NBCUniversal (NBCU) recently announced that they acquired the rights from the National Football League to stream Sunday Night Football games on mobile devices during next year’s season. This news, rather predictably, comes only a few days after Verizon gave up their exclusive rights to stream Sunday Night Football games on mobile.
NBCU has been streaming Sunday Night Football during this current season on a variety of digital devices including desktops, tablets and connected televisions but, prior to this change, the only way to watch Sunday Night Football on a mobile phone was through Verizon.
Rick Cordella, executive VP and General Manager, Digital Media, NBC Sports Group, spoke about this news in recent statement, saying that “This is an exciting day for NBC Sports. We have been streaming Sunday Night Football on numerous platforms since 2008, but as a result of this agreement, 2018 will be the first time we can stream primetime television’s No. 1 show on all digital platforms, creating a more seamless viewing experience for NFL fans…In addition to fans, this mobile agreement benefits our distribution partners, local affiliates, and advertisers, as it significantly extends SNF’s digital reach.”.
While this may not seem like major news, this does open up a lot of opportunities for NBC and anything involving sports rights is a huge deal in the broadcasting world. Data has shown that the only real thing keeping pay-TV providers in business is there access to sports content. The more this content appears online, the harder it’s going to be for traditional pay-TV providers to compete.
Sources:
http://www.multichannel.com/news/content/nbcuniversal-gets-streaming-rights-sunday-night-football/417158
NBCUniversal will start streaming Sunday Night Football on mobile devices next month
