Video platform YouTube will be the home of the NFL Sunday Ticket package thanks to a partnership between the National Football League and Alphabet Inc GOOGGOOGL, YouTube's parent company.
Packages and prices were announced Tuesday and have generated mixed reactions across social media.
What Happened: In a competitive bidding war between several technology and streaming companies, YouTube won the rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket package for seven years.
YouTube is set to pay an average annual price of $2 billion for the NFL Sunday Ticket rights according to reports. Previous rights holder DirecTV, which is owned by AT&T Inc T paid around $1.5 billion annually.
It was previously reported YouTube TV would offer NFL Sunday Ticket as an add-on offering.
Here are the new details on the packages and prices, as reported by Variety.
YouTube TV subscribers: $349 for the season, $389 to bundle with RedZone
Non-YouTube TV subscribers: $449 for the season, $489 to bundle with RedZone
From April 11 through June 6, customers can get a discount of $100 off any of the packages above.
DirecTV previously charged $293.94 for the 2022 season of NFL Sunday Ticket according to Variety. This means that YouTube TV is charging more than last year’s cost for customers who don’t lock in the early bird pricing.
YouTube TV has a cost of $64.99 per month to $72.99 per month, after a recent 12% price increase happened.
Customers will be able to get NFL Sunday Ticket without the YouTube TV package, a change from the typical DirecTV plan that was needed to get Sunday Ticket.
NFL Sunday Ticket includes all out-of-market regular season NFL Sunday games that are typically broadcast on Fox and CBS. The packages are popular with sports fans, sports bettors, fantasy football players and those who root for teams that aren’t typically broadcast in their home markets.
Customers who have YouTube TV and NFL Sunday Ticket are said to get access to every NFL game throughout the season.
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Why It’s Important: YouTube is said to have beaten out large competitors and big names like Apple Inc AAPL, Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN and Walt Disney Co DIS for the NFL Sunday Ticket rights.
First launched as a video platform for creators and consumers, YouTube now offers YouTube TV, a leading platform that offers television channels, sports and more.
NFL Sunday Ticket has been popular with NFL fans but has also faced complaints due to technology issues and downtime during games. Complaints of lack of in-market games have also been a longstanding battle that customers of YouTube TV and NFL Sunday Ticket could see minimized.
The higher pricing by YouTube TV could help the company better recoup its $2 billion per season costs for the rights while also gaining additional subscribers that lock in the discounted price by having YouTube TV.
With the early bird discount, consumers and investors could get a look at how demand is shaping up soon.
YouTube will add features like multiview, fantasy stats and in-game shopping in a move to appeal to consumers and differentiate itself from DirecTV’s previous coverage.
The launch of NFL Sunday Ticket with YouTube TV in 2023 follows as other streaming players have been grabbing sports rights to boost live content and subscribers.
Amazon landed the rights to “Thursday Night Football” matches and saw strong interest in Prime Video sign-ups in 2022 as a result.
AppleTV+ is the official home of Major League Soccer, a move that could see increased interest in the streaming platform and Apple’s push to grab more sports rights.
NFL games remain among the most watched television content each year and have provided strong advertising revenue for partners like Comcast Corporation CMCSA, Disney, Fox Corp FOX and Paramount Global PARA. The success of NFL games from Amazon and Alphabet could prove costly for media companies in the next rights package renewal.
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