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Apple Interested In NFL Sunday Ticket Rights

  • Apple is interested in acquiring the rights to NFL Sunday Ticket.
  • Disney is also looking at the out-of-market games property.
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Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports/Design: Alex Brooks

The streaming wars take no days off.

Apple has held talks with the NFL about obtaining rights to stream the league’s Sunday Ticket package of games on Apple TV+, according to The Information.

It appears that Disney is also interested in buying the rights for ESPN. 

AT&T-owned DirecTV currently pays $1.5 billion each year to broadcast Sunday Ticket, though that deal expires after the 2022 season.

The NFL arrangement has been quite costly for DirecTV. In February, AT&T and private equity titan TPG created a $16.25 billion spin-off for DirecTV and AT&T’s U.S. video assets. In the announcement, AT&T agreed to cover “up to $2.5 billion” in Sunday Ticket net losses.

A MoffettNathanson study showed that only 10% to 11% of households used Apple TV+ to stream content in Q4 2020, compared to 75% for Netflix. Apple could follow other tech giants in using sports to lure new subscribers.

  • Last year, the company hired James DeLorenzo from Amazon to run Apple TV+’s sports division. He had been head of sports for Amazon Video.
  • Apple met with the Pac-12 conference about livestreaming college sports in 2019.

Amazon, also cited as a potential bidder for NFL Sunday Ticket, has exclusive rights to “Thursday Night Football” on a $1 billion-per-year deal.

Google-owned YouTube packages the MLB Network, NBA TV, ESPN, NBC Sports, and other sports channels into its paid YouTube TV service.

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