Apple Interested in Bidding for English Premier League Streaming Rights?

[WeegieMac]

Now this is what I am talking about. Maybe you guys don't even realize that you're doing it but you are insulting the NFL with this here is a list of the largest stadiums in the WORLD by capacity:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stadiums_by_capacity

8 of the top 10 are in the US. Most of the rest are also American. The UK has the 20th largest stadium.

Now I have never made it "across the pond," to watch a soccer game but have seen many football games. Many with over 100,000 people in attendance (Ohio St vs. Michigan college football; over a 100 year rivalry) and it was loud as heck. I don't make statements about the "loud factor," of something I know nothing about. Why can't you just say "it's loud" or its "exciting," vs. saying that you can state with fact that it is louder than a football (American) when you cannot. By shear number of people who can attend, this is highly suspect.

Now if you mean by passion, that is *possible* as I consider myself a die-hard San Francisco Giants fan (baseball) and Sacramento Kings (unfortunately) fan (basketball) my passion tends to abate (temporarily) after the season, and especially when the baseball playoffs heat up in October and basketball in June (at least when the Kings were good!)

Stopped reading when you based atmosphere on capacity or loudness. Goodnight.

Even as a Rangers supporter, who is proud of the Old Firm atmosphere at our ground, Ibrox, the atmosphere with 60,000 people inside Celtic Park is utterly electric and there is NOTHING in the NFL to touch it.

 

[BLee17]

On the Euro football side, darby games at ManU and Chelsea and Tottenham, numerous Champions League games in Spain and Italy (in the visitors section), for starters. Euro qualifying, World Cup qualifying, World Cup finals, domestic leagues, domestic cups in several countries - too long a list to cover in detail.

On the American side football side, everything from a couple of Super Bowls, a couple of wildcard playoffs on down to "generic" MNFs. Tossing in colleges, rivalry games at various ACC, SEC and whatever conference U of Miami was in during the glory years. Also ACC basketball at pretty much all the away locations (I'm a Ramblin' Wreck alum), but never mind that, as we're only talking "football".

College football comes closest in terms of sheer scale - eg a Vols game at Neyland or (back in the day) or a Canes-Seminoles game in Tallahasee is an awesome spectacle. But it's still outdone by top flight Euro football, IMNSHO.

Including all sports, the closest I've experienced in North America to what routinely happens in Europe was at hockey games. Especially in Montreal, and during the recent Olympics.

Despite having experience at many events on both sides, how much does your love of the sport (and the teams playing) affect the atmosphere?

If you are a soccer/football fan first of course its going to seem more "intense." As I stated before, (please correct me if I am wrong) I do not think rugby or cricket in the UK is comparable in popularity to the NBA/MLB. As a result (if true) fans would be way more passionate about this for the most part while watching things. Also, the fact that this is such a large country, with several regions and over 30 prof teams for each league plays a role.

 

[bigchrisfgb]

Although I doubt it would happen if it were to be accessed to the US it would be a major step for the game as a whole. The MLS is improving every year and even if users aren't watching MLS games its showing how big the sport could be for the future.

Any US Newcastle United fans? or are we all ManUnited, ManCity, Chelsea and Arsenal fans?

I'm not from the US but I'm a Newcastle United fan.

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If Apple did go for this and if they did get the or indeed any rights then I would imagine that:

A: It would be the rights to the highlights for showing online only, this is currently held by google.

B: They would have to create a channel available on Sky and Virgin Media platforms (remember even though here in the UK Sky have the largest market share their sports channels are available on Virgin Media). ESPN did this and fairly quickly as well a few years ago when Setanta went bust and they bought their broadcast rights. UK internet for the most part is not capable of supporting match streaming in quite a lot of areas.

Remember though that Sky cannot buy all the rights which is exactly why ESPN exists in the UK.

If Apple are serious about being more than just a computer company and venturing into other markets (like they have done with selling songs on iTunes) then option B is the best option for them.

 

[flynndean]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

This is so off-topic it's incredible but I agree with the person who stopped listening when atmosphere was linked to size.

There's a tipping-point with stadium size where simply throwing in more people adversely affects the "atmosphere" but outside of size, it's a certain other "Je ne sais quoi" that I can't articulate that defines it...

I've been to NFL stadiums in the US for regular season games where the atmosphere was akin to being slapped in the face with a cold, wet fish while having a picnic in the park. Too many of the crowd were simply too far from the action.

Compare this to a lower-league game in England (I'm talking even 3rd & 4th tier) where 5000 or so supporters can all be heard by the players and by each other as they all sing the same songs in unison as multiple generations of fans share their passion by attending week-in, week-out & regardless of whether their team win, lose or draw in one of the coldest & certainly wettest industrialised nations there is.

...Or take me to Turkey or Italy for a balmy evening's Champions League fixture in a cauldron of a stadium where as a visiting fan...you genuinely fear for your life.

...Or stand me in the Kop at Anfield in Liverpool where generations of fans sing "You'll Never Walk Alone" with the pride of past successes & the memory of lost loved-ones (look it up) behind them.

...Or take me to a Classico where players have had pig's heads thrown at them for perceived treachery (by choosing to switch teams) and a country is genuinely divided along political lines for 90mins & every man, woman & child almost without exception has an allegiance.

Most people in the US will never understand the rest of the world's obsession with "Soccer" any better than we will understand what makes NFL so goddam interesting. But there is NOTHING in American sport that compares to what I've experienced in Europe/South America when the footie is on!

 

[morty192]

Take it this isn't happening anymore and BT swallowed it up? Gonna be interesting seeing what they do with the rights next year!

 

[Ryan John]

No thanks Apple. The last thing the premier league needs is another American influence. The majority of US companies / owners couldn't care less about football and it would merely be another revenue stream for them. (i.e. Hicks & Gillette / The Glazers)

They'd probably try and split the game into quarters to get more advertising in as well. You can stick to your baseball, american football and basketball, but keep your grubby mitts off of real football.