The NFL has "decided against live streaming its three London games next season, choosing instead to focus on streaming its Thursday night games on Twitter," according to sources cited by Jessica Toonkel of REUTERS. Last year, the NFL partnered with Yahoo to live stream a London game as "part of an effort to gain more international viewers." The league last week "announced that it had chosen Twitter as its exclusive partner for streaming its Thursday night games." An NFL spokesperson said, "When we discussed potential streaming packages with interested parties, there were many options on the table, including the London games. Ultimately the package we agreed on with Twitter involved ten of our Thursday night games which we felt was the best option at that point." The league "did not rule out live streaming for London games in the future" (REUTERS, 4/11).
GETTING A BARGAIN: In Boston, Ben Volin noted the NFL's deal with Twitter was worth "a shade more" than $10M for the total package. Yahoo paid $17M "just to broadcast" last season's Bills-Jaguars from London. There are "two reasons for the disparity." The Bills-Jaguars game "was an exclusive broadcast for Yahoo." The game "wasn't shown in any TV markets" in the U.S. except Buffalo and Jacksonville. Additionally, Twitter "doesn't have many windows to sell its own advertising." A source said that the Twitter stream "must carry all of the national commercials that are sold by the networks" (BOSTON GLOBE, 4/9).
