NFL Sunday Ticket and YouTube on Verge of Multi-Billion Dollar Deal. Is It Good for Fans? The potential move shows that major sports are blitzing streaming services.
By Dan Bova
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The NFL's Sunday Ticket is on the verge of scoring a new deal with YouTube.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Google and the NFL are in the red zone of bringing the subscription-based Sunday Ticket package to YouTube TV next season. Sunday Ticket allows football fans to watch any game on Sundays, regardless of their geographical location. (So if you love the Patriots but live in Jets country, you're in luck.)
Satellite broadcaster DirecTV is in the last year of its Sunday Ticket deal and pays $1.5 billion annually for the rights. It is not known how much the potential YouTube deal will be worth.
This isn't the NFL's first move into streaming. Amazon Prime Video is the exclusive home for Thursday night games through the 2033 season, paying $1 billion per season for the rights.
The Wall Street Journal's reporting says that under the proposed plan, NFL games would be available to be streamed on both YouTube TV (currently $64.99-a-month) and YouTube Primetime Channels (prices vary per network) next season.
Streaming is clearly where the ball is headed — and not just in football. Apple streams some Major League Baseball games and has a new $2.5 billion deal with Major League Soccer. (Let's hope the soccer matches don't meet the same, um, displeasure expressed by MLB fans this season.)
The Wall Street Journal expects the terms of this deal to be finalized and made public as early as today.
