Google CEO Larry Page and YouTube content guru Robert Kyncl have met with an NFL delegation, headed up by commissioner Roger Goodell, with the Sunday Ticket games package among the issues discussed, AllThingsD reported, citing people familiar with the situation.
Satellite TV giant DirecTV currently owns the NFL Sunday Ticket rights through the end of the 2014 football season.
AllThingsD said the talks were informal, and NFL representatives are also meeting various other technology companies on an annual trip.
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But Google has deep pockets, and its online video site YouTube has been focusing on more professional content, which has meant the companies’ names have come up as possible bidders in recent sports rights deals.
DirecTV is understood to pay about $1 billion for the NFL Sunday Ticket rights every year.
A Google representative declined to comment on the NFL meeting, and AllThingsD said league officials couldn’t immediately be reached.
DirecTV CEO Mike White has signaled his interest in continuing the NFL deal, but only at the right price.
“I want to continue that relationship,” he said earlier this year before calling the rights package “pretty mature.” The company has approximately 2 million Sunday Ticket subscribers.
DirecTV executives have at one point this year also signaled that the satellite TV company could agree to a nonexclusive Sunday Ticket deal to keep the cost in check.
E-mail: Georg.Szalai@THR.com
Twitter: @georgszalai
