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Apple’s Messi Complex

Is a streamer’s money better spent on live sports or on creating new TV series and films? For Apple, it may be a unique value prop.

Demand for the MLS increased by more than 6x the average of all series in the U.S. after Messi joined the league.
Demand for the MLS increased by more than 6x the average of all series in the U.S. after Messi joined the league. Photo: Chandan Khanna via Getty Images
Julia Alexander
August 22, 2023

Apple has been humble, maybe too humble, about its premium but poorly marketed streaming service, Apple TV+, which is churning out HBO-quality dramas that few people actually watch. As we discovered when Puck conducted its streaming study, in January, Apple TV+ ranked last in “familiarity”—only 20 percent of its own subscribers knew it carried Ted Lasso—despite over-indexing with affluent people. Incredibly, when we surveyed people again this summer, six months later, familiarity with the service had somehow dropped even lower.