Apple deal for NFL Sunday Ticket may be already done, report claims

Apple may have already reached a deal to stream the NFL on Apple TV+, but the partnership is being kept quiet, a new report claims.

The Cupertino tech giant is said to be a front-runner in the bidding war to nab the NFL Sunday Ticket package, which became up for grabs in 2021. DirecTV's contract ran out for the 2022 to 2023 season.

According to Puck News, the NFL Sunday Ticket is "Apple's to lose." The site notes that at least one source said that the deal is "actually done" and is just being kept secret on Apple's behalf.

A previous report indicated that Apple and Amazon were neck-to-neck in the battle for the rights. DirecTV, which was the previous company to hold them, reportedly paid the NFL an average of $1.5 billion per year for the deal.

The NFL itself is said to want Apple to host the Sunday Ticket.

NFL Sunday Ticket is a sports package that broadcasts weekly season games. DirecTV currently holds the rights to the package, which it sells as parts of bundles that range from $290 to $400 per season.

News of the potential NFL deal comes after the iPhone maker launched its first live sports endeavor, Friday Night Baseball. The Apple live sports initiative allows users to watch weekly games each Friday, and it currently doesn't require an Apple TV+ subscription to use.

8 Comments

eightzero 3145 comments · 14 Years

About 2 years ago

This would be good news when confirmed/ announced.

I'd like to see more live sports available on the Apple platform. A PPV model would be welcome. 99c for a single game? Sure.

Japhey 1772 comments · 6 Years

eightzero said:

This would be good news when confirmed/ announced.

I'd like to see more live sports available on the Apple platform. A PPV model would be welcome. 99c for a single game? Sure.

99¢ for a single game? Are you being serious? You’re just setting yourself up for disappointment if you think it would cost anything close to that.

foregoneconclusion 2836 comments · 12 Years

Japhey said:

eightzero said:

This would be good news when confirmed/ announced.

I'd like to see more live sports available on the Apple platform. A PPV model would be welcome. 99c for a single game? Sure.

99¢ for a single game? Are you being serious? You’re just setting yourself up for disappointment if you think it would cost anything close to that.

Technically you could say that someone who paid for NFL GamePass could watch games for 99 cents. Cost is $99 for the season and you could watch 5-6 games every week using that service. The caveat is that none of the games are available live. You can only watch them after they've already been played.

Obviously it’s being held back so that Apple can announce it at some event in order to gain maximum media attention. But, if they are going to continue to aggressively pursue live sports, it’s probably about time that they cleaned up that crappy Sports tab the TV app. It always felt like a glorified placeholder, maybe now we’ll get to see it live up to its potential.

foregoneconclusion said:

Japhey said:

eightzero said:

This would be good news when confirmed/ announced.

I'd like to see more live sports available on the Apple platform. A PPV model would be welcome. 99c for a single game? Sure.

99¢ for a single game? Are you being serious? You’re just setting yourself up for disappointment if you think it would cost anything close to that.

Technically you could say that someone who paid for NFL GamePass could watch games for 99 cents. Cost is $99 for the season and you could watch 5-6 games every week using that service. The caveat is that none of the games are available live. You can only watch them after they've already been played.

We were talking about live sports though. Your idea might work for games that are already over, and would actually be a pretty cool way to watch archived games from previous weeks/seasons. But not for live events. And definitely not for the NFL.