Apple is about to take a, well, something out of the NFL’s rights portfolio.
The tech behemoth reportedly has emerged as the favorite to land the NFL’s Sunday Ticket package, according to Matthew Belloni of PUCK.news, via Sports Business Journal. An unnamed source told Belloni that the deal is actually done, and that it’s being kept under wraps at Apple’s request.
The price could land in the range of $2.5 billion per year. And the deal would bring Apple within the NFL’s broader broadcast-partner tent. Belloni writes that the league “likes spreading its rights around so everyone is invested in its success.” (Some would phrase that a little differently.)
DirecTV holds the Sunday Ticket rights through 2022. We’ve previously heard that the winner of the Sunday Ticket package possibly would be able to sell a sliver of the satellite rights, either to people in areas that lack high-speed Internet access or to bars.