Amazon has emerged as the likely front-runner to obtain the rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket package according to sources familiar with the matter, CNBC said on Friday afternoon.
Amazon has already obtained the exclusive rights to stream the Thursday Night Football package beginning in 2022, according to CNBC, has a serious interest in the multi-year-package of out-of-market games. The streamer paid about $1 billion per year for rights to the Thursday night package, which will make Prime Video the first streaming service to hold exclusive rights to an NFL broadcast deal.
The NFL is expected to seek somewhere between $2 billion and $2.5 billion for the Sunday Ticket package, that has been held by DirecTV for 27 years. The league reportedly wants to close the deal before the end of the current season in February 2022. In 2014, DirecTV renewed the current NFL Sunday Ticket contract for eight years, which will end following the 2022-23 season.
According to CNBC, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the out-of-market package “may be more attractive on a digital platform” as streaming platforms continue to add subscribers at the expense of traditional pay-television.