Apple is gearing up to make a major move in the world of sports for its Apple TV+ streaming, according to a new report from investment firm Wedbush, which was seen by MacRumors. From the report, the company is “ready to spend billions” to aggressively acquire more live sports content over the next four years to gain more subscribers.
Since Apple hasn’t acquired any movie studios as of yet, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives suggests that the company views live sports as a way to grow their Apple TV+ platform for the future.
“With Apple spending $7 billion annually on original content and having roughly $200 billion of cash on its balance sheet, we believe the company is gearing up to bid on a number of upcoming sports packages coming up for contract/renewals in future years. We note that upcoming sports packages potentially for bid over the next four years that Apple can be involved with (in some capacity/semi-exclusive) are: NFL (Sunday Night Ticket), Big Ten, Pac 12, Big East, Big 12, other NCAA sports packages (2024 timing), NASCAR, and the NBA/WNBA.”
Recently, Apple has made headlines in the sports streaming world. Last week, it was reported that the company is in talks with MLB to stream Monday and Wednesday national games.
Major League Soccer (MLS) is also looking to get a new media rights contract and Apple has been mentioned as a possible bidder for the league that caters to the younger demographic.
Of the league’s mentioned in the MacRumors report, the NFL would be the biggest fish. The league considers NFL Sunday Ticket as “a streaming product” and if Apple can successfully acquire the service then that would bolster subscribers exponentially.
Apple does have some ground to make up since the company doesn’t currently offer any live television. There have been predictions that Apple could buy ESPN by 2024, which would give the company a leg up when it comes to producing shows and live events.