Yahoo Finance sports reporter Josh Schafer joins the Live show to break down how streaming services are competing to secure deals with streaming rights for sports.
Video Transcript
SEANA SMITH: Well, Apple pushing further into sports content, announcing a partnership with MLS Major League Soccer. Yahoo Finance’s Josh Schafer has been following the story for us. And Josh, Apple making a bigger bet on sports. What can you tell us about it?
JOSH SCHAFER: Yeah, Seana. So we have this new partnership. And interesting that they’re calling it a partnership and not a meteorites deal, right? So what we have here is Apple is really going to try and build out Major League Soccer’s first streaming service. And so what that contains is, it’s a 10-year deal starting in 2023. And it’s estimated that it was about $250 million. And the key thing to note here, no blackout dates. This is a one stop shop for Major League Soccer fans. And that, we have not really seen in other leagues yet.
Now, the big thing for Apple, of course, they’re spending more on sports. So they spent a reported minimum of $250 million here, almost $600 million on Major League Baseball for seven years. So I reached out to friend of the show, Wedbush Securities managing director Dan Ives. And I asked him, what’s Apple trying to do here? And he said, really, what he thinks they’re trying to do, he called this the appetizer. And the big meal is going to be NFL Sunday Ticket. They think Apple’s in the winner’s circle for NFL Sunday Ticket for over $2 billion.
And so this is Apple’s step into sports. And they’re going to keep diving into sports. They have Apple spending almost double on sports content next year than they’re spending this year. Call it $4, $5 million this year, probably closer to $10 to $12, maybe even $15 billion next year.
And so, really, what we’re going to see from Apple and Apple TV+, right now, they’ve been premium content, right? “CODA” winning an Oscar. That’s sort of what they’ve been doing. Well, now they’re going to go and get sports properties and not care as much about premium content and go for a little bit more quantity over quality is going to probably be the play in sports. They’re battling Amazon, of course. Two big players playing, but it seems like Apple is ready to make a move.
Add Comment