NFL Sunday Ticket: Could Google Land the Package?

There is some interesting news on the NFL's business front today. Google met with the league today regarding the league's out of market television package, NFL Sunday Ticket.

At this point, it does not appear that negotiations have moved past the stage of informal inquiry. A power deal between Google and the NFL could be a long way off if it happens at all. As Kafka notes, however, it makes sense that companies would start making their interest in the package known now. DirecTV's current contract for the subscription television service will end after the 2014 season.

It would be interesting to see what Google could do with the package. The NFL is the only league out of the big four in North America that does not stream out of market games live online.

A few months back we had a discussion here on GGN about the future of the NFL on television. Some people expressed skepticism that DirecTV would ever relinquish NFL Sunday Ticket, but I think it's inevitable games will be more accessible in the future. Just because the NFL feels it profits most from the current setup does not mean that will always be the case. The trend in professional sports has been for leagues to profit the most by making their games accessible to the widest audience possible. This situation bears watching.