The NFL's new Thursday Night broadcast deal with CBS shows that the power amassed by the league has emboldened it to "carve up new rights to games over and over in different ways, even when the losing network has done business with the league for decades," according to a front-page piece by Ramachandran & Clark of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. NFL officials at the same time are "launching or expanding numerous online efforts that could undercut traditional TV viewing." In other words, the NFL "plays by its own rules" when it comes to media strategy. The league this season through its new $1.99-a-month online video service, called "NFL Now," will offer "NFL-made films, TV shows and documentaries, plus a trove of new footage from teams." The league also is broadening a 1-year-old deal with Twitter that will allow for the tweeting of "video highlights of games that are in progress" and will also increase the number of games "streamed to smartphones" through its deal with Verizon. Both league deals "use rights held back from the NFL's traditional TV partners." Meanwhile, the NFL is "helping DirecTV put more marketing muscle into an online version" of the "NFL Sunday Ticket" package. Some media execs have said that the NFL's "slicing and dicing could endanger the value of its programming by oversaturating the market." But NFL Exec VP/Media and NFL Network President & COO Brian Rolapp said, "If there is a point of saturation out there, we haven't seen it. But that doesn't mean we don't look for it and stay up at night thinking about it." He added selling game-streaming rights to an online company is a matter of "when, not if" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 9/4).
HITTING THE AIRWAVES: The NFL has given the green light to two documentary-style original shows for NFL Now. NFL Media has produced four 30-minute episodes of "Finding Giants," a show that goes behind the scenes with the Giants' scouting department. It will be available on the service later this month. NFL Media also has produced six 30-minute episodes of "Undrafted," which follows athletes as they prepare for the Super Regional Combines. This series will be on NFL Now at some point next month. The NFL already announced "The Rich Eisen Show" for the service. The NFL also added to NFL Now's distribution, cutting deals with Amazon Kindle Fire, Fire TV, Yahoo Screen and NFL Mobile. Since its August debut, most users have accessed NFL Now through mobile phones (30%) and connected devices (30%). Some 19% have accessed it through tablets and 14% through desktops. So far, the most followed teams are the Patriots, Cowboys and Broncos; the most viewed teams are the Browns, Cowboys and Broncos; and the most followed players are Broncos QB Peyton Manning, Patriots QB Tom Brady and Vikings RB Adrian Peterson (John Ourand, Staff Writer).
FLOAT UP STREAM: VARIETY's Todd Spangler noted Fox Sports this season "will serve up 101 live NFL games ... on the web, the first time a broadcaster is making regular-season games available streamed over the Internet -- but there are a few catches." Fans "must subscribe to a participating cable or telco TV provider to access the Fox Sports Go service; DirecTV and Dish Network customers are, for now, out of luck." Moreover, because of the league’s exclusive rights deal with Verizon, the Fox Sports Go service "won’t be available on mobile phones." In addition, subscribers of participating pay-TV providers "will only be able to livestream NFL games televised in their market" (VARIETY.com, 9/3).
