NFL signs $500 million deal with Verizon to stream games

There has been a lot of concern surrounding the NFL this season over decreased television ratings, but the league has reached a massive new broadcasting deal that reminds us TV ratings don’t tell the entire story.

John Ourand and Daniel Kaplan of Sports Business Journal reported on Monday that the NFL has signed a $500 million deal with Verizon for streaming content. The deal begins next month, meaning postseason games and the Super Bowl will be streamed on Verizon platforms.

Verizon currently has a $250 million streaming deal with the NFL, but the new deal will increase the availability of content and not limit it to Verizon mobile subscribers. Yahoo and Yahoo Sports, which are owned by Verizon, will be streaming games for users of any mobile network. The same will be true with the NFL mobile app.

“The NFL is a great partner for us and we are excited to take its premier content across a massive mobile scale so viewers can enjoy live football and other original NFL content where and how they want it,” Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam said in a statement, via Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk. “We believe that partnerships like this are a win for fans, but also for partners and advertisers looking for a mobile-first experience.”

As SBJ notes, the $500 million deal is likely a sign that media companies will be making massive bids when the NFL’s media rights expire in 2021 and 2022. We have already seen the league experiment with streaming games on social media sites, and producing content that way is only expected to increase in the coming years.