The National Football League is launching its own streaming service for the first time. Here’s a look at what’s included and what is missing from the new product.
What Happened: The National Football League announced the launch of NFL+, a streaming platform, on Monday, confirming reports from earlier this year of a launch.
The new platform will include live-streaming of all out-of-market preseason games on devices, live regular season and postseason (NFL Playoffs, Super Bowl, Pro Bowl) streaming of local and primetime games on phones or tablets and full and condensed game replays of every single NFL game.
NFL+ also includes live game audio of every game.
A limited time offer lists the pricing of NFL+ for $4.99 a month or $29.99 for the year, saving 25% on the annual package.
The NFL+ Premium streaming package includes all of the items from NFL+ with the addition of full game replays ad-free, coaches films ad-free and condensed game replays ad-free.
NFL+ Premium is available for $9.99 per month or $79.99 per year.
There is also a seven-day free trial on both plans.
The streaming package is limited on which games it includes and also will not allow streaming onto televisions, only onto devices like phones and tablets, due to existing rights deals with several media companies.
Jacob Feldman of Sportico points out, customers will still need a cable login to watch live NFL games on TV. The package is also not a replacement for NFL RedZone, which costs extra.
Related Link: This NFL Team Paying Opposing QB $617K To Try And Beat Them In Week 1
Why It’s Important: Live sports have been one of the best performing television programs in the cut-the-cord era of getting rid of cable packages and relying on streaming options.
Adding a streaming package could be a good test by the NFL to see if consumers will be okay with watching games on tablets and phones, or if they still require watching games on the larger screen format of televisions.
The Walt Disney Company DIS, Comcast Corporation CMCSA, Paramount Global Inc PARAPARAA, Fox Corp FOXFOXA and Amazon.com Inc AMZN all have rights to NFL games for the upcoming season.
The NFL has not named a winner for the highly coveted NFL Sunday Ticket package that offers all Sunday games to subscribers. The package has been a staple for DirecTV, now a part of AT&T Inc T, for years. DirecTV’s ownership of the rights to Sunday Ticket will end after the upcoming NFL season.
Several streaming companies were among the bidders for the Sunday Ticket package, with many analysts pointing to Apple Inc AAPL being the likely winner.
With the NFL offering a streaming package, Amazon getting increased coverage of Thursday Night Football games and Apple the likely winner of Sunday Ticket, the next two years could be a huge test for the NFL to see how streaming coverage impacts viewership and advertising rates for the league.
Photo: Courtesy of Jeffrey Beall on flickr
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