YouTube recently became the exclusive owner of the streaming rights to NFL Sunday Ticket, a sports package that was reportedly offered by fellow tech giants Apple and Amazon. While YouTube is likely to charge a high price for NFL Sunday Ticket, there may be a more affordable YouTube offering for viewers who want access to fewer games.
According to NFL media and commercial director Brian Rolapp, the league is considering a “lighter” NFL Sunday Ticket offer on YouTube and YouTube TV that offers a select number of games at a lower price.
“We are also thinking, but we have not made any decision, create a new product? Do you make a lighter version? We haven’t made any decisions there, but you’ll see that. I don’t know if we’ll go team by team, but could you get fewer sets for a lower price? I think that all this is a subject of debate and conversation”, Rolapp revealed Andrew Marchand of the New York Post and Sports Business Journal reporter John Ourand on his podcast.
Rolapp noted that one of the reasons the NFL reached a broadcast deal with YouTube is so the league could make further changes to the Sunday Ticket product. “It has been distributed for so long. I think there’s probably a lot of opportunity between all-you-can-eat and free TV. I think there’s a lot of room to explore.”
YouTube was not immediately available for comment with TechCrunch.
NFL Sunday Ticket will launch on YouTube and YouTube TV later this year. The company confirmed that it would be available as an add-on package on YouTube TV, as well as a standalone offering on YouTube’s primetime channels. Notably, this will be the first time that Sunday Ticket will be available à la carte to viewers.
While pricing details have not been announced, it will likely be expensive. nbc sports reported that “one TV person” estimated that NFL fans would have to pay around $300 per season for Sunday Ticket. DirecTV charges its customers $293.94 per season or $395.94 for the NFL Sunday Ticket Max package with additional content.
YouTube has to pay roughly $2 billion per season for the rights, The Wall Street Journal informed. For comparison, DirecTV paid out $1.5 billion.
In Alphabet’s fourth-quarter earnings call, Google chief commercial officer Philipp Schindler mentioned plans to launch a feature on YouTube TV that allows 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 02/10/23 at 3:55 pm with correction to DirecTV prices.
