Apple has been pursuing bringing collegiate sports activities to Apple TV+ for years now, and regardless of repeatedly failing to get a lot traction, it doesn’t look like it’s prepared to throw within the towel anytime quickly.
Whereas Apple has landed some significant coups with MLB Friday Evening Baseball and its MLS Season Move, soccer appears to be the one sport that eludes it. Apple courted the NFL for Thursday Evening Soccer seven years in the past, and after dropping out to Amazon, it set its sights on NFL Sunday Ticket in early 2020 and apparently got here with a hair of getting it, however the deal fell aside in December as a result of what one reporter known as Apple’s “persnicketiness” in contract negotiations.
With the NFL clearly off the desk, Apple renewed its curiosity in faculty soccer with a Pac-12 deal that just about got here to fruition in August, however the deal fizzled out on the eleventh hour.
Nonetheless, Apple is clearly undeterred by these failures and will now be aiming to safe rights to stream Faculty Soccer Playoff (CFP) tournaments.
Based on Entrance Workplace Sports activities, Apple and Amazon are vying for the rights to the 12-team event, whose media deal is expiring on the finish of subsequent 12 months. Whereas a streaming association isn’t but a foregone conclusion, Apple is hoping to safe a minimum of part of the pie to hold a number of video games on Apple TV+.
The CFP is reportedly now on the hunt for brand new media companions throughout the board for the 2026 expanded playoff season and has already held its first formal assembly to debate choices, which was attended by the standard sports activities heavyweights ESPN and Fox, in addition to conventional broadcasters akin to NBC. Nonetheless, government director Invoice Hancock acknowledged that there was “mutual curiosity in a streaming aspect” for the CFP slate.
It’s unlikely that they’ll obtain the semifinals or championship recreation. However the CFP’s new first spherical, which is able to embrace 4 video games performed on faculty campuses, may present a possibility for experimentation with streamers.
Entrance Workplace Sports activities
Sources point out that it’s most unlikely that CFP will depart the printed networks behind in favor of an all-streaming mannequin. Nonetheless, there’s room for some supplementary streaming protection that may very well be just like the deal Apple inked with MLB for Friday Evening Baseball.
Even Amazon, regardless of its success with the NFL, has but to make any inroads in faculty sports activities media rights. Rumor has it that Amazon was additionally pursuing a Pac-12 deal earlier this 12 months however was pushed apart when Apple made a greater provide of round $25-$30 million per college. Nonetheless, not all Pac-12 member colleges have been satisfied that the streaming strategy was the proper strategy to go, ensuing within the deal falling aside.
Entrance Workplace Sports activities notes that the “linear broadcasters” have had higher success getting video games onto their very own streaming networks, with one instance being the NFL and NBC’s $110 million deal to stream a wild card recreation solely on NBC’s Peacock service in January 2024. By comparability, the CFP’s 12-team format was initially estimated to be price a staggering $2 billion yearly, which might put it on par with the NFL Sunday Ticket; nonetheless, sources are saying that the precise quantity may very well be a lot decrease.
[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]