The National Football League isn’t officially saying anything yet, but the league just suffered a major loss. Failing to get the nearly decade-long antitrust lawsuit over the lucrative Sunday Ticket package thrown out of court, the Roger Goodell-run NFL is going to trial for potentially $6.1 billion just over a week after this year’s Super Bowl.
Apple has asked a U.S. judge to reject a subpoena that could require the company to reveal corporate secrets tied to its failed effort to carry the National Football League’s “Sunday Ticket” programming, now on Google’s YouTube TV. In a filing in California federal court, Apple’s attorneys on Monday opposed a subpoena from residential and commercial Sunday Ticket subscribers who accused the NFL and its teams in a multibillion-dollar lawsuit of violating U.S. antitrust law in the distribution of Sunday Ticket.
Alphabet’s Google has been hit with a lawsuit in U.S. federal court seeking information about its multibillion-dollar deal with the National Football League to exclusively hold the broadcast rights for the Sunday Ticket package of televised professional games. Lawyers representing classes of residential and commercial business subscribers of Sunday Ticket filed the lawsuit on Monday in San Jose, Calif., federal court.
Max is getting into the NFL Sunday Ticket huddle. Google’s YouTube TV will offer a special bundle combining Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max with the NFL Sunday Ticket out-of-market football package.
YouTube revealed the highly anticipated details of its new streaming plan for NFL Sunday Ticket on Tuesday, providing a win for fans who were shut out of the programming when it was aired by DirectTV by making the service available to anyone with web access. But it’s a win that comes at a hefty cost: The price for the out-of-market football game service is rising, the Google-owned YouTube said in a blog post. Fast-acting fans can get a $100 discount if they sign up for the service before June 6.
Talks for Sunday Ticket are expected to spill into next year, as Apple faces increased competition from Google for the league’s last available TV rights.
Exclusives
The NFL is finding a new home for its Sunday Ticket package, and the bidding is down to two of the world’s largest tech companies and one of the world’s largest media conglomerates. Amazon, Apple and Disney are all vying for the out-of-market set, which the NFL reportedly wants to shift at least partly to a streaming property. The league is seeking $2.5 billion to $3 billion annually for Sunday Ticket.
Apple is about to take a, well, something out of the NFL’s rights portfolio. The tech behemoth reportedly has emerged as the favorite to land the NFL’s Sunday Ticket package, according to Matthew Belloni of PUCK.news, via Sports Business Journal. An unnamed source told Belloni that the deal is actually done, and that it’s being kept under wraps at Apple’s request.
Few properties attract more fan curiosity than NFL Sunday Ticket. The out-of-market viewing platform, exclusive to DirecTV since it debuted in 1994, could soon be on the move. Appearing on CNBC, Brian Rolapp, NFL EVP and chief business officer, said there have been “lots of conversations” with both “traditional companies and tech companies.” He added that the deal to be done entails more than just Sunday Ticket.
Apple is interested in streaming rights for the National Football League’s Sunday Ticket package. Apple has had discussions with NFL executives, but the NFL is also speaking with TV networks and other tech firms as well.
With 13 weeks left in the season, DirecTV has lowered the price of the streaming NFL Sunday Ticket to $220.47 for the basic plan and $281.97 for the Max package. That’s a 25% decrease for the basic plan and a 29.5% drop for Max.
Bars and restaurants across America could be lining up to take a chunk out of the $12 billion deal the NFL has with DirecTV. A proposed class action filed Monday on behalf of San Francisco pub The Mucky Duck wants to free such establishments from what they see as the exorbitant prices they are paying to the league to show out-of-market games via the satellite provider’s Sunday Ticket package.
For almost two decades, DirecTV’s Sunday Ticket package of National Football League games has been a superstar performer for the satellite broadcaster. But like any team with an aging and expensive player, DirecTV now has to decide whether to keep Sunday Ticket on its roster.
Google CEO Larry Page and YouTube content boss Robert Kyncl are said to have met with a delegation from the NFL led by commissioner Roger Goodell on Tuesday. And the Sunday Ticket package was among the topics of discussion, according to people familiar with the meeting.
DirecTV is going to have to decide soon whether to punt or keep the football. The satellite broadcaster’s exclusive contract for rights to the National Football League’s Sunday Ticket package, which offers subscribers access to every game being played on Sunday afternoon, ends after the 2014 season. While that may seem like it is a long way off, typically the NFL likes to renegotiate its TV agreements a few years in advance of their expiration date.
