YouTube is now the home of the NFL’s Sunday Ticket—which also marks a win for traditional TV networks.
Key Details
- YouTube has secured a deal with the National Football League (NFL) for rights to NFL Sunday Ticket, allowing fans to watch most Sunday games on the streaming platform.
- Sunday Ticket will be offered as an add-on service to either YouTube’s subscription services—YouTube TV or YouTube Primetime Channels.
- YouTube’s TV bundle includes broadcast stations like CBS, Fox, and NBC marking a win for YouTube and traditional broadcast TV.
Why it’s news
After months of negotiations with many big companies, including Apple and Amazon, the NFL secured a deal with Google’s YouTube to broadcast the NFL Sunday Ticket.
The Sunday Ticket will allow fans to watch Sunday football games on YouTube’s platform. Not only is this a big win for YouTube, but for TV networks too.
Traditional TV has been declining in recent years as more households are opting for streaming television rather than paying high prices for cable. As cable TV continues its decline, many sports affiliations have been moving from traditional cable networks to streaming services for higher prices and more significant subscriber numbers.
DirecTV currently holds the rights to Sunday Ticket—paying $1.5 billion a year to broadcast the games. However, the company has been affected by subscriber declines and can’t justify the high cost of the relationship anymore. It only serves up to 1.5 million subscribers with the games.
The Sunday Ticket moving to YouTube is just another step in the transition from cable to streaming, but many traditional cable channels are happy with the new deal as YouTube’s TV bundle includes broadcast stations like CBS, Fox, and NBC.
“This is a win for YouTube TV as it serves a larger goal for them getting more subscribers. And in the end, it helps a package of linear channels,” says sports media consultant Pat Crakes.
It hasn’t been announced how much YouTube paid for the rights to the Sunday games, but considering DirecTV paid $1.5 billion a year, it looks to be a hefty paycheck.