DirecTV will no longer have the rights to the NFL’s Sunday Ticket after the 2022 season, and three streaming services have reportedly already made bids for the rights.
Earlier this year, it was reported that Apple was the favorite to land Sunday Ticket after the upcoming season. But Apple has some competition.
According to Alex Sherman and Jessica Golden of CNBC.com in an article published Friday, both Disney and Amazon submitted bids along with Apple weeks ago to become the new Sunday Ticket broadcast rights holder. It is now just a waiting game to see which bid wins out. The NFL reportedly is not in a rush to make a decision as DirecTV has the rights to the package for one more season.
The NFL reportedly wants bidders to pay over $2 billion for rights and a stake in NFL Media that will be packaged with Sunday Ticket. This has likely delayed the process of selecting a winning bid. According to Sherman and Golden, the NFL’s mobile rights could also be a part of the deal after the NFL’s agreement with Verizon has ended.
DirecTV currently pays $1.5 billion annually for the package. The NFL originally wanted to double that amount in the new deal, but the likelihood of that happening might be unrealstic; Sunday Ticket has reportedly lost DirecTV money historically.
