YouTube inks $2 bn annual deal for NFL ‘Sunday Ticket’

SAN FRANCISCO: Google-owned YouTube has inked a $2 billion annual deal with the National Football League to acquire exclusive rights for the Sunday Ticket, a subscription-only package that allows football fans to watch most Sunday afternoon games.

The deal will run for seven years, a report said, citing sources.

Sunday Ticket will be available in two ways starting in 2023-24 -- as an add-on package on YouTube TV and as an a la carte option on YouTube Primetime Channels, where users can subscribe to specific streaming services and channels and watch movies as well.

Later, consumers will be able to subscribe only to Sunday Ticket without having a YouTube TV subscription.

However, pricing hasn’t been determined for either option, said the report.

“For a number of years we have been focused on increased digital distribution of our games and this partnership is yet another example of us looking towards the future and building the next generation of NFL fans,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was quoted as saying.

Moreover, DirecTV (an American multichannel video programming distributor) has owned the rights to Sunday Ticket since its inception in 1994, paying $1.5 billion per year since its last renewal in 2014, according to the report.

Earlier this week, Apple backed out of a deal to secure the rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket package.

According to Dylan Byers of Puck News, Apple backed out of the deal because it doesn’t “see the logic”, in closing the pricey football package.

There were reports earlier this year that Apple was close to a deal with the NFL chiefs, as Apple executive Eddy Cue spoke to them in meetings.