Tech News

Apple Said to Expand Live TV Advertising Around Major League Soccer Deal

Apple Inc is all set to soon expand its live TV advertising network as a part of the deal signed for streaming Major League Soccer games in 2023. As per a company source, the American tech company is currently having many rounds of discussion with MLS sponsors and several advertising partners regarding showing advertisements in between soccer games. A close source, who requested not to be named, was quoted by the international media revealing that the discussion between all parties is being held privately in advance of the launch scheduled for coming February.

The decision to expand the advertisement network for live television is a planned push by Apple to get into advertising aggressively. Apple’s current advertisement unit generates about $4 billion (which is around Rs. 33,000 crores) in revenue every year. Bloomberg News recently reported that the company is now seeking double-digit billions of dollars in revenue. To achieve this revenue, the company plan includes placing search advertisements in the company’s apps such as the maps services. Users can expect all advertisement plans to roll out as early as next year.

Apple has recently signed a 10-year deal for airing MLS games through a new streaming subscription service along with the Apple TV Plus platform. The tech giant is reportedly also chalking out plans of streaming small portions of the games to Apple TV app users without any charge.

According to reports surfacing in the media, Apple is all set to run advertisements in all three major tiers of the partnership as per the deal. Advertisements will run on the dedicated package, the paid TV+ subscriptions, and the free TV app. Although the company have declined to make any comment officially, the move is the company’s way of expanding its early live Apple TV advertising. The company’s previous live TV advertisement included “Major League Baseball games that already air on TV+.”

Apple has yet to come out with any official word regarding the matter.

Several media reports indicate that Apple’s vision of generating money from the recently signed MLS deal is through advertising revenue during the games along with the standard amount that comes from subscription fees. The contract reportedly has been estimated to cost $250 million (which is close to 2,050 crores in Indian currency) per season. This settles for $2.5 billion (which is close to 20,500 crores in Indian currency) for the next decade.

Apple’s vice president of advertising platforms, Todd Teresi is the man Apple guy behind all the expansion into live TV advertisement. Teresi is also responsible for leading the recent addition of more advertisement slot placements in the App Store along with transforming the front page. The idea to push the advertisement front can work for the brand in terms of revenue because the company do have apps other than the App Store as an opportunity. Apple Podcasts and Apple Books can be utilised for this. Moreover, Apple also could mimic other streaming services such as Netflix and Disney and launch an ad-supported version of Apple TV+.

This current push to get aggressively active on the advertisement front is a great deal of an ideological change for the brand, considering Apple once advocated against advertisement overload. Also, its recent privacy policy upgrades don’t allow the brand to have too much freedom to go all out with its marketing efforts.