NFL fans were treated Sunday to a free live stream on Yahoo of the Bills and Jaguars battling it out at Wembley Stadium in London. It’s usually a relief not having to watch the Jaguars play until after Sunday morning breakfast, potentially the best meal of the week, but Jacksonville and Buffalo actually put on a good show and represented the League well in Europe.
The NFL’s rationale for the Sunday excursion to England was twofold: it advanced the league’s prerogative to move a franchise to Europe, as it was the second of three games that are scheduled to take place in London this year, and it also served as an experiment for future game streaming options. The possibility of a London NFL team is difficult to gauge, as the games played at Wembley stadium are drawing big crowds, but it’s unclear if the novelty of those games will wear off when it becomes a permanent fixture. The more immediate, and intriguing, takeaway from the weekend are the implications of Yahoo’s free stream.
The stream was met with varying reviews. Some took issue with video quality and difficulty viewing the game on mobile devices, while others experienced no technical issues at all. CBS’ Kevin Harlan and Rich Gannon, the network’s No. 4 broadcast team, called the game from Wembley Stadium and were solid, and nothing about their style deviated from their typical broadcasts.
According to a CNN report, 15.2 million people streamed the first-ever worldwide NFL stream distributed online. Only about 33 percent of the audience tuned in outside of the United States, and it averaged 2.36 million viewers per minute, in contrast with typical games that average 10 to 20 million viewers per minute.
The lower viewership numbers can be attributed to the 8:30 a.m. local time kickoff and the matchup between two thoroughly uninteresting teams, but it is interesting to see that a free service like this fell so short. With cable subscriptions plummeting and online TV streaming services constantly evolving, the Jaguars-Bills game theoretically should have been as lucrative, if not more popular, than the typical Sunday TV broadcast.
For now, it’s fair to call the stream’s poor performance a wash given the irregular circumstances. A free stream of a Packers-Patriots game, for example, would draw an absolute killing, and the programmatic advertising options for such opportunities could draw enormous price tags.
Free streaming, albeit popular in its illegal form with college students and those without TVs, is not likely in the NFL’s future. Although it was an exciting experiment with streaming options, that sort of unlimited access is not something that will last in the future. According to FOX, the NFL made $7.3 billion from its TV deals in 2014, an all-time record for the league. There’s clearly no incentive to start offering games for free, even with advertising dollars on the table, but the Yahoo experiment represents a look at what streaming services could look like outside of the major network and cable channels.
It’s an interesting concept, because fans were afforded more flexibility in their viewing options. It was easy to watch games on mobile platforms, streaming devices and online browsers. This likely represents a move to target the cable-cutting generation that is starting to leave TV subscriptions – and even TVs – behind. This trend, which is dominated by streaming services such as Netflix or Hulu, is marked by the ease of cross-platform viewing and the timeshifting of TV shows. While sports will likely never become as timeshifted as TV shows, Yahoo’s broadcast is a look into what NFL streaming can look like if it’s opened up to a variety of different providers.
A wide-open fight for NFL streaming rights is on the very near horizon and, given how much of a stronghold the NFL currently holds on TV licensing, it could potentially be an industry-altering development as the league continues to evolve to serve its younger market.
Let Jake know at jake.powers@dailycardinal.com what you think of the NFL’s seemingly impending move toward using a variety of online streaming services.
