A few days after news dropped that apparent front-runner Apple was out of the running for NFL Sunday Ticket, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that Google’s YouTube was nearing a deal to land the rights for its streaming service.
According to WSJ’s Joe Flint, an agreement could be reached as early as Wednesday.
Per Flint, NFL games would be available to be streamed on two subscription services, YouTube TV and YouTube Primetime Channels, starting next season. The latter is a subscription option in which YouTube viewers could watch “primetime channels” without switching between different apps.
The only other potential partner that was said to still be in the running to take over the deal from DirecTV was Amazon. The Puck article that reported Apple was no longer vying also seemed to confirm that Disney/ESPN was out on Sunday Ticket as well, though that seemed to have been a foregone conclusion.
The battle to land the rights for Sunday Ticket goes back to the summer of 2021 when it quickly became a three-horse race between Apple, Amazon, and Google/YouTube. Near the end of 2021, Amazon seemed to emerge as the frontrunner and by the time early 2022 rolled around, it was seemingly understood that it would be Apple or Amazon. Complicated things were reports that the NFL was trying to split the package into different assets, including an equity stake in NFL Media, the NFL Sunday Ticket package, and mobile device live-streaming.
By June 2022, we learned that Amazon, Apple, and Disney had submitted bids and Google submitted theirs soon after, with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell promising an announcement by the fall.
Along the way, Apple Music took over as the Super Bowl Halftime Show sponsor and Amazon kicked off its inaugural season as the broadcasting partner for Thursday Night Football, both of which perhaps soften the blow for the tech companies to walk away from Sunday Ticket, especially as streaming services have reportedly downgraded focus on subscriber growth.
More details to come as they develop, but this would certainly be a surprising ending to the NFL Sunday Ticket rights drama.
[WSJ]
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.