https://fortune.com/2020/02/03/apple-tv-...bscribers/

Apple is struggling with the TV thing

This may help but it could further knock the PAC12 off everyone's radar

If the Pac-12 gives its 1st tier rights to a company that is "struggling with the TV thing" they will really deserve the "Pathetic 12" name.

Is Anyone Watching Apple TV+?
By Entertainment Strategy Guy Apr 3, 2020 at 9:45am

Link
https://decider.com/2020/04/03/is-anyone...e-tv-plus/

FACT: Fewer than 10 million consumers had opted for their free 12-month trial of Apple TV+

Link
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...alyst-says

Streaming services purchase content. Unless there is something that you want to watch, why subscribe?

Apple has deep pockets. They will spend with hopes of being relevant. Will Apple's streaming app be relevant? Who knows?

Apple TV+'s approach is like others.

Some things of note for streaming-

Disney moved ESPN's The Last Dance (Michael Jordan) documentary series from June to April.

Disney+ moved Pixar's Onward from the theater to streaming in 60 days. Disney+ bumped up the release of the last Star Wars (IX) to May 4. https://www.ign.com/articles/star-wars-t...the-fourth

HBOMax launches May 27 https://www.hbomax.com/?utm_id=sa%7c7170...lsrc=aw.ds

Did you know that Google has a strategy for its purchased content? Youtube Originals (Not YoutubeTV or just Youtube). https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqVDpXK..._yyt_QkItQ

Finally- The NFL rights are up for renewal in 2021. "Amazon, Google, and Facebook could be among the bidders." https://www.marketwatch.com/story/espn-e...2019-09-12

Think back. Do you remember when Fox bought the rights to the NFC (NFL)? Fox didn't even have national coverage in all markets at that time. Fox broadcast on Fri, Sat, and Sun. Fox built their brand on securing the NFL rights.

Streaming services are trying to do the same. The broadcast era is over. Streaming is growth. If Apple TV+ buys the rights to the Pac 12 Conference, let it try.

(04-28-2020 09:26 AM)chess Wrote:  Streaming services purchase content. Unless there is something that you want to watch, why subscribe?

Apple has deep pockets. They will spend with hopes of being relevant. Will Apple's streaming app be relevant? Who knows?

Apple TV+'s approach is like others.

Some things of note for streaming-

Disney moved ESPN's The Last Dance (Michael Jordan) documentary series from June to April.

Disney+ moved Pixar's Onward from the theater to streaming in 60 days. Disney+ bumped up the release of the last Star Wars (IX) to May 4. https://www.ign.com/articles/star-wars-t...the-fourth

HBOMax launches May 27 https://www.hbomax.com/?utm_id=sa%7c7170...lsrc=aw.ds

Did you know that Google has a strategy for its purchased content? Youtube Originals (Not YoutubeTV or just Youtube). https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqVDpXK..._yyt_QkItQ

Finally- The NFL rights are up for renewal in 2021. "Amazon, Google, and Facebook could be among the bidders." https://www.marketwatch.com/story/espn-e...2019-09-12

Think back. Do you remember when Fox bought the rights to the NFC (NFL)? Fox didn't even have national coverage in all markets at that time. Fox broadcast on Fri, Sat, and Sun. Fox built their brand on securing the NFL rights.

Streaming services are trying to do the same. The broadcast era is over. Streaming is growth. If Apple TV+ buys the rights to the Pac 12 Conference, let it try.

What you’re saying is true, but Apple TV+ can’t even get people that get it for free to watch it. So how many people are actually paying for it? You can’t expect companies to throw money away forever. Apple + has no back catalog like the other services do, or if they do, it’s not vast. They’re not producing any new content right now, so again, how long will Apple dump money into it?

We were lead to believe Vince McMahon was going to fund the XFL for 3 years, look how quickly that went away. There’s no doubt a streaming service will bid for P12 rights, but I don’t see Apple + going all in on the Pac12.

(04-28-2020 12:58 PM)DoubleRSU Wrote:  

(04-28-2020 09:26 AM)chess Wrote:  Streaming services purchase content. Unless there is something that you want to watch, why subscribe?

Apple has deep pockets. They will spend with hopes of being relevant. Will Apple's streaming app be relevant? Who knows?

Apple TV+'s approach is like others.

Some things of note for streaming-

Disney moved ESPN's The Last Dance (Michael Jordan) documentary series from June to April.

Disney+ moved Pixar's Onward from the theater to streaming in 60 days. Disney+ bumped up the release of the last Star Wars (IX) to May 4. https://www.ign.com/articles/star-wars-t...the-fourth

HBOMax launches May 27 https://www.hbomax.com/?utm_id=sa%7c7170...lsrc=aw.ds

Did you know that Google has a strategy for its purchased content? Youtube Originals (Not YoutubeTV or just Youtube). https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqVDpXK..._yyt_QkItQ

Finally- The NFL rights are up for renewal in 2021. "Amazon, Google, and Facebook could be among the bidders." https://www.marketwatch.com/story/espn-e...2019-09-12

Think back. Do you remember when Fox bought the rights to the NFC (NFL)? Fox didn't even have national coverage in all markets at that time. Fox broadcast on Fri, Sat, and Sun. Fox built their brand on securing the NFL rights.

Streaming services are trying to do the same. The broadcast era is over. Streaming is growth. If Apple TV+ buys the rights to the Pac 12 Conference, let it try.

What you’re saying is true, but Apple TV+ can’t even get people that get it for free to watch it. So how many people are actually paying for it? You can’t expect companies to throw money away forever. Apple + has no back catalog like the other services do, or if they do, it’s not vast. They’re not producing any new content right now, so again, how long will Apple dump money into it?

We were lead to believe Vince McMahon was going to fund the XFL for 3 years, look how quickly that went away. There’s no doubt a streaming service will bid for P12 rights, but I don’t see Apple + going all in on the Pac12.

I agree.

If the goal is to build a large national subscription base, you don't do it by overbidding for niche programming in one region of the country.

And yes, regular season college sports is niche programming. It's not NFL, MLB, or NBA. It's not Star Wars or Marvel.

The PAC-12 could be part of the plan if Apple ALSO had C-USA and Big East games to fill out the map. But even then, they still need a "main course" to drive subscriptions.

Apple would be better off overbidding for exclusive rights to Seinfeld reruns than overbidding for the PAC-12 (or any CFB conference).

Apple has $245 Billion in cash. Apple has so much cash, the company can buy Disney (worth $130 Billion). Apple can buy AT&T ($219 B).

California's population is almost 40 million people. The state's economy is the 5th largest in the world and just ahead of the United Kingdom.

If the English Premier League can perform in the UK, it shouldn't be too hard to see a strategic gamble.

Apple TV+ or Netflix or Peacock or Crackle or Hulu (owned by Disney) or Disney+ or CBS All-Access or HBO Max or Amazon Prime or Youtube Premium... There are so many streaming services. Are the services vanity projects or something that is our future? Regardless, entertainment is going to change. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streaming_...e_provider

Thing is about the Pac and apple is... yes CA has 40 million people.. but how many are really into College Sports? Seems like Californians gravitate around the NFL, MLB, and NBA teams more than CFB, CBB, or College Baseball.

Look if the money is too sweet to pass up, then the PAC needs to go for it and be patient, but don't cry if the pollsters or CFP committee don't watch because they have to get an app to see you play while they can switch to ESPN, ABC, Fox, FS1, CBSsports, etc with a remote on it's cable box/roku/etc. Their tier 1 games will lose a lot of it's viewers who they are struggling to get now. If the Apple thing is true.. it would be better to use as the Pac network tier 3 provider.

(04-28-2020 08:38 PM)chess Wrote:  Apple has $245 Billion in cash. Apple has so much cash, the company can buy Disney (worth $130 Billion). Apple can buy AT&T ($219 B).

California's population is almost 40 million people. The state's economy is the 5th largest in the world and just ahead of the United Kingdom.

If the English Premier League can perform in the UK, it shouldn't be too hard to see a strategic gamble.

Apple TV+ or Netflix or Peacock or Crackle or Hulu (owned by Disney) or Disney+ or CBS All-Access or HBO Max or Amazon Prime or Youtube Premium... There are so many streaming services. Are the services vanity projects or something that is our future? Regardless, entertainment is going to change. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streaming_...e_provider

It would cost an estimated $30-$100 billion to start & sustain a colony on Mars. Apple could afford that, too. It doesn't mean Apple will do it.

Apple is mostly owned by 401ks and pension funds for average Americans. In fact, it's the largest investment in most retirement portfolios. So Apple's $107,162,000 in cash (as of 12/31/19) belongs to us. You and me.

So you'd better hope they don't waste their cash hoard on an industry where they have no competitive advantage and a dozen well-funded firms have a huge head start on them.

Interesting idea and it may be really lucrative

But I’ll be honest I totally forgot AppleTV was even a thing

They may give it a shot, but I have no idea why Apple would pay big money for the PAC 12. They're still competing against other entities at the end of the day so there's no reason to outbid other networks to the extreme.

The benefit of bidding on a niche sports product would be more as a low-risk experiment. Streaming prime events to large audiences is still not mainstream technology right now even though it's come a long way. Point being, if they have to pay the PAC 12 a lot of money in order to experiment then it's not worth the risk. Better to take to your chances on a product that most sports fans are willing to buy into.

ESPN has the infrastructure for all this which is why they keep pumping money into ESPN+. Nonetheless, they have worked hard to diversify their offerings because you're not going to get casual sports fans to sign up for a little bit of this or that. They need options that appeal to a wide variety of audiences.

Everyone else is a newcomer or only rumored to be interested in getting into the market. If Apple wants to take the plunge with the PAC 12 then they're going to need a lot more than that to truly have an attractive sports portfolio.

The general public is learning how to stream.

Quote:
‘Trolls World Tour’ Breaks Digital Records and Charts a New Path for Hollywood
In three weeks of digital release, ‘Trolls’ sequel has made more money for Universal Pictures than original did during five months in theaters

LOS ANGELES—Last month, as the nation’s movie theaters were days from closing down, executives at Comcast Corp’s Universal Pictures moved on a decision that would soon pay off handsomely.

...A massive marketing campaign was already under way for the studio’s April 10 release, “Trolls World Tour,” an animated sequel to the 2016 hit. The studio decided not to postpone the opening, instead making the movie available as a digital rental on platforms like Apple Inc.’s Apple TV for $19.99.

Three weeks later, “Trolls World Tour” has racked up nearly $100 million in rentals.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trolls-worl...1mvuP8fhEM

I have no doubt that the Pac-12 on Apple TV+ would be wildly successful, among Pac-12 fans. However, would Apple be willing to invest the money for mostly western US fans?

California's population is almost 40 million people. The state's economy is the 5th largest in the world and just ahead of the United Kingdom.

(04-29-2020 07:10 PM)DoubleRSU Wrote:  I have no doubt that the Pac-12 on Apple TV+ would be wildly successful, among Pac-12 fans. However, would Apple be willing to invest the money for mostly western US fans?

(04-29-2020 12:42 PM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  

(04-28-2020 08:38 PM)chess Wrote:  Apple has $245 Billion in cash. Apple has so much cash, the company can buy Disney (worth $130 Billion). Apple can buy AT&T ($219 B).

California's population is almost 40 million people. The state's economy is the 5th largest in the world and just ahead of the United Kingdom.

If the English Premier League can perform in the UK, it shouldn't be too hard to see a strategic gamble.

Apple TV+ or Netflix or Peacock or Crackle or Hulu (owned by Disney) or Disney+ or CBS All-Access or HBO Max or Amazon Prime or Youtube Premium... There are so many streaming services. Are the services vanity projects or something that is our future? Regardless, entertainment is going to change. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streaming_...e_provider

It would cost an estimated $30-$100 billion to start & sustain a colony on Mars. Apple could afford that, too. It doesn't mean Apple will do it.

Apple is mostly owned by 401ks and pension funds for average Americans. In fact, it's the largest investment in most retirement portfolios. So Apple's $107,162,000 in cash (as of 12/31/19) belongs to us. You and me.

So you'd better hope they don't waste their cash hoard on an industry where they have no competitive advantage and a dozen well-funded firms have a huge head start on them.

Apple reported $207.06 billion cash on hand, up from $205.9 billion last quarter. That is down from $245 million from the previous year.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/28/apple-q1...-hand.html

As an Apple shareholder, I trust the leadership to figure out where to invest their money. ESPN and Fox are paying the Pac-12 $250 million annually. Apple could double or triple that number with little impact on their bottom line. I have no idea what the next Pac-12 TV deal will look like, I just know it will be better than what they have today.

(04-29-2020 07:15 PM)chess Wrote:  California's population is almost 40 million people. The state's economy is the 5th largest in the world and just ahead of the United Kingdom.

(04-29-2020 07:10 PM)DoubleRSU Wrote:  I have no doubt that the Pac-12 on Apple TV+ would be wildly successful, among Pac-12 fans. However, would Apple be willing to invest the money for mostly western US fans?

Granted, but how many of those people are devoted enough to PAC 12 sports to pay extra for a streaming package? Throw in the populations of Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado...all together not a small number of people by any means. But how many of these people are sufficiently passionate?

Obviously there will be some, but enough to make a huge investment in broadcasting sports worthwhile? I think it depends on the price Apple can get them at.

(04-29-2020 06:49 PM)chess Wrote:  The general public is learning how to stream.

Quote:
‘Trolls World Tour’ Breaks Digital Records and Charts a New Path for Hollywood
In three weeks of digital release, ‘Trolls’ sequel has made more money for Universal Pictures than original did during five months in theaters

LOS ANGELES—Last month, as the nation’s movie theaters were days from closing down, executives at Comcast Corp’s Universal Pictures moved on a decision that would soon pay off handsomely.

...A massive marketing campaign was already under way for the studio’s April 10 release, “Trolls World Tour,” an animated sequel to the 2016 hit. The studio decided not to postpone the opening, instead making the movie available as a digital rental on platforms like Apple Inc.’s Apple TV for $19.99.

Three weeks later, “Trolls World Tour” has racked up nearly $100 million in rentals.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trolls-worl...1mvuP8fhEM

Streaming scripted content is a different animal though. Companies have been making a lot of money for several years on products like that.

I've been wondering when movie studios would start bypassing the traditional theaters in order to deliver their productions. That day may be closer now thanks to the virus.

Anyway, streaming an event that the vast majority of viewers will want to watch live presents a different technological challenge. I think that's why we haven't really seen sports league gravitate there en masse. We're still a ways off, but the day is coming.

https://awfulannouncing.com/streaming/ap...brady.html

Apple TV is jumping into the sports docuseries game. They seem to be the non-ESPN streaming service making noise about investing into the sports media business, maybe.

Apple is a no-go because not enough people have Apple TV.

Netflix, on the other hand, is in more homes than Fox Sports 1. If cable keeps deteriorating and Netflix maintains or grows its subscriber base, then Netflix might soon be in as many homes as ESPN.

If Netflix offered SEC-level money to either the Pac-12 or Big 12 in a couple of years, the conference would take the money and happily take whatever risk there would be from having "different" exposure than traditional TV exposure.

(04-24-2020 11:56 PM)Stugray2 Wrote:  The Pac-12 will get an eyebrow raising amount of money. No question they will leapfrog the B12 in 2023, and by a healthy margin.

The Pacific region is far more open to new media, and economically desperate to go there. Apple wont be the only player. This will be fascinating. (I do not think Larry Scott will be in charge in one year's time)

Enter Lee Corso: "Not so fast..."
I believe that the FAANG gang will eventually make a splash in live sports content. But The PAC 12 on Apple TV is not the way it will happen. I wonder if this is just Larry Scott trying to persuade FOX and ESPN that there is another serious bidder in the arena. And maybe there is, but none of the bidders will try too hard. FOX and ESPN cordially split the PAC 12 content last time around for a combined $250 million per year.

The big money will appear when/if FAANG enters the bidding for the SEC or B1G content, or both, or for a more comprehensive P5 bundle. There is no certainty about it, but the next round of media deals will be the time for FAANG to make their move. Four of the five P conferences have their media rights in play. The bidding war for a P5 bundle would be vicious.

This imaginary rights deal perfectly complements my imaginary estblishment of a new college sports governing body housed in an aggressively entrepeneurial corporation owned by the member schools. Universities face funding vulnerabilities. They will not pass up the chance to develop alternative revenue streams. The more, the better, and the bigger, the better.