Apple reportedly backs out of NFL Sunday Ticket negotiations


The Athletic’s Daniel Kaplan backs up Byers’ reporting, saying on Twitter that he’s told, “Apple has indeed bowed out.” While Apple was once considered the front-runner in Sunday Ticket negotiations, talks between the iPhone maker and the NFL dragged on over the past several months, with a November report from The Athletic indicating that Apple’s expectations didn’t align with that of the NFL.
According to The Athletic, the iPhone maker reportedly wanted to gain the rights to aspects not included in its Sunday Ticket contract, and also expressed concern over some of the limitations that come along with the football package, such as the fact that it can’t stream the games internationally, nor can it access in-market games. On Friday, a report from Sportico revealed that Apple wanted to bundle Sunday Ticket with its $6.99 per month Apple TV Plus subscription at no added cost, something reporter Anthony Crupi describes as “a far too magnanimous gesture” for the NFL.
That leaves Amazon and Google’s YouTube with the chance to snap up the rights to Sunday Ticket. Both companies have reportedly placed bids on Sunday Ticket and have already made forays into live sports, with Amazon Prime Video streaming Thursday Night Football and YouTube TV carrying a number of sports networks. While the Disney-owned ESPN was also rumored to be in the running for Sunday Ticket, Byers doesn’t mention ESPN as a potential candidate and says legacy media companies “can’t justify the expense” of securing the package. DirecTV has owned the rights to NFL Sunday Ticket for nearly three decades, but these rights will expire at the end of this football season.
The Athletic’s Daniel Kaplan backs up Byers’ reporting, saying on Twitter that he’s told, “Apple has indeed bowed out.” While Apple was once considered the front-runner in Sunday Ticket negotiations, talks between the iPhone maker and the NFL dragged on over the past several months, with a November report from…
Recent Posts
- Apple’s C1 chip could be a big deal for iPhones – here’s why
- Rabbit shows off the AI agent it should have launched with
- Instagram wants you to do more with DMs than just slide into someone else’s
- Nvidia is launching ‘priority access’ to help fans buy RTX 5080 and 5090 FE GPUs
- HPE launches slew of Xeon-based Proliant servers which claim to be impervious to quantum computing threats
Archives
- February 2025
- January 2025
- December 2024
- November 2024
- October 2024
- September 2024
- August 2024
- July 2024
- June 2024
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- September 2018
- October 2017
- December 2011
- August 2010