Apple's Interest in English Premier League Streaming Rights Disputed

[MacRumors]

Earlier this week, a report from the UK's Daily Mail made waves for its claim that Apple was interested in bidding for the rights to stream English Premier League football games. There was a significant amount of skepticism regarding the report given that it would mark a significant departure from the company's usual model of content distribution, and The Guardian now follows up with a new report denying that Apple will be in the running.

The Premier League is preparing to go to market with its lucrative television contract in the second quarter of this year, but the technology company Apple is believed to have ruled itself out of the running for the rights. [...]

However, despite speculation it is understood that Apple has not discussed bidding for the rights and is unlikely to do so, despite rumoured plans to launch an Apple TV device.

Its model relies on taking a cut of the revenue from existing content producers by retailing its content through its AppStore or iTunes service.

The report goes on to note that live matches broadcast by Sky are already available on iOS devices via the channel's SkyGo app and that archived Premier League content is available through iTunes. Those outlets make it less likely that Apple would view an expensive outright streaming deal as a worthwhile effort for the company.

Article Link: Apple's Interest in English Premier League Streaming Rights Disputed

 

[soco]

Why is it such a significant departure?

Sounds cool though and I hope it goes through. If it isn't too expensive, I might get into football more.

 

[CylonGlitch]

I sure hope this happens. I would so subscribe to that in an instant! Sadly Soccer (for those of us in the US) is not shown often on TV here. Mostly because of the way the game is played, adding commercials makes it difficult to earn money on. Thus streaming it from Apple and having it a paid subscription is prefect.

Please make this happen.

 

[The Phazer]

As was made more than clear in the last thread, this was always clearly rubbish. Remember, if it's printed in the Daily Mail, it's almost certainly a lie. Especially when it's an unattributed rumour where several people have a clear financial incentive to make things up (the Premier League bidding process is EU regulated, and you have to submit sealed bids for each rights package rather than the rights being auctioned off - and hence claiming that other parties are interested is a good way to encourage the existing bidders to up their offer, just in case).

The reason Apple have a big pile of money is because they do not spend it in dumb ways, which this would be.

Phazer

 

[Confuzzzed]

The Guardian is a better newspaper than the Daily Mail so its sources should be more reliable.

My own feel would be that it would make excellent sense for Apple to get its hands on a bundle or two because it would take the ATV2 into the mainstream and unleash some of the under-utilised aspects of many people's iPhones or iPads.

Which will in turn will bring the vast majority of iPhone/iPad owners closer into the Apple ecosystem and then when they need to replace their computer may even buy a mac next etc etc

 

[topmounter]

We need better rumors.

 

[Andronicus]

I forgive you this time macrumors...

No more Daily Mail rumors please. At least not page one. Keep your integrity macrumors.

 

[MonkeySee....]

Welcome, everyone outside the UK, to the Daily Mail.

 

[capoeirista]

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)

The initial article hardly 'made waves' - it was printed in the Daily Fail after all.

 

[Thunderhawks]

I sure hope this happens. I would so subscribe to that in an instant! Sadly Soccer (for those of us in the US) is not shown often on TV here. Mostly because of the way the game is played, adding commercials makes it difficult to earn money on. Thus streaming it from Apple and having it a paid subscription is prefect.

Please make this happen.

You can almost get any game in any sports if you know what to do.

And, if you miss watching them live you can go and watch just the highlights/goals.

I hope Apple doesn't waste their money on it!

 

[kurosov]

An inaccurate article in the Daily Mail, who'd have thought.


...Oh, Right.

The best way to read the Daily Mail is to think of it as a British Onion News. Or better yet, not at all.

 

[calb]

There was a significant amount of skepticism regarding the report given that it would mark a significant departure from the company's usual model of content distribution

No, there was a significant amount of scepticism because it was from the Daily Mail.

 

[Dr McKay]

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)

The initial article hardly 'made waves' - it was printed in the Daily Fail after all.

Im surprised any of their readers were outside of their homemade bomb shelters long enough to cause "waves".

 

[Andronicus]

No, there was a significant amount of scepticism because it was from the Daily Mail.

Bahahaha!
+ to you.

I don't think macrumors understands how inaccurate the daily mail is. No matter how many readers point it out to them.

Next we will see rumors posted based on articles from the national enquirer

 

[arbitter]

I strongly hope it doesn't go through. Way too much money for an overpaid sport.

 

[Jaffa Cake]

Im surprised any of their readers were outside of their homemade bomb shelters long enough to cause "waves".

Waves? The only waves the Daily Mail generally covers are waves of cancer-causing radiation, or waves of foreigners coming into this country to scrounge benefits and take British workers' jobs.

Nope, not a particularly popular or accurate publication.

 

[SaxPlayer]

Here in the UK most people with an IQ of at least double figures don't consider the Daily Mail a "news"paper at all so I'd take anything they print with a very large pinch of salt. Probably the most accurate thing that appears anywhere in the Daily Fail are the horoscopes.

 

[aperantos]

Of course it is being disputed, it is just a rumour. While I would give more credence to the Guardian, which specializes in media coverage, the rumour of Apple's interest has been around long before the Daily Mail's story that got highlighted on here. And even the Guardian is claiming Google is interested so everything that was discussed on the other story is still relevant, just to a different backer financing it.

I sure hope this happens. I would so subscribe to that in an instant! Sadly Soccer (for those of us in the US) is not shown often on TV here. Mostly because of the way the game is played, adding commercials makes it difficult to earn money on. Thus streaming it from Apple and having it a paid subscription is prefect.

There is a lot of soccer shown on American TV, though it helps if you get Fox Soccer on your cable system. Between ESPN, Fox Soccer, and Fox Soccer Plus pretty much every Premier League game televised in the UK is seen live in the US, plus more with usually two of the Saturday 3pm games on the two Fox cable channels. Add Gol TV and you get a lot of games from the other major European leagues. MLS will air on NBC Sports Net (Versus) next season, which will see some games on NBC, as well as ESPN.

This year the Fox network aired several Premier league games on delay on the Sunday afternoons they only had a single NFL game. They will be showing live games on the mornings of the NFL Championship Games (Man U vs Arsenal) and Super Bowl Sunday (Man U vs Chelsea).

 

[vrDrew]

As was made more than clear in the last thread, this was always clearly rubbish. Remember, if it's printed in the Daily Mail, it's almost certainly a lie.

There certainly seem to be elements of the British popular press that seem more interested in catchy headlines and selling newspapers than a strict adherence to the factual truth.

The fact of the matter is it would be very far outside of Apple's modus operandi to bid on something like Premiership football. And from a practical standpoint it makes very little sense: Why pay top dollar (pound?) competing against the stupid money offered by Rupert Murdoch, Al-Jazeera or some Russian oligarch for a product you could only offer to Apple customers?

The only possible scenario in which this would make sense would be if Apple was planning on rolling out AppleTV (either their existing product or some new iteration) in a big way in the UK. Being able to buy an exclusive on-demand football package might just be the deal breaker required to break UK consumers from their expensive Sky Sports contracts.

I don't see it happening. AppleTV has virtually no presence in the UK, despite Britain being Apple's second most important market. Moreover, their current pricing on the existing AppleTV product in the UK leads me to believe they don't have any immediate plans to change that status.

 

[Kal El]

Tip

Never believe anything in The Daily Mail.

 

[northy124]

This is what you get for following the Daily Mail's crap....

 

[Umbongo]

What a surprise

 

[Gaspode67]

The British Press

Adapted from the classic bit in Yes Prime Minister:

"Don't tell me about the press. I know exactly who reads the papers:
- The Daily Mirror is read by people who think they run the country;
- The Guardian is read by people who think they ought to run the country;
- The Times is read by people who actually do run the country;
- The Daily Mail is read by the hypocondriac wives of the people who run the country;
- The Financial Times is read by people who own the country;
- The Independent is read by people who don't care about the country, they just want to save the dolphins;
- The Express is read by people who think Princess Di was killed by the people who run the country;
- The Morning Star is read by people who think the country ought to be run by another country;
- And the Daily Telegraph is read by people who think it is."

"What about the people who read the Sun?"

"Sun readers don't care who runs the country, as long as she's got big tits."

 

[Xero910]

Probably a rumour they started themselves to strengthen their position when negotiating with other companies. Not a bad tactic, too bad it just blew up in their face.

 

[CylonGlitch]

There is a lot of soccer shown on American TV, though it helps if you get Fox Soccer on your cable system. Between ESPN, Fox Soccer, and Fox Soccer Plus pretty much every Premier League game televised in the UK is seen live in the US, plus more with usually two of the Saturday 3pm games on the two Fox cable channels. Add Gol TV and you get a lot of games from the other major European leagues. MLS will air on NBC Sports Net (Versus) next season, which will see some games on NBC, as well as ESPN.

No Fox Soccer available here. ESPN seems to have games on only at random times. GolTV, not available either. Maybe NBC Sports will fix that problem... I hope.