NFL Sunday Ticket is the last major piece of the NFL rights package that’s currently up for grabs. For a while, it seemed like Apple getting the rights to Sunday Ticket was all but a done deal, but a deal is yet to be announced and bids are still being accepted. We know that Apple, Amazon, and Disney were in the running but now Google has reportedly thrown their hat into the ring.
According to the New York Times, Google offered a bid for Sunday Ticket to start showing out-of-market NFL Sunday afternoon games on YouTube in 2023. It’s unknown how much Google bid but it had been out there that the NFL wants to sell for at least $2.5 billion per year, an increase of about a billion that DirecTV currently spends for Sunday Ticket.
It should be noted that for the past few months, Apple has been the favorite to land the rights and the New York Times story agrees with that. It’s reported that Apple CEO Tim Cook has been meeting with NFL officials as well as some of the more influential team owners like Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft.
That being said, the idea of Google bidding makes the NFL happier with the added competition for Sunday Ticket rights. The NFL is also negotiating a partial sale of NFL Media which includes NFL Network, RedZone Channel, NFL Films and the upcoming NFL+ streaming service. It remains to be seen if the same company that gets Sunday Ticket will also take on the equity stake in NFL Media but either way, the NFL will be making bank.
