Sunday Ticket could end up being the biggest ticket in the NFL’s broadcasting rights portfolio.
Dylan Byers of Puck News reports that the price for the out-of-market package could spike to as much as $3 billion per year.
The report also pegs Apple as the “most likely” winner of the Sunday Ticket rights. Other finalists are Disney and Amazon.
Sunday Ticket allows fans to watch out-of-market games, at a cost in the range of $300 per season. CNBC has reported that the NFL’s deals with Fox and CBS prevent the Sunday Ticket package from being sold for considerably less than that amount.
Fans have been craving a shift from satellite-based DirecTV to a streaming product. It’s possible that the winner of the rights will be able to carve out satellite rights for consumers in rural areas that lack high-speed Internet access. The availability of the Sunday Ticket package for bars and restaurants also could be an issue, since they traditionally rely on satellite signals.