Since its debut in 1994, NFL Sunday Ticket has only been accessible through DirecTV, which required both a satellite subscription and the installation of a dish on your roof.
Millions of football fans will, however, be treated to a completely new experience starting this season when the league’s out-of-market broadcast package launches on YouTube and YouTube TV. Even better, a seven-year, $14 billion+ arrangement with Google allows Sunday Ticket to be accessed digitally by everyone — with comparable cost — whether you’re a YouTube TV member or not.
In any case, the NFL doesn’t appear to be sorry it left DirecTV.
“It was a good way to move something from a platform that was declining to a platform that’s growing,” NFL vice president of business development and strategic investments Brent Lawton told Front Office Sports, pointing out that YouTube TV is the only paid-TV platform currently growing.
According to a person familiar with the DirecTV-NFL agreement, by the time DirecTV’s contract expired, some corporate employees believed Sunday Ticket had lost value as the NFL began to move more games from regular Sunday afternoon broadcast times.
Compared to DirecTV’s $1.5 billion price tag, YouTube’s price tag represents a 33% rise, but CBS and NBC recently increased their NFL payments.
With YouTube in charge, the streamer and league must now concentrate on luring and retaining enough subscribers to make the service profitable.
