By Chance Miller|
Source: 9to5mac.com, August 2022

Apple is once again said to be involved in negotiations for the streaming rights to Big Ten athletic events including football and basketball. A new report from The Athletic indicates that both Apple and Amazon are involved in the negotiations.

The Big Ten is one of the most prominent conferences in the United States for college athletics. In fact, the Big Ten got a major boost earlier this summer with the addition of USC and UCLA, turning it into a potential “super conference.”

As we’ve seen throughout the coverage of Apple’s interest in obtaining NFL Sunday Ticket streaming rights, the world of sports licensing and media rights is incredibly complex. As it stands right now, Fox has locked up a portion of the Big Ten broadcast rights.

CBS and NBC are also both likely to obtain broadcast rights as well, according to today’s report. This would end a 40-year partnership between the Big Ten and ESPN, which is “not expected to land” a package this year according to The Athletic.

But in addition to those complex broadcast rights, the Big Ten is also expected to add a streaming package to the mix. The Athletic reports that both Apple and Amazon are in the running to acquire the rights to this package, but it’s “not yet clear” which one will ultimately prevail.

Other college leagues have streaming options as part of its media-rights arrangement but not an exclusive package. Amazon Prime long was considered the favorite to pick up the Big Ten’s streaming rights, but Apple TV rejoined the negotiation following the USC/UCLA expansion announcement on June 30. NBC’s Peacock also could become a stand-alone streaming option if the linear network wins a Big Ten package.

Similar to the broadcast TV rights, it seems that this streaming package wouldn’t include every single Big Ten sporting event, but only certain ones on certain days of the week.

Whether or not Apple ultimately prevails in its quest to acquire a Big Ten streaming package remains to be seen. Nonetheless, it’s clear that the company views live sports as an important part of the future of Apple TV.