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Report: Apple drops out of race to obtain streaming rights to ‘Thursday Night Football’

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Earlier this year it was reported that Apple was among a handful of tech companies negotiating for the streaming rights to NFL Thursday Night Football games. While CBS and NBC obtained the rights to the television broadcasts, the NFL is looking for other options for the streaming rights. Re/code reports today, however, that Apple is no longer interested in purchasing the rights to Thursday Night Football.

The report claims that Apple is no longer interested in purchasing the rights to the streaming package as it doesn’t believe the price the NFL is asking is it worth it. While Apple wants to bolster its streaming offerings on the Apple TV, the report notes that Apple doesn’t see the NFL streaming deal as a worthwhile investment.

With Apple out of the running, Facebook, Amazon, Verizon, and Yahoo are the companies left. It’s unclear how much the bidding is at for the rights, but NBC and CBS paid $225 million a piece for the rights to broadcast 5 games each on television and via their respective cable subscribers-only streaming services.

Last year, Yahoo streamed an NFL game worldwide and attracted 15.2 million unique viewers. Both Yahoo and the NFL were said to be have been pleased with these results, hence it looking to branch out its streaming offerings this year.

Now that Apple is apparently out of the running for NFL streaming rights, it remains to be seen how the company will act to bolster its live streaming offerings for Apple TV. In the meantime, the company is working on things like Beats 1-sponsored concerts, original content, and improving the tvOS App Store.

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Comments

  1. golfersal - 8 years ago

    Apple is 100% right. On the surface it seems great but the NFL is looking for way too much money. I can’t wait until the first NFL quarterback gets tackled, lands wrong and dies on the field. People will think twice about the NFL and those contracts will be worthless.
    It happened in the 50s, boxing was the biggest form of entertainment on young TV screens. But when a couple of folks died in prime time in front of television screens, boxing left network TV.
    The same will happen one day to the NFL and I love football.

    • twelve01 - 8 years ago

      Ha wow… Maybe just leave at the asking price is too much. Football is the top sport, and sign of slowing down.

      • twelve01 - 8 years ago

        *No sign of slowing down

      • Mart Välja - 8 years ago

        Only in US.

      • US Football doesn’t hold a candle in financial power to proper Football/Soccer on a global scale. It’s probably somewhere equivalent to Volleyball.

    • How do you know the price they’re asking is far too much? Do you even know the numbers? Apple can do what it wants, but your post is full of made up nonsense.

  2. Joel Pederson - 8 years ago

    Apple should go for Soccer league rights. MLS, Bundesliga, Premier league, La Liga, Ligue Un, National team games. Gotta be some deals in there that Apple could work.

    • I agree, American football has a really limited audience, mainly the US, but Soccer, has a worldwide audience, almost every country loves soccer, and has a soccer team.

      • twelve01 - 8 years ago

        Or tailor content by country/region, which I suspect they do to some extent already. Like it or not, Football is king in US, where the biggest pocketbooks, most Apple TVs are.

  3. RP - 8 years ago

    Apple should make it as easy as possible for others to create their own content not spend crazy amounts of money for stuff like this.I think Apple should work to make Apple TV an alternative to cable companies and networks where content creators bring their own content and figure out how to monetize it on their own.

    • Anthony Moon Ciaramello - 8 years ago

      This sounds amazing…great idea!

      • RP - 8 years ago

        Well I know that’s basically the way it is now, but it can vastly improved.
        A static main screen with icons is fine for a phone but not the big screen.
        Have dedicated pages/channels such as a kids channel with clips of promoted kids programs that you can set and come back to when you turn on the tv.
        There is so much you can do. And commercials are never going away. People have to accept that.

  4. Maybe Apple pulled out to make way to just purchase the NFL… :)

  5. Not too surprising: effete techie boyz don’t watch football and/or like to prattle on about European football.

  6. eswinson - 8 years ago

    It could also mean that Apple is working a deal with a network that already secured rights.

Author

Avatar for Chance Miller Chance Miller

Chance is an editor for the entire 9to5 network and covers the latest Apple news for 9to5Mac.

Tips, questions, typos to chance@9to5mac.com