It's hard to guess, but based on this press release guessing is all that we can do, so..
The UI for sports is currently terrible, by and large. The best you can do - despite the fact that everyone has a computer attached to and/or in their TV these days - is stream a linear broadcast channel. With this deal, Apple can show you a dashboard of all the games currently playing so you can pick a close and/or intresting one. You could choose a different audio channel - say, crowd noise only or a mic attempting to pick up what a manager is shouting at their players. Picture and picture if a goal is scored in another game. Probably way more than all of this.
From this POV, buying content is merely the price of admission to using technology to completely change and improve the sports viewing experience. Like I said, I'm just guessing at what Apple is thinking, but it stands to reason they have some technology angle on this if they feel like they are the right people to mount an attempt at improving this experience.
Funny you mention that - one of the odder parts of this press release is the fact that this service is going to be included with MLS team season ticket packages. I'd been try to figure out how and/or why it's in Apple's interest to give away this service to season ticket holders; some sort of AR tech being part of the overall plans is a decent guess as to why.
I assume this is something MLS wanted out of the deal and Apple conceded. It makes the season tickets even more valuable for every team in the league. Do you really think Apple demanded a subscription give-away?
> Do you really think Apple demanded a subscription give-away?
I don’t, but it’s really not the most outlandish idea. It gives every season ticket holder a reason to either buy an Apple TV or, maybe more importantly, start using the Apple TV app on their existing devices.
Imagine you’re an Orlando City fan who’s happy with Hulu and never really cared to open the Apple TV app on your Samsung TV. Now that you’re using Apple TV to watch matches, though, you’ve started to come across some of those other shows you’ve heard people talk about.
Ted Lasso seems pretty cool, maybe you’ll sign up for Apple TV+ and give it a try…
But season ticket holders as a group are probably the ones most likely to pay for a season of MLS. Why not let them pay and get exposed to Ted Lasso on their own dime?
I'm not assuming Apple demanded it, I'm just wondering aloud why Apple conceded.
This deal is 8x the 2022 MLS TV deal annually, and the current deal doesn't have anything like this. It seems insane to me to imagine MLS telling Apple "8x our current deal and you have to give it to our biggest fans for free."
Fair enough. But MLS viewership has risen since the last deal. Before this announcement, it was speculated MLS was looking for a $300M/year deal. So it doesn't seem so insane to me.
The UI for sports is currently terrible, by and large. The best you can do - despite the fact that everyone has a computer attached to and/or in their TV these days - is stream a linear broadcast channel. With this deal, Apple can show you a dashboard of all the games currently playing so you can pick a close and/or intresting one. You could choose a different audio channel - say, crowd noise only or a mic attempting to pick up what a manager is shouting at their players. Picture and picture if a goal is scored in another game. Probably way more than all of this.
From this POV, buying content is merely the price of admission to using technology to completely change and improve the sports viewing experience. Like I said, I'm just guessing at what Apple is thinking, but it stands to reason they have some technology angle on this if they feel like they are the right people to mount an attempt at improving this experience.