Apple is reportedly in talks with the National Football League for the streaming rights to the league’s “Sunday Ticket” package. The Information reports Apple has had discussions with NFL executives, but the league is also in talks with other tech firms as well as TV networks.
Sunday Ticket streaming rights are currently held by DirecTV, but that deal is up for grabs, and Apple could score the rights to stream all non-prime-time Sunday NFL games, allowing out-of-market fans to view the games on Apple TV+.
DirecTV currently pays somewhere around $1.5 billion to broadcast the Sunday Ticket games, but its deal with the NFL expires in 2022. The NFL, of course, is looking to score a larger amount for any new deal.
Disney is also said to be interested in acquiring the rights to Sunday Ticket for its ESPN streaming service. The information claims Apple is not seen as a major contender for the rights, due to its reluctance to invest money in entertainment programming.
Apple previously had discussions with the Pac-12 conference about streaming the conference’s college sports, but the talks petered out and the only sports-related content currently on Apple TV+ is the comedy, Ted Lasso.