What you need to know
- The NFL Sunday Ticket is reportedly bringing in more subscribers on YouTube than it did on DirecTV.
- Despite that, an analyst says YouTube will need to rake in 4.5 million subscribers for the ticket if it wants to "break-even" with its spending for the service's rights.
- YouTube has continuously brought in features for the NFL Sunday Ticket, like multiview, monthly payments, and more that will come throughout the season.
Following the first Sunday of the 2023 NFL season, information is bubbling up about YouTube's football service and its performance.
According to NBC Sports, YouTube's NFL Sunday Ticket has reached "impressive" results after its first official Sunday (via 9to5Google). The NFL states the subscription plan on YouTube has already surpassed the number of subscribers it previously held on DirecTV in 2022. Though it wasn't explicitly stated, DirecTV was speculated to have had around 2 million subscribers before the service hopped over to YouTube.
Despite appearing quite popular, Light Reading reports that the numbers on YouTube's side aren't looking so positive right now. Analyst Michael Nathanson estimates that the platform will need to double DirecTV's previous 2 million subscriber count, placing it around 4.5 million, just to "break-even" financially.
YouTube has agreed to pay $2 billion per year for seven years to broadcast every regular season Sunday afternoon's games. With that in mind, the Alphabet-owned company isn't raking in all of the revenue from ads during those football games either.
Nathanson further foresees YouTube only collecting less than $100 million per year throughout that seven-year contract. The only possible upside, for now, is YouTube may have become a contender against Amazon and Roku in the premium sports space.
Though the numbers may look bleak, viewers this past weekend have reportedly enjoyed YouTube's NFL Sunday Ticket. The streaming service offers multiview so viewers can watch four NFL games at once without missing a beat. Fans can also enjoy unlimited simultaneously streamed NFL games every Sunday.
The company also introduced monthly payments, an option that was heavily requested by users.
It'll be worth keeping an eye on YouTube and where it decides to go if the numbers don't change in a more mathematical favor. For football fans, you can still snatch up YouTube's $50 discount for the NFL Sunday Ticket, as September 19 is the cut-off.
