Apple Buys The ticket

[Rolando]

Just read this! Apple is buying the NFL SUNDAY Ticket!

https://www.macrumors.com/2022/04/18/app...6srL7KxhZE
EDIT:
Sunday Ticket airs on DirecTV, but rights are up for auction as the NFL's DirecTV deal is expiring after the 2022 season. DirecTV paid around $1.5 billion for the games, but whoever wins the rights for the 2023 season will likely pay around $2.5 billion.

Should Apple win the bid for Sunday Ticket, out-of-market fans will be able to watch non-prime time games from all 32 NFL teams on Apple TV+. Sunday Ticket would join Friday Night Baseball, which Apple airs each Friday as part of a deal with Major League Baseball.

So ALL non-local games will be available to subscribers. 2.5 Billion is pretty much pocket change for Apple.

[stephen]

Wow. And I'm not even a football fan. But I can appreciate the significance.

[mrbigstuff]

What does that mean?

[Filliam H. Muffman]

My impression is that it means the 2 million current subscribers will either need to pay to enter the Apple walled garden and get bombarded even harder with ads for iOS devices and services, or give up on watching games not broadcast in their local markets.

If they keep 2/3rd of the subscribers, Apple will increase the number of Apple TV+ subscribers by at least 25%.

I wonder if all the NFL teams will continue to use M$ Surface tablets.

Edit: skimmed a couple of opinion stories on this, it sounds like a large portion of the current subscribers hate needing DirecTV to watch Sunday Ticket and it has limited subscribers. If Apple makes it easier to access content on non-Apple devices (already on some sCumcast cable boxes), they could double the number of subscribers. I wonder if this will trigger another round of antitrust hearings in Congress.

[Gareth]

Filliam H. Muffman wrote:
Edit: skimmed a couple of opinion stories on this, it sounds like a large portion of the current subscribers hate needing DirecTV to watch Sunday Ticket and it has limited subscribers. If Apple makes it easier to access content on non-Apple devices (already on some sCumcast cable boxes), they could double the number of subscribers. I wonder if this will trigger another round of antitrust hearings in Congress.

There was some version of it (via DirecTV) that was internet based and didn't require any DirecTV hardware. But it probably didn't have any DVR features like you might have access to with an actual DirecTV subscription. It was $200/season when I had it a few years ago.

Apple TV+ is available as an app on Roku, so it's certainly easy to access without an Apple device.

What I wonder is, will this be included in the $5/mo subscription, or will it be an additional purchase? If it's included in the regular subscription, that will make an ATV+ subscription an absolute deal for anyone coming from DirecTV Sunday Ticket package.

[macphanatic]

Gareth wrote:
[quote=Filliam H. Muffman]
Edit: skimmed a couple of opinion stories on this, it sounds like a large portion of the current subscribers hate needing DirecTV to watch Sunday Ticket and it has limited subscribers. If Apple makes it easier to access content on non-Apple devices (already on some sCumcast cable boxes), they could double the number of subscribers. I wonder if this will trigger another round of antitrust hearings in Congress.

There was some version of it (via DirecTV) that was internet based and didn't require any DirecTV hardware. But it probably didn't have any DVR features like you might have access to with an actual DirecTV subscription. It was $200/season when I had it a few years ago.

Apple TV+ is available as an app on Roku, so it's certainly easy to access without an Apple device.

What I wonder is, will this be included in the $5/mo subscription, or will it be an additional purchase? If it's included in the regular subscription, that will make an ATV+ subscription an absolute deal for anyone coming from DirecTV Sunday Ticket package.
The app is also available on Fire TV and most newer smart tv's.

[rz]

Since I've been a Directv subscriber for going on 27 years now, I've gotten Sunday Ticket free for the last two years, and there was at least two other years they gave it to us for free. I'd never pay for it, but it was nice to watch multiple games on the few weekends where I wasn't working out in the yard or otherwise occupied. If it were part of a subscription to Apple TV+, and I found other stuff I would watch, I'd probably subscribe.