No iPhone App For NFL
The National Football League has confirmed that it won’t be putting out an iPhone version of its NFL app anytime soon, despite the relative popularity of the Major League Baseball’s app for the device, reports alleyinsider.com. Why? The NFL already has a lucrative, exclusive deal with wireless carrier Sprint (NYSE: S), which is literally betting $50 million dollars a year, that the app, which will deliver live phone casts of NFL games, will be able to stop churn and lure more customers. In order for the NFL to match its deal with the beleaguered operator, the NFL would have to sell around 71 million iPhone apps at $5 a piece. Major League Baseball sold around 140,000 copies of its iPhone app MLB At Bat, making a respectable $500,000 after Apple’s 30 percent take. But, as alleyinsider.com writes, “not quite $50 million a year.”
Photo Credit: NFL.com
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Comments (5)
Nov 17, 2008 12:00 PM
If you want a decent sports app, download Sports Tap. As Madden says “Boom!” That’s all you need. None of this mutliple apps for different sports.
Nov 17, 2008 2:30 PM
Or another way to look at it is…
Sprint will need to sell $50 million worth of NFL subscriptions to justify the cost, unless you want to chalk some of it up to just the promotional value of the deal…but then again, that means you need to spend more to advertise the fact!!
Nov 17, 2008 7:05 PM
D9—They’re actually spending $100 million a year on the whole deal, $50 million of which is for the app, the other $50 is for “promotional” stuff—all too mitigate churn.
Nov 17, 2008 7:16 PM
Dianne—But how much would it cost to build an app like MLB’s and submit it to the App Store? A lot less than the 50 million, let alone the 100 million. You can spend about what the MLB has already made, and even include your own advertising for the app during the pre-season football broadcasts.
And you don’t necessarily need video uploaded regularly for each game. Just a real-time scores & stats tracker. Ben mentioned Sports Tap, which I use, but a nice NFL branded app would be really sweet.
Nov 18, 2008 7:39 AM
Hi Mike—I think the problem is that Sprint locked the NFL into an exclusive deal for that $500 million, so while it certainly wouldn’t cost a fortune to build an iphone app, don’t think they actually can for another 5 years.