Report: Apple in talks with MLB to carry live games on Apple TV+
Another sign that Apple is serious about being a destination for live sports.
The Apple TV app has been a conduit to discover sports content since tvOS was released in 2015. But that has always served as a link over to other apps to actually watch the content. For example, Monday night I streamed the college football national championship game. I started the game by going to the Apple TV app, navigating to the Sports tab at the top of the interface, and clicking on the tile for the game which then launched the ESPN app to stream the game. This works ok, but it’s frustrating because you have to have a subscription through a cable provider or a digital alternative like YouTube TV, and you frequently have to re-authenticate the ESPN app, which can cut into your viewing time.
There have been several rumors over the years that Apple wants to become a destination for exclusive live streaming of games via its Apple TV+ service. Apple was in talks to broadcast Thursday night NFL games, but those rights ultimately went to Amazon Prime. A new rumor suggests that Apple is now in serious talks about broadcasting Major League Baseball games. Andrew Marchand, reporting for New York Post:
Apple has had substantial talks about carrying Major League Baseball games next season, The Post has learned.
If a deal is finalized, it would represent a significant milestone in sports broadcasting since Apple has long been looked upon as a potential stop for major sports TV rights.
A few weeks ago, Apple sent out an email link to a survey about Apple TV+. I filled it out, and it was fascinating. It was much lengthier than any survey I had taken in a while, and it provided some insights into what Apple is considering for the service. Live sports were definitely among the questions asked. Apple has largely sought to differentiate Apple TV+ from other streaming TV services by focusing primarily on a limited number of high quality original shows and movies. But clearly it’s eyeing a bigger slice of the streaming TV landscape, and bringing live sports could help it do that. A few more details on specifically what Apple’s looking to acquire the rights to:
The package MLB has been attempting to sell is weekday national games that ESPN recently relinquished. ESPN will no longer have regular Monday and Wednesday games. The ESPN games were not exclusive in local markets. It is unclear at this point if Apple would be allowed to wall off these select games from regional sports network coverage or not.
One of the problems with live sports is that it’s the anchor that’s keeping the entire industry from truly moving on from the old cable and broadcast TV models. We’re still in an era where ESPN has signed long term exclusive broadcast deals with major sports leagues that requires users to have traditional cable or satellite service. We’re also still saddled with blackout rules that prevent streaming services from carrying live games in certain markets. For example, as an Atlanta Braves fan living in the Nashville, Tennessee area, I can’t subscribe to MLB.TV and watch live Braves games because I’m within the blackout area for live Braves games. It’s absurd. If Apple can help facilitate breaking up the old live sports broadcast regime, it would be a very good thing for everyone. You have no longterm contract as an Apple TV+ customer, so it would be trivially easy as a consumer to sign up for an Apple TV+ account for a few weeks to watch a season’s worth of games. That would be huge.
Ultimately this will come down to money. Apple has loads of it and can afford to pay whatever it would take to get the streaming rights to these MLB games, but so far it’s shown that it’s not willing to pay just anything. Personally I’d love to see live sports come to Apple TV+. Maybe we’ll get that as soon as this year.