Apple is not using live sport to compete with Netflix or Amazon Prime Video. It is using live sport to compete with Samsung, Google, Microsoft, and every company trying to pull consumers away from Apple’s products and services.
Most discussions around Apple’s move into sports still default to the same questions. Can Apple TV compete with Netflix and Amazon for sports viewers? Are the rights fees too expensive? Did the MLS deal disappoint? Can Apple really become a serious sports broadcaster?
But it is not trying to compete as a broadcaster. Apple is spending around $435 million this year across its major live sports properties to make sport another reason consumers continue living inside the Apple ecosystem.
This is Apple’s real advantage. The infrastructure already exists. Sport is just becoming the layer that ties it all together and makes us keep coming back.
Let’s take a look inside this strategy….