Sports is an important part of the streaming landscape, already serving as a major thrust in the programming strategies for Peacock, Paramount+, and Max; and playing an increasing role for Netflix, Amazon and Apple TV+.
In addition to the sports programming available on premium streaming services, the leagues also operate sport-specific services targeting particular pockets of their fan audiences. The NFL has made two recent big moves. First, they converted a mobile-only service from a partnership with Verizon into a League-operated product, NFL+. Second, they moved NFL Sunday Ticket, a premium-priced product which targets enthusiasts with access to a broad swath of games not otherwise broadcast in their regions, from DirecTV to YouTube.
According to Antenna data, both products are showing robust growth. Antenna estimates that NFL+ Subscriptions reached 2.7M in September 2024, an increase of +20.4% from the same period in 2023, and +95.1% from 2022. This is also up +12.4% from last season’s peak of 2.4M in December 2023.
Antenna estimates that NFL Sunday Ticket Subscriptions reached 1.8M in September 2024, up +33.2% YoY and +16.4% from last season’s peak of 1.6M in January 2024.
When NFL Sunday Ticket was distributed by DirecTV, access to the product was largely limited to DirecTV customers. This significantly limited the product’s potential reach, because fans who did not have access to or did not want DirecTV were typically shut out of NFL Sunday Ticket.
Access was opened up when NFL Sunday Ticket shifted to YouTube. The product is offered at a discounted price to customers of YouTube TV, but it is also available to all consumers via the YouTube Primetime Channels distribution hub.
Interestingly, NFL Sunday Ticket is performing significantly better among YouTube TV customers than with the rest of the market. Antenna estimates that 61% of the subscriptions to Sunday Ticket come from YouTube TV customers. Given that YouTube TV subscribers make up a relatively small portion of US households, that translates to a high penetration among that audience.
Making this disparity even more significant, NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers via YouTube TV were auto-canceled at the end of last season, whereas subscribers via Primetime Channels were not.
This meant that subscriptions via YouTubeTV had to build back up over the course of the off-season.
For more detailed information on Antenna’s methodology and definitions of core metrics, visit http://www.antenna.live/methodology.
Brendan Brady is a Content Strategy Associate at Antenna, a measurement and analytics company providing insight into purchase behavior and subscription metrics across the new media landscape.
