College Football Could Be Coming to Apple TV+ as Apple Courts Pac-12

[MacRumors]

Apple appears to be working on a deal to secure the rights to college football games, as it has proposed a deal to the Pac-12. According to ESPN, Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff on Tuesday presented the conference with a potential subscription-based Apple streaming deal.

The Pac-12 television contract expires after this school year, giving Apple an in for negotiating a new deal. So far, the Apple streaming deal is the "likely leader," but no deal has been reached.

A deal with Apple would begin in the 2024-2025 season and would be short-term to begin with. The terms would be similar to Apple's partnership with MLS, with Apple offering a standalone subscription and Apple in turn getting exclusive streaming rights.

According to sources, the first year of what's expected to be a relatively short-term contract with Apple would start in 2024-25 and begin relatively low to the league's hopes. But the deal, sources said, would incrementally improve and potentially be competitive with its peers in the Big 12 and ACC down the road, provided certain subscription numbers are met.

Pac-12 includes the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, UC Berkeley, University of Oregon, Stanford University, Oregon State University, University of Utah, University of Washington, and Washington State University, though there are additional affiliate members. Pac-12 members are concerned about a drop in viewership should the traditional broadcast model be abandoned in favor of streaming.

A Pac-12 streaming deal needs to provide the money and exposure that the universities are looking for. The Big 12 Conference inked deals with ESPN and Fox, with teams set to earn an average of $31.7 million annually, so Apple would need to come close to that.

Article Link: College Football Could Be Coming to Apple TV+ as Apple Courts Pac-12

 

[Sasparilla]

Such a thing would be huge, even if it was just PAC-12, lol. Instant audience far away from the west coast.

 

[jasnw]

The Pac "12" is becoming the Incredible Shrinking Conference and its commish is desperate for ANY kind of media deal. Apple is in the driver's seat on this one.

 

[mnsportsgeek]

Apple getting really good at picking undesirable sports to invest in. I guess if this comes on the cheap then why not.

Still waiting for them to make a big splash.

 

[eicarr]

Totally uninterested in sports. Unfortunately this would hurt the chances for them diversifying into more entertaining and less dull PBS-like preachy content.

 

[robbietop]

Yay....PAC-12......let us know when they get SEC or Big 10. Or just SEC because that's the only football worth watching anyways. Roll Tide. Go Dawgs.

 

[Apple Fan 2008]

Personally, I'm more of a Baseball guy

 

[nuckinfutz]

I'll sign up if Apple allows for that Multiview feature that looks cool.

 

[Gator5000e]

Are any teams still left in the PAC-12?? Just asking for a friend.

 

[cwwilson]

Yay....PAC-12......let us know when they get SEC or Big 10. Or just SEC because that's the only football worth watching anyways. Roll Tide. Go Dawgs.

So glad OU is finally going to the SEC. I’ve been wanting that for years!

 

[FelixDerKater]

Good time for Apple to pick up broadcast rights on the cheap with that conference.

 

[aperantos]

Last week Eddy Cue said "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 … I can't justify throwing what I think are the best engineers in the world on a small subset product … 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."

Yet Apple bought Friday Night Baseball, a sport mainly of interest in the Americas and east Asia, and a package with little growth potential in the rest of the world because of time zones. (Mind, it is also not a package Apple have the rights to worldwide.)

Apple then bought Major League Soccer rights, a league with little interest in most of the world because, even if countries do not have their own league, there are several much, much more popular ones, and which has even less growth potential because of both the saturation of the soccer market and the time zone differences are even worse.

So now Apple wants a college American football conference, something with barely any appeal outside north America.

I can only assume Cue thinks Apple's customers all over the world, the large number of customers, must all be Americans. Because from outside he seems to only be signing leagues where the interest and demand is specific to a small set of countries, and which play at a time when a large part of the world is asleep.

Of the few sports I watch I am very happy to not need to have to pay extra to Apple. So I have no problem with him being interested in only serving the U.S. market. It is just the way he gives flimsy excuses to the rest of the world then dismiss us with hypocrisy.

 

[280428055]

I don’t pay for cable tv because the idea that a sizable percentage of the subscription fee goes to subsidize professional athletes and team owners doesn’t sit well with me. It’s bad enough I have to pay additional sales tax to pay for their arenas I get no use out of, and they don’t share the profits from. Now that apple is going down this road I’m probably going to cancel my apple one plan.

 

[ThailandToo]

Too bad they didn’t just pay billions of dollars more and get NFL Sunday Ticket. Does the Pac ever make it to the playoffs even? Oregon once maybe?

 

[jayhawk2112]

Pac-12 football is Apple TV’s latest foray into post-apocalyptic drama?

 

[syklee26]

Pac-12 that will be without USC and UCLA in 2 years? Apple needs to do better than that.

 

[macintologist]

Sports in general is such a time suck. Especially American sports like football that artificially stop play so that they can play more TV ads.

 

[DocMultimedia]

Too bad they didn’t just pay billions of dollars more and get NFL Sunday Ticket. Does the Pac ever make it to the playoffs even? Oregon once maybe?

Yeah, really hoped they'd sign that one. Oh well, Google getting my money is better than DTV.

 

[nutmac]

Perhaps Apple is looking into creating Apple Sports+, combining Friday Night Baseball (MLB), MLS, and several NCAA conferences. I think this would be a wise move, as to not burden Apple TV+ with pricey sports licensing fees.

 

[LawJolla]

I've been following this very closely.

Because Apple's deal was so bad (and everyone else's non existent), Arizona will leave the Pac-12 today and others will follow.

The conference is over.

 

[btrach144]

Didn’t apple tout 60 FPS content with the newer AppleTV box? Where is that at?

 

[MacGizmo]

It's laughable that the PAC-12 (with its 9 remaining teams, and the possibility of one to two more leaving) expects to get money anywhere near the amount of any of the other major conferences.

 

[ackmondual]

I guess if this goes through, it'll like the soccer/international football that was acquired by Apple a while back? Available for an extra monthly charge?

 

[dmr727]

Or just SEC because that's the only football worth watching anyways. Roll Tide. Go Dawgs.

If I wanted to watch pro football, I'd just watch pro football. And I say that as a Texas grad, whose athletic department's motivations are no better. Lane Kiffin is right - the sport is a disaster.

I'd rather watch Cal play Stanford than anything that exists in the SEC, including my Horns.

 

[cuestakid]

Pac-12 that will be without USC and UCLA in 2 years? Apple needs to do better than that.

agreed. I get Apple wants more subscribers to ATV+, but giving them a garbage conference (and I am a Stanford fan!) is sad and pathetic. Outside of Football and some mens basketball, Pac 12 will not be as strong as it was and for all we know Oregon, Washington/Wash St could be gone-Arizona is meeting this week to talk about their future.