Apple (AAPL) looks to have stolen a march on its big tech rivals in the bidding war for rights to the NFL Sunday Ticker package of programing after reaching at deal late Thursday to sponsor the Super Bowl halftime show.
The National Football League said it's reached a multiyear agreement with Apple Music for the event, typically the most-watched of the year, that will being with the AFC championships in February. PepsiCo's (PEP) 10-year sponsorship deal ended in 2022.
Super Bowl LVII is slated for February 12 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
Financial terms weren't disclosed by either Apple or the NFL, but a report from Sportico suggests the five-year title sponsorship deal will cost the world's biggest tech company around $250 million.
"We are proud to welcome Apple Music to the NFL family as our new partner for the iconic Super Bowl Halftime Show," said Nana-Yaw Asamoah, SVP of partner strategy for the NFL. "We couldn't think of a more appropriate partner for the world's most-watched musical performance than Apple Music, a service that entertains, inspires, and motivates millions of people around the world through the intersection of music and technology."
Apple shares were marked 1.9% lower in early Friday trading to change hands at $146.77 each. Amazon fell 2.9% to $113.95 while Google slipped 1.6% to $98.56 each.
Apple, as well as Amazon (AMZN) and Google (GOOGL), are reportedly interested in the right to the Sunday Ticket package, currently offered by DirectTV, when that two-decade deal concludes at the end of this season. Estimates suggest the Sunday Ticket package could come at a price of around $2.5 billion a year.
Amazon has already dipped its toe in the water of living sports streaming, and recently paid $1 billion for the the rights to broadcast Thursday night games over the next eleven years.
Amazon said its Thursday Night Football debut last week triggered a record amount of sign-ups for Amazon Prime, its annual membership and streaming service, over the three-hour period that it broadcast the League's opening match between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Los Angeles Chargers.
Reports suggest the game drew just over 13 million viewers -- around 12 million of which watched the game through Amazon streaming -- a figure that was nearly double the NFL Network figures from the opening game in 2021.
