Apple Won't Bid on Streaming Rights to NFL's 'Thursday Night Football'

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Apple has decided it won't bid on the digital rights to stream the NFL's "Thursday Night Football" package next season, according to Re/code.

The streaming rights to the NFL's Thursday evening games could have helped set the Apple TV apart from competing streaming boxes, but Apple reportedly felt the package "isn't enough to pull that off."
NFL-Apple
Amazon, Facebook, Verizon, and Yahoo remain candidates in the bidding war to stream the Thursday evening games online, the report claims.

Yahoo could be a frontrunner to secure the digital rights, after paying an estimated $15 million to exclusively live stream a 2015 regular season game between the Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars at London's Wembley Stadium.

The NFL currently offers a live streaming service called Game Pass, but the app does not include "Thursday Night Football," and its selection of games is limited compared to rival platforms MLB At Bat, NBA League Pass, and NHL GameCenter.

In February, the NFL announced that "Thursday Night Football" will air on CBS, NBC, and NFL Network in 2016 and 2017. CBS and NFL Network will televise the first half of the schedule, with NBC and NFL Network televising the second half.

Tags: NFL, Thursday Night Football

Top Rated Comments

Burger Thing Avatar
Burger Thing
70 months ago
Imagine watching the game with a Chinese commentator chatting away in the background :p
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Chupa Chupa Avatar
Chupa Chupa
70 months ago
This was to be expected. I mean who needs the exclusive digital rights to one of the widest watched sports nights in one of the world's biggest and richest markets when you have a Dr. Dre docu-drama series.

Missed opportunity to show its not just a player in set top boxes but the leader. If Amazon gets the rights its a huge feather in its Prime cap and starts to marginalize ATV.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Pakaku Avatar
Pakaku
70 months ago
Awful lot of money for a game where the ball isn't even in play most of the time.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Tubamajuba Avatar
Tubamajuba
70 months ago
Of course they won't. Apple hates to spend large sums of money with no profit margin.
Strange, isn't it? For some reason, Apple acts like a publicly traded company instead of a charity. Can't figure out why, for the life of me.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
keysofanxiety Avatar
keysofanxiety
70 months ago
Oh wait, bidding means we run the risk of spending money. Let's drop another U2 album onto people's iPhones instead.

Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
2010mini Avatar
2010mini
70 months ago
Good. Thursday Night Football sucks anyways. The players are still recovering from playing on Sunday and not at their peak.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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