The home of ‘Ted Lasso’ could become the home of live Premier League and lower league football in the UK.
According to Bloomberg, Apple is looking at multiple broadcast rights packages. The English Football League is currently offering the rights to seasons starting in 2024. Meanwhile, the current Premier League broadcast rights only run until summer 2025 and will be up for grabs soon.
The 2025-2028 Premier League rights are expected to be hotly contested by both existing and new entrants to the UK broadcasting market.
Due to the number of new streaming services, each provider is facing its own challenges in boosting subscriber numbers, as viewers evaluate how many streaming services they can afford to subscribe to.
The contenders
- Sky will be hoping to maintain its position as the home of the majority of live Premier League games.
- Meanwhile, BT Sport will have become TNT Sports and have the financial backing of Warner Bros Discovery, who will need to make decisions over the future direction of its combined sports channel business.
- DAZN, which launched today on Sky, is also understood to be eager to break into premium football in the UK. It missed out on an attempt to buy out BT Sport in 2021-22.
- Amazon meanwhile has changed its sports strategy in the UK, ditching tennis coverage in favour of making its debut screening Premier League football. It’s coverage, particularly its commenter-less option has won it many fans. It’s expected to dig deep to retain its foothold in premium football coverage.
- It’s unclear if Viaplay, which arrived in the UK last year, would have deep enough pockets to secure a package of domestic Premier League rights, although it has been busily acquiring rights to screen other home nations football.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that Apple has enlisted sports media veterans Jim DeLorenzo and Frank Uddo in building its streaming platform. It cites Peter Hutton, who previously served as a media partnerships executive at Meta Platforms Inc, who said they will “know the value that international football can bring to the system. Offering the games may be a more effective way to attract viewers overseas than other fare.”
In the meantime, football fans with Apple TV+ will have to make to with fictional football: comedy drama Ted Lasso, featuring the exploits of an American coach hired to manage an English football team, is now in its third season.
Iain Hatton