YouTube’s sports rights efforts have likely reached their apex already, said Jon Cruz, YouTube head of global sports partnerships, at the Front Office Sports Tuned In summit in New York.
While most media companies are constantly chasing the next big thing, and YouTube itself continues to be open to new sports opportunities, the 2022 acquisition of NFL Sunday Ticket in a seven-year, $14 billion deal marks an important culmination of where the Google-owned outlet has been—instead of just an early signpost of where it’s going.
“What gave us the confidence to go out and get Sunday Ticket was the fact that we had been working on highlights [with the NFL on YouTube] for [nearly] a decade at that point, the fact we had built up a lot of reps with a pay-TV subscriber base via YouTube TV, and we had engaged advertisers across both of those services,” Cruz said. “All that pre-work that we did laid the foundation on which Sunday Ticket sits, as opposed to the opposite.”
That said, gaining the NFL’s residential out-of-market rights has been a significant driver to the overall YouTube business. YouTube TV is now the No. 4 U.S. pay-TV service, with more than eight million subscribers. By 2026, YouTube TV is projected to rise to No. 1 status, according to prominent research firm MoffettNathanson, as it continues to grow while the three linear carriers in front of it—Charter, Comcast, and DirecTV—are all in a state of decline.
“It’s been a really important pillar for our overall business,” Cruz said. “By bringing in Sunday Ticket to our platform, that’s enabled us to have the most comprehensive NFL offering of any distributor.”
On the Sidelines
YouTube, meanwhile, is choosing to remain out of the ongoing legal dispute surrounding NFL Sunday Ticket. The $4.7 billion NFL Sunday Ticket antitrust verdict has been set aside and is now headed toward appeal. The case is now headed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. But neither Google nor YouTube is a direct party to the case.
“There’s a process there that we’re going to be respectful of,” Cruz said. “We have our hands full with all of the work of making sure we’re bringing new subscribers on and taking care of the subscribers we already have. That will be our continued focus as this process runs its course.”
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