It’s become apparent that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s earlier prediction about an autumn resolution for the NFL Sunday Ticket talks, reportedly centered on Apple, isn’t likely to pan out.
FL commissioner Roger Goodell on Wednesday gave a brief update on the state of the Sunday Ticket package, saying that negotiations are at “a very critical point for us,” before effectively walking back previous estimates of when a deal might get done…
Back in July, Goodell acknowledged that the out-of-market games package, which has been exclusive to DirecTV since its launch in 1994, was heading for a streaming service, and that a deal was expected to be in place “by the fall.” Those remarks, which Goodell made during an interview at the Allen & Co. Sun Valley conference, came a full three months after reports began circulating that Apple had won the bid outright…
The talks are said to have been complicated by the amount of cash Apple’s customers may be expected to throw down for a macOS-based Sunday Ticket product. In a bid to drive subscribers to its Apple TV+ platform, which is a relative steal at $6.99 per month, the tech giant is said to be fixated on offering Sunday Ticket via its streaming service at no additional charge. That’s a far too magnanimous gesture for the NFL; it needs to protect the interests of its Sunday afternoon broadcast partners at CBS and Fox, which under the terms of the 2021 rights renewal will pay the league a combined $40 billion through the end of the 2033 season.
MacDailyNews Take: Super Bowl LVII on February 12, 2023 would present an excellent marketing opportunity for the announcement that Apple TV+ will be the streaming home of NFL Sunday Ticket.
As always, the idea of bringing live, exclusive sports to Apple TV+ is pure genius.
Cook should consider bidding for and winning NFL Sunday Ticket away from DirecTV, buying rights to Premiere League and La Liga games, etc. and making them Apple TV exclusives. Go directly to the sports leagues with boatloads of cash. — MacDailyNews, May 6, 2014
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IMO, watching the NFL on linear TV—especially via DVR—is much better than on a streaming service.
Did you know…. NFL games have an official game clock of 60 minutes, but it takes 3+ hours to broadcast the whole affair. However, the total amount of real, live action—from the snap of the ball until the play is whistled dead—amounts to only 11+ minutes?
I watch almost everything via DVR, especially NFL games. I can easily watch a 3+ hour game in well under one hour. Can that be done via streaming? I watched last night’s SF @ Seattle streaming on Amazon Prime with my present, 30 day free trial. Unless I’m doing it wrong, DVR NFL is far superior to streaming NFL.
(BTW, streaming aside, I give Amazon’s NFL production a grade of B. After the 30 days, I’m cancelling.)