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The sports and media worlds were abuzz yesterday with the news that the NFL had met with Google about a possible streaming deal with the tech titan’s YouTube unit.
Much of the talk centered on YouTube possibly buying rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket package — owned through 2014 by DirecTV.
But that is unlikely to happen, media sources tell The Post.
“They’re trying to gin up potential bidders; the cable guys have already circled [Sunday Ticket] the last two times,” one network source said. “They’ve gotten to the place where it’s not worth it to buy it exclusively.”
ESPN President John Skipper, speaking at his network’s media day after the news report on AllThingsD broke the NFL-Google chat, seemed to smell a rat.
Sports leagues wouldn’t put major events online only, Skipper said.
“They [leagues] all love to float the idea because there will be more competition for rights.”
DirecTV now pays $1 billion a year to air Sunday Ticket, which allows US pigskin fans the ability to watch every out-of-market game.
The prices for those rights are expected to skyrocket in the next deal.
In 2011, the networks and ESPN agreed to spend some $42 billion on extending multiyear rights to NFL content.
DirecTV declined to comment.
The NFL is already the richest league in the world, with annual revenue of around $9 billion.
In 2010, NFL boss Roger Goodell set himself a goal of adding almost a $1 billion a year in revenue — predicting revenue could hit $25 billion by 2027.
The Google-NFL chat may have focused on global streaming rights, which would offer the NFL another way to squeeze out more revenue.
The NFL has held back from selling international streaming rights, valued at around $100 million, sources said.