The EPL is preparing to "go to market with its lucrative television contract in the second quarter of this year, but the technology company Apple is believed to have ruled itself out of the running for the rights," according to Owen Gibson of the GUARDIAN. It is "understood that Apple has not discussed bidding for the rights and is unlikely to do so, despite rumoured plans to launch an Apple TV device." Its model "relies on taking a cut of the revenue from existing content producers by retailing its content through its AppStore or iTunes service." Sky already shows its live matches "on Apple devices through its SkyGo application, and the Premier League has a deal to sell packages of archive content through iTunes." Google, which "owns YouTube, is considered a more likely bidder but any move for the live rights would be a major investment, even for a company of its size." Any bid could be "complicated, however, by its ownership of YouTube, which is embroiled in a long running legal standoff with the Premier League and other rights owners over copyright issues." The incumbent holders of the "live rights, BSkyB and ESPN, will bid again, with the Disney-owned global sports broadcaster likely to want to improve on its existing position [of] having one contract for 23 live matches per season." Both are "likely to face competition from al-Jazeera." Meanwhile, the income from overseas rights has "continued to grow and some analysts believe that it could outstrip domestic revenue for the first time under the next auction." In all, the current deal is worth US$5.4B over three years, with US$3.3B "coming from domestic broadcasters" and US$2.2B from overseas (GUARDIAN, 1/5).
