Over the last several years, YouTube has engaged in business ventures within the sports media space, arguably headlined by a seven-year deal worth a reported $2 billion annually to attain the residential rights of the NFL Sunday Ticket package of out-of-market games. Starting last season, NFL fans were able to add the package as part of their YouTube TV subscription or subscribe à la carte without subscribing to the virtual multichannel video programming distributor (vMVPD).
A jury in Los Angeles federal court ruled for the National Football League to pay $4.7 billion in damages in a class action lawsuit arguing the legality of such a product. Since the case pertains to federal antitrust law, the damages would be tripled and equate to more than $14 billion. Judge Philip S. Gutierrez of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California will hear both arguments on Wednesday and then decide whether or not to uphold the verdict.
In the last year, more than 35 billion hours of sports content was viewed on YouTube, which is representative of a 45% year-over-year increase. YouTube currently has deals with NBCUniversal and Eurosport to carry highlights from the Olympic Games Paris 2024 and is also providing behind-the-scenes Olympics footage and other content from the Games on its platforms. With the NFL Sunday Ticket platform, along with contracts with the Women’s Super League and F1 Academy, there is optimism for further growth within the digital media landscape.
“In this world where viewership is so fragmented, and viewers have infinite choices in terms of how we consume the content on our mobile phones… one of the things that I actually think brings people together and creates that collective experience is sports, live sports in particular, and we see that on YouTube as well,” Neal Mohan, chief executive officer of YouTube, told Josh Noble of the Financial Times.
The latest earnings report from Alphabet, YouTube’s parent company, divulges $8.7 billion of advertising revenue for YouTube in the second quarter, a 13% year-over-year increase. Viewership of content on YouTube utilizing connected TVs has increased by more than 130% over the past three years, and watch time for sports has augmented by 30% year-over-year in this regard.
Data from Nielsen Media Research demonstrates that YouTube has led the media marketplace in streaming time on television for 17 months in a row, accounting for 9.9% of the viewership share last June. While there is a variety of content from other genres on YouTube, the company projects sports to be an area with growth potential that will likely be realized in the future.
“To use a sports analogy, we’re in the early innings really,” Mohan said. “We have been working in close partnership with leagues all over the world, with our broadcast partners, our media partners all over the world for many, many years. But I would say that despite that, we’re still in the very, very, early days of where this can evolve.”
