The bidding war for NFL Sunday Ticket came to an end, and YouTube won. The company announced a multi-year deal that will see it carry Sunday Ticket both on its own and through YouTube TV. It was a huge win for YouTube, which was able to fend off Big Tech rivals like Apple to land the deal.
YouTube has become a vital destination for fans of the National Football League. It has a long-term future for YouTube TV, which has over five million customers. According to The Wall Street Journal, the contract is for seven years and works out to $2 billion annually.
The NFL still needs a way to put Sunday Ticket on millions of sports bar and restaurant TVs, despite the fact that the satellite provider still dominates that realm. Without AT&T's funds, DirecTV was in a vulnerable position to miss out on the main deal, as it was already losing money on the Sunday Ticket contract.
The goal of the partnership is to give Sunday Ticket a presence on an enormous global platform that is synonymous with the internet as a whole. There is a lot of Gen Z going to get content on the site. Yes, and everyone else as well. Amazon won the Sunday Ticket competition, while Thursday Night Football was locked down by the league.
Football fans will be able to pay for Sunday Ticket on their own, but that isn't what they want. Consumers are pulled into a bundle. If you want to get the package, you can buy it as an add-on to YouTube TV, which will cost you $64.99. The company's TV service has been praised for its user interface, streaming quality, and unlimited DVRFunctionality, but customers have also decried the pricey monthly subscription, which has risen in recent years
It is possible to get Sunday Ticket by yourself.
You can purchase Sunday Ticket through the Primetime Channels, where you can find other entertainment services. Everyone wants to be the hub for most of your subscriptions, even if they don't all have everything, and that's what YouTube is trying to achieve. Sunday Ticket is a huge get to make up for the fact that it was late to this idea.
If you are a user of the service, it is likely that you will get a discount on Sunday Ticket with live TV in exchange for using the service. I have to imagine there is some wiggle room since other NFL contracts prevent YouTube from undercutting what DirecTV charges for Sunday Ticket. The package will be more expensive when purchased through Primetime Channels since it comes with less commitment from viewers. Pricing plans haven't been revealed yet. There are no long-term contracts in either of these scenarios, but that doesn't mean that people won't stick around.
You can only watch out-of- market games on Sunday Ticket. If you want to watch your local team, you have to do it on a network. Whether it is Sunday Ticket or any channel that broadcasts a game on the weekend, you will be sent to the right place.
It isn't going to make the monthly $65 any easier to swallow for people with zero interest in sportsball, but if you're an NFL superfan, it might look very appealing. The service is excellent if you want to pay for it. I will be checking out the Sunday Ticket interface.
It just didn't work out for Apple and the NFL after months of speculation. More details are emerging as to why Apple and the league couldn't get a deal done with the video sharing site. It was reported last week that Apple wanted to include Sunday Ticket at no extra cost. The NFL was never going to demote Sunday Ticket to "included for free" status, so this seems naive and overly optimistic. I don't know what the full story is.
It could be related to Apple's mixed reality headset. Apple was trying to convince the NFL to allow it to distribute Sunday Ticket on non-existent platforms. The league wouldn't budge on the clause.
After talks with Apple broke down, YouTube was able to grab Sunday Ticket and make it a cornerstone of the company's subscription and bundle plans for years to come. For the time being, Apple will prefer soccer and baseball.
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