As Apple said to pull out, YouTube reportedly in advanced talks for NFL Sunday Post

After Apple Inc's AAPL pulls out of talks with National Football League over Sunday Ticket rights, Alphabet Inc's GOOGL GOOG video platform reportedly in talks What happened: A deal between the NFL and YouTube could be reached as soon as Wednesday after the owners of the major professional sports league met, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The terms in discussion have not been verified by the Journal. The Sunday Ticket allows subscribers to view out-of-market matches on Sunday afternoons.

However, the subchat storyline would allow viewers to watch matches on two subscription services: YouTube TV and YouTube Primetime.

DirecTV has owned the rights to The Sunday Ticket for years. Google considered paying $2.5 billion a year, $1 billion more than DirecTV, according to a New York Times report.

Google and the NFL did not immediately respond to Benzinga's request for comment.

See also: How to buy Google Stock and where to buy it now

Why it matters: The addition of Sunday Ticket would be a bonus for YouTube's streaming efforts as it tries to generate subscription revenue, the Journal noted.

Nielsen data, quoted by the newspaper, indicates YouTube is growing in popularity with viewers as it overtook Netflix Inc NFLX as the most-watched service on TV for the first time in 2022.

YouTube TV already has ESPN on its platform and the NFL deal could make Google a major force in sports broadcasting, according to the report.

Apple pulled out of NFL Sunday Ticket negotiations because it wanted to offer it to Apple TV+ subscribers at no additional cost and the NFL was not keen on the move. Read more: Elon Musk says he will step down as CEO of Twitter once this happens

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