In the competition for viewers' attention and eyeballs, streamers continue to take market share away from legacy TV networks. But, one major differentiator was live sports which so far have continued to be the primary reason for the existence of network and cable TV.
Even this advantage is eroding as streamers are now buying up rights for live sports in order to attract more subscribers to their services. These streamers have much more resources than traditional TV and are leading to record contract sizes for upcoming rights deals.
In the last couple of years, Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) added Thursday Night Football games, while Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) bought MLS streaming rights and has an MLB package as well. ESPN has built its ESPN+ service by snatching up rights for more niche sports like F1, college sports, and the UFC.
It seems like these were simply previews of what is shaping up to be a heavyweight bout between Apple, Amazon, and Disney (NYSE: DIS) for rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket package. In terms of live rights, the NFL is the crown jewel given its popularity across the country.
According to unconfirmed reports, the NFL is seeking between $2.5 billion and $3 billion annually for the Sunday Ticket package which gives rights to games for out-of-town markets. To compare, Apple paid $2.5 billion for 10 years of MLS rights, while Amazon pays $1 billion annually for its Thursday night games. And, Disney pays $2.7 billion for the 'Monday Night Football' franchise.
Another rumor floating around is that the NFL may keep Sunday Ticket for itself as part of its own streaming service - NFL+ - which is expected to launch later this year. Until now, the rights were owned by satellite TV provider, DirecTV which paid $1.5 billion annually. However, the rise of streaming has resulted in satellite TV becoming less popular especially when DirecTV made Sunday Ticket available without having to buy its satellite equipment and services.
Another unfortunate reality for fans is that the Sunday Ticket is going to likely cost an additional $300 annually for subscribers due to language in the Fox and CBS live rights deals. However, for hardcore fans (and gamblers), this is a small price to pay to be able to watch every NFL game. It's also potentially superior to DirecTV which was plagued by customer service and technical issues.