Why did Apple pitch in for Messi’s Miami move?

Argentinian soccer legend Lionel Messi appears to be headed to the United States. He’s set to sign with the Major League Soccer club Inter Miami after turning down several other offers, including a reported half a billion dollars a year from a team in Saudi Arabia.

And the winning bid to bring Messi to the U.S. is said to include money from more than just Messi’s new team. Tech giant Apple is reportedly pitching in. Why? It has to do with the fact that Apple TV+, the company’s streaming service, pretty recently bought rights to broadcast MLS games.

With Messi in the MLS, all those games are likely to draw more eyeballs from all around the world. And Apple TV+ would stand to benefit.

“The real story here is that it’s essentially Apple TV that’s acquiring the world’s superstar in our default global sport,” said Andrés Martinez, a professor at Arizona State University’s Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

According to Martinez, sports are increasingly becoming the centerpiece of streaming platforms’ business strategies.

Martinez, also the editorial director of “Future Tense,” spoke with “Marketplace Morning Report” host David Brancaccio for more on this. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.

David Brancaccio: Reports are that the deal for Messi was sweetened by Apple kicking in, maybe, some money. Why would they pay for this?

Andrés Martinez: The real story here is that it’s essentially Apple TV that’s acquiring the world’s superstar in our default global sport. Apple signed a 10-year deal with the MLS for global TV rights, and it is going to give revenue-sharing participation to Messi. This is the rise of of media within sports as the driving purpose. There was a study of Nielsen ratings done by Sportico that showed that 94 [out of 100] of the most-watched telecasts in the U.S. were live sporting events. And I think that’s what Apple has seen, that if you want to drive subscriptions, you have to offer compelling live sport.

Brancaccio: Yeah, if they can just juice up interest in the U.S., but this could work. That could be the strategy.

Martinez: And we have seen the rise of soccer within the U.S. and the rise of the U.S. within the global sport. And I think technology and media is really driving this. I mean, we read a lot about how we’re rethinking globalization, globalization is running out of fuel and retrenching. Sport hasn’t gotten that memo. We’re seeing an acceleration of globalization in sport.

Brancaccio: You know, given Apple’s role in international soccer now, it almost seems like it was a plot. Remember Apple’s big comedy was “Ted Lasso,” right? Which is essentially a vehicle to introduce to, for instance, U.S. audiences how that crazy overseas soccer stuff works.

Martinez: Yes, and it’s very meta, because if you’ll recall, Ted Lasso, the character, was first created by NBC to promote their acquisition of the rights to the Premier League in the U.S.

And then, years later, Apple took that character and made it into this comedy that we all love that transcends soccer itself. But it’s an interesting marriage of this global sport and the global reach of U.S. media. I mean, Leo Messi, to come back to the latest news, he has three times more Instagram followers than Lebron James. So this is, I think, why Apple is saying, “Leo Messi, we’re not just gonna write you a big check. You deserve equity in what we’re trying to do here.”