Google’s YouTube is making the most of having NFL’s Sunday Ticket in its lineup, with one study estimating it has 1.3 million subscribers.
Of that total, which was calculated in a study by research firm Antenna, 62% of the sign-ups have occurred through existing YouTube TV customers.
The NFL’s own NFL+ service, featuring live local games on a phone or tablet, has also seen growth, with Antenna estimating that the NFL has seen 2 million subscribers after peaking at 1.7 million last season.
Taken together, the Antenna data underscores the strength of a sports brand like the NFL, especially as it makes its transition to streaming. Beyond Sunday Ticket and NFL+, Amazon’s Thursday Night Football games on its Prime Video service have regularly seen double-digit ratings increases over a season ago.
While that’s good for the NFL, it’s still unclear how this shakes out for YouTube. Last month, Morgan Stanley came out with a prediction that YouTube and YouTube TV would lose $1.2 billion on the package, considering it had to pay $2 billion to secure the rights from the NFL. Google is betting that interest in Sunday Ticket will drive new customers to YouTube TV.
Antenna estimates that NFL Sunday Ticket has driven roughly 250,000 households to sign up for YouTube TV as a result of the football package.
A spokesman for YouTube wasn’t immediately available to comment on the Antenna report.