Competition remains high for the NFL’s Sunday Ticket package, with Apple, Amazon and Disney as front runners for the streaming rights. Though the bidding war has spent months in the making, the NFL has yet to announce a winner.
People familiar with the matter told CNBC the NFL continues to be in discussion with all three companies, as they submitted their bids weeks ago. The NFL wants any buyer to pay over $2 billion for the rights and a stake in NFL Media, the people said. The NFL’s mobile rights, previously owned by Verizon, could also be part of the deal.
DirecTV, whose deal with the NFL is set to expire at the end of the 2022-23 football season, has paid $1.5 billion annually for the Sunday Ticket rights.
What’s interesting about this Sunday Ticket development is Disney’s still in the running. A Sports Business Journal report from February suggested Disney was unwilling to pay as much as Apple or Amazon for the package.
Since that report, Disney has seen movement with some of its sports distribution rights. Disney’s ESPN is reportedly holding onto its media rights for Formula 1 racing. SBJ said the annual amount for F1 rights is valued around $75 million - $90 million.
The price tag is significantly higher than what ESPN currently pays for its three-year deal for F1 - $5 million per year.
News of the F1 renewal came shortly after Disney was outbid by Viacom18 to stream Indian Premier League cricket. However, Disney paid $3.01 billion to keep its regional broadcast rights for the games in a five-year period.
Regarding the Sunday Ticket, ESPN has indicated it would be willing to pay $1 billion - $1.5 billion for the package, sources told the Wall Street Journal. ESPN currently has the streaming rights for Monday Night Football, having agreed last year to pay $2.7 billion annually through 2033.
Speculation had arisen that Apple would likely come on top of the bidding war, after sources told Puck News’ Matthew Belloni in April that the Sunday Ticket is “Apple’s to lose, at this point,” as per SBJ. One source said that the deal is “actually done and is being kept quiet at Apple’s request.”
Apple’s first foray into live sports came in March, when the company scored a deal with Major League Baseball to stream weekly “Friday Night Baseball” on Apple TV+. And Apple this month bagged exclusive 10-year streaming rights to Major League Soccer games – a deal worth at least $2.5 billion.
But Apple is also facing legal scrutiny, as the company asked a U.S. federal judge to reject a subpoena as well as seal any court hearings related to an antitrust case about the Sunday Ticket.
The case in question concerned “interlocking agreements” among the NFL, its teams and DirecTV, according to Reuters. Apple, which isn’t a defendant in the case, called the subpoena “boundless.”
Out of the three contenders, Apple is the only one that doesn’t already have an NFL streaming package. Amazon Prime is set to host Thursday Night Football starting in September – a deal that will run through 2033.
It’s unclear when exactly the NFL will announce the Sunday Ticket winner. Some of CNBC’s sources said the delay has to do with a mix of assets and associated partnership conversations wrapped up in the deal talks.
NFL may also be focusing on rolling out its proprietary streaming service, NFL+, as its launch date is expected sometime next month.