The Sunday Ticket saga is finally near its conclusion. (Read More Here).
Google and its affiliated YouTube TV are emerging as the leading contenders to land the package of every NFL game, The Post has learned. An announcement could come as soon as Wednesday.
Neither the NFL nor YouTube TV had comment. Apple was for a long stretch considered the frontrunner to land the package, but talks between Apple and the NFL broke down last week, according to a report from Puck.
The Wall Street Journal initially reported YouTube’s frontrunner status.
A potential issue for subscribers is that YouTube TV does not have many RSNs, which makes it difficult to watch local sports, like baseball, basketball and hockey. For example, if the NFL is going to require fans to get YouTube TV, they will be forced to add a service that presently does not have the YES Network, which is the home to the Yankees or MSG for the Knicks and the local NHL teams.
Amazon, which this year began streaming the NFL’s “Thursday Night Football” package on Prime Video, has been viewed as the other finalist for Sunday Ticket. Disney/ESPN had also previously been in talks with the league to carry Sunday Ticket on the ESPN+ streaming platform.
The Sunday Ticket package had been part of DirecTV since its inception in 1994. DirecTV has paid the NFL $1.5 billion per year. Days after a report emerged that Apple, the perceived frontrunner for the Sunday Ticket package for months, has exited the bidding, multiple reports indicate that YouTube TV will land the package for 2023 and beyond.
Other candidates were Amazon and Disney.
A source with knowledge of the situation says the deal is not “done done,” but that YouTube TV has made a strong push recently, and that a decision could be “imminent.”
DirecTV has owned the Sunday Ticket rights since its inception in 1994. The NFL had made it clear that the next deal would focus on a streaming-only option.
YouTube TV could still sell limited satellite rights, for bars and for consumers in areas that lack access to sufficiently effective high-speed Internet access.
Regardless, Sunday Ticket is about to undergo its biggest change ever. At a time when many can’t wait to finally dump DirecTV.
The National Football League is finalizing a deal for the rights to its subscription-only package of games known as Sunday Ticket with Google’s
YouTube TV, according to people familiar with the matter.
The league has been in negotiations for months for the rights to the package, long held by DirecTV, with the aim of inking an agreement with a streaming service to broaden the NFL’s reach and partnership.
The deal, however, will not include a stake in NFL Media, which includes the linear cable channels NFL Network and RedZone, which the league has been shopping alongside the Sunday Ticket rights, one of the people said. The sources asked not to be named because discussions are ongoing.
The Wall Street Journal reported on the current status of the talks earlier. An NFL spokesperson declined to comment, and Google didn’t respond to requests for comment.
NFL Commissioner Rodger Goodell previously said while the NFL was packing the minority stake with Sunday Ticket, it could decide to sell each property separately.
Terms of the deal were still being ironed out Tuesday, the people said. DirecTV has been paying $1.5 billion annually since 2015. The NFL has been seeking a buyer for Sunday Ticket willing to pay between $2 billion and $3 billion.
Goodell said earlier that the league aimed to announce a rights deal with Sunday Ticket by the end of the fall. The Sunday Ticket package has been the NFL’s only set of media rights that has yet to be renewed through 2030.
The deal with YouTube TV comes after various media operators, including Amazon
, Apple
and Disney’s
ESPN, considered the rights to the property.
The NFL was in close talks with Apple until recently, the people said. However, existing restrictions around Sunday Ticket had slowed negotiations with Apple in recent months, CNBC previously reported.
The league has been looking to diversify its partnerships with media companies and have a bigger presence in streaming.
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