The 2023 NFL season will kick off on Sept. 7 with a primetime Thursday Night Football matchup. The NFL season includes multiple Sunday games and primetime matchups on Thursday nights, Sunday nights and Monday nights.
While there are no publicly traded NFL teams on a major stock exchange like other North American sports leagues, investors have several options to consider for companies that could benefit from a strong 2023 season and the upcoming kickoff of games.
The list of companies with media rights for NFL games includes Paramount Global PARAPARAA, Fox Corp FOX FOXA, Comcast Corporation CMCSA, Walt Disney Co DIS, Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN and Alphabet Inc GOOGGOOGL.
The 2022 NFL season saw strong initial viewership in week 1, with audience averages up 3% from 2021. Investors could be expecting the same kind of growth for these companies.
For this article, the focus is on five stocks for investors to consider: Paramount, Amazon and Alphabet, and two sports betting companies, DraftKings Inc. DKNG and Genius Sports Ltd. GENI.
Paramount Global: The owner of CBS and the Paramount+ streaming platform, Paramount will look to grow its audience on television and grow its streaming subscriber base.
While CBS will be the home of several NFL matchups on Sundays and will broadcast certain NFL Playoff games, the media company is also the home of Super Bowl LVIII, set for Feb. 11, 2024, in Las Vegas.
Along with airing the Super Bowl on CBS, Paramount will also air an alternate youth-focused version of the game on its Nickelodeon network.
The alternate broadcast could bring in an increase in overall viewers for the media company and also allow it to increase advertising revenue. Nickelodeon will not air certain national ads that cover topics like beer, spirts and sports betting, according to Sports Business Journal.
A report from Variety said that 70% of the Super Bowl commercial inventory is already sold by Paramount at price points of around $6 million to $7 million for a 30-second slot.
Last year’s Super Bowl was watched by 113 million viewers on Fox, setting a new six-year high for the annual game. The game was also the third most-watched television event in history. Super Bowl LVII was also the most-streamed Super Bowl, with an average of 7 million streams, up 18% year-over-year.
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Alphabet Inc GOOGGOOGL: The technology giant added NFL coverage to its large list of offerings for consumers. Alphabet unit YouTube landed the highly coveted rights to NFL Sunday Ticket, beating out several other media and streaming companies.
YouTube is paying an average annual price of $2 billion for the NFL Sunday Ticket rights and will offer several package options for customers to get access to the NFL content. YouTube TV subscribers have the option to purchase NFL Sunday Ticket for $349 for the entire season, while those without a YouTube TV subscription will need to pay $449 for the season.
This pricing is higher than what was previously charged by DirecTV, the former rights holder for NFL Sunday Ticket.
Given the addition of NFL Sunday Ticket and its discounted rate for YouTube TV subscribers, there's potential for a price hike in the monthly subscription fee for YouTube TV, which currently ranges from $64.99 to $72.99.
NFL Sunday Ticket includes all out-of-market regular season NFL Sunday games that are typically broadcast on Fox and CBS.
Amazon.com, Inc.: The e-commerce leader has the rights to Thursday Night Football games beginning in Week 2 and will air the first-ever Black Friday football game the day after Thanksgiving.
On Friday, Nov. 24, 2023, Amazon will air the Miami Dolphins and New York Jets game at 3 p.m. ET for free for fans on the Amazon website or the Prime Video app.
While the game will be aired for free, it could see Amazon increase its advertising for sign-ups of Prime for the rest of the 2023 season or for Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals during an already eventful holiday weekend.
Amazon paid a reported $1 billion for the Thursday Night Football rights and saw strong initial results in 2022. The e-commerce company credited Thursday Night Football leading to Amazon Prime sign-ups.
Thursday Night Football also saw strong viewership in the 18 to 34 demographic, marking the youngest median age of any NFL broadcast package since 2013. This could lead to increased advertising rates given this is a key target demographic.
DraftKings Inc: The sports betting company could benefit from additional territories being legal for the 2023 NFL season and increased market share from prior years. DraftKings CEO Jason Robins recently told Benzinga that the NFL season is part of the company’s exciting future.
“It looks like it’s shaping up to be a great NFL season,” Robins told Benzinga.
Robins said it is “really early,” but initial indicators are showing strength ahead of the season. Robins added the sports betting industry has seen incredible growth every NFL season.
“It continues to be a great time of year. I’m expecting big things and big growth this NFL season.”
Robins also said that the addition of a Black Friday game was “a great idea” and serves as a value add for sports betting companies.
DraftKings saw increased app downloads around the start of the 2022 NFL season. The company could face increased competition with entries from Fanatics and ESPN Bet during the 2023 season but maintains a strong overall market share of more than 30%.
Genius Sports: The data provider is the exclusive carrier of NFL games data, which are sold to sports betting and sports media operators. With more states legal and new sports betting operators launching during the NFL season, Genius Sports could benefit from increased interest and potential new partners for its exclusive data.
The company recently announced an extension as the exclusive data rights provider of the NFL through the 2027-2028 season, as part of a deal that also saw the NFL swap warrant payments for cash.
“We believe that this is in the interest of our shareholders as it is less dilutive than it would have been otherwise, and we have agreed on a predetermined cash amount, which will be included in our rights fees and leaves us confident in our ability to continue growing profitability through the life of the deal,” Genius Sports CEO Mark Locke said, as reported by Sportico.
Genius Sports recently reported second-quarter revenue that was up 22% year-over-year and raised its full-year outlook.
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