Exposed Apple Apple TV+ will be engaged in live sports content

IT House, Jan. 15 , according to MacRumors, according to a new report from investment firm Wedbush, Apple is "actively looking" for potential deals to enable it to broadcast live sports content on its Apple TV + streaming service to significantly increase the number of subscribers.

In the investor note, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said he believes Apple's decision not to buy a film studio for the time being is a clear indication that it now sees live sports programming as a key part of its future success to expand the audience of its video streaming service.

Apple hasn't provided details about the number of Apple TV+ users since the digital streaming service began, but Wedbush estimates that of the roughly 45 million viewers, Apple TV+ has about 20 million paying users, with the rest having a free trial when they buy other Apple products.

This is just a fraction of the number of subscriptions enjoyed by companies like Disney+ and Netflix. With that in mind, Apple is clearly "poised to spend billions of dollars on live sports content over the next four years" to drive future growth for Apple TV+ and make it a key profit growth engine in its emerging services ecosystem, which earned it $80 billion in annual revenue last fiscal year.

"With Apple spending $7 billion a year on original content and has about $200 billion in cash on its balance sheet, we think the company is preparing to bid for some upcoming sports packages to sign/renew in the coming years." We note that over the next four years, Apple may be bidding on the sports packages (in some capacity/semi-exclusive): the NFL (Sunday Night Ticket), Big Ten, Pac 12, Big East, Big 12, other NCAA sports packages (2024 timing), NASCAR and NBA/WNBA. ”

IT House has learned that for now, Apple TV+ does not provide support for any form of live TV, only access to on-demand TV and movie content, so if any deal is completed, Apple will need to build a new live TV section for sports.

Earlier this month, the New York Post reported that Apple had discussed a potential deal with Major League Baseball that would broadcast MLB games next season, a major attempt to make a world of live sports content.

For now, Apple TV lacks the opportunity to stream sports, which remains a serious hole in Apple TV shows, as competitors such as Amazon already have established deals. For example, Amazon's 20 live Premier League football matches will return in the 2022/23 season, and the company has signed an agreement to broadcast "Thursday Football Night" matches starting this fall, for which it has paid more than $1 billion in licensing fees.