NFL: Sunday Ticket Has More Subscribers Than 2022

It’s still early days, but it appears the NFL and YouTube TV have scored a touchdown with NFL Sunday Ticket this season, according to The Streamable. 

The 2023 season is the first that YouTube TV is hosting the league’s out-of-market games package, and analysts have been anxious to see how well the service has been doing, especially since YouTube TV does not regularly report subscriber numbers publicly.

The NFL isn’t so bashful, however. According to Pro Football Talk, the league says that it already has more Sunday Ticket subscribers this year than last year when the package was housed on DIRECTV. Front Office Sports later clarified that the NFL’s claim was meant to apply to residential customers only, but it’s still impressive for the league and YouTube TV. DIRECTV has maintained the rights to air Sunday Ticket to bars, restaurants, and other businesses.

There were no specific numbers given by the NFL to support its claim, but considering that DIRECTV reportedly had around 2 million customers for NFL Sunday Ticket last year, it would stand to reason that YouTube TV’s subscriber count exceeds that amount. Such data would also reveal how many customers are paying for their NFL Sunday Ticket subscription, and how many are getting it free from Verizon or via a promotional price through another partner.

Still, the announcement must be encouraging from YouTube TV’s perspective. Its parent company Google is paying around $2 billion per season for the rights to NFL Sunday Ticket, and Michael Nathanson of the market analysis firm MoffettNathanson estimates that Sunday Ticket will need to attract 4.5 million users per season just to break even on the contract. Unfortunately for YouTube TV, the value of Sunday Ticket decreases as the season goes along, so the majority of users who were going to sign up for the service this year have likely already subscribed.

YouTube TV made several upgrades to Sunday Ticket this season to make it a more attractive fan offering. It offers a multiview feature that allows users to watch up to four NFL games live at once, though it is not customizable; instead, viewers must pick from pre-selected game groupings. Customers can also now pay for NFL Sunday Ticket monthly, instead of signing up for a two-year contract and paying upfront; however, customers cannot cancel or be refunded for their Sunday Ticket service.

NFL Sunday Ticket offers livestreams of all out-of-market NFL contests on Sunday afternoons. The price normally starts at $449 per season for non-YouTube TV subscribers, but until Sept. 19 all users can sign up to any plan of Sunday Ticket and save $50 off the season price.