Apple, Amazon reportedly prepared to spend $2 billion on NFL streaming

Fox Sports App iPhone X (Image credit: Luke Filipowicz / iMore)

What you need to know

Apple and Amazon are reportedly battling it out for live NFL footage.
A fee of more than $2 billion is expected to be handed over to get the rights for Sunday Ticket.

Apple and Amazon are reportedly both keen to bag NFL streaming for their respective services with as much as $2 billion set to change hands.

Likely to be part of the Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime Video services, the NFL Sunday Ticket package could still go to Disney according to a Sports Business Journal report, but it seems that it's Apple and Amazon that are leading the charge.

It appears likely that Sunday Ticket will move exclusively to a streaming service in 2023, as several sources have described Apple and Amazon as the front-runners to get the NFL's out-of-market package.

While exact numbers aren't known because the discussions are still ongoing, sources told the publication that more than $2 billion will be required to get Sunday Ticket onto either streaming service.

Apple has previously been reported as keen to pick up some sort of live NFL package and this could be just the ..ticket. $2 billion is a lot of money, of course, but when your pockets are as deep as Apple's it all makes much more sense.

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Of note: Apple has been looking for a senior editorial manager of live sports that, according to online postings, would oversee "how some of the most exciting stories in live television are told on our platform."

Apple TV+ doesn't yet have any live content but Apple does have experience with streaming live footage — namely from its media events pre-pandemic. However, streaming a live NFL game is obviously a different ball game entirely.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.