161–170 of 192 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
At one point we had 12 different channels that carried college sports and maybe half the games we wanted to watch weren't available.
Yea… it’s like you can’t even pay for it!
I hope this is broadcasted in 4K. In the USA at least, there's virtually no 4K sports broadcasts of any kind (including Apple/MLB is only 1080p).
What delivery medium (especially in the USA) has the throughput to deliver anything worthy of being called "4K?"
Why couldn’t Apple stream 4k sports content?
This is a great move for Apple. The game-changer for them, IMO, is to buy the rights to broadcast Pac-12 and Big-10 football (and ideally all sports). I am an avid college football fan. Trying to find games to watch is a pain without some sort of lame ass subscription somewhere. I already pay for Apple TV + because it's bundled with other services that I use. With the incoming threat of ESPN + Disney + SEC fracturing…
This is probably one of the best decision by any TV provider. MLS is going to blow up in the coming years. There is a lot of talk about US national team being very competitive in 2026 World Cup. MLS has produced stars already, like Alphonso Davies. Once the hype gets higher and more money start being spent on soccer in the US, it will become a power house.
This will happen right after the year of Linux desktops. The US National team being competitive in international is way too high of an expection from anyone that follows international soccer. The US is stuck geographically playing Mexico all. the. damn. time. They rarely play any European teams. They also rarely play good South American teams. Until they regularly play good teams, they will stagnate going back and fo…
The US has way more European pros now, playing on good, Champions League caliber teams. MLS has attracted higher quality talent, and the farm teams are producing better talent domestically.
I'm really curious as to what Apple's broader strategy is with live sports, since that's typically been one of the last big reasons to keep a cable subscription. However, given that Apple TV Plus is going to have at least some MLB games[1] and is rumored to possibly be the new home for the NFL Sunday Ticket[2], they could be seeking to make it the must-have subscription for fans of live sports. https://www.apple.com/…
There is a lot i don't understand about how they view things in Cupertino. I mean, there must be a lot of people at Apple thinking about the future - what it will look like, how media is consumed and then again how Apple can own that pipeline and ecosystem. Both on the media side, hardware side and software side the offering is lacking in ways i find very strange coming from Apple. For instance why haven't Apple just…
Because it's not in the interest of those sports leagues to kill off their viewing audiences. The average person who has cable has ESPN channels as part of their basic cable package. You don't even NEED cable to watch a lot of sports because terrestrial television has sports on constantly. The NFL realized a long time ago that there is a niche market for those who want a sheer firehose of content... but the vast majority will not directly pay for it. Sports fans will just find something else to occupy their time with.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
MLB next, please. I don't have cable, which means I just don't watch baseball right now. I would 100% sign up for MLB.tv if I could watch my two favorite teams play.
Yep. Fortunately I don't live in the same state as my baseball team anymore. So I watch just about all their games through MLB.tv. Would be so frustrating if I lived near my team though.
I hope this is broadcasted in 4K. In the USA at least, there's virtually no 4K sports broadcasts of any kind (including Apple/MLB is only 1080p).
What delivery medium (especially in the USA) has the throughput to deliver anything worthy of being called "4K?"
This is a great move for Apple. The game-changer for them, IMO, is to buy the rights to broadcast Pac-12 and Big-10 football (and ideally all sports). I am an avid college football fan. Trying to find games to watch is a pain without some sort of lame ass subscription somewhere. I already pay for Apple TV + because it's bundled with other services that I use. With the incoming threat of ESPN + Disney + SEC fracturing…
I doubt either of those conferences would want to be stuck behind a paywall that is neither on terrestrial television or cable networks. Dealing with ESPN is dealing with ABC, which is a gigantic advantage. The SEC remains the power conference of power conferences, and whatever they decide is ultimately the way college football will trend. Their recent agreements with Oklahoma and the University of Texas are just a s…
Not so fast my friend! :p
The Big Ten in particular is a peer with the SEC in football viewership and revenue, but dwarfs the SEC in overall academic revenue and power. Texas and Oklahoma’s move to the SEC is a big deal, but these seismic shifts cause other seismic shifts and conferences such as the PAC-12 will look to form deeper relationships with the Big Ten so that they are not at a permanent disadvantage. The Big Ten itself continues to eye schools such as Duke, North Carolina, Virginia, and Virginia Tech as potential new members. This isn’t the end of the story there.
In addition, money from a company such as Apple gives them a significant bulwark against the SEC dictating how football goes. You may recall the Big Ten, ACC, and PAC-12 formed a scheduling “alliance” in response to Texas and Oklahoma moving to the SEC. It may end up being a pony show, but the intent is there. Apple perhaps purchasing the rights to stream the games may not necessarily preclude local broadcasts either. Otherwise you’d make the exact same argument about ESPN and the SEC. But SEC games are routinely broadcast on other networks.
Now, that’s not to say with recent NIL deals and Texas and Oklahoma moving to the SEC that something seismic won’t occur. But I think what is more likely to happen is a separate league separate from any conference in football only which would include top tier brand name programs, versus a world where the SEC and ESPN dictates how things go. I do think ESPN’s likely long-term goal is to break off the marquee SEC programs (Alabama, LSU, Georgia, Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, etc.) alongside the marquee other conference programs (Ohio State, Notre Dame, Michigan, Penn St, Oregon, USC, etc.) and form a league, but so long as the other conferences don’t care for it, the risk of losing billions in academic funding (which makes football revenue look like a lemonade stand) will keep this from happening.
Finally! I don't care if it's apple or someone else, but the "no blackouts" thing is big. Nothing drives me more crazy than being unable to stream a game because I happen to live in the same geographic region as the team home field. This would finally motivate me to cancel the cable TV subscription - the only sport I watch is soccer, and the only reason I keep the cable TV is so I can dig out the remote whenever the…
ESPN, MLS' current partner, is mediocre at best.
Now if only the PHL Union can replace JP Dellecamera. Somehow he manages to make The Beautiful Game sound ugly.