The NFL is pushing to bring NFL Network and the Red Zone channel direct to consumers, NFL Exec VP/Media Brian Rolapp said yesterday at the ’16 NeuLion Sports Media & Technology Conference. “I think anyone who's in the pay TV business, if they're not looking at that, they should be,” Rolapp said. During a 30-minute interview, Rolapp said the downcast outlook for cable in general has not harmed the league’s enthusiasm for NFL Net, which he said has added subscribers against the trend in recent years. Nevertheless, the net is stepping beyond its old identity as a cable channel. It creates all of the content distributed via deals with Snapchat and YouTube, and is key to increasing viewership of the NFL during the mid-week on all platforms. "We think of it less as a TV network and more as a content factory that's feeding three parts of our media model,” Rolapp said. The Snapchat deal, in particular, is exciting, he said, because it has created an entirely new revenue stream through advertising and is earning “immense” engagement from young fans. Separately, he said: “NFL Network is important to us strategically. We still believe the NFL fan is underserved.”
DON’T BLAME THE RED ZONE: As the league and its broadcast partners deal with a surprising ratings decline in the first quarter of this season, Rolapp dismissed a theory that Red Zone is cannibalizing viewership. He said the subscriber numbers there are too small, and that Sunday afternoons are a relative bright spot to NFL viewership this fall.
