• Apple has reportedly held preliminary talks with MGM and the PAC-12 conference
• The Wall Street Journal cites people familiar with the matter.
• It says Apple is seeking to broaden the appeal of Apple TV+.
A report by the Wall Street Journal claims that Apple has held preliminary talks with MGM and the PAC-12, as it looks to broaden the appeal of Apple TV+.
According to the report , Apple execs have spoken to execs of MGM, which owns, amongst other projects, the James Bond franchise, and the PAC-12 conference.
Apparently, the talks have "yet to reach an advanced stage". However, reports suggest that a deal with the PAC-12 could mark the first instance of live sports content on Apple's TV+ service. Recently, Amazon has found its own success in the UK streaming live Premier League soccer games on its Prime Video platform. The PAC-12 includes Oregon, Stanford, USC, and UCLA, so could prove a big draw to sports fan across the board were Apple to secure some sort of deal to stream live sports.
With regard to MGM, the nature of talks remains obscure at this stage. It is unclear whether Apple is discussing the potential of creating new content in partnership with the firm, or some kind of licensing/acquisition that might put some MGM content on Apple TV+. As mentioned, MGM owns a substantial library of film and TV, including the James Bond franchise.
Apple TV+ as of right now maintains a very small library of content. Whilst the quality of the content has shined through somewhat, certainly, Apple will need to look to expand its repertoire and its libraries in order to attract more users. Even for Apple, it would be impossible to achieve this through original content alone. This report could point to Apple's initial thoughts on the direction it could take Apple TV+ moving forward.
