DirecTV had the NFL Sunday Tickets with them for thirty years and now the Sunday Tickets have come under YouTube as Google was faster in finalising the deal.
DirecTV exec doesn’t seem too phased about losing NFL Sunday Ticket https://t.co/UjJh3wxtt9 pic.twitter.com/kC0kW7FhR6
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 24, 2023
Rob Thun, Chief Content Officer, informed the Sports Business Journal that the organization is “a billion dollars richer” sans Sunday Ticket.
He also shed light on why the bidding was not reaching the reasons of the company; that’s why they were not keen on the package last year.
According to Sports Business Journal and Awful Announcing, Thun said,“Well, let me ask you a question. ‘Do you like losing a billion dollars a year?’ That was the old deal. The new deal, it’d be a billion and a half,”
“It didn’t make sense for our platform because … We’re losing subs because we’re a pure-play video provider and the price of content continues to escalate beyond what people are willing to pay. We were very data-driven about whether or not to pursue those rights. We didn’t even engage frankly in the conversation. The only piece that we engaged upon was getting the commercial rights.”
Interestingly, the Sunday ticket bidding was skipped by DirecTV. However, Google walked into the race and won ownership of the rights. Offers were also made by giants such as Amazon, Apple, and Disney.
A joint company was eventually created by the NFL and RedBird Capital called EverPass Media. This was to distribute the rights to the Sunday ticket. An agreement was reached by DirecTV and EverPass Media for the commercial rights of Sunday Ticket.
However, the company doesn’t seem fazed about letting go of the rights to Sunday Ticket.
