Apple TV Plus experiencing the Messi effect. Lionel Messi is reportedly drawing a ton of viewers to the streaming service. The world champion Argentine continues to dominate for Apple TV Plus.
Apple TV Plus Messi Effect
Apple TV Plus signed a 10-year agreement worth $2.5 billion with Major League Soccer (MLS), and it seems like this decision is starting to pay off. Jorge Mas, who co-owns Inter Miami, shared in a tweet that was later retweeted by Apple’s Tim Cook. According to him, the number of people subscribing to Apple’s MLS Season Pass has more than doubled, and this success is largely attributed to Lionel Messi, a famous soccer player and former FC Barcelona star, who won the World Cup.
Lionel Messi is a very well-known sports superstar. His recent move to the United States in July has greatly boosted interest in soccer. Many people are excited about his presence, and this is especially true among those who speak Spanish. Jorge Mas mentioned that more than half of the viewers watching Messi’s matches on MLS Season Pass through Apple TV are Spanish speakers, and this percentage is still increasing.
Apple TV Plus Messi Effect
Apple doesn’t usually share the exact number of subscribers it has, but before Messi joined, it was thought to have around 1 million subscribers for MLS on Apple TV Plus. Doubling that number in just one month is really impressive. Tim Cook, the head of Apple, told investors the week before that they’re doing even better than expected with subscribers. Messi playing for Inter Miami definitely helped with that. They’re very excited about it.
Sports streaming can bring in a lot of money, which is why the best streaming services are getting into it. For example, Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max is planning to start streaming sports. They’ll have games from MLB, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, and even college sports like March Madness basketball.
Streamers Will Spend $8 Billion on Sporting Rights This Year According To Research
According to research by Ampere Analysis, streaming platforms are expected to invest $8 billion on sports rights this year. This amount makes up about 21% of the total money spent on sports rights around the world. This is a significant increase from the previous year, when it was 13%. Ampere Analysis mentioned that the exclusive deal between Amazon and the NFL that started in September 2022 played a big role in this change. This deal was a major moment for sports on streaming platforms and was the largest deal ever made by a sports streaming service at that time. Only YouTube has made a bigger deal with the NFL since then.
The Reason for the Sports Have Become a Big Deal
Sports have suddenly gained in popularity, in part because broadcast and streaming rights tend to be signed for lengthy periods of time, often lasting years or even decades. As a result, many agreements were made before streaming technology was as advanced as it is today. And in the past few years, the streaming market and business have become considerably more competitive, with many large companies using their extremely deep wallets to put significant amounts of money on the table.
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