Disney is in talks for the rights for “NFL Sunday Ticket” and could add it to its ESPN+ streaming service, according to CEO Bob Chapek.

Chapek said the out-of-market games package “would make a particularly good addendum to our ESPN+ service.”

• DirecTV pays $1.5 billion annually for the rights to “NFL Sunday Ticket” on a deal that runs until 2023.
• The league is expected to ask for $2 billion to $2.5 billion annually for the package in its next deal.
• ESPN+ had 17.1 million subscribers as of Oct. 2, with Disney earning an average of $4.74 per paid subscriber — meaning the service was bringing in $81.1 million monthly at the end of Disney’s fiscal quarter.

Currently, fans have to pay $300 for the entire “NFL Sunday Ticket” package, but future deals could allow them to pay only for certain teams’ games.

The NFL reportedly wants Apple to make a play for the game package. Amazon, which will have exclusive rights to “Thursday Night Football” starting next year, is also interested. 

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has previously referred to “NFL Sunday Ticket” as a “streaming product,” adding, ​​”I think that it’s best for our fans to make it accessible on a digital platform.”

The Premier League has reportedly pivoted and opened another round of bids that will see ESPN, CBS, and NBC compete for U.S. broadcasting rights to the world’s richest soccer league.  

A second round of bidding indicates the league will likely increase its original asking price. 

Comcast’s NBC Sports has held U.S. rights to the Premier League since 2013 and pays $150 million per year. That deal expires at the end of the 2021-2022 season. 

With a new deal, the Premier League is expected to pocket at least $1.5 billion over six years starting with the 2022-2023 season, providing each of the league’s 20 clubs with $39.3 million. 

Over the past year, securing rights to international soccer has been an arms race. 

• The Premier League extended its existing domestic rights deals in May with BT, Sky, BBC, and Amazon — worth a combined $7 billion — to 2025.
• The same month, Disney’s ESPN agreed to an eight-year rights deal with Spain’s La Liga valued at $175 million per season. 
• Amazon secured U.S. rights to eight matches from each round of France’s Ligue 1 in June for $302.6 million per year. 

The new U.S. rights deal will help the Premier League recover from the pandemic after its clubs lost $1.4 billion despite generating $6.3 billion in revenue for the 2019-20 season — the biggest collective loss in league history.

ESPN, NBC, and CBS have until Nov. 18 to submit their second-round bids.

David Blitzer, co-owner of the Philadelphia 76ers and the New Jersey Devils, is part of a group that is reportedly close to acquiring MLS club Real Salt Lake, valued at $420 million. 

RSL has been on the market since September 2020 following a report of racist behavior by the current owner Dell Loy Hansen, who initially purchased a 49% stake in the club in 2009 from founder Dave Checketts. 

Four years later, Hansen acquired complete ownership of RSL and its properties, including Rio Tinto Stadium, for an undisclosed amount. 

Over the past year, MLS has seen changes in controlling ownership of several clubs.

• In May, the Wilf family, owners of the Minnesota Vikings, agreed to purchase Orlando City SC, Orlando Pride, and its stadium for between $400 million and $450 million. 
• The same month, Ted Segal — co-founder of Verance Capital — acquired majority ownership of Houston Dynamo FC for roughly $400 million. 

The purchase of RSL includes an option to bring an additional NWSL team back to Utah beginning in 2023, after Hansen put the Utah Royals up for sale with RSL. 

The Utah Royals were purchased by Angie and Chris Long, founders of Palmer Square Capital Management, in December 2020. The couple moved the team to Kansas — the Kansas City Current — as an expansion franchise prior to the 2021 NWSL season.