Apple putting a lot of money into sports streaming

Apple has been investing an increasing amount of money to sports content, indicating that it sees it as a big growth prospect.

Apple is apparently working on a new architecture to increase streaming coverage within its iOS and Apple TV applications, ostensibly in order to provide people more access to the lovely world of sports.

9to5Mac dug into the internal system files after the initial beta release of iOS version 15.2 in October and discovered references to “SportsKit.”

Mysterious! Nobody knows what that framework entails just yet, but it appears to function with the Apple TV app, Siri, and Home screen widgets.

Those Home screen widgets, in particular, appear to be capable of receiving live updates and data changes, something the existing widgets lack and which would be critical if you wanted to, for example, broadcast real-time scoring updates (as 9to5Mac mentions, Siri is already capable of showing up-to-date sports scores, a function that Apple is probably eager to expand to other parts of iOS and tvOS).

According to 9to5Mac, the SportsKit framework is a secret API, which means it won’t be available to third-party developers for the time being. It’s also in beta, which means it’s quite unlikely to see the light of day.

However, there is a rising indication that Apple is interested in expanding its sports products. After the NFL’s current contract with DirecTV expires in 2023, the company is said to be in advanced talks with the league about converting its Sunday Ticket package to an all-digital offering, and key hires—including the appointment of the former head of Amazon Prime Video’s sports division to the Apple TV team—have only fueled speculation.

Sports content is becoming a cash cow for ad-supported streamers since it is intrinsically constructed to accommodate more built-in commercial breaks than traditional entertainment alternatives.

Even with an ad-free streaming service like Apple TV+, sports content remains a prized footing for a platform that’s increasingly attempting to entice cord-cutters, many of whom believe sports are one of the few remaining benefits of watching live TV.

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