NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers are paying more for fewer games as the league moves more matchups into stand-alone national windows.
The package carried 191 games last season, down nearly 10% from 211 in 2021, according to Wall Street Journal research. Early Sunday afternoon games fell 13% to 127 over that span. Sunday Ticket is expected to offer about 200 games this season, still below the 2021 total.
The regular price for YouTube TV subscribers is now $378, nearly 30% higher than the $293.94 DirecTV charged existing customers in its final years with the package. Viewers without YouTube TV can pay as much as $480, though promotional discounts are common.
The NFL has shifted games to Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Monday and added international and holiday contests. Netflix carries Christmas games and will add a Thanksgiving Eve matchup this season. Amazon has the Black Friday game. Those contests are sold separately and are not part of Sunday Ticket, which is limited to out-of-market Sunday afternoon games. Popular teams also appear more often in national broadcasts, leaving the package with fewer high-profile matchups.
The shift reflects the NFL’s effort to create more broadcast windows and raise media-rights revenue. That helps the league but raises questions about the economics for distributors. YouTube reportedly pays more than $2 billion a year for Sunday Ticket, up from about $1.5 billion under DirecTV, even though it receives fewer games.YouTube sees the package as a long-term way to attract subscribers and advertisers. Alphabet has said YouTube TV subscriber growth accelerated after Sunday Ticket arrived.
Morgan Stanley previously estimated YouTube could lose nearly $9 billion over the seven-year deal.
The same fragmentation affects Netflix, Amazon, Fox and CBS, which are paying large sums for narrower slices of NFL rights. Live football still draws mass audiences, but distributors must decide how much those viewers are worth when fans can subscribe selectively or wait for discounts.
Sunday Ticket has about 1.8 million subscribers, according to Antenna. Whether YouTube can convert those customers into broader subscription and advertising growth will determine if the package becomes a valuable gateway or an expensive loss leader.