In the present, the National Football League has its own streaming platform.
NFL+, which will debut on Monday, will cost $4.99 per month or $39.99 per year.
All out-of-market preseason games, which were previously only accessible with an NFL Game Pass subscription for $99.99 per year, will be included in a subscription. The Jacksonville Jaguars take on the Las Vegas Raiders to open the NFL preseason on August 4. That game won’t be on NFL+ because it will be broadcast nationwide.
Local and prime-time regular season and postseason games, which were previously free on the Yahoo Sports app, will also be available live on mobile devices through NFL+.
The NFL will operate its own streaming service for the first time with NFL+, giving the organisation a new platform to maybe show exclusive games on in the future. Both the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball already provide subscriptions to their own streaming services that include out-of-market matches.
According to Hans Schroeder, executive vice president and chief operating officer of NFL Media, NFL+ won’t initially offer exclusive regular-season games but may do so in the future depending on how viewing trends change. For the ensuing seven to eleven years, the league has secured its local broadcast rights.
Schroeder added, “It’s another option we’ll consider with all of our other options. “We are really excited about where NFL+ can go. As quickly as media and the sports distribution business continues to change and evolve, there are lots of different factors.”
The NFL is currently renewing its Sunday Ticket subscription and will select a streaming partner by the fall, either Apple or Amazon. On Sundays, all out-of-market games are accessible with the $300/year plan. Despite having controlled Sunday Ticket rights since 1994, DirecTV will not enter a bid when the existing contract expires this season. The duration of the league’s new Sunday Ticket agreement is still to be set, but Schroeder stated in an interview that the league wants to give a new partner “the right runway to be successful.”
Additional NFL+ benefits
NFL+ will include on-demand NFL Network programming and previously aired NFL Films content in addition to games.
The NFL also offers NFL+ Premium, which costs $79.99 annually or $9.99 monthly. This subscription gives you access to “All-22” video, a bird’s-eye perspective of the game that coaches utilise to see how all 22 players move during a particular play, as well as full and condensed game replays.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement, “We look forward to continuing to grow NFL+ and deepening our relationship with fans across all ages and demographics, providing them access to a tremendous amount of NFL content, including the most valuable content in the media industry: live NFL games.”
On average, 17.1 million people watched each NFL game on TV and online during the regular season of 2021, an increase of around 10% over the previous year. According to the league, that is the highest regular season average since 2015.
The NFL and its TV partners last year agreed to a ten-year contract, starting in 2023, worth over $100 billion.