The NFL yesterday announced the Week 7 Bills-Jaguars game from London will be the game aired "on a national digital platform" this season -- "opening up an important new door for the sports-media industry," according to Kevin Clark of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. The game "will remain on over-the-air television in the teams’ home markets but will be put up for bidding among nationally digital platforms." The 9:30am ET start time is "hardly a standard time for a football game." But the NFL said that the start time "means it will be on in prime time in China, where the league expects to broadcast the game." This marks the "first time the league has distributed the national broadcast of a game this way." NFL execs said that there is "already plenty of interest in the digital rights to the Bills-Jaguars game." NFL Exec VP/Media and NFL Network CEO Brian Rolapp said that the league "won’t have any technological prerequisites for bidding on the package, meaning any site or streaming service can bid." LHB Sports, Entertainment & Media CEO Lee Berke called this the "first step in a thousand-mile journey." But Clark reports others in the industry "were skeptical." One media exec said the online distribution of Bills-Jags "will have little or no impact" on TV partners. The exec added that the matchup "likely would have been broadcast regionally if it were airing in the Sunday afternoon window, and the early morning game will still be broadcast by a TV partner in the home markets of the teams." Rolapp said that the digital model as currently constructed "will make the game free to watch for fans," but that the league "will listen to any and all pricing models in an effort to understand what the tech companies think" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 3/24).
BUT WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN? In Buffalo, Vic Carucci notes the platform for digital distribution of the game "has yet to be determined, although there is strong speculation that it will be YouTube or Facebook, because those companies recently struck business partnerships with the NFL." Bills President & CEO Russ Brandon said, "The reality is, the way we consume content is far different today than it was when most of us were growing up, especially the millennial generation. They take in content in a much different fashion than we do and to be a part of that landscape of where that is heading in the next 10 to 20 years” is exciting. He added, "The NFL is always a thought leader when it comes to how it distributes its content and we’re excited to be a part of it" (BUFFALO NEWS, 3/24). In N.Y., Ken Belson writes the NFL by live-streaming the game on its website "will be able to bypass cable and satellite companies that traditionally take a cut of the revenue from broadcasting games." The league also is "looking for ways to reach consumers who do not have cable subscriptions." Rolapp said that the league's current model of showing games on network TV "remains solid, but there are millions of homes without pay television packages and that could accelerate." Rolapp: "If the world ever changes, we want to be prepared" (N.Y. TIMES, 3/24).
EYE ON THE FUTURE: SI.com's Richard Deitsch wrote it "would be shocking" if this game is not the "beginning of an annual package (even limited) of regular season games available only via the web." Digital Content Next CEO Jason Kint said, "Although it's a test pattern, it's a really important one that can't be understated. As with any content company, the NFL wants to have the largest marketplace available to compete for its product. The NFL is certainly making a statement that a digital-only model ... is on the table. It completely opens up and ironically simplifies the rights for this game" (SI.com, 3/23). But RE/CODE's Peter Kafka wrote while it is "tempting to assume that the NFL will end up following suit and ditch TV for the Web," he "wouldn’t count on it." Instead, the NFL "may be trying to use the Web to get more money out of TV" (RECODE.net, 3/23).
