NFL Sunday Ticket: On YouTube TV in 2023

[go pak go]

YouTube (GOOGL) has won the exclusive rights to NFL Sunday Ticket, the National Football League confirmed in a statement on Thursday.

"We're excited to bring NFL Sunday Ticket to YouTube TV and YouTube Primetime Channels and usher in a new era of how fans across the United States watch and follow the NFL," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a press release.

"For a number of years we have been focused on increased digital distribution of our games and this partnership is yet another example of us looking towards the future and building the next generation of NFL fans."

Sunday Ticket, which makes out-of-market games available to fans nationwide, will be available as an add-on package on YouTube TV and standalone a-la-carte on YouTube Primetime Channels starting with the 2023 NFL season. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

A recent report from the New York Times, however, suggested YouTube was willing to pay as much as $2.5 billion to acquire the rights — $1 billion more than former rights holder DirecTV paid for the package.

The report noted the NFL could receive additional payments depending on the number of YouTube subscribers added to the service, along with other performance benchmarks.

The sought-after package comes after Puck News reported fellow tech giant Apple (AAPL) backed out of negotiations earlier this week.

Apple reportedly wanted more contractual flexibility than the NFL was willing to provide with negotiations falling apart due to existing restrictions attached to the deal.

"It's an extremely expensive package of content," Tim Nollen, analyst at Macquarie Group, told Yahoo Finance Live, noting the Sunday Ticket package was not a profitable service for DirecTV.

"But the sports world is moving towards streaming now," he added, citing the recent debut of ESPN+, which some analysts argue Disney could potentially spin off next year.

YouTube TV, which costs $64.99 a month, has more than five million subscribers and trial users as of July. DirectTV previously boasted 1.5 million to 2 million Sunday Ticket subscribers with each user paying about $300 per season.

"There is so much money in sports, and getting live sports onto the streaming platforms is an area that is still not completely tapped," Jon Christian, EVP of digital media supply chain at Qvest, the largest media & entertainment-focused consulting company, previously told Yahoo Finance.

"The question there is: Can they put a pencil to it? Because the price is so high for the content. Are they now going to be able to get the subscribers necessary to be profitable in that business?"

Nollen agreed the "math is difficult" due to the high costs, although it might be a necessary step forward for companies hoping to survive the streaming wars: "Linear subscribers are falling by the wayside. Streaming subscribers are still growing. It's competitive, but they're still growing, and over time more sports could help to attract more users to those platforms."

"How they'll make enough money to justify double or whatever the price increase is? You'd think they'd have to double the price for the streaming services," the analyst suggested.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/you-tube ... 05588.html

[NCF]

[BSA]

Anything is better than DirecTV, but I suspect it won't be cheaper. The real deal is if they can offer a 1 team package at a reasonable price

[go pak go]

No word on pricing strategy from what I have heard yet.

The positive is:

1. You do not need an active membership to YouTube TV to get Sunday Ticket from what I understand. You did have to have DirecTV for Sunday Ticket if they deemed your address could have DirecTV.

But what I would like to see is offer multiple price points:

A. Offer a full season package for all games and teams.
B. Offer a full season package for all games for one team at a lower price point (25% to 50% off).
C. Offer a package where you can buy a game on a game by game basis.

Hopefully with these price point strategies they can get more overall customers to increase overall revenue.

Additionally, I hope they work out where you can get the game on Sunday Ticket even if the game is broadcasted on your local TV network. The reason for this is I am absolutely sick and tired not missing the first 5 minutes of a 3:25 game because the noon game goes into Overtime. Also, if you have SundayTicket, you should be able to stream the game no matter what and not rely on needing to buy an Antenna or base cable package. Buying a full Sunday Ticket should mean you actually are guaranteed full access to all games and not be held hostage to your local TV station.

[BSA]

No word on pricing strategy from what I have heard yet.

But what I would like to see is offer multiple price points:

I did some back of the napkin calc's and Google/You Tube are paying 2.5 Billion/ yr for the rights. They keep saying "it will be about the same" which is corporate-speak for a 15 % increase. Guessing $ 349 for the full package and they'll need 7-8 million paying customers just to cover their rights fees. I'd think they could get that without too much trouble.

But they are all scared of the single- team package because it will totally cannibalize their full- package revenue.
The majority of NFL fans would choose the cheaper 1 team option.

And the reason the local channels won't give up their late game control - is ads. They need you watching the ads they sold vs the ads the national broadcast sold. So when the game runs over, you're stuck. You'll also find that even when the early game is over- they ALWAYS go to commercials before joining the late game. So you end up missing more than you should. Super lame

Its always about the money...

[NCF]

But what I would like to see is offer multiple price points:

A. Offer a full season package for all games and teams.
B. Offer a full season package for all games for one team at a lower price point (25% to 50% off).
C. Offer a package where you can buy a game on a game by game basis.

Hopefully with these price point strategies they can get more overall customers to increase overall revenue.

I think everyone wants this, but they will make more money by forcing people to choose A or nothing... and suckers will buy it. I know I will.

[lupedafiasco]

Nflbite.com baby.

[Drj820]

I don’t understand what everyone’s talking about “needing directtv subscription”

I pay 29.99 a month for Sunday ticket on an app on my phone and then I cast that app to my tv. I’ve never had actual direct tv and was never asked about an address or anything.

It looks like this:

[go pak go]

No word on pricing strategy from what I have heard yet.

But what I would like to see is offer multiple price points:

I did some back of the napkin calc's and Google/You Tube are paying 2.5 Billion/ yr for the rights. They keep saying "it will be about the same" which is corporate-speak for a 15 % increase. Guessing $ 349 for the full package and they'll need 7-8 million paying customers just to cover their rights fees. I'd think they could get that without too much trouble.

There is no way Google is going to get 7 - 8 million subscribers on Sunday Ticket.

DirecTV Sunday Ticket has roughly 1.5 to 2.0 million subscribers to their Sunday Ticket. Your free national televised prime time games usually bring about 15 to 16 million views. You aren't going to get half of that pay an extra $350 for all games.

I would bet any good goal is to surpass the 2 million subscribers. Ultimately I am hunting for revenue. If 1.5 million at $350 = $525 Million, I am trying to come up with packages or marketing to get that number closer to $600 Million before ad revenue and then rely on ad revenue to get the remaining.

I think the biggest tool I would play with is two packages:

1. Sunday Ticket by itself is $400 for the season.
2. Sunday Ticket is $250 for the season if you have a YouTubeTV subscription.

[BSA]

DirecTV Sunday Ticket has roughly 1.5 to 2.0 million subscribers to their Sunday Ticket.

Thanks for digging out those numbers.
When I posted I made the mistake of looking at DirecTV subscribers which is in the tens of millions, but only a fraction of those have Sunday Ticket so my subscriber #'s were way off.

Fox and CBS will have a say in the Sunday Ticket pricing- they both put it into their long term contracts with the league.
I also read that we will have the option to buy Sunday Ticket even if you aren't a YouTube subscriber, so your bundled package makes a lot of sense