we'd have the same situation as DirecTV owning Sunday ticket.

I don't want exclusive rights on sports streaming. It's poison. I'm fine with paying but as many as possible need to be able to have access to the streams. I don't think I want Apple having football anything exclusively.

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

The previous article that Apple was in talks with the NFL turned out to be 'the NFL is open to talks with everyone'. I'm sure this another non-article.

 

[chr1s60]

I think this is a good starting point with the NFL, but I think Apple has bigger plans in mind than just getting the London games.

 

[thogin]

I watched the London game on Yahoo and it was pretty dull. The crowd didn't get into it because why would they care who won?

Now, if the UK had some teams and went up against American teams, that would be fun to watch.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Why does MR have a SNF logo at the top of the article when the subject is regarding Sunday AM London games? Also Yahoo's streaming last season was in the morning, not night as stated.

These games are usually at odd times here in the states and feature subpar teams like my Lions. Rather than buy a new box most people will either go out to watch or not bother. I really doubt they're worth the price they'll command. I'd rather they focus on regular season MLB with no local blackouts, a Sling competitor or getting Siri to do something worth while on my AppleTV. Right now it's a gimmick to get me to the iTunes store not a feature.

I suspect it will be a free broadcast just like Yahoo's was, so price of admission is irrelevant. Also NFL does not have local blackouts for broadcasts anymore. They got rid of that rule last year.

 

[magicschoolbus]

how about the entire NFL Season - London games are normally low rating weak teams.

Pretty sure the NY Giants play in London after losing the Toilet Bowl game vs the Eagles. NY Market football in London is an odd event, but I believe it will happen this upcoming season.

 

[thermodynamic]

Yes, please. Wouldn't it be great to eventually be able to find all of your games on the Apple TV as opposed to having to go through DirecTV?

Given how much taxpayers pay for their welfare, why be locked into any walled garden from the get go?

And why more kids want to go into sports - they know where the money is. Maybe that's an unspoken reason why we have fewer people in STEM fields...

Sorry for thinking different.

 

[gugy]

Man, the day we are able to buy stream a la carte or live sports pakages for all major leagues and international sports that will be the end of cable providers.
I can't wait to ditch my DirecTV but I do love the NBA and international soccer.

 

[JeffyTheQuik]

Does the NFL app let you in effect, DVR the game? I mean, does it have to be watched live? Sometimes we have to time shift the Seahawks games, and it'd be nice to cut the satellite cable, and this would be a step in that direction.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Not to rain on our fantasy parade but I'm pretty sure DirecTV (now AT&T) has a lock on NFL Sunday Ticket through 2022. They just bidded for the renewal in the last few years and competitors like Apple could have made bids to try to take it from DirecTV. I didn't see anything that said Apple even tried to bid for it.

Here's the story: http://money.cnn.com/2014/10/01/media/directv/index.html Per the story, the price was apparently about $1.5 billion per year, so Apple could have got it for 2 years for a little more than they paid for Beats.

FYI: on March 9, 2015 Cook revealed that 25M units of TV have been sold since gen 1. If we make a broad assumption that the faithful have upgraded over and over, we might divide that by about 3 (or 4) to very roughly estimate number of active users. So assuming a pool of about 8M active users and further assuming about 20% of them would be seriously interested in NFL Sunday Ticket via TV enough to pay for it, about $1.7 Billion (per year outbidding AT&T/DTV's $1.5B bid to secure the package) * Apple's 1.3 (markup) = about $2.2B Apple's NFL package revenue target.

$2.2B target revenue / 1.6M users would give a very rough price of how much those 1.6M users would need to pay to make it a profitable product on it's own to exclusively sell through TV.

My assumptions may be off a fair amount so adjust to taste. But try to make the math work without the NFL just giving away something for which another company is paying them $1.5B/yr.

 

[Algus]

Does the NFL app let you in effect, DVR the game? I mean, does it have to be watched live? Sometimes we have to time shift the Seahawks games, and it'd be nice to cut the satellite cable, and this would be a step in that direction.

They have a package that lets you do replay. The games are usually ready to go on game completion. It is a pretty good service. I usually catch redzone with my Dad on gameday and watch the Seahawks later on. Fortunately they've played so well the last few years they seem to have lots of prime time games now, heh

 

[69Mustang]

That'd be crazy if Apple locked down the streaming rights. Don't get me wrong, it would be fine for me since I'm all in on Apple stuff but then we'd have the same situation as DirecTV owning Sunday ticket.

I don't want exclusive rights on sports streaming. It's poison. I'm fine with paying but as many as possible need to be able to have access to the streams. I don't think I want Apple having football anything exclusively.

Agreed; with caveat. This may sound completely unfair, but exclusivity would only suck if Apple received that exclusivity AND had it stream to iOS/OSX devices only. If it's made available to all, exclusivity doesn't matter.

 

[maflynn]

I never got the whole appeal of the London games, the NFL seems almost desperate to increase the profits even further, even if it costs an arm and a leg to fly two teams over there to play.

I've never watched one, given the early hour they've played them (early for the east cost).

 

[cmichaelb]

If the NFL moves to Apple TV get ready for metered internet usage. Sports are the lynch pin for many cable cutters... me included..

They are only referring to the London games. Not all games.

 

[Michael CM1]

I don't know the business, but I don't see why Apple and others can't lock down something like broadcast network streaming for $8 per month. Build it into an app on ATV and iOS. Use ad services like Hulu has so ads are fresh even if you watch a game a month later on demand. Use the traditional amount of ad time for live plus seven days, offer reduced ads for maybe another $5 to $10 per month, cut the ads down after seven days.

You're welcome.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I never got the whole appeal of the London games, the NFL seems almost desperate to increase the profits even further, even if it costs an arm and a leg to fly two teams over there to play.

I've never watched one, given the early hour they've played them (early for the east cost).

Why does Apple want to sell products outside of the U.S.? I only buy Apple products here in the U.S. so what's the appeal? Think beyond yourself. And think about the dollars of further wooing a whole continent of people who spend billions in support of the other game called football to the NFL version.

Billions vs. flying about 400 people in total (teams + staff + support + refs + NFL representatives + 4 guys to audit the revenues and take the NFLs big cut, etc) to and from London is far, FAR from an "arm and a leg". Instead, it's a massive bargain in more ways than one.

 

[winston1236]

The NFL is also asking for Apple and Google to pay the NFLs taxes for 20 years, issue a 500 million dollar bond and give the money to the NFL in addition to a requirement that Apple and Google build new billion dollars stadiums to replace several 5 year old NFL stadiums. /s

 

[CFreymarc]

At this rate, Super Bowl 55 will be streamed!

 

[cmichaelb]

I don't know the business, but I don't see why Apple and others can't lock down something like broadcast network streaming for $8 per month. Build it into an app on ATV and iOS. Use ad services like Hulu has so ads are fresh even if you watch a game a month later on demand. Use the traditional amount of ad time for live plus seven days, offer reduced ads for maybe another $5 to $10 per month, cut the ads down after seven days.

You're welcome.

Why not just model on it the MLB subscription? $100 per season, every game tv and radio. Subject to blackout rules - that's the only fly in the ointment.

At this rate, Super Bowl 55 will be streamed!

The network carrying the superbowl already streams it for free.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I don't know the business, but I don't see why Apple and others can't lock down something like broadcast network streaming for $8 per month. Build it into an app on ATV and iOS. Use ad services like Hulu has so ads are fresh even if you watch a game a month later on demand. Use the traditional amount of ad time for live plus seven days, offer reduced ads for maybe another $5 to $10 per month, cut the ads down after seven days. You're welcome.

Apple could have broadcast HD for free if they just build in an HD tuner and put a jack on the box for one cable of RG6. No contracts to negotiate. No deals to strike. No broadband bandwidth caps to worry about. Etc. It's the easiest way to get all local programming on the TV for most of the people in the country (excluding only those too far from the broadcast towers to pick up a signal). The threat in going that way would also give Apple great leverage to motivate the local broadcasters to more readily strike a streaming deal too, which could then give those who live beyond the reach of free OTA broadcasts a way to get them too (just exactly as it works now with other boxes).

So why not do that? Some of us will spin how "antiquated" that model is, ignoring that THAT is the still the way to receive the highest quality of HD that is not delivered on a Blu Ray disc, better than cable, satt and streaming. But that would work if Apple would "just do it".

However, it's hard to monetize something commonly viewed as free and thus Apple wants to try to strike streaming-only deals with well over 1,000 broadcasters all over the country so that what is free can be monetized (though still received for free by other, perfectly-legal means).

If it was me, I'd put at least 2 local HDTV tuners in the box, leverage some of my DVR patents for recording shows to a local iCloud (the hard drives on our computers), NAS or off-site iCloud and then use that stronger position to try to strike favorable streaming deals to serve those beyond the reach of OTA. TV would immediately gain much greater utility for all users (the bulk of the most popular shows are still on the big 5 networks) and new show discovery would likely lead to iTunes season pass sales to catch up on shows we find that already have a few seasons behind them.

OR, if I just can't bear to build something "so antiquated" into my product, I'd normalize that USB port and open hardware attachment options up for app store developers. Then, let the likes of Elgato or similar bring tuner hardware and DVR software apps to market to make that work with TV.

But what do I know? Waiting potentially years for Apple to strike over a 1,000 deals is somehow a much better way to go I'm sure.