Is Apple about to step into the sports streaming race?

As media moguls fight for supremacy in the ever-growing online streaming industry, there are reports that Apple may well be about to enter the sports streaming race.

 Reports suggest Apple will be spending more than $1 billion this year to compete with the likes of HBO, Amazon, Netflix and other streaming players.

“We’re seeing the things that we have on the periphery of this like Apple TV, units and revenue grew by very strong double digits, very, very strong double digits in Q3,” Apple CEO, Time Cook said.

In recent months, Apple has also hired people in the media and TV worlds, including the former co-presidents of Sony Pictures Television, Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg, who have been inking production deals with Hollywood heavyweights, including Oprah Winfrey.

This aggression on content acquisition targeted as the live streaming vertical is also being seen as a hit about Apple getting into live sports streaming.

“As you know, we hired two highly respected television executives last year and they have been here now for several months and have been working on a project that we’re not really ready to share all the details of it yet, but I couldn’t be more excited about what’s going on there and we’ve got great talent in the area that we’ve sourced from different places and feel really good about what we will eventually offer,” Cook said.

“In terms of the sort of the key catalysts and the changes, the cord cutting in our view is only going to accelerate and probably accelerate at a much faster rate than is widely thought.”

However, Apple’s budget is small compared to competitors like Netflix, as the streaming giant is expecting to spend up to $8 billion this year on content and Amazon is spending around $4.5 billion, according to estimates.