YouTube scores with new deal for NFL Sunday Ticket
Duane Prokop

The long-running question about the future of NFL Sunday Ticket was answered Thursday as Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) YouTube said it will be the next home of the popular football gameday watching service.
YouTube said that beginning with the 2023 NFL season, Sunday Ticket will be available as an add-on package on YouTube TV and a standalone viewing option on YouTube Primetime channels. As with Sunday Ticket's current setup, subscribers will be able to watch all out-of-market Sunday regular season NFL games that are broadcast on Fox and CBS.
The deal doesn't include Sunday night games carried by NBC (CMCSA), Monday Night Football on ESPN (DIS), or Thursday Night Football games that are streamed via Amazon Prime Video (AMZN).
In a statement announcing the deal, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said that the league and YouTube would "usher in a new era of how fans across the United States watch and follow the NFL."
The length and financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed. However, various reports said YouTube would be paying the NFL $2.5B a year for the Sunday Ticket rights.
Sunday Ticket has been a staple of NFL viewing for almost 30 years since DirecTV launched the satellite service in 1994. AT&T (NYSE:T) acquired DirecTV for $67B in 2015, and retained a 70% ownership stake after it spun off the service into a standalone company in 2021. Private equity firm TPG owns the remaining 30% of DirecTV.
Thursday's deal puts to rest what had been reported as a battle between Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) for the DirecTV rights after Apple (AAPL), at times, had been seen as the frontrunner for the deal.