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I never got the whole appeal of the London games, the NFL seems almost desperate to increase the profits even further, even if it costs an arm and a leg to fly two teams over there to play.

I've never watched one, given the early hour they've played them (early for the east cost).

I didn't see the appeal either and I could have watched it live in the stadium for free. Trying to drum up interest in the UK is a waste of time, we aren't interested
 
At this rate, Super Bowl 55 will be streamed!

SB was streamed last year. This year too. In fact all postseason games on CBS,NBC, and ESPN can be streamed from those networks apps on AppleTV. Fox games cannot be steamed on ATV since there sports app is not on ATV yet. It can be streamed on your Mac or iPad/iPhone. Fire TV too.
 
I didn't see the appeal either and I could have watched it live in the stadium for free. Trying to drum up interest in the UK is a waste of time, we aren't interested
The funny thing is, it's not economically feasible for the NFL to have a London team, which I think is the endgame of this process. Without getting into the nitty gritty, I'm not sure many football players will be willing to uproot their entire families for a few years and/or travel across the atlantic to play an "away" game.
 
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These games are usually at odd times here in the states and feature subpar teams like my Lions. Rather than buy a new box most people will either go out to watch or not bother. I really doubt they're worth the price they'll command. I'd rather they focus on regular season MLB with no local blackouts, a Sling competitor or getting Siri to do something worth while on my AppleTV. Right now it's a gimmick to get me to the iTunes store not a feature.

I'd just like to broaden your MLB statement out... how about making the season-packages available for streaming live games, with local teams included for all the pro sports. I'd gladly pay for Extra Innings, or Center Ice, or League Pass, or whatever they're calling the MLS one now... and so on and so forth... if my local team was covered.
 
That'd be crazy if Apple locked down the streaming rights. Don't get me wrong, it would be fine for me since I'm all in on Apple stuff but then we'd have the same situation as DirecTV owning Sunday ticket.

I don't want exclusive rights on sports streaming. It's poison. I'm fine with paying but as many as possible need to be able to have access to the streams. I don't think I want Apple having football anything exclusively.

Agreed, but I'm sure the NFL makes more $$ by making everyone bid like they do for the playoffs and the Super Bowl.

If I were Apple, I'd use my billions to lock in whatever NFL rights I can get. It'll sell millions more devices and is low risk/high reward compared to creating their own content IMO.
 
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If the NFL moves to Apple TV get ready for metered internet usage. Sports are the lynch pin for many cable cutters... me included..

Excuse me, sir. But aren't you aware of the fact that those with DirecTV Sunday ticket can stream those same games on their phones and computers? So how will football on the apple tv be any different that what currently exists?
 
Why does MR have a SNF logo at the top of the article when the subject is regarding Sunday AM London games? Also Yahoo's streaming last season was in the morning, not night as stated.




I suspect it will be a free broadcast just like Yahoo's was, so price of admission is irrelevant. Also NFL does not have local blackouts for broadcasts anymore. They got rid of that rule last year.
Yeah but I was talking about MLB. Sure it's not as popular as the NFL anymore but you get 162 games for your investment.
 
Excuse me, sir. But aren't you aware of the fact that those with DirecTV Sunday ticket can stream those same games on their phones and computers? So how will football on the apple tv be any different that what currently exists?
You're missing the point. The only reason many people have cable is for the NFL. If I don't need directTV to watch my games, I'm cutting cable.. btw you need the more expensive package to stream the games.
 
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Excuse me, sir. But aren't you aware of the fact that those with DirecTV Sunday ticket can stream those same games on their phones and computers? So how will football on the apple tv be any different that what currently exists?

I think he's implying that if cable co's lose their big selling point -- and it's a huge one -- of local sports carried by RSNs (excluding the NFL, since that's broadcast OTA), then he expects metered internet won't be far behind to bridge the gap and make them net-net on previous revenues and after that occurred.
 
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That'd be crazy if Apple locked down the streaming rights. Don't get me wrong, it would be fine for me since I'm all in on Apple stuff but then we'd have the same situation as DirecTV owning Sunday ticket.

I don't want exclusive rights on sports streaming. It's poison. I'm fine with paying but as many as possible need to be able to have access to the streams. I don't think I want Apple having football anything exclusively.
I would expect streaming to be browser friendly.
 
I didn't see the appeal either and I could have watched it live in the stadium for free. Trying to drum up interest in the UK is a waste of time, we aren't interested
As a fellow Brit I myself would say I'm not interested and I don't know anyone who is. Football (Soccer) is popular over here and that will always remain the number 1 sport. American football seems too similar too Rugby (of which we have two different games of), however year after year the games at Wembley are attracting more and more people and popularity, never going to be enough to be a game we are fully interested in, but we only need a small percentage of the population to be interested in it, even then with the American football season being so short and any London team playing all their home games together (and then again away) it doesn't even need full time commitment and could easily be someone's 2nd team/sport.

Tottenham Hotspurs have agreed a deal with the NFL for future games to be played there and their new stadium in designed with an American football pitch in mind, I'm pretty sure 60k for a 'British' team would be achievable. It would be great if they never had a London home and played across the whole of the UK though.
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Agreed, but I'm sure the NFL makes more $$ by making everyone bid like they do for the playoffs and the Super Bowl.

If I were Apple, I'd use my billions to lock in whatever NFL rights I can get. It'll sell millions more devices and is low risk/high reward compared to creating their own content IMO.
Pretty much, but if I was Apple I would go after the rights of popular football (soccer) tournaments, simply buying the global rights to the Premier League alone would make Apple a fortune overnight.
 
Pretty much, but if I was Apple I would go after the rights of popular football (soccer) tournaments, simply buying the global rights to the Premier League alone would make Apple a fortune overnight.

Absolutely. American football for the US market and football for the rest of the world. Apple can dominate TV streaming boxes and sell tons more hardware by owning rights to all the major sports. And unlike its competitors, those billions will pay dividends in a way that ads alone can't match which gives them a leg up on companies like Google and Amazon (with its sell hardware at cost strategy).

Admittedly, I don't know the ins and outs of this business, but it seems like a no brainer for Apple to pursue this strategy from my limited POV.
 
Quite a few years back I got DirectTV just to be able to enjoy the complete NFL season and NFL Network, etc. Luckily these days, there is a much better way to do this with the magic of the interwebs. By using an a smart DNS service such as Unotelly, I can now purchase NFL Gamepass directly, which includes access to every game (with no local blackouts), NFL Net, archived shows and games, and plenty more... Ironically this complete standalone internet package is only available outside the USA.
 
I'm not a fan of the NFL UK games, for an entirely personal reasons. Since they've announced that some of the games will be at Twickenham, it means even more possibility of Harlequins games being shuffled to Friday evening kick-offs due to HQ being used!

Truthfully, the NFL games get a good attendance partly because of the novelty factor; that chance to see a game live and in person once a year. I know that some see the end goal as being a London based team. You could probably get a reasonable crowd (say 40k) for the games, but I doubt you could expand much beyond that or be able to have a second UK based team. As others said earlier, when the NFL is being played, it would be up against Football (of the global kind) and Rugby Union for footfall. Trying to lure fans away from long time allegiances to a new sport never goes well. As an example, Rugby League has never really been able to get a following at a top level south of the M62 corridor. Given the shared history and similarities between RU and RL, you'd think that this would be a far easier sell to RU fans, especially as it's played on a summer schedule. But no, they managed to draw a few thousand (maybe 3k) to the London Broncos over their recent history before being relegated. That's for a game that has real crossover with RU. Trying to get fans for a sport that is sufficiently removed from the Rugby roots from which it sprang (i.e. less draw for Rugby Fans) played over the Autumn/Winter (when the Premier League is king, so Footie fans won't be willing to switch) is a long shot.
 
The funny thing is, it's not economically feasible for the NFL to have a London team, which I think is the endgame of this process. Without getting into the nitty gritty, I'm not sure many football players will be willing to uproot their entire families for a few years and/or travel across the atlantic to play an "away" game.

NFL does not give up yet, the new Spurs stadium is also meant to host NFL games. However, here in Europe we really don't give ... about NFL. Personally, I just don't get the appeal of this sports. It is like watching a cricket game on steroids.
 
If American football takes off outside of US, there really IS doom on the horizon.
 
NFL does not give up yet, the new Spurs stadium is also meant to host NFL games. However, here in Europe we really don't give ... about NFL. Personally, I just don't get the appeal of this sports. It is like watching a cricket game on steroids.
Well I could have similar remarks with soccer, the point is, its very popular here, there's really little upside for the fans here in the US for the London games and so far its only a curiosity in London.
 
Tottenham Hotspur FC are building a new stadium that will incorporate 4 NFL games a year I believe.

Interesting to see this link up seeing as Ive is a Spurs fan...

Jony Ive Surs fan.PNG


COYS :D
 
Tottenham Hotspur FC are building a new stadium that will incorporate 4 NFL games a year I believe.

Interesting to see this link up seeing as Ive is a Spurs fan...

View attachment 609850

COYS :D
From what I have heard Ive is a rugby fan. I live in Newcastle (where he studied) and it is said that he went to a few Newcastle United games when he was living here, but never really had an interest in the sport much.
Ive probably isn't a Spurs fan, or a fan of any football (soccer) team, Spurs would have invited him along to a game and claimed him as a fan as so many clubs seem to do these days.
Sorry, as much as I have nothing against Spurs I can't let you have this one.
 
From what I have heard Ive is a rugby fan. I live in Newcastle (where he studied) and it is said that he went to a few Newcastle United games when he was living here, but never really had an interest in the sport much.
Ive probably isn't a Spurs fan, or a fan of any football (soccer) team, Spurs would have invited him along to a game and claimed him as a fan as so many clubs seem to do these days.
Sorry, as much as I have nothing against Spurs I can't let you have this one.

Eh? why would you doubt he's a Spurs fan? He wouldn't pose for a picture otherwise plus he's from Chingford
 
Eh? why would you doubt he's a Spurs fan? He wouldn't pose for a picture otherwise plus he's from Chingford
Because lots of people in the media get offered to sporting events, get their pictures taken with a shirt etc and are claimed as fans.

Ive is said to be largely a rugby fan, and even then his interest in sport in minimal. Like I said I have heard of stories of him going along with his fiends to NUFC games, however he was not actually a fan and only really did it in an attempt to be more sociable which he wasn't when he was younger.
 
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