Apple is once again said to be in talks with the NFL about acquiring the streaming rights for Sunday Ticket games. According to a new report from Sports Business Journal this week, Amazon and Apple are the “front-runners” to acquire the rights to NFL Sunday Ticket starting in 2023.
Could Apple finally score the NFL Sunday Ticket? $2 billion says it’s possible
NFL Sunday Ticket, for those unfamiliar, is an out-of-market sports package that broadcasts NFL regular season games every week. The package is currently sold by DirecTV with packages ranging from $290 to $400 per season.
The report indicates that negations are still ongoing and could change. Apple and Amazon are said to be “front-runners,” but Disney is also involved. The report indicates, however, that Disney’s offer for the package is “well below the amount Apple and Amazon have discussed.”
As it stands today, DirecTV currently has the rights to the out-of-market NFL Sunday package, but it is not expected to renew its agreement when it expires after the 2023 season. DirecTV pays around $1.5 billion per year as part of this deal, but this report suggests a deal between Apple or Amazon and the NFL could be worth more than $2 billion per year.
Additionally, DirecTV is said to be negotiating a separate deal with the NFL that would give it a commercial license for selling Sunday Ticket to restaurants, bars, and other such venues.
Apple was also said to have been involved in negotiations with the NFL for Thursday Night Football in 2016, but the NFL ultimately stuck with Amazon for the deal. A report last year also made it clear that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and Apple CEO Tim Cook “talk.”
9to5Mac’s Take
If Apple does end up making a deal with the NFL, it would represent its first major foray into live sports. A report last month indicated that Apple is also in “serious talks” to broadcast Major League Baseball games starting as soon as this season (if owners and players can come to an agreement to end the lockout, that is).
There are still a lot of unknowns about Apple’s plans to add live TV offerings to Apple TV+. It’s unlikely that NFL Sunday Ticket would be included in the $5 per month Apple TV+ tier. Instead, we’d expect the company to offer it as an optional add-on at a higher price. Apple isn’t going to pay $2 billion for NFL Sunday Ticket just to give it away, even if it could be a loss-leader for TV+ in general.
Theoretically, if Apple does secure rights to NFL and MLB content, it could offer an “Apple TV+ Sports” bundle of some sort. Would you shell out the extra money for this? Let us know down in the comments.
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