Apple’s sports strategy has not been as aggressive as other tech giants and streamers like Google, YouTube, and Netflix. However, the company seems to slowly be bringing its live sports offerings into gear and a job posting shows what may be their biggest ambition yet.
This week Apple launches their second major rights partnership when Formula 1 joins Major League Soccer as year-long packages on the platform. While the MLS deal allows for global rights, the F1 contract is just for American rights. The streamer has also had a relationship with Major League Baseball through their Friday night doubleheaders.
But Apple still lags far behind its peers when it comes to live sports. Amazon has a plethora of sports rights including the NFL, NBA, WNBA, NASCAR, and more. Netflix has WWE Raw, NFL games, and major boxing cards. Even YouTube streamed a live NFL game last season in addition to their extensive footprint with NFL Sunday Ticket. And traditional media companies like ESPN, NBC/Peacock, and CBS/Paramount continue to invest heavily in their streaming operations in sports.
But that may be about to change.
As was found by Jacob Feldman, Apple has posted a new position for “Original Programming Lead” at Apple Sports. And the posting makes it look like the company is about ready to invest heavily in new sports programming.
“The original programming lead for Apple Sports will lead the vision, development, and execution of premium original content that expands our live sports experiences beyond the track, pitch, or ballpark, bringing stories to life that both deepen and expand our fan bases – and audiences – around the world. Working closely with leagues, teams, drivers, players, and internal partners across myriad organizations and disciplines, the original programming lead will be responsible for building a distinctive slate of programming complementary to our live sports portfolio, reflecting Apple’s commitment to innovation, authenticity, and unimpeachable storytelling quality, all executed at the speed of live,” the posting says.
Apple does have a wealth of programming around its Major League Soccer rights deal with MLS Countdown and MLS 360. For F1, the streamer looks set to offer the Sky Sports feed used by ESPN from the UK as well as the F1TV feed. However, there isn’t any shoulder programming to go along with live coverage just yet. However, this new posting is looking for someone with 15+ years of experience in premium sports content with a “strong understanding of Formula 1 and global motorsports.” So it would be well within reason to expect Apple to produce some kind of original programming around the series like they have done for Major League Soccer at some point this season.
But what about beyond MLS and F1? The new role will “set and own the creative strategy for all original programming across Apple Sports. Could we see Apple expand into more sports documentaries? General sports? Debate shows? With the limited inventory that Apple Sports has, they may need to get creative with their original programming if they truly want to be put on the map.
To this point, Apple’s focus has been on largely serving the fans of the sports that they are in a deep relationship with as partners. But, it’ll be fascinating to see if they go outside those niches and look to plant seeds in the larger sports world in the hopes of making a bigger splash in the near future.
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