It’s going to be a bidding war for who boasts NFL Sunday Ticket rights starting in 2023. As the league’s current deal with DirecTV wraps up this season, multiple big-name outlets are bidding for the rights to the package.
According to Tripp Mickle, Kevin Draper and Benjamin Mullin of the NY Times, Google is now the latest company to put in a bid.
“Eager not to miss out, Google has also offered a bid from YouTube for the rights beginning in 2023, two people familiar with the offer said.”
Report on Google interest in NFL Sunday Ticket
As noted in the report, the NFL Sunday Ticket would stream live on YouTube if Google wins the bidding war. That’s no guarantee with Disney also joining Google, Apple and Amazon in the bidding.
Related: NFL Sunday Ticket, pricing, how to buy, and its future
Google could lead tech company boon by winning NFL Sunday Ticket rights
“It’s hard when you’re competing with entities that aren’t playing by the same financial rules,” former Disney CEO Bob Iger told the times.
This is a fair take. Tech companies getting into the bidding war creates an uneven playing field. For example, Google’s brand is currently valued at $819.57 billion. To put that into perspective, Disney’s value is a “mere” $187.02 billion.
In reality, this might come down to Google, Amazon and Apple. It was back in June that Apple made news by becoming the first U.S. company worth $3 trillion. As for Amazon, it brought in $33.3 billion in profits for the 2021 fiscal year alone.
Related: Apple ‘on the verge’ of landing NFL Sunday Ticket, deal could be worth $2.5 billion per year
The NFL is reportedly demanding $2.5 billion annually in its next Sunday ticket package. That would be an increase of $1 billion compared to its current deal. As for DirecTV, it chose not to bid this time around with the company reportedly losing $500 million annually by hosting the NFL Sunday Ticket.
As of right now, it appears that Apple is in the lead with its current bid.
Apple is considered the front-runner, according to a dozen people in the sports, media and tech industries. But a final deal has been delayed by negotiations over a concurrent sale of NFL media assets, including the NFL Network, RedZone channel and NFL+, a new subscription service that provides access to live games on mobile devices.”
NY Times report on NFL Sunday Ticket bidding
With the NFL’s popularity continuing to trend in the right direction, it’s become a major player in the financial world. Obviously, Google joining Apple and Amazon in bidding for the rights to NFL Sunday Ticket adds another layer to this.