> Apple, per the Times, remains the perceived frontrunner. CEO Tim Cook has met with league officials, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, and Patriots owner Robert Kraft regarding Sunday Ticket. The Times writes that Apple "has made winning the package a priority."<p>Apple keeps investing so much into exclusivity deals and extended free trials to try to boost usage, and yet the only people I've ever seen recommending Apple TV+ content are those in the Apple blogosphere.<p>EDIT: <i>Ted Lasso</i> probably came closest to mainstream acceptance and yet... <a href="https://trends.google.com/trends/explore/TIMESERIES/1658697600?hl=en-US&tz=240&date=2020-08-14+2022-07-24&geo=US&q=%2Fg%2F11jmxk7kxl,%2Fm%2F0131ln7y&sni=3" rel="nofollow">https://trends.google.com/trends/explore/TIMESERIES/16586976...</a>
Random fun fact about the origin story behind NFL Sunday Ticket is that it was aided in creation by Jon Taffer, the guy thats famous for Bar Rescue. He was the sports bar operator of the year in the 1990's and then was approached by a satellite communications company and came up with a plan to present to the NFL. NFL liked the idea so much they decided to do it on their own and put Jon Taffer on the advisory board.<p>if you want to learn more..
<a href="https://www.whiskeyriff.com/2021/10/10/did-you-know-that-jon-taffer-of-bar-rescue-invented-nfl-sunday-ticket/" rel="nofollow">https://www.whiskeyriff.com/2021/10/10/did-you-know-that-jon...</a>
Here's what the budget-phone, non-laptop owning masses can look forward to if Apple has the Sunday Ticket:<p>* First, install Apple Music on your phone. If you don't have a smartphone, you might just be out of luck here.<p>* Sign up for or create an Apple ID in Apple Music. Yes, Apple Music, even though you want TV.<p>* Start an Apple Music trial.<p>* Log in to the Apple TV app using your account, now that you have a valid account that will let you sign in.<p>* Use the Apple TV app to upgrade your account to Apple TV+<p>* Cancel your Apple Music Trial.<p>This is... absurd? I hope that the product folks are on top of this if they acquire the Sunday Ticket.<p>For the record, this is the advice currently on 9to5mac.com and is how I subscribed to watch Foundation on Android TV.
<i>According to the New York Times, Google has made a bid </i><p>Seems like you should take the Florio attribution out of the headline, since he is not the one breaking the news, just repeating it (as usual).
Assuming this goes through (whether it’s Apple, Google, Amazon, or whoever), I could see this becoming a cultural tipping point where your ‘average American’ sees the encroachment of big tech into ‘everyday American’ things - more than ever before. All cultural interactions will now be dominated by big tech, whether it’s sports, film, music, or literally anything they see through a screen.
Apple, Google, Amazon, Disney...<p>The NFL is about to get <i>paid</i>.<p>Teams should be trying to lock up key players with long term contracts, and shouldn't blink at big dollars to do it. The salary cap is going to explode and we'll be marveling at teams that are paying only $45M a year for a top-10 QB.
Google would be able to prevent you from watching football because they don't like your political views.<p>This is a worrisome development, and it's entirely within the realm of possibility. Imagine getting your Google account suspended because you uploaded a video that YouTube decided was "misinformation", or you wrote a document in Google Docs that contains unacceptable text in Google's mind, or you wrote a particularly spicy comment somewhere.<p>They shut down your account, and there's no way to appeal the decision, or even speak to someone at Google to find out what you've done wrong. As a result, the only way you'd be able to watch football from that day forward is to go to a friend's house or sports bar.<p>Although perhaps this is exactly what <i>needs</i> to happen to bring this problem into the national consciousness.