Coverage: Verizon strikes new deal to stream NFL games

Verizon has signed a new multi-year agreement with the NFL to carry football games on mobile phones and will allow other carriers’ customers to watch as well.

Daniel Goldman of CNNMoney.com had the news:

Starting in January, anyone with a smartphone will be able to watch games airing in their local market. So if you live in Wisconsin, you can watch Packers games. You’ll also be able to watch nationally televised matches, including Thursday, Sunday and Monday Night Football games, the playoffs and the Super Bowl.

Fans will be able to stream games on three apps: Yahoo Sports, Verizon’s go90 and NFL Mobile.

Streaming NFL games on smartphones had been a Verizon exclusive since 2010. Two years ago, Verizon added the ability for its customers to stream in-market and nationally televised games for free. Since then, Twitter and Amazon have also streamed Thursday night games.

James Vincent of The Verge also reported that Verizon will remain an official NFL sponsor:

A Verizon spokesperson told The Verge: “All in-market games including national pre-season, regular season, playoffs and Super Bowl will be open to all mobile customers across Verizon and Oath’s platforms next season.” That means you’re still limited to whatever your local Fox or CBS station would be airing on TV; DirecTV still has an exclusive grip on out-of-market games.

Verizon says it will continue to sponsor the NFL, and offer “unique experiences” to subscribers “at key NFL events including the Super Bowl, Pro Bowl, and the NFL Draft.” However, the company evidently felt that it was no longer worth keeping the bulk of NFL content exclusive to its customers, and will instead use it to boost its other platforms.

“We’re making a commitment to fans for Verizon’s family of media properties to become the mobile destination for live sports,” said Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam, Chairman in a press statement. “The NFL is a great partner for us and we are excited to take its premier content across a massive mobile scale so viewers can enjoy live football and other original NFL content where and how they want it.”

Darren Rovell of ESPN pegged the deal’s value at $2.5 billion:

The new deal for the largest U.S. wireless carrier looks very different from its last deal. That’s because Verizon has gone from being solely a mobile carrier to also being a video content company after its purchases of AOL in 2015 and Yahoo! in 2017 for $4.4 billion each.

The deal allows Verizon to stream live in-market NFL games on any one of its websites, with Yahoo! being the predominant home.

Unlike the last deal, which allowed Verizon to have the exclusive streaming rights for in-market live games only on mobile phones, the live in-market games will be available on the Verizon platforms on phones of all carriers starting this postseason. In 2018, it will include all tablets.

To monetize the deal, Verizon will have ad inventory within the games that it streams on mobile, which includes in-market games on Thursday, Sunday afternoon, Sunday night and Monday night. DirecTV has rights for all out-of-market games on Sunday.

“Media is one of the major pillars for us now,” said Brian Angiolet, the company’s global chief media and content officer. “And sports is going to be the most important part of that content.”