Days after a report surfaced that Apple is considered the leader to land NFL’s Sunday Ticket package, Gregg Giannotti and Boomer Esiason marveled at the dollar figures associated with the deal.
“I believe, and I’ve been saying all along, it’s going to Apple.,” Boomer said on the duo’s Monday show. “And I think Apple is going to double the payment of DIRECTV from $1.5 billion a year to $3 billion a year.”
“$3 billion per year?” an exasperated Giannotti replied.
“Now there is a chance that DIRECTV may still be involved as a partner with Apple, assuming that Apple gets it, and could still be a carrier possibly of it,” Esiason added. “And maybe reduce some of the overall cost for Apple. I don’t know how that business mechanism would work. But I don’t know if Apple’s just gonna want to keep it for itself or make it a part of the AppleTV+ tier.”
“It was something like $350 for the year for Sunday Ticket through DIRECTV”, Giannotti said. “If you fought them and said you were gonna cancel, they’d knock it down to like $200.”
DIRECTV currently offers NFL Sunday Ticket for $69.99 per month, plus taxes and fees, for 12 months, which equals $840. The two wondered if the cost to AppleTV+ doubled, what the cost to consumers would be.
“For AppleTV+, they’re trying to gain as many new viewers as they possibly can,” Esiason said. “I’m sure that there’s gonna be a cost that’s going to be associated with it, but it’s not gonna be that much of a cost. They have so much money to spend and they’re just trying to garner more and more customers.”
“Really? That’s great then, if it gets cheaper,” Giannotti said.
“I can’t tell you that for a fact”, Boomer admitted. “All I can tell you is the reason why a (Amazon) Prime or Apple would want it is to just increase their customer base exponentially. And you’d be able to do it that way.”
“It’s just amazing. The money that is spent with these rights deals is absolutely amazing. Is it a bubble that’s ever going to burst?” Giannotti wondered.
DIRECTV’s deal for Sunday Ticket with the NFL ends after the 2022 season.
