By Adam R Jacobson and Matthew Keys
It appears that Apple TV won’t be chomping at the bit to get the digital streaming rights to NFL Sunday Ticket, putting Amazon Video in the driver’s seat while YouTube could still emerge as a potential service home for the National Football League once its exclusive deal with DirecTV ends in three weeks.
According to a source close to the matter who spoke to The Athletic Sports Business Reporter Daniel Kaplan, Apple “indeed bowed out” of the bidding to get all of the NFL’s Sunday games.
Many saw Apple as a front-runner for taking on a service that DirecTV has owned since its birth, a gift for millions of NFL fans who wanted to see their favorite team each week without any local broadcast restrictions.
The story first emerged in Heat Media’s Puck.news website, and was “buried” in story analyzing the return of Bob Iger to head The Walt Disney Co., Kaplan writes. The main reason Apple isn’t moving forward? “They don’t see the logic” in acquiring the digital rights for NFL Sunday Ticket.
With Disney and ESPN out of the running, too, who will gain NFL Sunday Ticket from DirecTV, which it has had since 1994?
Amazon Video, which with the 2022-2023 season took on Thursday Night Football, a money-loser for FOX, appears to be in the driver’s seat. But, given its cash at hand, Alphabet Inc.’s Google and YouTube could step forward.
The NFL is seeking a streaming service, which DirecTV does not widely offer, to better provide Sunday games to viewers on a multi-platform level.
According to The Athletic, the NFL is hoping to get about $3.5 billion for the multi-year rights to NFL Sunday Ticket, which provides out-of-market access to games played on local CBS and Fox stations and affiliates on Sundays.
