The NFL schedule gave fans an unwanted surprise with the reveal of two Christmas fixtures, allocated to the streaming giant Netflix. With Netflix being the latest streaming service to get a piece of the NFL pie, it has left some fans worried. Subsequently, they have been calling out the NFL for prioritizing profits by making the fans pay for different streaming services.
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There is a perception out there that the NFL will completely switch to streaming platforms, making it harder for the fans to enjoy game day at minimal costs. However, NFL Vice President of Broadcasting, Mike North doesn’t see this happening for a long time. Mike North joined Adam Schefter on his podcast to break down the schedule and asserted that the league is gravitating towards streaming, but not completely.
He stated that the present generation of football fans rely on streaming platforms like Netflix to get their NFL fix, something their generation won’t understand or get used to. He said,
“Are we going, continuing to gravitate towards the streaming? We are. That’s where the consumers are. Maybe we’re too old, but our kids know. And that’s where they ingest their content. That’s where they interact with the National Football League.”
However, he insisted that the league probably wouldn’t shift all the league fixtures or the Super Bowl to these streaming services at least for coming years but a game or two every year can be expected from now on. These things help in increasing the popularity of the league, North said.
“So, I don’t think we’re ever going to get to a point where all the games are being streamed or the Super Bowl is on a streaming service. That’s probably not in our lifetimes. But yeah, one-offs here and there, just keeping the interest level high for our fans using these assets for these media partners to continue to build their business.”
Pushing content on these services isn’t something new. It’s something the league has been doing for years. Over the years, the NFL has signed deals with Amazon Prime Video, Peacock, Yahoo, ESPN+, YouTube TV, CW, Paramount, etc.
The NFL’s willingness to give away the rights to their prime-time matches and holiday fixtures shows that they clearly understand what the future holds in the store as TV viewership declines in favor of streaming services
Growing Influence of Streaming in NFL Broadcasts
The NFL understood the importance of TV much before other American Sports, which helped it gain popularity among the American audience since the 1960’s. Since 2021, 75 of the most viewed programs on TV were pro football games. And this number continues to rise every year.
The merger between AFL and NFL and the subsequent rise of cable TV in the 1980s gave the NFL an opportunity that was hard to ignore. It was ESPN that became the beneficiary of this, getting the rights to broadcast the games on cable, in a landscape that was dominated by CBS, NBC, and ABC.
Now collectively the rights to broadcast the games will earn the NFL over $110B ($10B/year) for 10 years starting from 2023. Now that broadcasting technology is shifting towards streaming, the NFL is in a perfect position to take advantage of the new stream of revenue.
Streaming services like Netflix, Peacock, ESPN, etc are easily accessible and are more geared towards the upcoming generation. It also provides the NFL with flexibility in scheduling. As per Vanity Fair, YouTube will be paying $2 billion for the NFL Sunday Ticket. Amazon will pay $1 billion annually for the next 11 years for Thursday Night games.
Peacock will get to stream one prime-time playoff game each year for the next 6 seasons under the new contract with NBC. Disney, the parent company of ESPN, has been trying to streamline the process by shifting ESPN’s full services including ESPN+ into one big service, which will allow the consumers to stream everything in one place. They are also trying to rope in the NFL by giving it a small minority share in this venture.
The future is clear as the TV viewership dwindles and the NFL, like always, is first in line to benefit from it.
