YouTube recently became the exclusive streaming rights holder of NFL Sunday Ticket, a sports package reportedly being offered by fellow technology giants Apple and Amazon. While YouTube will likely charge a high price for the NFL Sunday Ticket, there may be a cheaper YouTube offering for viewers who want access to fewer games.
According to Brian Rolapp, NFL chief media and business officer, the league is considering a “lighter” NFL Sunday Ticket offering on YouTube and YouTube TV that offers a select number of games for a lower price.
“We are also thinking about it, but have not made any decisions yet, are you creating a new product? Do you do a lighter version? We haven’t made any decisions there yet, but you’ll see. I don’t know if we’re going team by team, but can you get fewer games for a lower price? I think that’s all up for debate,’ Rolapp revealed to Andrew Marchand of the New York Post and Sports Business Journal reporter John Ourand in their podcast.
Rolapp noted that one of the reasons the NFL signed a streaming deal with YouTube is to allow the league to make new changes to its Sunday Ticket product. “It has been spread for so long. I think there’s probably a lot of opportunity between “all you can eat” and free television. I think there is a lot of room to explore.”
YouTube was not immediately available to comment on businessroundups.org.
NFL Sunday Ticket launches later this year on YouTube and YouTube TV. The company confirmed it would be available as an add-on package on YouTube TV and as a standalone offering on YouTube Primetime channels. Notably, it will be the first time that Sunday Ticket à la carte will be available to viewers.
While pricing details haven’t been announced, it’s likely to be expensive. NBC sports reported that “one TV person” estimated that NFL fans would have to pay about $300 per season for Sunday Ticket. DirecTV charges its customers $293.94 per season or $395.94 for the NFL Sunday Ticket Max package of additional content.
YouTube has to pay about $2 billion per season for the rights, The Wall Street Journal reported. By comparison, DirecTV paid $1.5 billion.
In Alphabet’s fourth-quarter earnings call, Philipp Schindler, Google’s chief business officer, mentioned plans to launch a feature on YouTube TV that would allow viewers to watch on multiple screens at once. He added that YouTube TV customers would get new features specific to the Sunday Ticket experience, such as comments, chats and polls.
Updated 2/10/23 at 3:55 PM with correction for DirecTV pricing.
