Apple Rules Out Bid for Premier League Football Over Global Rights

[MacRumors]

Apple services chief Eddy Cue has effectively ruled out the company's rumored bid to obtain the broadcasting rights to the English Premier League for Apple TV+.

Apple has reportedly been interested in obtaining the rights to broadcast the Premier League as far back as 2012. Earlier this year, Bloomberg highlighted Apple's consideration of a bid for the rights to stream the Premier League, among other lower league matches run by the English Football League, for Apple TV+.

Eddy Cue has now effectively ruled out Apple's intention to make a bid on the basis that it would be unable to obtain global rights. The company sought a deal similar to its rights to broadcast Major League Soccer (MLS) worldwide for a period of ten years, an arrangement hailed as a "historic first for a major professional sports league." Speaking to The Daily Mail, Cue explained Apple's rationale:

I don't like the word exclusivity because that's important but not as important. The global rights are important to us. We're a global company, we have customers in every country in the world, a large number of customers, and it's not exciting for me to have something that you can have but you can't have.

Secondly, we're throwing a significant amount of engineering resources into the product. We think we're going to do some very innovative things with the product as we move forward. We've done some things like MLS 360 (providing live look-ins from every match), we've done the multi-viewing of games, which is again very difficult to do in other environments. And this is nothing.

I can't justify throwing what I think are the best engineers in the world on a small subset product. It has to be this kind of a partnership because our level of investment is significant. This isn't "hey, I've got an opening from 8pm to 10pm tonight and I'm going to put this game on." That's not the way we're doing it. We're all in on this as an investment point of view, so it doesn't work unless it's something significant.

Recent years have seen bidding wars play out for the rights to the Premier League between Sky Sports, BT Sport, and Amazon Prime Video, with Sky Sports often being the dominant player, although Amazon has been increasingly wielding its bidding power in recent years. Packaging terms ensure that no one broadcaster gains rights to all English Premier League matches, so any Apple deal for the Premier League's broadcasting rights would necessarily fall short of the exclusivity deal the company successfully negotiated with MLS. Asked if this meant that Apple was disinterested in the rights to UEFA or the Premier League, Cue said:

I never say no to anything without knowing more specific [information]. But, in general, are we going to sign something, any league, that is to a specific country or small a subset of countries? I highly doubt we would ever do that. I can't see a scenario in which we would want to invest and do that because we're not a typical distributor, we're not just trying to fill in some gaps that we have.

This [MLS deal] is our number one thing, and we want it to be a huge success. If we were going to do something else it wasn't because it would be number two, it's because it would be another number one around it and we would want it to be, so I think that's the difference that we have.

Apple has been pursuing sports content in an effort to attract new viewers to the Apple TV+ streaming service. The company has signed deals with Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer, which is currently available on Apple TV+ via an MLS Season Pass priced at $14.99 per month or $99 per season. Apple has also reportedly expressed interest in acquiring an NBA streaming package.

Apple TV+ is also the home of hit sports comedy drama "Ted Lasso," in which an American college football coach is hired to coach an English soccer team.

Article Link: Apple Rules Out Bid for Premier League Football Over Global Rights

 

[scheinderrob]

sports entities have way too much leverage. good on apple for walking away. although i suppose this is an ironic comment considering that apple also has tons of leverage.

 

[Nicefish]

So why can’t I subscribe to MLS in Singapore? Why isn’t there Apple Fitness+ here but it’s available in Malaysia?

 

[mnsportsgeek]

You’re gonna have a hard time getting any of the major European leagues with that attitude. They’re already global products with global demand. Why take a check from 1 company when you can get a check cut from dozens of companies?

Sounds like Eddy wants a product that is mostly American and wants to grow globally.

 

[NightFox]

I'm never sure if non-exclusivity for the Premier League (and others) is a good thing or not - on one hand it stops a single provider having too much control, but on the other hand it can force fans into needing to subscribe to multiple services.

 

[Marbles1]

Ok Tim, but let's be honest - in practice the deals for MLS and MLB are pretty much a deal which only relates to 'a specific country or small a subset of countries'. The audience for MLS outside the US is _tiny_ vs. those watching the English Premier League, La Liga or = the Champions league.

I see Tim's comments reflecting more that, as we all know, Apple is USA company and US-specific things will always come first. Getting a Europe-wide, or even a 3-4 country wide deal for the champions league would be a HUGE win and something apple could build in if they proved they could do it well.

it's hard to see what apple's strategy is here other than remaining US focussed.

 

[Skyscraperfan]

The rule that no broadcaster can purchase the rights for all matches sounds good for competition, but in practice it means that you need more than one streaming service, if you want to watch all matches. We have the same problem in Germany.

 

[d4zza]

Hindsight might prove this to be a bullet dodged.

I could be wildly wrong but IMO it’s not beyond reality to think the Saudi league’s plans might be the start of the EPL bubble bursting.

 

[kiranmk2]

I'm never sure if non-exclusivity for the Premier League (and others) is a good thing or not - on one hand it stops a single provider having too much control, but on the other hand it can force fans into needing to subscribe to multiple services.

Exactly, there are still monopolies on PL games because only 1 provider provides coverage for any specific game. I'm surprised that the PL hasn't reclaimed the rights and launched it's own streaming service to cut out Sky / TNT etc. Perhaps they think steaming still isn't strong enough / widespread enough.

 

[kiranmk2]

Hindsight might prove this to be a bullet dodged.

I could be wildly wrong but IMO it’s not beyond reality to think the Saudi league’s plans might be the start of the EPL bubble bursting.

I can't see that happening - The biggest players want to play in the European leagues so they can compete for the legacy trophies (e.g. FA Cup) or the Champions League. Unless the Saudi teams can buy access to the CL they will continue to just attract aging / greedy talent (and I very much doubt UEFA will ever allow access to the CL as that would threaten European clubs / leagues).

 

[senttoschool]

Just partner with ESPN - which owns the rights to American football, NBA, MLB, and many other games. Disney is looking for an outside investor into ESPN.

 

[apparatchik]

So why can’t I subscribe to MLS in Singapore? Why isn’t there Apple Fitness+ here but it’s available in Malaysia?

Yeah... the MLB pass is not available worldwide either, I think if they really wanted they could pay for worldwide Premier (and 1ts-tier European) leagues rights (Champions League, perhaps?) and have millions of new Apple subscribers the world over.

 

[George Dawes]

I’ll just watch the highlights on YouTube

Saves a fortune

 

[iPhoneFan5349]

You’re gonna have a hard time getting any of the major European leagues with that attitude. They’re already global products with global demand. Why take a check from 1 company when you can get a check cut from dozens of companies?

Sounds like Eddy wants a product that is mostly American and wants to grow globally.

Eddie has to go. What a dumb arrogant mindset he has.

 

[mnsportsgeek]

Eddie has to go. What a dumb arrogant mindset he has.

It’s surprising that Apple put a guy with no sports experience ever in a position to try and make Apple a player in sports.

To do what Eddy wants will require significant amounts of money. In the ballpark 10 billion per year. Because once you’ve taken away exclusivity from every other partner they have, the value drops to basically nothing.

He’s not gonna negotiate his way into a deal because they’re Apple.

 

[unfunfionn]

Yeah... the MLB pass is not available worldwide either, I think if they really wanted they could pay for worldwide Premier (and 1ts-tier European) leagues rights (Champions League, perhaps?) and have millions of new Apple subscribers the world over.

Apple News was never released globally, Apple Card is US-only, Siri isn’t available in English on the Apple TV in most countries etc. It’s clearly not the real reason they’re not buying the rights.

Football rights in certain parts of Europe are a mess. In Germany if I want to watch the Premier League and Champions League, I need to subscribe to THREE different services: Sky, DAZN and Prime Video. That’s €70 a month to mostly just watch the games of one team. The price gouging is what will burst the PL bubble eventually, not Saudi Arabia.

 

[Spock]

They need to save money for the Disney acquisition

 

[sw1tcher]

Speaking to The Daily Mail, Cue explained Apple's rationale:

I don't like the word exclusivity. . . .

Says the guy working for a company that makes devices (iPhone, iPad) where users can only get apps from their exclusive App Store and where app developers have to use their exclusive payments sytem for selling apps/services.

 

[Sir_Macs_A_Lot]

I tried to watch my city's MLS team on Apple+ last night. I couldn't take all of the player's flopping and faking injuries...especially when there was no other players around to touch them. It took about 10 minutes before I turned it off.

 

[Gears]

No chance Apple. Not allowed to have the Monopoly in the UK which you think would be a good thing but its not at all! Not for us consumers As to watch all the games you would need to subscribe to at least 3 services. On top of that no 3pm Kick offs are aired. I wonder why people go to other places to watch the games.
Best thing the Prem can do is start their own streaming service with flexible plans f for example all your teams games for £20pm and start airing 3pm games again.

 

[anthogag]

Who cares about English Premier League. Apple needs to get more players like Messi and Besquets to come to MLS. I believe Harry Kane could be looking for a team... What about Kylian Mbappe

Vision Pro could make watching MLS games outstanding.

The "big deal" is MLS should be included in the Apple TV+ subscription. I am a TV+ subscriber, I do not want to pay for an extra MLS pass. Get more TV+ subscribers via MLS.

 

[Joe The Dragon]

even with global rights they will still have to deal with lots of different systems for commercial rights.

 

[dannys1]

and start airing 3pm games again.

Again? The FA has never aired 3pm games. Not for the PL or League One before it!

 

[syklee26]

Eddie Cue: what, you don’t want to take the enormous sum Apple can provide? You can take a hike, EPL!

Saudis: hold my non-alcoholic beer.

 

[aperantos]

It seems a rather bizarre set of comments. Apple already has an MLB deal that is not global, and that the only barrier to being able to acquire global Premier League rights is requiring exclusivity, just after saying that is "not as important." Cue should just be honest and say the Premier League would want too much for it to make sense for Apple, because he is just contradicting himself there.

Besides, the issue with a single broadcaster having a monopoly on rights the U.K. does not require those broadcasters to hold exclusive rights to the games they broadcast. They are only sold that way because it is what generates the most income for the Premier League.

Just as some MLS games in Canada, the U.S., and Mexico are also shown by local broadcasters, the same sort of arrangement would work in the U.K. so long as viable packages were offered. And Apple would still have exclusivity to a majority of matches, and be able to win over subscribers for the rest with its "significant amount of engineering resources".