NFL talking to Google about possible online package

According to multiple reports, Google CEO Larry Page and YouTube content director Robert Kyncl met with a crew of NFL leaders lead by Roger Goodell. The suspected reason? Finding new partnerships for the NFL's Sunday Ticket, which shows out of market games to subscribers. In other words, we could have games being shown live on YouTube, or Google's Chromecast.

The NFL's Sunday Ticket is a cool service if you're a fan living outside your team's market. If you're in California while the Bengals play a game with limited viewership with a bad opponent, you can still see the Bengals while your market would otherwise show regional games on CBS and FOX. You'll pay a pretty penalty sure (currently $300), but we're talking about watching Bengals games here.

Currently DirectTV pays the NFL $1 billion annually for exclusive rights for the NFL's Sunday Ticket, which is set to expire at the end of the 2014 season.

The NFL confirmed talks this week in a statement.

"Members of our office meet often with innovative leaders in Silicon Valley and around the world," the NFL said in a statement. "We are constantly looking for ways to make our game better on the field, in the stadium and for fans."

Now the truth is that the Red Zone Network is similar but only shows critical moments in games around the league, often in replay and all red zone possessions. While something isn't going on in other games, contests of higher interest are shown. So unless you're watching a specific team or game, then I'm not sure how worthwhile the NFL's Sunday Ticket is at this point. Even more so for those of us living in Cincinnati to begin with.