NFL Broadcast Rights Worth 18 Trillion Won... Sports Streaming War

by Bang Jeil

Published 23 Dec.2022 09:07(KST)

Updated 23 Dec.2022 11:00(KST)

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YouTube Secures Sunday Broadcast Rights for 7 Years
Strengthening Coverage of Popular Sports Matches
Apple, Amazon Compete for Soccer and Baseball Broadcast Rights

YouTube is paying an astronomical amount to acquire the broadcasting rights for the National Football League (NFL), one of the most popular sports in the United States.

On the 22nd (local time), The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that YouTube agreed to pay $14 billion (17.96 trillion KRW) over seven years to broadcast NFL Sunday games. This averages $2 billion (about 2.5 trillion KRW) annually, which is $500 million more than the broadcasting rights fee previously paid by DirecTV.

Fans of the National Football League (NFL), considered the most popular sport in the United States Photo by AP·Yonhap News

YouTube currently operates the YouTube TV service at $64.99 per month. Although YouTube TV has about 5 million paid subscribers, its revenue declined for the first time last quarter. YouTube plans to sell NFL Sunday games separately to consumers under the name “Primetime Channels.”

The broadcasting rights fee is $2 billion annually on average, and the amount YouTube must pay will vary depending on future market conditions. This year, the NFL Sunday game broadcasting rights were held by the major U.S. cable TV provider DirecTV, which paid $1.5 billion per season for the rights. YouTube has signed a long-term contract at a higher price than that.

Recently, streaming companies have been aggressively competing to acquire sports broadcasting rights. The competition for NFL Sunday game rights was intense. Competitors in the streaming market such as Apple, Amazon, and Walt Disney also participated in the bidding. The fierce competition among companies is due to the desire to secure sports broadcasts with a large fan base. Sports broadcasts can easily attract viewers even without high-quality original content.

Since April, Apple has been live streaming Major League Baseball (MLB) games every Friday night, and starting next year, plans to exclusively broadcast the Major League Soccer (MLS) through Apple TV. Amazon also secured the rights to NFL Thursday games in July for $1 billion annually. In June, ESPN, Netflix, and Amazon competed for the Formula One (F1) racing broadcast rights, with ESPN winning the rights.