The NFL is said to be looking at Apple, Google, Amazon and Yahoo as platform partners for streaming its Thursday night football games according to SportsBusinessDaily:
The league also sent RFPs to several digital companies, like Google, Yahoo, Apple and Amazon, to stream the entire Thursday night schedule on a non-exclusive basis, sources said. The league’s initial plan would have the digital streams serve as a simulcast of the television production — with the same ads and in-game production features. The league expects bidding to start in the low $300M for the television package, with a nominal escalator in year two, sources said.
Yahoo, who is expected to bid, paid $15M to exclusively stream one game this season according to the report so the deal would be a big one. Because the streaming deal would be non-exclusive, the prices would be much lower on a per-game basis. More importantly, the deal would hopefully be the first step into the much larger goal of streaming the whole NFL Season.
Apple TV got the Game Pass service featuring live preseason football games on updated NFL app just four months ago, and now has tvOS as a platform to expand on that.
We know Tim Cook likes his Auburn football and SVP Eddy Cue is a big sports fan so…
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
I would love this. DirectTV needs to come to some sort of reasonable deal so that I can subscribe through aTV for Sunday Ticket.
Easy, get an Xbox One or PS4, change your credit card address to a multi family dwelling, subscribe to NFL Sunday Ticket streaming and then just go change your credit card address back to your home address. This is an easy way to subscribe to NFL Sunday Ticket without signing their two year contract and having to pay monthly!
Better yet – NFL needs to lift the ridiculous local team blackout from streaming services and service us cord cutters. Thankfully I am on Verizon, live in New England, so have a team that is on a lot of national games. The NFL iPhone app is acceptable, but after week 3, they locked out AirPlay. Stupid. I say if it is available over the air on my local CBS channel for free, if I pay for CBS All Access (I do), am located in an area where the CBS All Access app supports live, local channel (I do) and I am at my house in the local viewing area (I am every sunday) – then I should be able to watch the game. The CBS All Access app plus my internet is just the alternative to an OTA antenna.
This has to stop, and I am kind of surprised this is allowed by the FCC.
Another reason to hate the NFL, they have no loyalty at all. For the last two years CBS paid a fortune to do the Thursday night package and now that it’s becoming mainstream, thanks to the way CBS placed it, for all their hassles they are told by the NFL that they have to put globs more money for the package in future years.
Just mark my words, all that needs to happen is for someone to die on the field and many will flea from the game.
60 years ago when television was in it’s infancy, the big sports of the time were boxing, baseball and horse racing. Baseball is still around but not the same level as in was in the 50s, while boxing and horse racing has just about disappeared.
I see the same with the NFL in 20 or 30 years when folks wake up to the dangerous of football.
Wonder what CBS, NBC, Fox and ESPN’s reaction will be then???