Google execs are actively considering an international expansion of pay TV service YouTube TV, Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler said during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call. “It is something we are closely looking at,” Schindler said. “There’s nothing specific I have to add at this moment in time on this one.” Schindler and CEO Sundar Pichai both took note of highlights for YouTube TV in the quarter, notably the debut of NFL Sunday Ticket as an exclusive offering after 29 years on DirecTV. The premium package is available either as an add-on for YouTube TV subscribers or as a stand-alone offering through YouTube’s channel store.
NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers on Sunday were often unable to watch games without buffering or getting a black screen. The problem began shortly after kickoff for the 1 p.m. ET games and continued for most of the day. YouTube’s X customer support team acknowledged the issue during the games on Sunday and added that it would post a follow-up when there was a resolution. However, YouTube never posted a follow-up on Sunday or Monday. The streamer did tell some customers in responses that there are no refunds for the NFL Sunday Ticket, although the refund remark did not specifically address Sunday’s technical difficulties.
Google’s YouTube is tweaking features of NFL Sunday Ticket — less than a month before the football season kicks off — in the hopes of luring more paying customers to the pricey sports package.
DirecTV, which held the rights to NFL Sunday Ticket for nearly three decades until YouTube took over the package, has struck a deal to continue distributing it to bars, restaurants and other commercial businesses. The satellite operator, which is owned by AT&T and private equity firm TPG, closed a multi-year agreement with EverPass Media, a specialist in delivering live sports and entertainment programming to businesses. The arrangement begins with the upcoming NFL season.
Recently Google struck a deal to offer NFL Sunday Ticket starting this fall. Google reportedly spend $2 billion for NFL Sunday Ticket, and they have big plans. Now, during Google’s 4th quarter 2022 earning call, we learned some of the new features NFL Sunday Ticket will offer.
Exclusives
The potential loss of 1.5 million Sunday Ticket customers presents a challenge to DirecTV.
Now that Google’s YouTube has inked a massive multi-year deal for NFL Sunday Ticket — for $2 billion-plus a year, according to reports — one major question is how much the price will rise for consumers.
The NFL and Google have sealed a multi-year agreement giving YouTube TV and YouTube Primetime Channels exclusive rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket package in the U.S. The pact, which takes effect in 2023, replaces a partnership between the league and DirecTV since the introduction of the Sunday Ticket package — which delivers out-of-market games to subscribers — in 1994. The NFL had held talks for months with multiple bidders, indicating last summer that it would likely head to a streaming service.
The National Football League is in advanced talks to give Google’s YouTube exclusive rights to NFL Sunday Ticket, a subscription-only package that allows football fans to watch most Sunday afternoon games, people familiar with the matter said. An agreement could be reached as early as Wednesday, following a meeting of NFL owners, who approve rights deals.
The National Football League season is heading into Week 6, and it’s still unclear which company will become the new owner of Sunday Ticket rights — the only remaining exclusive broadcast package that hasn’t been renewed until 2030. But existing restrictions around Sunday Ticket have slowed negotiations between Apple and the NFL in recent months, according to people familiar with the matter. Talks between the league and potential buyers of Sunday Ticket are continuing, the people said.
On Sunday, the digital component of DirecTV’s Sunday Ticket wasn’t working. DirecTV issued an apology on Sunday night. On Monday, DirecTV provided a follow-up. “We will begin to reach out to our customers who were unable to stream some of the games on Sunday to let them know we will automatically reimburse them for Week Two,” a DirecTV spokesperson said. “We apologize to our customers for their experience and for the inconvenience.”
DirecTV said via social media that customers trying to stream the 1 p.m. ET games on Sept. 18 were unable to through the app. Shortly after 4 p.m. ET, they said that the server problems were fixed and that streaming could resume.
The NFL’s venerable “Sunday Ticket” package is poised to jump from satellite to streaming. “I clearly believe we’ll be moving to a streaming service,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said during an interview Friday with CNBC, an overt nod by the league to long-simmering conversations about the next step for the package, which has been held for years by DirecTV and broadcasts regular-season games that aren’t available on local stations.
This marquee package for fans is still exclusively on DirecTV, but a new deal could make ESPN, Amazon or Apple players too.
NFLSundayTicket.tv is supposed to be available only to students and apartment dwellers who can’t get DirecTV satellite TV service. But the NFL seems to be marketing it to anyone and everyone.
AT&T no longer owns DirecTV but it has agreed to pay up to $2.1 billion for losses resulting from its NFL Sunday Ticket contract. AT&T agreed to spin off its pay TV businesses to TPG in a deal valued at $15 billion in February. The deal closed in August. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, AT&T described how it was treating some aspects of the separation from a financial and accounting perspective.
The U.S. Supreme Court won’t review an antitrust case that could have outsized influence on the future of the television industry. On Monday, the high court announced it wouldn’t be hearing National Football League v. Ninth Inning, a lawsuit against the professional football league that challenges how teams currently pool telecast rights and collectively negotiate a licensing package for out-of-market games. The antitrust dispute could shake up live sports broadcasting.
DirecTV has quietly begun selling a streaming version of the NFL Sunday Ticket to any non-DirecTV subscriber in 29 select markets. The 29 markets include the home cities for 26 of the 32 NFL teams.
DirecTV outraged a number of customers who are being deprived of their NFL Sunday Ticket streaming. The service acknowledged the problem in a tweet shortly after noon yesterday. “We are aware that some customers may be experiencing streaming issues with NFL Sunday Ticket. We are working to fix as quickly as possible.”
AT&T COO John Stankey questions the growth potential of the football package; says the longtime cornerstone could be “less critical to the business over time.”
Five plaintiffs who have purchased Sunday Ticket from DirecTV have filed a class action lawsuit against the NFL and its teams, as well as DirecTV, CBS, ESPN, Fox and NBC, claiming that exclusive distribution agreements have driven up the cost of pro football telecasts in violation of antitrust law.
The fourth class action lawsuit over Sunday NFL Ticket in the past two month alleges that NFL teams are colluding with each other to grant the NFL the exclusive right to market games outside each team’s home market.The TV market would be quite different if it were not for live professional football, the lawsuit says.
The National Football League and DirecTV have extended the satcaster’s exclusive rights to carry NFL Sunday Ticket and its package of every Sunday afternoon out-of-market games through a new multi-year agreement worth an estimated $1.5 billion annually over eight years.
The NFL is on the verge of a deal with DirecTV for its Sunday Ticket package that will see its average annual rights fee increase to between $1.3 billion and $1.4 billion over the next decade. Though several issues still need to be ironed out, a broad agreement has been reached on the price and length of a deal, according to multiple sources.
Dish Network’s head of product management says the satellite TV company would be interested in bidding on the rights to broadcast the National Football League’s Sunday games if rival DirecTV fails to renew its deal. NFL Sunday Ticket has been offered only on DirecTV since 1994, and the two sides are negotiating exclusively to renew the $4 billion agreement, which expires at the end of this year. The deal is so critical that AT&T in its agreement to acquire DirecTV, retained the right to back out of the deal if the contract with the NFL isn’t renewed
Looking to generate subscribers for its NFL Sunday Ticket, DirecTV is serving as the exclusive sponsor of the new Sports On Earth site for its first month. The deal includes display ads throughout the site and a presence on the front of the USA Today sports section.
