Apple finally sealed an NFL deal, just not the one you expected

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Apple Music, anyone?

NFL logo
(Image credit: NFL)

Apple Music has signed a new multi-year deal with the NFL to sponsor the Super Bowl halftime show, starting from Super Bowl 57 on February 12, 2023.

The move comes as Apple is strongly tipped to be eyeing up a deal to bring NFL Sunday Ticket to Apple TV+ and it's possible that this could be the first step towards making that happen.

Music to Apple's ears

The NFL announced the deal earlier today, with Nana-Yaw Asamoah, SVP of Partner Strategy for the NFL, saying that the outfit is "proud to welcome Apple Music to the NFL family as our new partner for the iconic Super Bowl Halftime Show." No information has been made available about the exact length of the deal or how much it is costing Apple Music, however.

"Music and sports hold a special place in our hearts, so we're very excited Apple Music will be part of music and football's biggest stage,"  Oliver Schusser, Apple's vice president of Apple Music and Beats said via the NFL statement — Apple is yet to comment via its own release. "We're looking forward to even more epic performances next year and beyond with the Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show." The press release says that "fans can expect to see exclusive details and sneak peeks leading up to the Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show by following @AppleMusic on TikTok, Instagram and Twitter."

Apple continues its move into the world of sports having already snapped up Friday Night Baseball for the Apple TV+ streaming service. The current DirecTV Sunday Ticket deal comes to a close at the end of this season and it's all-but-confirmed that a streaming partner will take over. Whether that will be Apple or someone like Amazon Prime Video remains to be seen, however.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.