YouTube, Facebook, Amazon and Twitter have already gone there and reports from New York overnight suggest that Apple may be about to enter the world of live sports broadcast.
Talks are understood to be taking place about a package of rights to Major League Baseball that could see games being shown on the Apple TV+ streaming service.
The main impact of the tech giants in sport to date has been in documentary coverage with the Netflix Drive to Survive series credited with giving a massive injection of interest into F1 since it started broadcasting.
Could the day be far away when the streamer will decide to get involved with more immediate highlights packages of race content or even a live stream of a race, possibly from the paddock?
Apple has been getting more involved as a creator as opposed to a device manufacturer in recent years and the possibility of exclusive content for the streaming and maybe even for ios only apps is an intriguing sidebar to this first sign of genuine interest in the live sports market.
Sport for Business Perspective
There is little likelihood of an end to the fragmentation of sports broadcast rights. While media consolidation has occurred with the NY Times buying the Athletic, it appears that the attraction of live sports broadcast remains strong enough to encourage multiple players to stay involved or get involved. Good for sport for sure, though maybe a bit trickier for the fans.
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