F1 has its own TV. Which makes sense in my opinion, I don't want to have to jump from one streamer to another to follow the sport I like. I prefer to buy what I want and that's all.
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Friday Night Baseball Kicks Off With Pre-Game Content in Apple TV App
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Apple's decision to provide exclusives to some Apple TV+ subscribers sets a precedent for Apple TV+
Until today Apple TV+ was among a few streaming services not having content, discriminating policies towards their customers based on their residency. By launching “Friday Night Baseball”, Apple will embrace such policies. From the Apple press release:
When will the expansion happen and to which countries is not mentioned. By providing exclusive content to Apple TV+ subscribers of 9 countries, means that Apple TV+ subscribers in 165 countries (where Apple TV+ is marketed) are left out. Content discrimination based on residency is not new in the industry. Netflix and Amazon are the biggest to name which streaming catalog lacks content to non US customers. Exclusive content is not new either. Video game companies have been massively using exclusive content to make preordering or more expensive versions of their game more attractive. The gaming community has been very vocal and mostly dismissive on the subject. Which makes Apple's move worse in comparison to video game exclusives is that, with a video game a customer has always an access to the standard content and he/she can pay extra if he/she chooses to do so. Also exclusive content is not distributed based on residency, but everyone who is interested can purchase it. In Apple's case this content is simply unavailable to majority of Apple TV+ customers (no matter if interested or not in the content) and poured over a batch of customers (no matter if interested or not in the content). How to distribute exclusive digital content to interested customers and collect a fee for it, should not be a gigantic mystery to solve for a modern tech company. Introducing exclusives and serving some of their Apple TV+ customers better than the others will surely go unnoticed among TV+ subscribers and English speaking media as almost half of TV+ privileged countries can be considered somewhat English speaking. Apple TV+ is also a relatively small player, US baseball is not the worlds most popular sports either, so Apple gets away with this. What I can't ignore is the fact that Apple will pay $85 million annually to bring "Friday Night Baseball" to the streaming service. What it effectively means to me and the majority of Apple TV+ subscribers is that Apple TV+ content budget will lack $85 million annually. Will it be one or two less TV series to be produced or smaller budget for the rest I can't tell. To my knowledge, Apple TV+ has a single budget, otherwise we would have already seen different content produced based on regions. An argument can be made that this annual $85 million comes out of TV+ budget and the success of “Friday Night Baseball” will bring subscriber growth in selected demographics, thus making “Friday Night Baseball” to pay for itself or even help to finance other projects. I don't know and I am not sure that even Luca Maestri can give a good answer. My rant here was just to provide a different perspective about the recent news. In his essay Apple vs China, Neil Cybart from Above Avalon, empathized that Apple is not a US company but a global company - servicing its customers no matter in which country they are. While I like to think this way too, the actions of Apple speak otherwise. Disabling and enabling content based on residency is simply a fact. One can argue that TV rights have always been very region based. I regret Tim Cook and Eddy Cue failed to negotiate and make MLB understand those limitations are things of the past and it is Apple's DNA not to tier its TV+ subscribers to premiums and peasants. I am sure Apple will not lower Apple TV+ subscription cost for the peasant subscribers. All I can do as a subscriber is to monitor the trend and not make a yearly subscription if content discrimination continues.
I think that Baseball is very low on the interest level in the many countries it is not streaming in. Doubtful that more than a handful of for example Europeans would feel like missing out.
Yeah hardly anyone watches baseball outside of the USA. I guess some interest in Japan though.
Would be be a game changer for a global company like apple to get the rights to a global sport. a full tie up with a premium brand like Formula 1 would be a game changer for both apple and F1. F1 is incredibly tech focussed and would suit them well.
baseball is just a reminder that Apple is US first, and global is secondary.
Would be be a game changer for a global company like apple to get the rights to a global sport. a full tie up with a premium brand like Formula 1 would be a game changer for both apple and F1. F1 is incredibly tech focussed and would suit them well.
baseball is just a reminder that Apple is US first, and global is secondary.
Yeah only in my dreams I would see Apple to pay $85 mil annually for something and leaving US TV+ subs out of it ("as there'd be not a strong enough interest"). Here is the kicker. What about football world cup to people in 173 countries (for much more than than $86 mil obviously because bigger interest than baseball) except to USA (cause no strong interest)? I imagine the drama
PS: just having fun a bit, nothing personal, happy for people following baseball. The reason I do not subscribe to Amazon and Netflix is that their content selection in my location pales in comparison to "hometowns" of their CEO's. I now see signs of Apple making steps in the same direction and it sucks.
PS: just having fun a bit, nothing personal, happy for people following baseball. The reason I do not subscribe to Amazon and Netflix is that their content selection in my location pales in comparison to "hometowns" of their CEO's. I now see signs of Apple making steps in the same direction and it sucks.
"By launching “Friday Night Baseball”, Apple will embrace such policies."
They already embraced that policy, CODA is distributed by Apple only in specific markets.
This is the big question.
In theory, MLB network has produced 4K Games in past, but the lack of anything 4K mentioned on the press fluff doesn't inspire confidence.
LFGM!
They certainly do embrace these policies. In my country one cannot get an annual subscription to Apple Music and Apple is not interested in explaining why this is the case.
It's free for a limited time. Then locked behind the paywall. It's a total rip off to fans who just want to watch their team games. You used to be able to watch them all on region sports networks. Now you have to have multiple streaming subscriptions. Amazon just locked a Sunday deal with MLB. It's a total rip off for fans, the target audience for these games. I don't think they will get what they want out of this.
Want to see this expand and be available in more regions across the world.
Maybe not a majority..but
It is played by approximately 250 million players in over 200 countries and dependencies, making it the world's most popular sport.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_football
I think it's Timmy Apple doing his boy, girl, boy, girl social engineering thing.
I don't understand.
Tell me what Mr. Cook's boy, girl, boy, girl social engineering thing is about.
I saw Baseball "live" on Thursday night on Apple TV. Was able to watch it for 5 minutes and stay awake.
I find soccer hopelessly boring. In the same way I feel the same about hockey. Anything that can end (or rather is often likely to) in a 1-0, 0-0, 2-1 situation, is just not interesting. They run from one side, they run to another. Same issue with Baseball now because of pitchers pitching so fast.
But you can get the Rays' games on the Bally Sports app if you have a local TV subscription that carrys Bally's Sports like Spectrum, D*TV, etc.
You haven't watched hockey in a while. Very rarely are scores 1-0 or 2-1 anymore. Scoring is why up in the last number of years.
Is any opinion considered a majority when you talk about all of humanity? Maybe like, "I think it's a good idea to drink clean water"? Maybe not even that. Remember the trend of raw, unfiltered "Live Water"?
