DirecTV is confident it will land the renewal of the NFL Sunday Ticket...

DirecTV is confident it will land the renewal of the NFL Sunday Ticket package of NFL games by year-end, said a Wells Fargo analyst who said she heard CEO Mike White use words to that effect at an investor conference. Lower-than-expected programming costs at DirecTV are mainly due to its not carrying some sports networks like that of the Los Angeles Dodgers, wrote Wells Fargo’s Marci Ryvicker in an email to investors. But DirecTV programming costs will grow by a double-digit percentage in 2015, Ryvicker said. Renewing the NFL Sunday Ticket deal is “important” for completing AT&T’s plan to buy DirecTV, she said. Under their merger agreement, AT&T is free to walk away from the deal if DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket package isn’t renewed “substantially on the terms discussed between the parties,” AT&T has said in SEC filings (CED May 20 p1).