The NFL is on the verge of renewing most if not all of its media contracts — and Apple may well be in the mix with its Apple TV+ streaming service, according to a report from The Athletic (a subscription is required to read the entire article).
One report last week said the NFL was roughly agreeing to the parameter of a deal to renew “Monday Night Football” with ESPN/ABC, though the NFL denied it. (The Athletic’s sources don’t dispute “Monday Night Football” will stay with ESPN, “though they differ on the report’s advanced description of the agreement.”)
“….with AT&T seemingly ready to move on from Sunday Ticket, streaming becomes a ready-made platform for handling Sunday Ticket’s bandwidth and traffic, with one or several streaming platforms, such as ESPN+, Paramount Plus, Peacock, and Prime ready to jump in to drive subscriptions,” says former CBS Sports boss and media consultant Neal Pilson. “Also, don’t count out Apple TV+ as a Sunday Ticket distributor — they need to grow their subscriber base, they have enormous financial resources, and may be looking to add key sports properties to their mix.”
“Sunday Ticket” is an out-of-market sports package — a package that broadcasts sporting events to areas where the events were unable to be seen by viewers on other broadcast and cable television networks due to the games not being broadcast in the local market It currently carries all regional Sunday afternoon games produced by Fox and CBS.
Daniel Cohen, the senior vice president of Octagon’s Global Media Rights Consulting division, told The Athletic that it’s possible “Thursday Night Football” goes to Apple, but that it’s less likely if the tech will be responsible for exclusively production.
“Thursday Night Football” is up for grabs across ESPN+, Amazon, and possibly Apple (though that’s less likely if they need to produce the games exclusively),” he said. “A lot depends on whether the NFL decides to continue along the tricast/non-exclusive path.”
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