If NFL Now were an active football player, it would be on its second team in just a year.
After the NFL’s broadcast partners and team executives initially feared that the league’s over-the-top service would eat into their business, NFL Now’s early results have been tepid enough that such complaints have silenced.
After its heavily hyped launch, the NFL dramatically altered its service after just more than a year and now believes it has the right offering for future growth. Rather than operating as a stand-alone service that offered a mix of free and paid content, the league embedded NFL Now in its mobile app and website and made all of its content free.
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NFL Now, once a stand-alone OTT service, has been rolled into NFL.com and NFL Mobile.
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The decision stands in stark contrast to the way the league announced NFL Now nearly two years ago, making the rare move to interrupt its Super Bowl week festivities to stage a press event about a business venture. From a Marriott Marquis ballroom in Times Square, Commissioner Roger Goodell announced details of the league’s entry into over-the-top programming, a new and burgeoning area of media.
When it launched later that summer, NFL Now had its own app. Like offerings from other entertainment outlets, it offered exclusive content and held out the potential to carry live games. Unlike Netflix and WWE’s OTT offerings, NFL Now would offer some content for free and put other content behind a paywall.
That vision looks far different today. Quietly before this season, the NFL moved NFL Now’s premium content — like NFL Films’ library — into its GamePass service. The league also folded NFL Now into its NFL Mobile app and website.
The league’s view of the state of NFL Now could be glimpsed by its thinking about live streaming: Sources said the NFL did not seriously consider NFL Now to carry the Bills-Jaguars game from London that streamed via Yahoo.
Many team executives never took to NFL Now, grumbling from the beginning about having to produce voluminous content for the league project. Without putting their names to their opinions, several contend their misgivings have been justified by the change in strategy. One executive asked whether this story was going to be an “obituary.”
But another top team executive dismissed that point of view, saying that NFL Now is gaining value and that the league is pleased with traffic figures.
NFL executives would not comment on NFL Now’s financials, but said they based their decision to embed NFL Now’s app with NFL Mobile on customer feedback that showed fans wanted fewer apps, not more.
“There are a billion apps. How do I simplify my life?” asked Perkins Miller, the NFL’s chief digital officer. “Our fans want their lives simplified. They don’t want to have separate apps to get what they need to know about the NFL. They want to go to one place. We made it front and center on NFL.com, NFL Mobile and right at the front door of our app on connected devices.”
Media industry experts echo Miller that consumers are using fewer apps.
“There is a battle for attention on smartphones,” said Tom Richardson, CEO of digital consultant Convergence Sports & Media. “It is a sign the NFL takes it seriously as they learn and pivot.”
Jason Kint, CEO of Digital Content Next, said the NFL is figuring out the same lessons other media companies have learned when it comes to over-the-top: There is so much content available that it becomes hard to break through. Kint referenced ComScore research that showed most mobile users use only three apps regularly.
“It’s tough to be a media company these days,” Kint said. “It’s a competitive landscape. If one league should have a product that’s successful, it would be the NFL.”
The NFL’s Miller highlighted NFL Now’s programming, which has seen impressive growth over its first year of operation. Visitors to its free club content are up more than 150 percent year over year.
Miller pointed to programming that has been able to break through, such as its Sunday afternoon studio show, “GameDay Blitz,” hosted by Dave Dameshek, that offers real-time game highlights. Viewers are watching 50 percent to 60 percent longer on Sunday afternoons this season than they did on Sunday afternoons last season.
Miller also said shows that have known personalities — like “The Rich Eisen Show” or “NFL Trendzone,” the show starring the Sklar brothers — have helped bring and keep audiences.
The key is to program so that mobile users can watch in shorter snippets, Miller said, referencing the statistic that millennials check their phones 44 times a day.
“We see and expected this behavior that NFL Now on a mobile device is really about snacking,” Miller said. “I consider NFL Now a next-generation digital network. Our OTT strategy at large is a unified free content experience, which brings you games on demand, next-generation NFL Network and highlights that you can watch and catch up on what you missed on an NFL Sunday.”
