YouTube TV vs DirecTV: How Much will it cost to watch NFL games? A Q&A with Neal Mohan
I caught up with YouTube chief product officer (and previous Decoder guest) Neal Mohan briefly to talk about the deal, what it means for the experience of watching NFL games, and whether this gets the NFL’s broadcast partners like Fox and CBS any closer to games in 4K. (Spoiler: sigh.) I also confirmed a key difference between buying Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV over the main YouTube app: only YouTube TV will offer DVR features, per YouTube spokesperson Allison Toh.
Now, it will be available either as an add-on for YouTube TV subscribers or à la carte via YouTube Primetime Channels, which launched last month to “bring shows and movies from more than 30 services directly into the YouTube interface.”
The Sunday Ticket package for this season costs almost $300 to purchase from DirecTV or even more if you purchase the Max package, but no one knows how much it will cost.
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Neal Mohan: The place for sports fans has always been on the video sharing site. We’ve had partnerships with the NFL, other sports leagues and federations, teams, athletes for years and years. A lot of our viewers have been watching sports on our platform for many years. It is part of the investments that we make along those lines.
The NFL itself has dipped its toes further into streaming with its own NFL Plus service, which launched this year. But you can only use the service on a mobile phone or tablet and it has a limited selection of games, meaning it might not be enough for some NFL superfans.
The NFL wanted to get a package worth 2.5 billion dollars per season. The satellite provider has paid $1.5 billion per year on an eight-year contract that expires at the end of this season.
In June, Google stated that for the first time, it was the largest internet-based pay TV service in the U.S. That number includes users on free promotional trials.
The living room screens are our largest and fastest-growing screens, no matter the app you choose to use. We’ve invested a lot there through second-screen type experiences, interactivity, hiding spoilers, et cetera. We’re working on multiscreen as well for sports fans.
Our future is going to be a big part of our subscription business. [Subscription video on demand] and [advertising-based video on demand] combined are the twin engines of our future growth. Through this deal, our fans can access Sunday Ticket through whatever point they want. I was excited to hear that they can get it on the main app through Primetime Channels. They can get it as part of YouTube TV. It can be obtained on all devices.
I am excited about that because I know how important that is for sports fans. Part of this is everything that we can do with creators, both in terms of formal arrangements like the one that I described [and also the] enormous amount of shoulder content on YouTube. There’s an enormous amount of commentary. The way [my son] consumes NFL content is not just the live games but all the creator commentary around it as well. I expect this to really be an investment in doubling down on that type of creativity on YouTube.
You can use the shortform format to do things such as re-enactments of highlights, interviews, commentary, and more.
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We haven’t gotten into details about the production. CBS and Fox produce the games that make up the Sunday Ticket package. The regular season is on Sunday.
In terms of the user experience for the streams, YouTube TV does have some stats, it has some replay features. Are you going to be offering more of those?
Are you planning to have hardware integrations with Goggles? Chromecasts, Nest Hubs? It is easy to say, “Make the football follow me around the house.”
There’s that old quote about the only media business models being bundling and unbundling. Over the past decade, we have gone through a lot of unbundling. This marks a big milestone for the rebundling of media. Do you see it as a way to drive people toward larger bundles or a way to rebuild bundles?