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I don't know, it's a fairly low amount to outbid them, or at least get sports governing bodies to get better with modern technology.

The reason it is "low" is because Sky has got no real competition in the UK. They need the Premier League as it provides most of their income so expect a right royal battle if this story is true.

Given the original source I'm very doubtful it is.
 
And, it's not like fox soccer is going away. Maybe this is a uk Bly deal, afaik foxsoccer and foxsoccer.tv have a long term contract.
 
Not a chance in hell Apple would be able to get this. And why are all the Americans on here so interested? Your going to pay to watch English football? And considering how much it costs to pay for the rights and those players wages, it's another reason why this won't happen. Is 'soccer' REALLY that big in the US?

And as said, with Sky you get Sky Go for free and can stream over WiFi, 3G, internet etc. So you can watch in two way's.
 
Not a chance in hell Apple would be able to get this. And why are all the Americans on here so interested? Your going to pay to watch English football? And considering how much it costs to pay for the rights and those players wages, it's another reason why this won't happen. Is 'soccer' REALLY that big in the US?

And as said, with Sky you get Sky Go for free and can stream over WiFi, 3G, internet etc. So you can watch in two way's.

Are Americans not allowed to watch football now, or something? My grandpa was from Arizona and he was one of the biggest football fanatics I ever knew.

Sky Go also only applies if you have a really quite expensive subscription to Sky Sports. You don't know the model that Apple would implement, they might be more flexible with their content. Such as by having a pay-per-view option for favourite teams, and for the rest, there's match of the day on the Beeb later, or a highlights download for 69p, or something. In truth, you might end up paying the same as you might through Sky, but I personally wouldn't grudge it as you'd have some degree of choice.

And I would far rather deal with Apple's customer service reps than bloody Sky's retentions department.
 
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I don't think the majority of the UK has fast enough internet to stream good quality live football. Sky do HD and 3D Premier League for about £20 on top of a normal subscription. It might be a budget option, but that doesn't really fit in with Apples usual target market. The only reason to do it would be to really increase interest in a new product.
 
There seems to be some confusion, the DM article is talking about Apple buying the broadcast rights (but instead of showing live match on TV like Sky or ESPN showing them online). I've written a little piece about it here which I won't repost, but needless to say if it gets pulled off by Apple it would be huge, but I don't think the broadband infrastructure in the UK will be around even in 2013 (which is when the deal would come in to force), not nationwide.
 
And why are all the Americans on here so interested?.

We're interested because this is the first real foray Apple has made into acquiring premium live streaming content, and it may have major ramifications for the direction Apple takes in television and streaming media. What else will they try to get a contract for (HBO? NFL? NBA? Network sitcoms and dramas?)?Will it be subscription based? If they sign up a lot more of these contracts could they offer a legitimate "cord cutter" package? There's lots of interesting aspects.
 
If apple truly plans to 'crack' television, they would need to solve the issue of sports. It's a pretty big reason why people can't cut the cord with their cable companies. This is intriguing.
 
It's the only good thing Sky Sports has. I'm sure Apple would make it a reasonable offering. I'm for it!
 
And why are all the Americans on here so interested?

All the Americans? This forum has 655,000 members most of which are American and only a few have posted here.

Your going to pay to watch English football?

People already pay for sports packages to get it all over the world, including America. They also subscribe to illegal stream sites to get good quality, reliable, streams.

Is 'soccer' REALLY that big in the US?

Yes and don't discount the fact that this is the top league in the world and America has a large number of immigrants who come from countries where it is the biggest sport.
 
Apple is the richest country in the world. If they want this they can buy it, and beat out any company with ease. Even Sky
 
Oh, man I would love this. What you currently get in the UK is pure turd.

Unfortunately I also think this rumour is totally bunk: this is exactly the sort of thing Apple would never do. Directly going for content deals is a nightmare mess that they'd only do if they were desperate. Notice that Apple doesn't create their own AppStore games or pay for exclusive content there either.

A much better strategy for Apple would be to open up the AppleTV to apps. Content providers already have HTTP live streams of their broadcasts for iPads (Sky do this in the UK, and I think it's pretty common in the US now). Apple have already made the technology side of IPTV happen; it's just been targeted at the iPad until now. They also have the subscription payment infrastructure in place.

Apple shouldn't get in to the content game; there's plenty of room to make TV great while still sticking to Apple's strengths.
 
Just want to add that the Daily Mail's web team are one of the best at driving traffic. They are never right on anything Apple and they know very well this story will try a lot of traffic they wouldn't otherwise get. I doubt there was even a source, just an idea from a "journalist" or editor.
 
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