Posted on 12/21/2022 3:20:18 PM PST by JSM_Liberty
Google’s YouTube TV is close to getting over the goal line on a rich deal for the NFL’s Sunday Ticket out-of-market games subscription package in the U.S., according to multiple reports.
If the pact goes through, starting with the 2023 NFL season, YouTube TV would become the exclusive home to Sunday Ticket after the package rolls off DirecTV, which has hosted it for nearly three decades. The “advanced talks” for Sunday Ticket between YouTube and the NFL were first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Google has “discussed” paying the NFL $2.5 billion per year for Sunday Ticket, the New York Times reported. The league also could receive additional payments from Google for performance targets, such as fees based on the number of YouTube TV subscribers gained through the football package. Since 2015, DirecTV has paid about $1.5 billion annually for Sunday Ticket rights. Reps for the NFL and YouTube declined to comment.
In addition to YouTube, others said to have been in the months-long negotiations for Sunday Ticket rights included Apple, Amazon and ESPN. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell earlier this year had indicated the package would be going to a streamer as the option that was “best for consumers.”
Sunday Ticket’s move from DirecTV to YouTube TV would reflect the broader industry evolution from traditional TV to streaming platforms. DirecTV, which AT&T spun off in August 2021 in a deal with TPG Capital, has suffered ongoing subscriber declines (as has the rest of the pay-TV industry) and the satellite/streaming provider opted to decline to renew the Sunday Ticket deal. DirecTV has an estimated 1.5 million-2 million subscribers for Sunday Ticket. For the 2022 season, DirecTV’s pricing for Sunday Ticket started at $293.94.
For YouTube TV, Sunday Ticket has the potential to pull in a wave of new subscribers. This summer, Google said YouTube TV had more than 5 million customers (including those on free trials), making it the biggest internet TV service in the U.S.
Sunday Ticket first launched in 1994 on DirecTV, and in the U.S. it has been the only way to (legally) watch all of the NFL’s regular-season Sunday daytime matchups.
The NFL’s Sunday Ticket remains the only piece of the league’s media-rights puzzle that has not been locked up into the next decade. Last year, the NFL inked a set of massive deals with Disney, Fox, Paramount Global, NBCUniversal and Amazon that will keep most of its games with traditional media companies through 2033.
Fantastic. My wife will be overjoyed to hear this. We had NFL Ticket but we switched to DirectTV Stream. For some unexplanable reason, you can’t get the Ticket if you have DirectTV Stream but you can if you have Direct TV.
We love YouTube TV. And yes I’d pay for an nfl package to see every Packers game.
OR just take knee.
This is getting crazy. Goolge/YouTube has tons of cash to burn so they can afford to buy the rights... but they built the brand on 20 years of free videos. Now they want to start charging (and have 5 million subscribers) but have to compete with Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+ (Hulu & ESPN etc), FreeVee, Paramount+, and I dunno how many others.
I don’t care to watch football all that much personally, just commenting on the nature of this fragment. For a long time people wanted “a la carte” channel choices but now it’s just too many subscriptions to keep up with.
Wokeball that mostly benefits the globalist liberal elite.
Enjoy!
Supporting Google and the NFL. Conservatives have a death wish.
“Supporting Google and the NFL. Conservatives have a death wish.”
Yup—even chimps know to stay away from predators that want to do them in...
The NFL ceased to exist when they started kneeling at the National Anthem.
Ugh!. Will it be an optional add on premium to YouTube TV or included with the basic monthly subscription? I could care less about getting every NFL game let alone much of any. I sure don’t want to pay more to subsize everyone else if it is part of the basic subscription which will undoubtedly go up $10 a month if not more.
But our Congress won't press the issue. Too much money to let the people have a choice. All it would take is ONE provider to offer it and overnight the rest would capitulate. They'd have to. Everyone would migrate to the one offering what everyone wants.
I don’t have DirecTV satellite or DTV streaming but I can watch Sunday ticket via internet streaming with an app on the Amazon firestick and login. My daughter got this deal as a bonus for subscribing to DirectTV streaming.
Anyone else wondering if this isn’t just another way to launder money...
Would you just stop with the talking g the knee stuff. No players are doing that anymore..
nascarnation wrote: “I don’t have DirecTV satellite or DTV streaming but I can watch Sunday ticket via internet streaming with an app on the Amazon firestick and login.”
Thanks for the tip. If youtube TV deal doesn’t go through I’ll give that a try.
“All it would take is ONE provider to offer it and overnight the rest would capitulate.”
All of the channels want to be in as many homes as possible. Therefore it is not in their interest to allow a la carte pricing.
I don’t want all of the channels. I don’t want to PAY for all of the channels. It just takes one provider to break the chains.
Glad I quit football because I can’t afford $2.5 Billion per Year.
With many of the entertainment companies/channels banding together or being purchased, a true a la carte concept is likely not possible.
Even you think you've "cut the cord" and gone with a few streaming services like Discovery+, Warner Bros. Discovery already has latched on a CNN hub to Discovery+, and next comes HBO Max in 2023.
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