After negotiating with the world’s largest tech firms, the NFL may have settled on a winner in the Sunday Ticket sweepstakes: Google.
The NFL is in “advanced talks” with Google’s YouTube to take over Sunday Ticket rights, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday night. A deal could be announced Wednesday, WSJ reported.
The popular subscription package enables fans to watch live “out of market” games wherever they live in the U.S.
However, another source said the Google/YouTube deal could center around so-called “residential rights,” with Sunday Ticket carving out a separate package for “commercial” rights involving 300,000 sports bars and restaurants.
The world’s biggest tech giants – Google, Amazon, and Apple – have all bid for Sunday Ticket media rights. The Walt Disney Co., which controls the rights to NFL’s “Monday Night Football,” has also been chasing the package, sources said.
DirecTV has exclusively held the Sunday Ticket package since 1994. DirecTV currently pays $1.5 billion a year for Sunday Ticket, but its rights deal expire after this season. DirecTV refused to renew at the NFL’s asking price of over $2 billion to $3 billion yearly.
Google/YouTube is poised to pay the NFL around $2.5 billion a year, according to the New York Times.
Apple recently dropped out of the bidding for Sunday Ticket, according to Puck News. But other sources told Front Office Sports Apple could still be in the running if the talks roll over into 2023.
The NFL, DirecTV and Amazon declined to comment.
Google could not be reached for comment.
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