NFL Sunday Ticket is headed to Apple TV+ according to a report from Matthew Belloni of Puck News. So why haven’t you heard about it yet? A source tells Belloni that the deal “is being kept quiet at Apple’s request.”
The NFL is known to enjoy having influence and relationships with a number of media outlets. That would suggest that there is a lot of truth to Belloni’s report. It is the one major player in the live sports rights business that the NFL does not already do business with. Other bidders, including Amazon and Disney, already have their own NFL packages.
A streaming deal for Sunday Ticket is expected to be a companion to the satellite package available on DirecTV. That would make it easier for the sports bars and restaurants that pay the high price for the package in order to attract Sunday business to continue to take advantage. Belloni reports that there is some reason to question if that still is the case though.
He writes that bidding for Sunday Ticket “will be in the $2.5 billion range, which eliminates all but the deepest-pocketed buyers.” At that price, doesn’t it make sense that Apple could demand it be their exclusive product?
Apple is already in the live sports game with Major League Baseball. Tim Cook knows there is more to come, but has been quiet for the most part about the company’s future plans. He said that the company is “merely in its early days of premium video, and nothing is more premium than NFL football.”
