From Apple‘s (AAPL 1.62%) perspective, the recent partnership with Major League Soccer could be quite beneficial. In this video segment from “The M&A Show” on Motley Fool Live, recorded on June 17, Fool.com contributors Jason Hall and Travis Hoium discuss a key element that may invigorate Apple’s ecosystem.
Jason Hall: My assumption, based on their willingness to now fork over billions of dollars over multiple years, is Apple’s getting whatever it’s looking for back from that. I think at this point, they’re looking to increase the relevance to a larger market and get more exposure to their streaming platform.
Travis Hoium: That would be Apple TV+, which is an app on Roku (ROKU 2.15%) and other streaming devices. For a while, was exclusive to Apple devices, now that is no longer the case so they’re trying to unbundle that from the Apple product ecosystem.
Hall: I think one of the things that’s interesting though is you go from baseball, which the average baseball fan tends to skew a little older, a little white-maler and the demographics of MLS fans tend to be more multicultural and younger.
It doesn’t surprise me that this was the sport that they choose to go after this because a couple of billion dollars is nothing compared to the amount of money that goes to things like NFL rights and these more popular U.S. sports.
It is a smaller amount of money, but I think it points toward where Apple wants to put its money. From a demographic perspective focus on younger viewers and start bringing them into its ecosystem for streaming.
