Everton and Liverpool fans could find themselves consuming games via a new platform in the not too distant future.
At present Premier League broadcast rights domestically are held by Sky Sports, BT Sport and Amazon Prime Video, and have a value close on £5bn for their most recent cycle, a figure slightly bettered by the international rights market for the world’s most watched football league.
But US tech giant Apple is, according to business website Bloomberg, weighing up a move to enter the market, using their Apple TV platform. Such a move would be the latest live sports play for Apple as they seek to turn up the heat on Amazon Prime Video.
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Last year Apple made a major expansion into the live sports market by acquiring the 10-year rights for America’s Major League Soccer, a deal worth a reported $2.5bn.
The tech giant launched its TV+ streaming service back in 2019 and has leant on bringing through new content from established names, with one of its breakout successes being that of Ted Lasso, the series which charts the fortunes of the eponymous American title character, played by Jason Sudeikis, as he manages fictitious Premier League side AFC Richmond.
But the direction of traffic for streaming companies has for some time been pushing towards live content being the best way to generate audience, with European football, and in particular the Premier League, being seen as the best way to achieve that and drive subscriptions across markets.
The Bloomberg report stated that Apple would seek to stream a number of Premier League games as well as some EFL games, should they be successful.
A potential new player in the market for rights could spell good news for both Everton and Liverpool, with fresh bidders likely to see the value of the rights driven upwards, something that has long underpinned the financial success of the Premier League, where each club gets an equal share of the media rights.
Both Apple and the Premier League declined to comment when asked by Bloomberg.
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