#Pac12AfterDark may be coming directly to an iPhone near you in the not too distant future.
In a report that is bound to have a significant impact on the entire sports media landscape, the Wall Street Journal reports that Apple has held preliminary talks with the Pac-12 to potentially bring things like the conference’s football games onto the company’s recently launched streaming service:More recently, Mr. Cue met with Pac-12 Conference Commissioner Larry Scott about the conference’s effort to sell an equity stake in its media rights package, valued at up to $5 billion, that includes the Pac-12 Networks and all marquee football, basketball and live sports programming that is fully available in 2024, according to people familiar with the discussions. The conference includes the University of Southern California, Oregon University and Stanford University.
Mr. Cue has questioned the value of a deal with the Pac-12 because it would only give Apple rights to some games, people familiar with his thinking said. He also recognized that if Apple ever secured rights to all of the conference’s best programming, it would need to show some of those games on traditional, broadcast TV to satisfy fans.
It’s not known how far along the talks were (or are) but the Pac-12 has been focused for much of the past 18 months on trying to find a strategic and equity partner in both their conference and its media assets. A company like Apple would certainly qualify for both as it has both the cash on hand and the need to both program a new internet streaming service, Apple+, and get people to pay for it.
Linking up with Apple in even a limited capacity would be a coup for both the conference and its embattled commissioner either way. Unlike their Power Five peers that have limited packages of media rights coming to the market in the early 2020’s, the Pac-12 will see it’s entire sports portfolio from football to water polo come up for grabs at the same time. Scott has often refrained that this is a very unique situation and will help the conference catch up quickly to leagues like the Big Ten and SEC, which generate millions more in TV rights now and into the future.
Who knows if the two Silicon Valley entities ever wind up in business together but the simple fact that a powerful company like Apple is showing at least a little interest in something like Pac-12 football is the best news the conference of champions has had in several years.