The protracted negotiations over NFL Sunday Ticket rights have reportedly taken another turn as Apple is said to have pulled out.
Apple, long considered the frontrunner to acquire NFL Sunday Ticket, has exited the talks, per Puck News‘ Dylan Byers and Julia Alexander. The news follows a public statement by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell last week that negotiations had reached “a very critical point” and that the league is prioritizing reaching the best deal over meeting any particular deadline.
Apple’s apparent decision, which has also been reported by Daniel Kaplan of The Athletic, represents an about face for a company that has been jumping into live sports. Apple over the past year has acquired media rights packages in major league baseball and soccer to the tune of $85 million and $250 million annually, respectively.
While Apple had been the rumored leaders for months, negotiations hit a snag over how the company planned to integrate Sunday Ticket. Apple wanted to reportedly include Sunday Ticket with its $6.99/month Apple TV+ subscription, a price tag so low that it would threaten the linear TV audience on CBS and FOX. Apple is also said to have wanted in-market and international rights. Given these concerns, the issue was not price, per Byers, but that Apple could not “see the logic.”
With Apple out, Google and Amazon are the new frontrunners for Sunday Ticket. Both companies have already placed a bid on the property and, like Apple, have entered the live sports market. Amazon is already partnered with the NFL under a $1.1 billion/year deal for rights to Thursday Night Football through 2032. That deal has already paid dividends for Amazon. The debut of TNF generated more new Prime memberships over a three-hour period than any other event in Amazon history, including previous Prime Days, Black Fridays, or Cyber Mondays. TNF is now averaging 9.67 million viewers for the season (11.4 million per Amazon’s internal metrics).
Pe Byers, ESPN and other legacy media companies will not be in the running as they are unable to justify the expense. ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro admitted recently that ESPN was no longer in the mix. DirecTV, holders of Sunday Ticket since its creation in 1994, has been paying the NFL $1.5 billion a year for the package. It has been a “loss leader” for DirecTV, who have used it to drive subscriber growth. The NFL is currently asking for $3.5 billion annually.
[News from Puck News 12.16, Pro Football Talk 12.16, The Verge 12.16]
