NFL, YouTube Agree to Contract for NFL Sunday Ticket Rights Starting in 2023 Season

The NFL's Sunday Ticket package will be available to watch on the internet.

The regular-season game package will be available exclusively on YouTube TV and premium channels, as well as on the league's website.

Ken Belson and Benjamin Mullin of the New York Times reported that while the official terms of the agreement were not announced, there was a discussion of paying the NFL $2.5 billion per year, as well as additional payments based on the number of YouTube subscribers that Google is able to add.

Since 1994, Sunday Ticket has been hosted by DirecTV. The exclusive rights to the service were retained by the company in October of last year.

There has been a lot of speculation about where Sunday Ticket would end up. According to reports, Disney, Apple and Amazon were in the bidding.

The Athletic's Daniel Kaplan reported in September of 2020 that the league was hoping that Apple would win the bidding rights for the service.

"Apple, which did not reply for comment, is investing heavily in Apple TV+, home to hits like Ted Lasso but not live sports," Kaplan wrote. For the first time, the National Football League would be doing business on a large scale with Apple, which is a tech giant. The company that sells the most critical consumer product in the world, the iPhone, would be married to the National Football League.

According to Kaplan, talks between the NFL and Apple broke down several weeks ago due to Apple not meeting the league's valuation. Apple wanted to offer Sunday Ticket at a lower price than the current price of DirecTV, according to reports.

According to Kaplan, the NFL's contracts with Fox and CBS forbid lower prices for the package due to concerns it would drive viewers to Sunday Ticket and away from the afternoon network broadcasts.

With 2.5 billion monthly users and a growing digital multi-channel platform, YouTube is more robust than Apple's.

The league is expanding into streaming services. Amazon's deal with Thursday Night Football began this season. Fox, CBS and NBC have television deals with the league for Sunday games.

The NFL will make $12.5 billion annually through streaming and television rights fees starting with the 2023 season, based on the reported $2.5 billion annual figure.