YouTube strikes deal for NFL Sunday Ticket
RedZone, a popular feature that lets fans watch Sunday games when teams are within scoring range, will no longer be available on DirecTV, but the NFL will continue to produce its own version of the show, according to two people familiar with. of the record, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. This feature will be available to users through cable companies, such as Comcast, or through their Sunday Ticket subscription on YouTube.
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In recent months, the league has considered selling a stake in the NFL Network, its media arm, as part of the Sunday Ticket package. Those talks did not result in an agreement, and the NFL will continue those talks, the two people familiar with the matter said.
Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots and chairman of the league’s media committee, said the NFL has been using emerging technologies for decades to reach fans, including cable and satellite television. He added that YouTube would also provide NFL fans with seamless access to game stats and fantasy football scores.
“Now it’s time to move to a new platform to reach young fans and YouTube makes the most sense,” Kraft said.
The Sunday Ticket package could prove to be a boon for YouTube, which has been keen to expand subscriptions as its core business – advertising – has stalled. Football matches could attract more sports fans to YouTube TV, which is already the most popular pay-TV service on the Internet. The company said in July it had five million subscribers, surpassing Hulu + Live TV.
YouTube derives most of its revenue from advertising on user-uploaded videos. Persistent inflation and a slowing economy prompted advertisers to cut back on spending, causing YouTube’s ad sales to contract nearly 2% in the last quarter, Google’s parent company Alphabet reported. october.
The disappointing results gave more urgency to a year-long plan for YouTube to grow in other ways. The company said in November it had 80 million paying subscribers for its ad-free premium music and services, up from 50 million a year earlier. YouTube said this year that YouTube TV has more than five million paid and trial users.
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