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Apple does not want exclusivity of sporting events on its streaming platform

While next Monday does not arrive, we are left here speculating which will be the main areas of activity of Apple in its coming platform of streaming. The part of the films and series is already very well designed, as well as the possible partnerships with other platforms, but there is a segment that nobody knows yet how it will be treated (if it will be): the sports.

A recent article from Sports Illustrated showed that Apple is, in fact, attentive to this market, but has no intention of becoming a competitor of consolidated networks like ESPN or FOX Sports – that is, there is no plan, at Apple, to gain exclusive rights to the transmission of games. The idea is much more directed to the curatorship area, where the user will be able to gather their platforms streaming sport and know what’s good live or coming soon.

The report details Apple’s “sports surveillance room,” a room within its Results Way office complex in Cupertino. There, a number of employees spend most of their days monitoring broadcasts of all types of sports – from major football and football events, to small tennis tournaments, college lacrosse and even curling.

The idea is to make the experience more enriching for those who subscribe to sports platforms on the Apple TV app, and to send notifications of important or interesting moments. With constant monitoring of what happens in the sporting world, the Apple team can warn a user interested in tennis that an absolutely phenomenal match between two relatively little-known players is underway, for example.

Apple sports roomApple’s “sports room” | Image: Sports Illustrated

Based on this activity, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet software and services, Eddy Cue, explained why Apple should stay away from exclusivity contracts:

You cannot acquire everything, so at some point you need to solve some other problems. You cannot project only the intention to obtain rights because, if that is the only thing you do, you will always remain small. And today, Apple is rarely small.

If you want my opinion, Apple’s position in this case is positive: it is much better that it acts as a “supervisor”, embracing content from all sources, than as a competitor – we all know how horrible it is when broadcasters decide to fight for the rights to broadcast some tournament and we are obliged to use Facebook to watch a Champions League game, for example.

Therefore, it is twisted so that Apple can further improve its role – and expand it to other countries, too.

Five series already filmed

Still talking about the platform streaming from Apple, the New York Times recently revealed that five of the series announced (unofficially, it’s worth noting) for the service have already finished filming.

They are: the suspense “Are You Sleeping?”, with Octavia Spencer; the space drama “For All Mankind”, led by Ronald D. Moore; The thriller supernatural from M. Night Shyamalan, still unnamed; comedy (also still unnamed) with Charlie Day and Rob McElhenney; and, finally, the biographical drama “Dickinson”, in which Hailee Steinfeld lives the writer Emily Dickinson.

Octavia SpencerOctavia Spencer

Other productions, such as the dramatic comedy starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, are in the final stages of production. It is good to note that the end of filming does not mean that the series are ready – it is still necessary to carry out the entire post-production process (editing, sound, effects and more), which is usually the most time-consuming part of the audiovisual.

If that information means anything, it is unlikely that we will see original Apple productions immediately. Either the company will announce its platform with a launch date even more or less distant (for the third quarter, for example), or the service will debut only with external content. At least, however, the company will be able to show a preview of some of its productions at next Monday’s event.

Other details about the service

If the discussion is about what “guy” will have the service streaming from Apple, other sources already give an idea of ​​at least part of the story.

THE Financial Times, for example, published a report stating that Apple will adopt a strategy opposite to that of Netflix in the world of original content – that is, at the expense of the plan to release a huge amount of content to always remain at the epicenter of world affairs, Apple will prefer to focus on developing a smaller number of series and films, with care greater in the quality of each production.

Speaking of the “other part” of the platform, the one that refers to non-original content, the same report stated that Apple is having conversations with producers and studios with varying degrees of success. THE CBS / Viacom, for example, is already almost closed with Apple to license its productions, which include series and films from Paramount, MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central.

On the other hand, negotiations with WarnerMedia did not succeed. The conglomerate owns production rights for Warner Bros., DC Entertainment, Cartoon Network, New Line Cinema, Cinemax, CNN and more, but appears to have rejected Apple’s offerings for a streaming own. THE HBO, for its part, is still in negotiations with Apple.

One of the problems of producers and studios with Apple is, according to the report, Apple’s obsession with secrets and the consequent difficulty in devising a clear strategy for possible partners – there is no way to talk about future plans if it is not possible to reveal any details of gift plans, after all. Despite this, the Cupertino giant seems to be struggling not to be seen as “a company that is difficult to work with”, as the report said.

Without advertising, apparently

Finally, another detail about the platform was shared by MediaPost: Apparently, a problem that we will not have to deal with in “Apple Video” will be the swarm of advertisements. Goodbye, Bettina!

According to the story, Apple really plans to offer some of its content for free, open to all users of the Apple TV app; even in these cases, viewers will be able to watch the original Apple productions without any kind of interruption to advertisements. The same goes, obviously, for the series and films available only on the paid part of the platform.

At least that, isn’t it?

via Cult of Mac; AppleInsider: 1, 2