It’s no secret that Bally Sports and its parent-company, Diamond Sports Group, has been having trouble paying its bills lately. In fact, it has already dropped a number of team rights, and is currently in bankruptcy court. While suitors have been lining up to take advantage of this situation.
We had heard that Scripps was looking to pick up the local sports rights in a number of markets and put the games on free, local TV. Now, it is looking like Apple TV+ might be interested in picking up the local NBA TV rights. If Apple TV+ does pick up local sports, it could turn into a pretty major player in the streaming war. Since it does already have the MLS Season Pass, as well as MLB Friday Night Baseball.
Apple’s not alone, however, as Amazon, Disney and YouTube are also interested in these rights.
Streamers are really only interested if they could get a “critical mass of teams”
It’s said that these streamers are really only interested in securing the rights, if they can obtain a “critical mass of teams”. Which makes sense. Getting a single team or even two teams, isn’t going to bring in a lot of subscribers. Especially if Apple TV+ has to keep the same requirements that Bally Sports currently has. Where you need to be in the local area to watch the games. But if Apple could secure say, 15-20 of the teams rights, then it is a lot more worthwhile for the company to spend that money.
Apple has been named in a lot of discussions for sports as of late. Including the Pac-12, Germany’s Bundesliga and the English premier League. So it’s quite clear that Apple is looking to add more and more sports content to TV+. Making it a more viable streaming service. Currently, Apple TV+ is about $6.99 per month and offers some really great content, however the library is not large. They’ve been going for quality over quantity here. And adding sports in, would make more people spend more time on the service.
2023-08-09 15:05:26