Apple Reportedly Bid on NFL Sunday Ticket 'Weeks Ago' and Still Awaiting Answer

[MacRumors]

Apple, Disney, and Amazon all submitted bids for the National Football League's out-of-market Sunday Ticket package "weeks ago" and are waiting to see who wins streaming rights to the package, according to CNBC's Alex Sherman and Jessica Golden.

"The NFL continues to be in discussion with all three bidders as it decides which partner it will choose," the report claims, despite an earlier report claiming that a deal between Apple and the NFL was "done" and "being kept quiet at Apple's request." The NFL is said to be looking for more than $2 billion for the Sunday Ticket streaming rights and a stake in NFL Media, which oversees the NFL Network channel, NFL.com, and more.

Sunday Ticket broadcasts all regional NFL games on Sunday afternoons to out-of-market viewers. In the United States, the package has been exclusively distributed by DirecTV since 1994, but the deal is set to expire ahead of the 2023 NFL season and DirecTV is reportedly not interested in renewing its exclusive rights to the package.

Sunday Ticket would add to Apple's growing portfolio of live sports content available through the Apple TV app. Apple already reached a partnership with Major League Baseball to air a weekly "Friday Night Baseball" doubleheader on Apple TV+ for the 2022 season, and Apple also reached a 10-year agreement with Major League Soccer that will see every game streamed through the Apple TV app without blackouts starting in early 2023.

It's unclear when the NFL will publicly reveal the future home of Sunday Ticket. Given that DirecTV still holds the rights to the package for the upcoming 2022 season, CNBC reports that there is no urgency for an announcement.

Article Link: Apple Reportedly Bid on NFL Sunday Ticket 'Weeks Ago' and Still Awaiting Answer

 

[Razorpit]

Maybe it's just the cynical me, I use to love watching sports. With the exception of hockey I couldn't care less about any of the major leagues here in the States.

 

[jz0309]

CNBC reports that there is no urgency for an announcement. - MR disagrees
/s

 

[Apple_Robert]

I will be shocked if Apple gets the bid.

 

[jacobh101]

like if you love how Apple doesn't blackout local sports on tv+

 

[Bearxor]

Not Apple related but losing Sunday Ticket will probably be the last nail in the coffin for DirecTV.

 

[jonnysods]

NFL should check their spam folder.

 

[FCX]

Not Apple related but losing Sunday Ticket will probably be the last nail in the coffin for DirecTV.

Sunday Ticket is the only thing keeping me on DirecTV, so yeah, when that goes, so do I.

 

[CarAnalogy]

If MLB is any indication I hope they don’t get it, because I actually like football. I didn’t think baseball could get any worse and then I saw Apple take a crack at it.

 

[Rogifan]

The past two years I’ve gotten Sunday Ticket ’free‘ because I have DirecTV and am an AT&T customer. If Apple gets it I wonder how much they’ll charge.

 

[SkyRom]

If the NFL is actually considering the offer, it's a sign Apple offered them an absolutely ungodly amount. The NFL doesn't like customers to have to guess or search for or sign up for new services to access games, it's why they like network monopolies and home attendance (pre-Covid). When Apple bid on MLB for summer games, I thought it was brilliant for a fledging network to beef up its content during the TV off-season even though it seemed like an odd marriage. If they land the NFL in any capacity, it will be an incredible second year Apple TV achievement to add to the Oscar they already scored earlier this year.

 

[Gilbeezyskit]

If MLB is any indication I hope they don’t get it, because I actually like football. I didn’t think baseball could get any worse and then I saw Apple take a crack at it.

Really? I watched a game a few weeks back and thought the presentation was great. I even checked the live discussions on different subreddits (for each team and the MLB sub) and people were pretty positive about it. I don’t think anything can beat MLB TV with their broadcast/audio options but as far as networks go I really enjoyed watching the game on Apple.

 

[Wolf Puppy]

like if you love how Apple doesn't blackout local sports on tv+

That’s not Apples decision. Its up to the League.

 

[crees!]

The past two years I’ve gotten Sunday Ticket ’free‘ because I have DirecTV and am an AT&T customer. If Apple gets it I wonder how much they’ll charge.

It’ll at least come with your AppleTV+ subscription. I can’t recall if MLB is “free” but figure they’d follow the same precedent.

 

[cylack]

Guess I’m subscribing to Apple TV+ if they get this. No blackouts for local games would be ideal.

 

[TightLines]

If Apple is successful with its bid, and doesn’t charge extra for Sunday Ticket, that will be a huge score for Apple and it will grow Apple TV in a big way… but, if they continue with this trend of grossly over charging for ****, then it will hurt the NFL Sunday Ticket brand and it will garner nothing but criticism… Apple has to start pricing things more in line with reality… they are really justifying the criticism thrown their way by charging $6k for a sub $1k monitor and then adding another $1k on top if you want a stand for it… or selling chargers for 2x the cost of what others charge for the same spec charger… or worse… the cost of expanding or upgrading their base systems…. its one thing to pay a premium for a quality product, and entirely another to be gouged…

Apple - Sunday Ticket is in your hands - don’t fumble the ball!

 

[FightTheFuture]

It’ll at least come with your AppleTV+ subscription. I can’t recall if MLB is “free” but figure they’d follow the same precedent.

MLS will be a separate charge, they announced. MLB is free for now. Not sure about August. NFL would definitely be an add-on of some type, but maybe not at the beginning.

Really? I watched a game a few weeks back and thought the presentation was great. I even checked the live discussions on different subreddits (for each team and the MLB sub) and people were pretty positive about it. I don’t think anything can beat MLB TV with their broadcast/audio options but as far as networks go I really enjoyed watching the game on Apple.

I agree. I think most people just don’t want to watch something without their local broadcast crew which is understandable. Love the TV+ broadcast. Feels like you’re at the game.

 

[tbayrgs]

It’ll at least come with your AppleTV+ subscription. I can’t recall if MLB is “free” but figure they’d follow the same precedent.

Not a chance it’ll be free. IIRC, when I subscribed to Sunday Ticket 15 years ago it was still something like $60-70 per month during the football season on top of your DirectTV subscription. Apple won’t charge anywhere near that much but if they’re going to charge for an MLS subscription, you can be certain this will also require some extra $.

 

[BrentT]

I wonder if DirecTV made a deal with the NFL to keep the announcement quiet until December so as to not hurt dish sales? Anyone who buys a dish this summer just for football may be surprised to find out that DirecTV is not even a bidder.

 

[syklee26]

If Apple is successful with its bid, and doesn’t charge extra for Sunday Ticket, that will be a huge score for Apple and it will grow Apple TV in a big way… but, if they continue with this trend of grossly over charging for ****, then it will hurt the NFL Sunday Ticket brand and it will garner nothing but criticism… Apple has to start pricing things more in line with reality… they are really justifying the criticism thrown their way by charging $6k for a sub $1k monitor and then adding another $1k on top if you want a stand for it… or selling chargers for 2x the cost of what others charge for the same spec charger… or worse… the cost of expanding or upgrading their base systems…. its one thing to pay a premium for a quality product, and entirely another to be gouged…

Apple - Sunday Ticket is in your hands - don’t fumble the ball!

There is no way this will be free with subscription. NFL Sunday Ticket rights will cost nearly $4-5 Billion per season. It could be cheaper than what DirectTV charges but not free.

BTW, Amazon is paying $1 Bill per year for rights to Thursday night games only.

 

[Coochie Boogs]

I hope Apple is successful in their bid. I rather enjoy their MLB broadcasts, nice clean look. NFL, MLB, MLS, making moves along with their fantastic shows and movies.

 

[PrecisionGem]

I hope Apple is successful in their bid. I rather enjoy their MLB broadcasts, nice clean look. NFL, MLB, MLS, making moves along with their fantastic shows and movies.

I had a look at MLB on Apple, and it seems you can pick which game you want to watch, but with DirecTV I normally DVR 2 or more games each sunday to watch, then start watching the first one about a half hour into the game so that I can skip over the adds. This doesn't seem possible with the MLB approach apple as right now.

If DirecTV looses the NFL, I will dump DirecTV.

 

[jctevere]

if I’m being honest, Apple TV+ kinda sucks. It has a few decent shows but you run out of content in 2-3 weeks, and new content is not added remotely quickly. Definitely not worth a standalone subscription currently.

The only reason why I still have it is because the Apple One subscription for a family is actually a fairly decent deal between Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, apple news and apple fitness+. It was only a little bit more than what I was paying separately for Apple Music family and iCloud backup storage (which is really all we use / need / want).

But honestly, it does nothing to keep me in the subscription or entice me to encourage other people to get it. It’s kind of a let down to be honest. So much potential between the Apple TV itself and Apple TV+ that just isn’t utilized by apple. Fairly disappointed and expecting more.

Even if they were to win this bid, it might make a headline, but honestly still doesn’t push the needle for me as far as value. Honestly, I see more value in them digitally providing all the free channels cord cutters could get with an over the air antenna via their Apple TV interface as more useful than any sports focused content.

 

[jav6454]

I hope Apple is successful in their bid. I rather enjoy their MLB broadcasts, nice clean look. NFL, MLB, MLS, making moves along with their fantastic shows and movies.

Agreed. Apple winning this would boost AppleTV

 

[Macaholic868]

Not Apple related but losing Sunday Ticket will probably be the last nail in the coffin for DirecTV.

Perhaps for the satellite service but honestly there is still a need for it in rural areas and I’ve found AT&T’s DirectStream TV to be a good option for cord cutters who want cable channels plus live / local ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and PBS programming. It is still cheaper than most cable packages and if you also use AT&T Internet it doesn’t count toward any of the internal data caps that if you exceed they use as an excuse to throttle your upload and download speeds.

For $10 a month you can get a standard cable like box and remote for those who are in transition to cutting the cord but want that cable like experience while they get used to life with no cable box. We have the app on our phones, iPads and three Apple TV’s so we don’t spend the extra $10 a month for the box but that helped my wife make the transition to app based live TV streaming / cable streaming / streaming apps a lot easier knowing she could hit input on our TV remote and be back to a cable like TV experience.