Advertisement

NFL Sunday Ticket stays on DirecTV for the next eight years

Wondering if the NFL would take its supersized Sunday Ticket viewing package to another provider, or even to an internet company like Google? You can stop now -- the league and DirecTV have "extended and expanded" their exclusive agreement for an unspecified number of years. According to Darren Rovell, it's an eight year deal worth some $1.5 billion annually -- more than the previous four year agreement that cost DirecTV about $1 billion each year. The big takeaway here? Things are staying mostly the same (DirecTV will stream NFL Network to its subscribers mobile devices), and AT&T's agreement to purchase DirecTV is still on. This season DirecTV changed up its marketing for Sunday Ticket streaming to target apartment dwellers and college students that can't get satellite dishes. That's what a passage in the press release promising "expanded streaming rights" refers to, so for now, it doesn't look like we'll see a full online-only offering for football fans that only want to pay to watch out of market games every weekend.