apple superbowl halftime show
5 months ago
Published September 23, 2022 by

Apple scores Super Bowl Halftime Show. Is the NFL Sunday Ticket next?

It's Goodbye Pepsi in a deal said to be worth $50 million.

From the NFL's "NFL introduces the Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show" posted early Friday morning:

The NFL today announced Apple Music as the new partner for the Super Bowl Halftime Show. The multi-year partnership brings together the Super Bowl Halftime Show, the most-watched musical performance of the year, with Apple Music, which celebrates musicians, songwriters, producers and fans, and offers the world's best music listening experience with a catalog of over 90 million songs, and immersive sound powered by Spatial Audio. Apple revolutionized the music experience with iPod and iTunes, and today continues the award-winning tradition with Apple Music.

"We are proud to welcome Apple Music to the NFL family as our new partner for the iconic Super Bowl Halftime Show," said Nana-Yaw Asamoah, SVP of Partner Strategy for the NFL. "We couldn't think of a more appropriate partner for the world's most-watched musical performance than Apple Music, a service that entertains, inspires, and motivates millions of people around the world through the intersection of music and technology."

My take: An NFL press release crafted in Cupertino. Speculation that Apple has snagged the NFL Sunday Ticket runs wild as the company spends big to cash in on sports.

UPDATE: From Tripp Mickle in Friday's New York Times...

Apple Music will replace Pepsi as sponsor in a deal that the N.F.L. has been shopping around for about $50 million, said three people familiar with the negotiations.

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10 Comments

  1. Daniel Epstein said:
    This actually makes sense. A music business sponsoring a music show. Very high profile. Of course one can’t help but think of the “1984” commercial Apple ran on the Super Bowl to introduce the Mac. Is there a product introduction coming that could use such a big push?

    4
    September 23, 2022
  2. Fred Stein said:
    Great point Daniel. Maybe that device would be a 3D immersive viewing device, aka VR headset.

    Music and Sports could take such a device category to mainstream from its current niche status.

    2
    September 23, 2022
  3. Jeff Galanti said:
    This seems like a great time to roll out the glasses and give glimpses of the experiences that they will have on Sunday ticket. I would also venture that, if they were successful getting the Sunday ticket rights, we won’t see players throwing Surface tablets around anymore. We may see them holding iPads and the coaches rocking custom Beats headsets.

    3
    September 23, 2022
    • Gregg Thurman said:
      we won’t see players throwing Surface tablets around anymore.

      I lost interest in the NFL when Georgia Frontierre became the owner of the LA RAMS. I haven’t watched since then. That means I haven’t seen players/coaches throwing MSFT’s Surface. Is this true?

      0
      September 23, 2022
      • Jeff Galanti said:
        @ Gregg Oh yeah. There are a lot of throwing incidents. You can’t say it is all frustration with the device itself and not partially play related, but that is what I like to think. I feel like Brady alone has broken a Surface or two.

        0
        September 23, 2022
      • Michael Goldfeder said:
        Bill Belichick has slammed a few in his time.

        0
        September 23, 2022
  4. Michael Goldfeder said:
    Will all wardrobe malfunctions from this point forward now be blamed on Apple?

    2
    September 23, 2022
    • Romeo A Esparrago Jr said:
      Hashtag Janet Justin Reunited !

      1
      September 23, 2022
  5. David Emery said:
    Meh. Super Bowl halftime is of no interest to me. But then, neither is popular music…

    0
    September 23, 2022
  6. Rodney Avilla said:
    This may be the 1st Super Bowl halftime show that we’ll watch in many years. Usually we hit the mute button, go into the dining room and chat about the game (and commercials).

    0
    September 24, 2022

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