YouTube getting NFL Sunday Ticket could 'accelerate' subscriber growth, Citi says
Chris McGrath

Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) YouTube winning the rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket subscription could help "accelerate" subscriber growth for YouTube TV, investment firm Citi said.
Analyst Ronald Josey, who has a buy rating and a $120 price target on Google (GOOG) (GOOGL), noted that YouTube TV has roughly 5M subscribers - including trial users - but adding the NFL package could boost that figure.
"While we view the Sunday Ticket as more of a niche offering compared to exclusive [Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Football, Thursday Night Football], or Sunday broadcast games, it deepens YouTubeâs overall content strategy in a key live sports vertical," Josey wrote in a note to clients. 
Josey also added that it should give Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) and YouTube the ability to cross-sell the NFL's 10.3M subscribers on the video streaming platform, along with all 32 NFL teams and the league's 10 official channels.
The deal, announced on Thursday, will start with the 2023 NFL season and will allow YouTube TV subscribers to get the service as an add-on, or as a standalone viewing option on YouTube Primetime channels.
NFL Sunday Ticket had previously been on DirecTV since its inception in 1994 and it was widely speculated by industry experts that Apple (AAPL) was considered the front-runner for the deal, but the tech giant reportedly dropped out of the race. 
The length and financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but a number of reports said the deal would span seven years and could be worth around $2B to $2.5B annually for the rights.
Earlier this week, investment firm Baird picked Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) among the firm's top stock picks for the new year.