apple is a natural home for football but
the reason why is more complicated than
most people have considered Global
football might be a huge industry but in
financial terms it pales in comparison
next to a company like apple in fact the
sports industry as a whole compared to
Global Tech exists on an entirely
different scale which all begs the
question when Apple already makes much
more money in other Industries Why are
they actually interested in
[Music]
football
Apple Inc by mid January 2024 had the
largest market cap of any company on the
planet the 2.9 trillion dollar the
market cap being the total value of all
of its shares only fellow Tech Giant
Microsoft is vying to be bigger for
context the world's largest oil and gas
company Saudi aramco was way back in
third with a market cap of a mere $2.1
trillion and in SES of product areas
apple is already a dominant force or
intends to become one sport Falls within
the entertainment sector football is the
world's most popular sport and that is
why Apple wants to buy football and has
already done so in North America Apple
bought the global broadcasting rights to
show live major league soccer matches on
its Apple TV plus streaming service in a
10-year deal that started in 2023 and is
worth $2.5 billion or $250 million a
year MLS previously earned $90 million
per year via its deals with Fox ESPN and
univisio and if Apple can persuade
millions of people people worldwide to
tune into MLS VI its pay TV platform not
only will Apple make money but it could
be a precursor to a move for the biggest
leagues in Europe because $2.5 billion
over 10 years is not a risk for Apple
the company across all of its sectors
had revenues of nearly $400 billion in
2023 a net income effectively profits of
$97 billion in November 2023 Apple had
$162 billion cash in hand now a one
month subscription to Apple's MLS
coverage costs $14.99 in the USA or $99
a year in the UK that's £14.99 a month
or £99 per year and it's the same figure
in Euros in Mainland Europe there are
occasional deals to buy it cheaper but
Apple makes tens of millions a year more
from sponsors of its MLS coverage the
company needs roughly 2.5 million paying
fans per season to recoup its 250
million annual rights fees and could
almost be there already in year 2 of 10
ahead of further interest induced by the
North American World Cup in 2026 yet the
truth is this Venture is more about
feeding an apple ecosystem with new
customers for all Apple products over
time it's also about content for a
streaming service that's growing and
broadening Apple TV plus was launched in
2019 but has already had a string of
critical hits it started later than the
biggest streamers so it remains behind
some of them in paying subscribers
Netflix has around 250 million now
Amazon Prime Video around 220 million
and Disney Plus at around 150 Apple has
25 million paying subscribers but some
50 million more can access it via third
party offers or for trial periods having
bought Apple hardware and arguably
Apple's first major foray into football
already happened in August 2019 when it
began screening its original comedy
drama Ted lasso it won back-to-back
Emmys and became a monster hit a study
by neelson ratings in early 2024 found
that Ted lasso was the most watched
original show from any streaming service
in 2023 racking up 16.9 billion minutes
of viewing on Apple TV Plus in the year
beating every other show on every other
streamer the channel made its first move
into live sport in March 2022 after
doing an 8-year deal worth £85 million
per year or 595 million in total for the
rights to show two live major league
baseball games each Friday and in June
of 20122 apple and MLS announced their
10-year tieup would start in
2023 now of course other Tech Giants are
already involved in Major League sport
live rights Amazon Prime are paying $1
billion a year to show NFL games on
Thursdays YouTube were paying $2 billion
a year to show NFL games on Sundays but
in a Philip for Apple in their first
season of broadcasting MLS into Miami
signed arguably the greatest footballer
of all time lonel Messi and in June 2023
just shy of his 36th birthday Messi
announced his intention to move to Major
League Soccer formerly joining in July
2023 at that point it's understood Apple
already had almost 1 million subscribers
to their MLS offering in the week that
Messi actually joined Miami Apple signed
up 110,000 more and by mid- August 2023
inter Miami co-owner jge Mass tweeted
the messy effect is real subscribers to
MLS season pass on Apple TV have more
than doubled since Messi joined this was
retweeted by Apple CEO Tim Cook on this
basis the MLS offering was at or around
2 million subscribers by summer
2023 and there a myriad benefits to
Apple TV plus to be gained from Messi
they will make a four-part documentary
series with him which will be publicized
to his 500 million social media
followers Apple will also have access to
dozens of clubs and star players for
feature programming and all of those
benefits are before you consider the
potential ramifications of the $3,500
mixed reality headset called the Apple
Vision
Pro Apple markets The Vision Pro as a
spatial computer users wear a Google
type headset which allows integration
between the real world including
physical inputs via motion gesture eye
tracking and speech recognition to
facilitate work projects meetings and
interactions with every Apple app it
also opens up a new way of consuming
entertainment when a fully immersive
experience might include an Apple TV
Plus drama or a live sports event
filling your vision effectively in
wraparound Apple started taking
pre-orders in January 2024 and had sold
out of its entire inaugural inventory of
200,000 units within a fortnite units
started shipping in February with
forecasts of 500,000 to a million sales
in year 1 the price tag for the consumer
is huge but the tech is nent so will MLS
games soon come to Vision Pro well who
knows but having secured MLS rights
until 2032 Apple are in a unique
position to develop it and grow it if it
takes off one day in the not too distant
future you could be watching Messi if
not on your iPhone or MacBook then via
Apple Vision Pro having paid your
subscription by using Apple and being
reminded of the kickoff time by your
Smartwatch and you could then listen to
your parents Rave about the whole thing
via FaceTime on their iPads if you like
this video please consider subscribing
to the channel the athletic is home to
some of the world's best sports
journalists including David onstein
Daniel tayor Ole Kay Amy Lawrence and
Rafa honstein with the latest transfer
news and insight on every Premier League
Football story that matters the
athletic.com puts you inside football
and you can try it for free now for 30
days see the link in the description