As Apple Said To Bow Out, YouTube Reportedly In Advanced Talks For NFL Sunday Ticket

After Apple Inc AAPL reportedly withdrew from talks with the National Football League over Sunday Ticket rights, Alphabet Inc’s GOOGL GOOG video platform YouTube is said to be in advanced discussions to secure them.
What Happened: The agreement between the NFL and YouTube could be reached as early as Wednesday after the owners of the major professional sports league meet, reported The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter.

Terms under discussion weren’t ascertained by the Journal. The Sunday Ticket allows subscribers to view out-of-market Sunday afternoon games.

However, the under-discussion scenario would reportedly make it possible for viewers to watch the games on two subscription services — YouTube TV and YouTube Primetime.

DirecTV has held the rights to the Sunday Ticket for years. Google has discussed paying $2.5 billion a year, $1 billion more than DirecTV, according to a report from The New York Times.

Google and NFL did not immediately respond to Benzinga's request for comment.

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Why It Matters: Sunday Ticket’s addition would be a bonus for YouTube’s streaming efforts as it tries to garner subscription revenue, noted the Journal.

Nielsen data, quoted by the journal, indicates YouTube is increasingly popular with television watchers, as it overtook Netflix Inc NFLX as the most viewed service on TV for the first time in 2022.

YouTube TV already has ESPN on its platform and the NFL deal could make Google a major force in sports broadcasting, according to the report. 

Apple backed out of NFL Sunday Ticket negotiations as it reportedly wanted to offer it to Apple TV+ subscribers at no extra cost and NFL was not eager about this move. 
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