Apple Won't Bid on Streaming Rights to NFL's 'Thursday Night Football'

[MacRumors]

Apple has decided it won't bid on the digital rights to stream the NFL's "Thursday Night Football" package next season, according to Re/code.

The streaming rights to the NFL's Thursday evening games could have helped set the Apple TV apart from competing streaming boxes, but Apple reportedly felt the package "isn't enough to pull that off."

Amazon, Facebook, Verizon, and Yahoo remain candidates in the bidding war to stream the Thursday evening games online, the report claims.

Yahoo could be a frontrunner to secure the digital rights, after paying an estimated $15 million to exclusively live stream a 2015 regular season game between the Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars at London's Wembley Stadium.

The NFL currently offers a live streaming service called Game Pass, but the app does not include "Thursday Night Football," and its selection of games is limited compared to rival platforms MLB At Bat, NBA League Pass, and NHL GameCenter.

In February, the NFL announced that "Thursday Night Football" will air on CBS, NBC, and NFL Network in 2016 and 2017. CBS and NFL Network will televise the first half of the schedule, with NBC and NFL Network televising the second half.

Article Link: Apple Won't Bid on Streaming Rights to NFL's 'Thursday Night Football'

 

[samcraig]

I wonder if it was because they didn't want to deal with selling advertising. Not that they couldn't outsource that part.

 

[akuma13]

Of course they won't. Apple hates to spend large sums of money with no profit margin.

 

[Pakaku]

Awful lot of money for a game where the ball isn't even in play most of the time.

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

It was obvious if you look at the original reporting of this it was an attempt by the NFL to drive up bids.

 

[Burger Thing]

Imagine watching the game with a Chinese commentator chatting away in the background

 

[2010mini]

Good. Thursday Night Football sucks anyways. The players are still recovering from playing on Sunday and not at their peak.

 

[Boatboy24]

Next, there will be Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday night football too. NFL is fragmenting this stuff out to squeeze as much as they can out of broadcast fees.

 

[DudeDad]

Thursday night football is on relevant to the fans of the two teams playing.....perhaps that's why Apple is passing.

 

[thisisnotmyname]

Game pass is not live but does have all games; may want to correct the article.

Edit to add: it won't happen but I'd really like to see everyone pass. I don't like distribution deals, this is how we got bundles in the old television model. In the age of streaming, the content creators can go direct to the customer and we can pick our own a la carte offering. I want more HBO Now and less Disney bundling. This is the type of thing that results in big required packages and blackouts during contract negotiation.

And yes, before someone calls me out on the semantics I am aware that "channels" often didn't create the content they air either.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

This was to be expected. I mean who needs the exclusive digital rights to one of the widest watched sports nights in one of the world's biggest and richest markets when you have a Dr. Dre docu-drama series.

Missed opportunity to show its not just a player in set top boxes but the leader. If Amazon gets the rights its a huge feather in its Prime cap and starts to marginalize ATV.

 

[mattopotamus]

Thursday night football is on relevant to the fans of the two teams playing.....perhaps that's why Apple is passing.

not really. Maybe at the beginning of the season. Just b.c it is divisional games doesn't mean it is only relevant to those fans.

It better not go to verizon.

 

[Rogifan]

This was to be expected. I mean who needs the exclusive digital rights to one of the widest watched sports nights in one of the world's biggest and richest markets when you have a Dr. Dre docu-drama series.

Missed opportunity to show its not just a player in set top boxes but the leader. If Amazon gets the rights its a huge feather in its Prime cap and starts to marginalize ATV.

But Eddy Cue is a master negotiator and deal maker!

 

[Rshill]

I feel this is a mistake, and I don't even like football. There are two major obstacles preventing streaming from thriving: News and Sports. NFL programming would MASSIVELY differentiate Apple from the rest.

 

[ProVideo]

The amount spent on broadcasting rights for pro and college sports has gotten to an absurd amount. I cut the cord because I was tired of having no choice but to support ESPN bending over for the broadcasting rights to the leagues and Comcast bended over for ESPN's rate increase demands while continuously increasing the customer cost every year with no choice to not get ESPN and their sister channels. ESPN being mandatory for Sling TV is why I haven't signed up for it yet.

 

[AustinIllini]

TNF is easily the worst of the special football events, but I really want football out of the reaches of the cable companies.

 

[Tubamajuba]

Of course they won't. Apple hates to spend large sums of money with no profit margin.

Strange, isn't it? For some reason, Apple acts like a publicly traded company instead of a charity. Can't figure out why, for the life of me.

 

[brewmonkey]

I was sad to see Apple's sudden interest in football and hope that they turn their attention instead to content that is useful.

 

[samcraig]

This was to be expected. I mean who needs the exclusive digital rights to one of the widest watched sports nights in one of the world's biggest and richest markets when you have a Dr. Dre docu-drama series.

Maybe someone needs to tell Eddy that football players have historically been involved with murder, drugs, sex, etc too...

 

[loekf]

I'm so glad the company I love for its products didn't waste any money on a (outside the US) marginal sport...

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

Wouldn't have drawn enough subscribers for the cost to them. Good move.

 

[Quu]

I don't watch the NFL but just in general exclusivity agreements on sporting events, tv shows, movies and music are bad. Bad for the producers of the content with restricted awareness of the material being produced and bad for consumers with limited device or platform choice, increased prices and inconvenience.

 

[ironpony]

No need for Thursday night football, my thoughts are its an advertising scheme.

 

[6836838]

A lot of money to pay for poor mans' rugby. But something has to pay for all that body armour I guess.

 

[69Mustang]

Apple dodged a bullet. If you think tech forums are sometimes childish and petulant, screw up a stream of a sporting event and you will see sports fans react with an entirely new level of butthurt. We are (most definitely including myself in this group) entirely way too irrational when it comes to footbawl. It ain't worth the hassle.