Patrick Doyle, the chief financial officer at DirecTV, has said that the US satellite television provider would consider acquiring non-exclusive rights to the Sunday Ticket package of American football NFL programming when its exclusive deal expires at the end of the 2014-15 season.
“There is a point where we’re certainly willing to renew and at some [licence fee] increase that’s reasonable, that we can absorb and continue to pass on to the customer,” Doyle said. “I think if it goes above that, we would certainly either think about not carrying it or go non-exclusive.”
He added: “We’re not necessarily concerned about going non-exclusive, if it’s structured properly.”
The out-of-market subscription package was first launched by DirecTV in 1994, allowing subscribers to access Sunday afternoon games broadcast by US networks CBS and Fox.