This Year, YouTube TV And YouTube Are Reportedly Set To Lose $1.2 Billion On NFL Sunday Tickets

According to reports, YouTube and YouTube TV spent $2 billion for NFL Sunday Ticket back in December 2022.

This is the first time the service has been available to DIRECTV only for decades. As of right now, a Morgan Stanley research projects that YouTube and YouTube TV will lose $1.2 billion this year. However, Morgan Stanley reports that there is some good news and hope.

Some people might be surprised to learn that YouTube TV makes more money with NFL Sunday Ticket than DIRECTV claims it would if it continued to offer the program. DIRECTV’s Chief Content Officer, Rob Thun, spoke candidly last week at the LA Sports Innovation Conference about the company’s enormous losses when it offered NFL Sunday Ticket, which he claimed cost a billion dollars annually.

Alright, allow me to pose a query to you. “Do you enjoy losing $1 billion annually?” That was business as usual. The new agreement would cost a billion and a half, he declared. It was inappropriate for our platform since… Since we’re a pure-play video provider and content costs are rising faster than consumers are prepared to pay, we’re losing subscribers. When deciding whether or not to seek those rights, we relied heavily on statistics. To be honest, we didn’t really participate in the discussion. Obtaining the business rights was the only task we worked on. stated Rob Thun, in line with a Sports Business Journal article.

The Morgan Stanley figures bear remarkable resemblance to the reports from other sources. According to a recent Bloomberg article, YouTube TV has 1.3 million customers, surpassing DIRECTV’s 1.2 million from the previous year.

Among NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers, 41% were also new YouTube TV users, which was great news for Google. This translates to roughly 533,000 new YouTube TV subscribers who will pay an additional $72.99 per month for the service in addition to the price of NFL Sunday Ticket. This may help to explain why the only live TV provider that is apparently growing is YouTube TV. In 2023, YouTube TV is said to have gained customers, while Comcast, Spectrum, DISH, Hulu, Fubo, DIRECTV, and other providers lost subscribers.

In the first half of 2023, YouTube TV reportedly gained over 300,000 new members. This coincides with a loss of almost 3.9 million subscribers for all live TV services—cable, satellite, and streaming—in the first half of 2023. YouTube TV was the only TV provider to attract members during that time, according to the Leichtman Research Group.

It is likely that Google views NFL Sunday Ticket as a long-term investment, but the question at hand is how long it will be willing to wait.

This Year, YouTube TV And YouTube Are Reportedly Set To Lose $1.2 Billion On NFL Sunday Tickets

According to reports, YouTube and YouTube TV spent $2 billion for NFL Sunday Ticket back in December 2022.

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