reinharden

Apple Dropped the Ball on an NFL Deal

Yes, AAPL has billions in the bank. But giving away those billions isn't how one accumulates them.

Let's be generous and say that AAPL has sold 2.5 million Apple TVs and that each and every one of those users would run out and sign up for the new NFL plan. At a cool billion, that'd be a customer acquisition cost of $400 per year.

At a billion dollars a year expense, to get that cost down to $40 per year, AAPL would need to increase the Apple TV sales to 25 million units a year!

Admittedly, AAPL would recoup some of that outlay by selling the games or subscriptions to the seasons. But I think they need a much larger installed base to sell into before it'd truly make economic sense.


And first I'd argue that Apple needs to get full NFL games on iTunes. And get the NFL "Follow your team" game season ticket back. After that they can worry about things like streaming live games.