Six weeks into the first year of NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube, subscription numbers are an indication that the transition from pay TV to streaming has proven successful.
Bloomberg last week reported that it’s estimated that 1.3 million have signed up for Sunday Ticket this year. That figure already exceeded the subscriber count for the service when it was on DirecTV.
YouTube allowed fans to either buy Sunday Ticket as a standalone product or as part of a subscription to YouTube TV. About 41% of the 1.3 million subscribers to Sunday Ticket on YouTube added on YouTube TV.
YouTube parent company Alphabet Inc. bought the rights to Sunday Ticket last year. It’s believed YouTube is paying the NFL $2 billion a year over seven years for the rights.
So far, the change to streaming for Sunday Ticket has been praised. There have largely been zero technical issues that would prevent fans from tuning in games or experiencing interruptions.
Direct tv at it’s peak had over 2 million sunday ticket subscribers. You Tube just paid over $2 Billion for this product, they need 4 million subscribers just to break even and they only have 100K more than Directv Tv did last year? Talk about bombing.