Apple bid for Premier League TV Deal
Apple is lining up a bid to bring Premier League football streaming to its Apple TV service, according to reports in the press this morning. The Premier League existing TV contract expires at the end of this season and the Premier League will be listening to offers with clubs keen to secure an increase in the price of the contract.
The Daily Mail reports both Apple and Google are interested in purchasing a slice of the English football market in a bit to boost their Apple TV and Google TV services.
Apple TV has struggled to establish itself in the UK due to a distinct lack of streaming apps and Google TV has barely raised an eyebrow since its launch.
In the US Apple TV currently offers subscriptions to Major League Baseball, NBA Basketball and National Hockey League apps, so a Premier League football offering would boost this considerably.
The Mail, without quoting any sources or reasoning for its suspicion says: "The Premier League is seen as the type of premium content that will help establish Apple TV in the UK and boost iPad sales, while the iTunes subscription service infrastructure is already in place."
"The involvement of Apple - and their great multimedia rivals Google are also expected to make similar soundings - would give the PL a hugely competitive market at a time when the price of other TV sports rights are in decline."
The idea of Apple makes sense following their huge investment in its own data centre infrastructure to support its migration into the TV market and also fits with rumours around Apple's move into TV streaming.
Apple mulling bit for Premier League football to boost Apple TV sales
Sky Sports and ESPN have the rights to broadcast live matches in the UK, with the BBC showing highlights on Match of the Day. ESPN shows goals through its ESPN goals app.
It is unclear at this moment in time what package both Apple and Google are going to bid for. It seems unlikely that they would go for the live games and more likely that they would try and pick up the online aspects of the contract. The Premier League broadcasting contracts are rather antiquated with the BBC being unable to broadcast Match of the Day on their iPlayer service. We would expect the packages to be updated for the new agreements.
Given the Premier League's massive global reach, it wouldn't be a huge surprise to see Apple go after the rights, especially with its heavily rumoured Apple flatscreen TV reportedly set for a 2012 launch.
For the live TV rights package it is rumoured Sky, ESPN and Al Jazeera are likely to go head to head for the live matches contract. Both ESPN and Al Jazeera are keen on getting more Premier League action on their station and these two are the only ones with the funds to compete with Rupert Murdoch’s Sky.