Apple Reportedly Quits NFL Sunday Ticket Streaming Negotiations

[jsalda]

I do believe NFL messed up here, but it doesn’t surprise me. Apple likes to take existing things and improve on them, they have shown that time and time again. I’m sure they had ideas that they wanted to implement that the NFL was very resistant to, but will probably happen eventually regardless of who picks up ST.

I also don’t understand the comments about paying for ST. I haven’t paid for ST in at least 5 years, probably longer. I just call every year, and renegotiate my DTV/AT&T internet contract telling them that I want ST included at no cost. They are always happy to oblige.

 

[tsrail]

Apple has quit negotiations for the NFL Sunday Ticket package after having once been regarded as the frontrunner for the streaming rights, claims a new report.

According to Dylan Byers at Puck News, Apple has backed out of negotiations because it no longer sees the deal as worthwhile given the limitations that would be placed on it.

Rumors have suggested for months that Apple would be the "likely winner" of the NFL Sunday Ticket package, but signs of negotiation issues emerged earlier this year when CNBC reported that Apple wanted more contractual flexibility than the NFL was interested in providing.

Apple was said to have had no interest in simply acting as a conduit for broadcasting games, and instead was seeking more comprehensive partnerships with sports leagues.

In June, for example, Apple announced that its TV app will exclusively stream every live MLS match beginning in 2023, without any local blackouts or restrictions. MLS highlights, analysis, and other content will also be available across the TV app and Apple News.

In contrast, restrictions on the NFL Sunday Ticket package deal would have included local blackouts and no global rights. Pricing is also said to have been a sticking point, with Apple wanting to fold Sunday Ticket access into the $6.99 cost of an Apple TV+ subscription.

However, NFL reportedly considered that price point too low, given it needs to "protect the interests" of CBS and Fox, its Sunday afternoon broadcast partners.

Apple has been ramping up its sports offerings in recent months in an effort to draw more subscribers to ‌Apple TV+‌. The company partnered with the MLB for "Friday Night Baseball," and it has inked a 10-year deal with Major League Soccer that is set to kick off next year. As things stand, it appears NFL Sunday Ticket streaming won't be added to the list.

Article Link: Apple Reportedly Quits NFL Sunday Ticket Streaming Negotiations

“Local blackouts”. A moronic concept from the 1970s, that sports leagues still use today. I simply want to watch my local NFL, MLB and NBA teams, but I CAN’T, unless I pay for expensive, archaic and useless cable-tv service. Even if you DO have cable, try watching it on an app when you are traveling. No dice because of blackout rules or some other nonsense.

Music and movies have moved fully to paid or subscriptions, but ‘sports’ still is stuck in the 1980s.

They will continue to lose fans and viewers unless they evolve.

 

[Beautyspin]

Apple obviously wanted to get this, so if they quit, its almost certainly because the NFL was asking way too much and putting way too many restrictions on things. Good on Apple for saying nope, can't do that.

The NFL organization is something that exists principally to make the teams ~36(?) super rich owners as much money as possible, so probably not a bad thing they didn't get whatever outrageous amounts they were asking for.

Or maybe they asked NFL to pay 30% commission to put it on Apple TV+ /s

 

[topmounter]

The NFL doesn’t like change.

Correct. The NFL likes DOLLARS and LOTS of them.

 

[svish]

Disappointed. Would have been nice if Apple had acquired rights.

 

[oldMacGenius]

Lets drop the L in NFL and replace it with an H, now we’re talking.

Despite being a bandwagon Bengals/Bears fan,

I would rather like to see all the Blackhawks and Sharks games in my “ever changing out of market” locale.

Also, NCAA Basketball - Specifically Kentucky.

 

[Apleeseed84]

Is Sunday ticket a big seller. I can’t see paying for that even as a big NFL fan

Huge, people build home setups just to watch the games.

 

[freedomlinux]

Lets drop the L in NFL and replace it with an H, now we’re talking.

NFH?

I'd rather replace the F and have NHL.

 

[Bodhitree]

You guys in the US pay a lot of money to follow your local teams…

 

[Bonte]

Good that Apple didn't cave into NFL's demands for regional restrictions, Apple should focus only on worldwide content.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

You guys in the US pay a lot of money to follow your local teams…

Not really. I have ways to stream any game I want for free.

 

[Jupeman]

Now, why did you have to go mention Tannehill? Dude’s contract has handcuffed us for 3 years.

I'm most impressed that there are other Titans fans in this thread! Titan Up!

 

[SactoGuy18]

I wouldn't be surprised that the NFL essentially merges NFL Sunday Ticket into the NFL Plus streaming system. And you pay $14.95 per month for full access.

 

[Neepman]

Good decision. Who needs the NFL when Apple already has the rights to real football starting next year?

To each their own I suppose. I couldn't get through more than 5 minutes of any world cup game without nodding off. Even more numbingly boring than baseball and thats saying something!

 

[Sl4ck3r]

I won’t pay for low quality garbage stream that we are going to get now that Apple is out.

Ah yes, because Apple is known as the best streaming service available. LOL. Come on. Amazon is tiers above Apple TV, Youtube is even better then Amazon.

 

[bobcomer]

To each their own I suppose. I couldn't get through more than 5 minutes of any world cup game without nodding off. Even more numbingly boring than baseball and thats saying something!

Same here, I can't watch baseball or soccer. They're test pattern level entertainment to me.

You have to know something about the game, and have some kind of favorite tie in to make a sport watchable...

 

[Lord Hamsa]

You guys in the US pay a lot of money to follow your local teams…

Actually, the issue is that the way NFL broadcasts currently work, you will ALWAYS get your local team's game when they are playing. Which, for local fans of the local team, works out great, but as a society, we're a lot more mobile than we used to be. So if you develop a fandom for a specific team and then you move away, you find yourself stuck watching the local team where you now live, even if your favorite team is playing at the same time, and in a much more meaningful game.

This was the biggest selling point of Sunday Ticket - having access to ALL of the games, not just your local one, allowed these dislocated fans to continue watching their team. It also allows those with a more general interest in football to pick and choose what games they think is best to watch, regardless of what's being shown locally (home team or not).

As with most transitions to streaming, the big problem here is existing contracts and rights. The networks really don't care how you watch the game - over the air or Sunday Ticket, they still have your eyeballs in the national ad slots. But the affiliates lose out on views for their local ad slots if you're not watching it on their channel. And the price the networks pay to carry the game come with a pretty hefty promise to the affiliates that they'll get to reap the rewards.

While Sunday Ticket is popular, due to its high price, they were able to get away with not honking off the affiliates too much because the overall numbers were only minimally affected. Looking the the NFL's stated position here (and the stated position usually isn't the whole story, but let's run with it), they have existing commitments to CBS and Fox and their affiliates, and if the new Sunday Ticket deal means a huge explosion in viewers shifting to it, they're going to have a hard time extracting the same sums out of the networks when the contracts come up for rebid.

All this said, I think this is a lot of posturing, and I'm not exactly buying that the negotiations are over unless and until we see it confirmed from multiple or official sources. I have a hard time believing that even with NFL rights that a vast number of users will abandon OTA channels for AppleTV+. Some, yes? From Apple's standpoint, a lot, probably. But from the OTA channels, enough to be noticeable, but not enough to hurt too badly.

My thinking is that some compromise about the use of local ad slots will be what gets both sides back together. If, regardless of game, Apple allows maybe 50% of the local ad slots to show ads sold by the affiliate local to the user, that might keep everyone happy enough (with Apple using the remaining 50% of slots to plug their own products/services and/or sell additional ads).

 

[eltoslightfoot]

Actually, the issue is that the way NFL broadcasts currently work, you will ALWAYS get your local team's game when they are playing. Which, for local fans of the local team, works out great, but as a society, we're a lot more mobile than we used to be. So if you develop a fandom for a specific team and then you move away, you find yourself stuck watching the local team where you now live, even if your favorite team is playing at the same time, and in a much more meaningful game.

This was the biggest selling point of Sunday Ticket - having access to ALL of the games, not just your local one, allowed these dislocated fans to continue watching their team. It also allows those with a more general interest in football to pick and choose what games they think is best to watch, regardless of what's being shown locally (home team or not).

As with most transitions to streaming, the big problem here is existing contracts and rights. The networks really don't care how you watch the game - over the air or Sunday Ticket, they still have your eyeballs in the national ad slots. But the affiliates lose out on views for their local ad slots if you're not watching it on their channel. And the price the networks pay to carry the game come with a pretty hefty promise to the affiliates that they'll get to reap the rewards.

While Sunday Ticket is popular, due to its high price, they were able to get away with not honking off the affiliates too much because the overall numbers were only minimally affected. Looking the the NFL's stated position here (and the stated position usually isn't the whole story, but let's run with it), they have existing commitments to CBS and Fox and their affiliates, and if the new Sunday Ticket deal means a huge explosion in viewers shifting to it, they're going to have a hard time extracting the same sums out of the networks when the contracts come up for rebid.

All this said, I think this is a lot of posturing, and I'm not exactly buying that the negotiations are over unless and until we see it confirmed from multiple or official sources. I have a hard time believing that even with NFL rights that a vast number of users will abandon OTA channels for AppleTV+. Some, yes? From Apple's standpoint, a lot, probably. But from the OTA channels, enough to be noticeable, but not enough to hurt too badly.

My thinking is that some compromise about the use of local ad slots will be what gets both sides back together. If, regardless of game, Apple allows maybe 50% of the local ad slots to show ads sold by the affiliate local to the user, that might keep everyone happy enough (with Apple using the remaining 50% of slots to plug their own products/services and/or sell additional ads).

I never understood this. Why not just have a service that is an aggregation of the local affiliates, local ads and all? I follow the Dolphins while living in the Dakotas. Due to the high prices, I watch using a ”workaround”, but would love to just be able to get the Miami affiliate’s broadcast that they put out over the air in Miami.

 

[Lord Hamsa]

I never understood this. Why not just have a service that is an aggregation of the local affiliates, local ads and all? I follow the Dolphins while living in the Dakotas. Due to the high prices, I watch using a ”workaround”, but would love to just be able to get the Miami affiliate’s broadcast that they put out over the air in Miami.

A quick search shows there are currently 228 CBS affiliates and 227 Fox affiliates out there. just saying.

 

[tranceme]

NFL just won’t learn - it’s loosing fan base in drives, it’s dead-last in streaming service ofering, SundayTicket is pure garbage with each week more games you CAN’T watch than you CAN, way over priced and the quality is like AVI’s from 2000, so far from HD, on it’s highest quality setting the football actually turns translucent when thrown the bit rate is so low.

GOOD - Apple caught on what a dumptster fire the NFL is, it made offers to bring it into modern technology and make net-net MORE money for both Apple & NFL… and NFL couldn’t see it…

The NFL is the Metalica of music streaming in the napster days.

Completely agree. $300 a season? I stop paying for NFL ticket sometime ago. As with most of my friends. Cost was getting bigger and you got less content it seems. I mean blackouts and games simply not available. At least it seemed that way.

And, yeah, I know others have pointed out that local broadcasts blackouts are designed to help the team get more revenue. But, who can go to all games anyway. $49 (nose bleed seats for a crapy team), $12 beers, $9 fries, $35-50 for just parking. Family of 4. That hurts. Sure we don't have to eat or drink. But, I can at home. And, let's be honest, if your team sucks, most of these fair weather fans won't be going to the games. Which is when you get a blackout. And, nobody watches the team in either case.

I feel like NFL ticket is double dipping anyway. Still have commercials and the more people watch, the more review the teams get.

 

[albebaubles]

Honestly all I care about is my team. But, I live out of market and where I live my team is rarely broadcast unless it is a night game. Charge $100.00 a season to veiw my team only and I would jump at it.

I kmow its wishful thinking.

This is available now through NFL Game pass -- only difference is you have to wait until the game is over to start the stream.

 

[alchemistmuffin]

Well, looks like NFL had to scramble and made a last minute deal with Google for Sunday Ticket deal, according to WSJ:

Google’s YouTube in Talks for Rights to NFL Sunday Ticket — The Wall Street Journal

DirecTV currently pays for rights to subscription package that allows football fans to watch most Sunday afternoon games

apple.news

(Apple News Link, may be behind the paywall)

Google wasn’t in the NFL radar but with Apple walking out of the deal abruptly over last weekend, and Amazon said no to taking additional NFL role (they already have hands full with TNF) League basically scrambled to get a deal that they least preferred. (Because to get Sunday ticket at discounted price, you have to pay $69.99 to just sign up for YouTube TV. It’ll be on YouTube PrimeTime Channels (sigh, don’t they know that Apple might be phasing out Channels since no one uses it, so it’s moot to come out with competing feature…..) but it’ll be very expensive most likely……

(Edited article to note the YouTube PrimeTime channel feature)

 

[dancefreak]

Well, looks like NFL had to scramble and made a last minute deal with Google for Sunday Ticket deal, according to WSJ:

Google’s YouTube in Talks for Rights to NFL Sunday Ticket — The Wall Street Journal

DirecTV currently pays for rights to subscription package that allows football fans to watch most Sunday afternoon games

apple.news

(Apple News Link, may be behind the paywall)

Google wasn’t in the NFL radar but with Apple walking out of the deal abruptly over last weekend, and Amazon said no to taking additional NFL role (they already have hands full with TNF) League basically scrambled to get a deal that they least preferred. (Because to get Sunday ticket, you have to pay $69.99 to just sign up for YouTube TV, then pay additional fee for Sunday Ticket as add on, something NFL didn’t want, especially for those that already have cable)

That article notes that it'll also be available via Youtube Primetime Channels (which is pretty much the same thing as Apple TV Channels) so a YTTV sub won't be required. We'll see if the pricing is different though.

 

[ProfessionalFan]

only difference is you have to wait until the game is over to start the stream.

That's a pretty significant difference.

 

[ipedro]

The NFL has become an institutional giant that's unable to move from where it's been sitting for decades. They're unwilling or unable to experiment with new ideas and adjust to new realities. Apple was right to turn down the NFL's conditions.

They're better served buying up rights to growth channels like emerging leagues with potential for growing under innovative broadcasting formats focused around the fans. MLS is one of those. Yes, it's tiny compared to the established Euro and South American leagues but with Apple's investment and reach, it has tons of potential and room to grow.

People may laugh now, but the XFL has that kind of potential. Its last season was a lot of fun to watch, the game was faster and easier for novices to get into. It was only cut short by the pandemic with unfortunate timing. I'd love to see Apple nurture MLS and XFL and prove itself. MLB has kind of contracted from its high popularity decades ago and seems to be open to Apple's ideas. That'd be a good trio of sports. Maybe College basketball next?