Yesterday was a big day for fans of the National Football League. Yesterday, the NFL announced the launch of an exclusive new streaming service called NFL+, which will allow subscribers to take their favorite NFL experiences on the go, starting at $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year, after a seven-day free trial. Starting with the NFL’s Hall of Fame Game on Thursday, August 4, fans can stream live NFL games on smartphones and tablets.
“Today marks an important day in the history of the National Football League with the launch of NFL+,” said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in a July 25, 2022 news release. “The passionate and dedicated football fans are the lifeblood of the NFL, and being able to reach and interact with them across multiple platforms is incredibly important to us. We look forward to continuing to grow NFL+ and deepening our relationship with fans across all ages and demographics, providing them access to a tremendous amount of NFL content, including the most valuable content in the media industry: live NFL games.”
The direct-to-consumer NFL+ streaming services will come in two separate products, NFL+ and NFL+ Premium:
NFL+:
For $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year*, NFL+ subscribers will get access to:
- Live local and primetime games on mobile and tablet devices
- Live out-of-market preseason games across all devices
- Live game audio (home, away and national calls) for every game of the season
- Access to ad-free, on-demand NFL archives
*The NFL is currently offering promotional pricing on the $39.99 a year NFL+ plan. With a 25% discount, NFL+ is currently available for $29.99 a year.
NFL+ Premium:
For $9.99 a month or $79.99 a year, NFL+ Premium subscribers will get:
- All the benefits of an NFL+ subscription, plus
- Ad-free, full-game replays across devices
- Ad-free, condensed-game replays across devices
- Ad-free Coaches Film
With both plans, subscribers watch playoff games, the Pro Bowl and Super Bowl LVII live on a smartphone or tablet. NFL+ Premium subscribers can also watch full-game and condensed-game replays of those games. Prospective subscribers can sign up at NFL.com/Plus or through the NFL app on mobile devices, Smart TVs and connected devices.
CNBC reports that this is the first time the NFL has operated a streaming service. Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association already have their own subscription-based streaming services. What NFL+ won’t offer is exclusive rights to regular-season games, at least not this year. The league has already reserved licensing rights to others for the next seven to 11 years, says CNBC. For example, Amazon gets exclusive rights for 10 years to Thursday Night Football starting with the 2022-23 season, says The Wall Street Journal.
“It’s another option we’ll consider with all of our other options,” said Hans Schroeder, executive vidce president and COO of NFL Media. “We are really excited about where NFL+ can go. As quickly as media and the sports distribution business continues to change and evolve, there are lots of different factors.”
Insider Take
This isn’t your father’s football league. As professional sports leagues explore new monetization and platform options, it will be harder to find your favorite football games. Regardless of platform, the NFL wants a piece of the pie, whether they are selling rights to Apple and Amazon, earning subscription revenue from their own streaming platform, or getting revenue from local broadcast rights. The NFL will remain the place to go and diehard fans will follow their teams anywhere – they just might have to look for them in multiple places before they find them.
