One of the media angles of the hectic college football realignment story is the weakness of Apple TV+ as a viable option right now and its lack of determination, so far, in the sports space. Let’s take a look.
1️⃣ Apple was not a viable option
The Pac-12 teams did not want to be on an exclusive streaming deal. We first broke the possibility of the Pac-12 and Apple in February. In that story, we wrote that Apple would likely want all the league’s games in a deal. Even then, the thought of having a conference on Saturdays just on a subscription streaming service did not make sense.
Diehards will pay for their teams, but the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC are all mostly available on major broadcast and cable networks. The Apple deal felt like a way into obscurity. And it seemed as if some university officials were blindsided by it, which is odd because if John Ourand and I knew to discuss it regularly on our weekly podcast, then they should have had more of a clue that it was coming.
