The NFL season kicks off on Thursday with the Kansas City Chiefs facing off against the Detroit Lions. There will be a greater variety of football games accessible solely on services like ESPN+ than ever before. Media organizations are providing more exclusive material in an attempt to retain long-term subscribers.
When the NFL season begins on Thursday with the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs hosting the Detroit Lions (which is designated as a "Sunday Night Football" game), it will be the most available on streaming services than ever before, with some games even exclusively broadcasted on them. Media companies are reacting to this shift by heavily investing in their streaming platforms and launching more exclusive content to attract more subscribers and retain them in the long-term. In the season ahead, Peacock, ESPN+ and Amazon will have games exclusive to streaming, while YouTube TV and the NFL's streaming service will also become prominent players in the field. Streaming may have a greater influence on NFL viewership due to Disney's networks being down for Charter Communication's customers, potentially leading to an increase in online TV bundles such as Fubo. Since media giants had signed NFL media rights deals worth over $100 billion in 2021, many of these agreements included the rights to stream games. The NFL also sold the media rights to its "Sunday Ticket" package of out-of-market games to YouTube TV, which will be streaming-only, for approximately $2 billion each year, aligning with Commissioner Roger Goodell's vision of making such services "best for consumers at this stage."
NFL games are being increasingly made available through streaming services in addition to broadcast and pay-TV channels, however this season will witness a greater number of games exclusive to other sources. Daniel Cohen, executive vice president of global media rights consulting at Octagon, said, "Simulcasts did not have a noteworthy influence on streaming services, hence they're pushing more games to other platforms.” Two exclusive matches will be aired on NBCUniversal's Peacock. In December, NBCUniversal began broadcasting "Sunday Night Football" simultaneously on NBC and Peacock. The first regular season game on Peacock will be the Buffalo Bills vs Los Angeles Chargers and the first-ever NFL wild card playoff game to be solely streamed will occur on the 13th of January on Peacock. Hans Schroeder, the executive vice president and chief operating officer of NFL Media, declared, “Broadening the digital distribution of NFL content while keeping it widely accessible for our games continues to be an important goal for the league, and streaming the NFL playoffs exclusively on Peacock's platform is the next step of our strategy.” The NFL has been a way to draw in more Peacock subscribers, as Comcast administrators mentioned on recent investor calls. Peacock had 24 million subscribers as of June 30.
Last year, "Sunday Night Football" averaged close to 20 million viewers, and its viewership has been steadily increasing in the single digits. CBS and Paramount+ air games, whereas Fox Corp. only streams through an authenticated app which requires a pay-TV subscription. For the second consecutive season, Disney will air its exclusive international NFL game on ESPN+, its own streaming service, with the addition of some "Monday Night Football" games as well. As of now, ESPN+ has 25.2 million subscribers. During this upcoming season, people may be drawn to streaming services if there is an extended blackout of Disney from Charter. To avoid this, Disney has pointed out to Charter customers that they can subscribe to internet TV bundles such as Hulu + Live TV.
Amazon will once again be the home of "Thursday Night Football" and will have exclusive rights to stream the first-ever Black Friday game this year. It is reported that the inaugural "Thursday Night Football" game last season had 13 million viewers, making it the most-streamed ever according to Nielsen. Additionally, as of this year, those who wish to watch out-of-market games on "Sunday Ticket" must subscribe to YouTube TV, as opposed to DirecTV. The NFL+ has also upgraded its offering, and will now include access to NFL Network and NFL RedZone channels.
Will these exclusive games be enough to draw people in? According to Cohen, there are three possible outcomes; fans may not care enough to subscribe, they may take up a free trial and cancel after the games, or they may illegally obtain the game.
Disclosure: NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC, is owned by Comcast.
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