While many big names have shown interest in acquiring rights to NFL’s Sunday Ticket, Amazon has become the front runner in the race.
Sources for CNBC say that Amazon has shown “serious interest” in Sunday Ticket, after signing a deal for around $1 billion for Thursday Night Football beginning next year.
We’ve known for over a year that several big names have been looking into bringing Sunday Ticket to streaming as we reported back in February 2020 that Amazon, Apple, and Google were all showing interest.
Amazon is facing tough competition when it comes to winning the fight for Sunday Ticket. ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro told Bloomberg earlier this week that ESPN was having “exploratory conversations” about the package. “It’s an incredibly valuable product,” he said.
Disney CEO Bob Chapek shared during the company’s quarterly earnings call earlier this year that his company is also “in conversations” with the NFL, noting that the company would only pursue the deal if they found it made financial sense.
Apple also expressed interested in using rights to the package of games as a way to grow Apple TV+ earlier this summer.
CNBC reports that the NFL will be asking between $2 billion and $2.5 billion per year for rights to the football package after its deal with DirecTV ends. The source said that the NFL wants to make a deal before the end of the current season.