Is the NFL Preparing to Reclaim All of its Streaming Rights for a Supersized NFL+?
Once the NFL’s current broadcasting deal ends, it could simply decide to stream all of its games itself.
The NFL is being cautious and deliberate in its forays into streaming. Streaming-exclusive games are just now becoming commonplace for the league, which will show both a regular season and a playoff game only on NBCUniversal’s streaming service Peacock this year. ESPN+, NFL Sunday Ticket, Paramount+, and Prime Video also stream the NFL, but outside of those platforms only the league’s proprietary streaming service NFL+ holds the rights to stream any games.
- NFL+ drove a huge bump in sports-specific streaming service signups when it launched last year.
- The league’s current broadcast deal with TV and streaming providers ends in 2032, as does its deal with Amazon to stream “Thursday Night Football.”
- With a strong profit-sharing system in place, there’s nothing to stop the league from creating its own streaming service to house in-market and out-of-market games.
Has NFL+ Been a Success So Far?
NFL+ does not release subscriber numbers to the public, but new data released by digital research firm Antenna can give some insight into the question of whether it has been a success so far. The streamer — which allows users to stream all in-market, as well as nationally broadcast, NFL games on mobile devices — is more successful than some other sports-specific streaming services at attracting older viewers. Thirty-nine percent of NFL+ subscribers are over the age of 55, suggesting that even older audiences who are generally less comfortable with streaming will follow the NFL wherever it goes.
Antenna’s numbers also show that NFL+ attracted big audiences when it first launched in late July of 2022. Between July and October, more than 2 million users signed up for a league-dedicated streaming platform, and it’s highly likely that most of these subscribers were choosing the new NFL+.
The NFL is one of the most ratings-friendly products on TV; “Sunday Night Football” has been the top primetime TV show for 11 years in a row, and there’s a good bet that 2023 will mark its 12th year atop the programming heap. Broadcasters like CBS, Fox, NBC, and ESPN that hold NFL rights are happy to keep cashing checks the league brings in, but they only hold the rights to NFL games until 2032.
Will the NFL Go It Alone on Streaming?
The league likely won’t leave linear TV until the market shows that there is no value left in traditional broadcast and cable channels. And even though linear television is seeing dramatic drops in viewership across the board, broadcast and cable channels are still likely decades (and multiple NFL media rights deals) away from being obsolete. However, it seems like an inevitability that the NFL will look to more prominently center streaming in the future.
The league’s current deal with broadcasters to air games on TV — as well as streaming on ESPN+, Paramount+, and Peacock — is worth $110 billion. While the vast majority of that is currently allocated for the broadcast rights, that is simply too much money to walk away from to make the NFL a streaming-only product. Additionally, the NFL’s deal with Amazon to allow Prime Video to stream “Thursday Night Football” tacks on another $11 billion per year, making it clear that the league is raking in the cash from the way its rights are currently distributed. So even as the value of streaming rights increases in the coming years, traditional linear rights will likely still hold considerable value for the league. So, if after the 2032 season, the league decides to keep its traditional broadcast deals in place, it still very well could opt to bring all of its streaming rights in-house, especially given the information Antenna’s research.
If over the next nine years, streaming continues its exponential growth, NFL+ could become the streaming platform that houses all NFL games, both in-market and out-of-market, which would give fans a place to watch without having to fear any blackouts or scheduling snafus that will keep them from watching their favorite team. Again, this wouldn’t entail the removal of games from broadcast and cable channels, but it would mean that games now streaming on Prime Video, ESPN+, etc., would only be on NFL+ moving forward.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has made no secret of his desire to create a similar streaming service for his league. However, the problem for Manfred is that MLB does not have profit-sharing rules, which means that wealthier teams have less financial incentive to join an all-30-team baseball streaming platform than they do to simply create their own streaming services, which the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox have done.
Conversely, NFL teams do participate in profit-share, which means that this issue is removed from the football equation. NFL owners in lower revenue-generating markets already get money from wealthier teams, so bundling them all onto one streaming platform won’t cause the same type of outcry from owners like Jerry Jones whose teams will be a bigger draw to that hypothetical service.
Making this move would undoubtedly cost the NFL money in the short term. Producing and broadcasting games in-house — as MLB had to do for teams that were pulled away from regional sports networks this year — is expensive and the revenue that the league would be getting from its old streaming partners would be gone.
In the long term, however, the NFL would be able to count on NFL+ subscription revenue as a steady source of cash. The service would almost certainly cost at least $50 per month, and ad revenues would go directly into the NFL’s pocket. It would also still show games on linear television channels, but services like Paramount+ and Peacock that stream games simultaneously with their linear broadcast would no longer get access.
There are still years before this extremely hypothetical outcome becomes even a possibility, but it is an intriguing proposition nonetheless. ESPN has been in contact with the league about incorporating NFL+ into its standalone, cable-free streaming service that it wants to launch, but the NFL could keep NFL+ in-house and make it an all-inclusive streaming platform in the next decade instead.
NFL+
NFL+ allows fans to watch live local and primetime games on mobile and tablet devices. And with an NFL+ Premium subscription, you can watch replays of every single game without ads, condensed game replays, and coaches film. The service also allows fans to choose their audio stream (home, away, and national calls). The Premium plan also includes NFL RedZone on TV.