YouTube TV’s Super Bowl Strategy
The NFL Sunday Ticket is Changing the Game for YouTube TV
YouTube TV’s collaboration with the NFL shows potential for increased subscribers with their new Sunday Ticket offer.
On April 11 of this year, YouTube announced that it would now provide NFL Sunday Tickets and other add-ons. From April 11 through June 6, the Google-owned video streaming platform, YouTube TV, is offering $100 off their new NFL Sunday Ticket package add-on, which provides streaming for the regular-season NFL games that are typically broadcast on FOX and CBS.
“The thing that is really going to change with YouTube TV is obviously the Sunday NFL ticket,” Streaming Media Expert Dan Rayburn says.
“[YouTube} has not changed much over the last 10 or 15 years, [but] what has changed is how they have tried to adapt based on what consumers are always watching and trying different business models. Right now, YouTube is testing a pay-per-view model.”
YouTube TV’s offer costs more than DirectTV’s 2022 season price of $294, with YouTube’s offering priced at $349, not including extended offers such as NFL RedZone. But DirectTV usually requires the purchase of a satellite TV to get the Sunday Ticket, which YouTube TV doesn’t. That means that although YouTube TV’s offer is pricier, it is more readily available than competing streaming options.
How does this affect YouTube?The affect on YouTube
As of 2022, Google announced that YouTube TV surpassed 5 million subscribers, and YouTube TV topped all live TV streaming platforms, including Hulu’s Live TV service. This subscriber counts reached 6.3 million in May. Although their numbers are rising, Google is paying the NFL between $2 billion and $2.5 billion for the Sunday Ticket offer.
Following YouTube TV’s Sunday Ticket announcement, Google said the price of the monthly YouTube TV subscription would rise from $64.99 a month to $72.99 a month. YouTube has stated the increase is due to the rising cost of content and service, but signs point to its recent deal with the NFL as the culprit for this $8 increase.
But even as YouTube TV subscription prices rise, the addition of the NFL Sunday Ticket has enchanced the streaming platform like no other business decision has in the past decade. As prices for the service increase, so do the subscriber counts, making this costly deal highly rewarding for YouTube TV and Google.
Even though the NFL Sunday Ticket offer has altered YouTube TV’s standing in the world of streaming industry, this addition is ultimately using a classic pay-per-view model, which has been applied to entertainment like sports events since the ‘80s on cable and satellite TV, Rayburn says.
He believes that even though the NFL deal is new, it’s part of Youtube’s long-term policy.
“They are just constantly striving to refine the business to make more money out of the content that people are watching and then continuing to learn how consumers want to engage with video,” he says.
As YouTube continues to make money off this offer, the recent success shows how profitable it can be to teach a new dog some old tricks.
Madison Bruno is a Luckbox editorial assistant and student at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.
