This coming from Ronald Grover and Liana B. Baker of Reuters. DirecTV and the NFL are close to renewing their agreement for the NFL Sunday Ticket package. Earlier this year, DirecTV hinted that it was willing to drop Sunday Ticket if the price was too expensive.
In response, the NFL began shopping the out-of-market pay package to Google and other digital companies as a way to show DirecTV that it was serious about considering other parties.
The two sides recently began to discuss the renewal in earnest and came to a framework for negotiations for a new contract. They extended their exclusive negotiating period to work through their remaining issues. Stuart Oldham of Variety reports that in these advanced discussions, a deal to renew is likely.
DirecTV currently pays the NFL close to $1 billion for rights to Sunday Ticket. Those rights expire next season. The satellite provider has held the Sunday Ticket package since 1994 and it has been a selling point as an alternative to cable.
This is the one of the final TV contracts the NFL has to negotiate. It still has to decide on whether to divide the Thursday Night Football package among two networks. In 2011, the NFL negotiated new contracts with CBS, ESPN, Fox and NBC that take effect in the 2014 season.
If the NFL renews with DirecTV, it will mean no upheaval among its TV partners for the first time since the 1980’s.
