YouTube Outbids Amazon Prime Video And ESPN+ For NFL Sunday Night Ticket – Forbes

Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images.Getty Images After DIRECTV made it clear it had no intention of renewing its deal for the NFL Sunday Night Ticket package, which had been bleeding red ink for years, analyst attention shifted to growing online video services. Alphabet GOOGL Inc.’s YouTube division won the bidding, and is paying an average of $2 billion/year, 33% above the $1.5 billion/year DIRECTV had paid. The NFL had been looking to expand into a growing footprint, with cable and satellite operators bleeding subs due to cord cutting (moving to online video) and cord shaving (downgrading to a cheaper package). Clearly, cable and satellite platforms were no longer an option for this niche football service. “I don’t know if it’s so much a changing of the guard, but an expansion of distribution and an expansion of the ways in which fans can interact with our sport and our league,” Dhruv Prasad, SVP Media Strategies and Strategic Investments for the NFL, told The Hollywood Reporter. “There’s no question that digital platforms have only increased in audience over the last several years and our interest at the NFL is getting our content in front of as many as fast as possible…” he
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