NFL Sunday Ticket Will Have Many New Features When It Moves To YouTube This Fall, Google Exec Philipp Schindler Says

deadline.com:

NFL Sunday Ticket, a stronghold of football fandom in the U.S. since 1994, will be getting an array of digital enhancements when it shifts to YouTube this fall from its longtime home on DirecTV. “We think there are a lot of great opportunities to differentiate the user and creator experience with our unique capabilities,” Google Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler told Wall Street analysts during parent company Alphabet’s fourth-quarter earnings call Thursday. “Every YouTube viewer who’s interested in the NFL can now have one-click access to the full offering of Sunday Ticket.

This will be the first time that Sunday Ticket is available à la carte for fans.” Schindler indicated that picture-in-picture functionality enabling viewers to surf around games of their choice is in the works along with features like chatting.

Google is paying a reported $2 billion a year for the package of daytime games. The tech company hasn’t disclosed pricing or other details yet, but plans to offer it both as an add-on for the 5 million-plus subscribers to pay bundle YouTube TV or as a separate option via the company’s channel store.

The football talk was timely given the buildup to the February 12 Super Bowl and also served as a welcome distraction for execs after Google and YouTube parent Alphabet reported another soft quarter.