The NFL is making a bit of history this weekend by teaming up with Yahoo! for the first pro football game ever to be streamed globally, live, for free. However, what really makes this Sunday’s Buffalo Bills/Jacksonville Jaguars game, being played in London, worth noting: Yahoo! bid against traditional broadcasters for exclusive rights to the game and won, reportedly to the tune of around $20 million. What that means? Aside from fans in Buffalo and Jacksonville who will still get to watch it on TV, for everyone else, it will be online only.
“One of the reasons the NFL chose Yahoo! is we do reach a billion people across every single region around the world, and the opportunity to introduce the sport to those users I think is something that they look to us that we can uniquely bring, along with our technical infrastructure, as well as our advertiser relationships," says Kenneth Fuchs of Yahoo!
So a huge stream like this by a huge entity like the NFL, how does this all potentially shake things up for traditional TV broadcasts of games down the line?
“It’s the NFL testing its relationship with broadcasters and just sending a message to them that, ‘Hey, we’ve got the product,' says Dade Hayes, editor of Broadcasting & Cable. “Content is king. It’s the old cliché, but in this case, it’s absolutely true. The highest rated programs on television are football games. It’s only going to raise the stakes on cable companies to keep investing in broadband which they absolutely are doing, so I don’t think it’s going to be a net loss for traditional TV companies. They just have to be smarter about the way they’re doing it."
The game can be seen via several connected streaming devices as well as on most of Yahoo!’s apps.
Online, you’ll find it at nflstream.yahoo.com.