It’s official: YouTube will take over distribution of the NFL Sunday Ticket. A deal between Google and the National Football League stated that the Sunday Ticket out-of-market games package would only be available on YouTube beginning in the 2023 season.
After 28 years, the arrangement puts an end to DirecTV’s oversight of the Sunday Ticket.
Superfans and football bettors may watch every NFL day game on Sundays during the regular season through Sunday Ticket, which is offered by CBS and Fox (subject to local-market blackouts).
Under the terms of the seven-year agreement, NFL Sunday Ticket will begin to be offered on YouTube TV as an add-on package as well as à-la-carte on YouTube’s freshly announced Primetime Channels (which don’t require a YouTube TV subscription).
YouTube didn’t reveal Sunday Ticket’s price. The price of DirecTV’s Sunday Ticket packages for the 2022 season began at $293.94.
How will it work?
The agreement’s terms were kept confidential. The Wall Street Journal said that YouTube will pay Sunday Ticket an average of $2 billion annually, with the possibility of additional performance-based fees, while the New York Times estimated the yearly value of the agreement at $2.5 billion.
In any case, that’s an increase from the $1.5 billion a year that DirecTV reportedly paid for Sunday Ticket rights.
Industry estimates indicate that the satellite TV company has somewhere between 1.5 million and 2 million subscribers for the package.
Together, the NFL and YouTube will “consider additional strategies to facilitate distribution of NFL Sunday Ticket in commercial venues such as pubs and restaurants,” according to their statement.