Google’s YouTube has secured rights to broadcast some US National Football League (NFL) matches from next season in a landmark deal that signals how Big Tech is reshaping the market for live sports rights.
The package, which will run seven years beginning in 2023, will give the video site the exclusive rights to the Sunday Ticket subscription service beginning next season. The service allows US fans to watch any game shown on the biggest game day of the week.
The deal, worth more than $14 billion (€14.2bn) according to a person familiar with the matter, is an additional service on top of the NFL’s current 11-year, $110 billion broadcast agreement agreed last year, the most expensive live sports rights in the world.
Roger Goodell, commissioner of the NFL, said the deal reflects the league’s ambition to expand its digital footprint and “is yet another example of us looking towards the future and building the next generation of NFL fans”.
The sale epitomises a growing shift away from expensive cable packages towards streamers, with Sunday Ticket now set to leave its long-time home on AT&T’s DirecTV satellite platform.
Traditional media players such as Disney, Paramount, and Comcast have long bought up rights to the most popular sporting events to attract and retain subscribers, but are now faced with growing competition from deeper-pocketed tech groups.
Apple, Amazon and Meta have in recent years paid billions of dollars for the rights to screen events from the NFL to English Premier League football matches.
“It’s a very loud wake-up call for traditional media companies,” said the chief executive of a long-time bidder for sports rights. “First Apple and now this ... television, cable and satellite companies will struggle to respond.”
The move also marks the latest – and most significant – push by Google’s YouTube into live sports broadcasting as the platform expands beyond its core offering of user-generated videos. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2022
