While the DirecTV and the NFL’s deal for NFL Sunday Ticket lasts until 2022 at $1.5 billion annually, it’s expected that the league would opt-out after this season. Much of that is to explore other options to stream NFL Sunday Ticket.
In March, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said “We’re having great discussions with DirecTV and AT&T. We’ve had a 25-year partnership and we want to continue that partnership, but we also are looking to see how we can change the delivery.”
Disney has now confirmed that they’ve explored acquiring the rights to NFL Sunday Ticket, the out-of-market streaming package, for ESPN+, their sports OTT service. On the topic, Disney CEO Bob Iger said “there has been exploration whether there is an opportunity there. We are very bullish on the NFL.”
It’s been reported that Amazon for Prime Video and Google for YouTube could also be interested in the package.
The league has been aggressive in bringing their games online. Besides streaming Thursday Night Football on Amazon, the NFL has been streaming all in-market games on mobile and tablet (via NFL and Yahoo! properties) for free without the need of a cable subscription.