Apple’s plan to change sport

With its arrival in the world of sport broadcasting, Apple is now working on the experience of watching sport as if it’s an Apple product, a process that requires it to go beyond the typical influence of a broadcast partner. 

Why Apple’s adventures in sport matter

Apple appears to have slickly made its move into sport broadcasting to catch a wave of interest and subscribers. However, for the company, the deal was as much about the ability to innovate and keep a focus on the product beyond a traditional rights deal, explains an Apple senior executive. 

What is interesting about the tech giant, which is undeniably a brand of special fascination for many marketers, is that its size and ambition is so vast that it can sometimes leave executives worrying that ideas aren’t big enough to make a mark (after all, it made $81 billion in the three months ending July). As a result, it can sometimes miss opportunities – MLS season pass was almost one of these.

What’s going on

Lionel Messi’s move to the US – a boon not just for his team Inter Miami, but for the entire MLS – has drawn increasing attention, not least because of his very novel deal with Apple: he is reported to be receiving a cut of the revenue from subscriptions to the iPhone maker’s MLS season pass. 

Sport is an increasingly vital element of big tech’s entry into TV entertainment, with sport one of the most reliable ways to gather and retain a big audience. Apple is no exception, but it wanted to add new features and a uniquely good experience for subscribers. 

GQ’s sports vertical interviewed Apple’s Eddy Cue, SVP of its services division – a $21 billion per quarter business that encompasses music, TV, news, and even fitness and health services – who confirmed the revolutionary deal with Messi. 

• Early innovations included the idea of a “close game” notification, in which subscribers can be alerted to a tight finish they might otherwise miss. 
• But Apple’s ambitions went much further: not least the right to broadcast every single game played in the league (usually, parcels of games are divided and sold to different broadcasters). “I was positive: we're not going to get in the game of playing here if we have to play by those rules,” Cue told GQ.
• Other adaptations are less revolutionary but help simplify the experience, both for fans at live games and for subscribers. Games now take place at 7:30pm, local time, on Saturdays and the occasional Wednesday (rather than throughout the week as they used to). 

Key quote

“We like to design things in a way that they're simple and intuitive and beautiful for people. And we always start the process with building a great product,” Oliver Schusser, VP, Apple Music & International Content, quoted in GQ. 

Sourced from GQ, WARC 

[Image: Apple]