Althea Borquez: NFL Sunday Ticket Canceled, DirecTV Closing the Service due to Increase in NFL Live Streaming

NFL Sunday Ticket, the one-stop destination for all the NFL 2019 season Sunday games will soon be canceled. AT&T owned DirecTV will give up its hold on the exclusive rights to the Sunday Ticket trade package. As per the business reports, AT&T won’t renew their contract with the NFL after it ends in 2022.

DirecTV has been showing NFL games on TV for more than 20 years through the Sunday Ticket. But with time more and more people are cutting cords and shifting to live streaming services. It is why the NFL Sunday ticket is generating less profit and will soon be a venture in a loss. Hence, AT&T has decided to cancel the NFL Sunday ticket service, which will affect a lot of traditional TV channel viewers.

AT&T are in Loss on NFL Sunday Ticket

John Stankey, the COO of AT&T have explained the reasons behind closing the NFL Sunday ticket service. Stankey said the service has been offering less profitability that it once earned. “It is not a growing product if we wake up after a year and suddenly there won’t be an increased number of viewers in the United States to watch the NFL games.”

We’re back at the home of the @dallascowboys! This time, @ScooterMagruder is here to bring you even closer to the new #5G fan experiences. pic.twitter.com/1ggmcf2YXA

— AT&T (@ATT) September 22, 2019

Planned on signing up for NFL Sunday Ticket but due to cost, (and my inability to read lol) opted for GamePass. Glad I did because I couldn't handle going another season without watching the #Chiefs.

— Shawn Gallagher (@kansascityshawn) September 28, 2019

DirecTV is right now paying an average fee of $1.5 billion to the NFL. But at the same time, it has been losing $500 million on the Sunday ticket package with each year. There are roughly two million subscribers to the NFL Sunday ticket service left and that number is also going to get lower and lower with time.

Fans Prefer NFL Live Streaming

NFL has been shifting slowly to the streaming service platforms with the evolved technology. The first such decision was made when NFL executives sold the rights of “Thursday night football” to Amazon Prime Video.

It is rumored that Facebook, Apple, Amazon, and other tech companies are in talks with the NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to expand NFL broadcast partnership. NFL Sunday ticket will very soon be replaced by one of the major streaming services in the near future.