Tech giants considering bid for NFL's Thursday Night Football

[Greg S]

Cord cutting and utilization of streaming options are becoming the new norm for many households looking to save money. The NFL has had a decline in viewership for two years in a row, down almost 10 percent since last year. Online platforms for streaming are still growing rapidly and show no signs of stopping.

Amazon, Twitter, and YouTube all have an interest in offering more live content to viewers. Consequently, bids are being considered for rights to Thursday Night Football by all three tech companies. The NFL is seeking partnership from a business that is able to provide commentary on social media and attract younger audiences.

If any of the three tech companies aim to place the winning bid for steaming rights, it would be the first time that the main provider of live sports is an online business. Amazon has plenty of experience with live sports courtesy of the NBA's minor league counterpart G League. YouTube is now offering more live TV channels than ever before, and Twitter is still working on expanding live content available on its platform.

All three platforms have unique advantages for the NFL as a strategic partner. Amazon can push merchandise easily. YouTube has a massive audience of younger demographics and a more social aspect than Amazon. Twitter has the best direct user interaction with live events and can easily track user opinions over the length of games.

Despite Fox paying over $3 billion for its rights to broadcast Thursday games over traditional cable, Silicon Valley is not open to such lofty pricing. If any tech company buys the rights for online streaming, it is expected that the deal could be worth in the hundreds of millions. American football is not likely to be moving to exclusively online distribution anytime in the foreseeable future.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/73323-tech-giants-considering-bid-nfl-thursday-night-football.html

 

[TomSEA]

"American football is not likely to be moving to exclusively online distribution anytime in the foreseeable future."

I'm not so sure about that. The NFL is all about making money. And once they get out of their current contracts with FOX, CBS, ESPN they will definitely be looking at subscription based streaming options only. Which if done correctly will bring them in a LOT more money than the big networks can offer.

 

[texasrattler]

Fox just signed a big deal for Thursday night football so there goes that notion of getting out of contracts. TV money for now is way bigger than what the net can provide. Once internet bandwidths get better over the next few years, things may change. New wifi is coming this year or next, ay and ax which should boost wifi to the next level over the coming years.
DOCS 3.1 is finally out. That helps with ppl who get over 300 Mbps to 1Gbp speeds.

TV deals are here to say for the next several years, at least 5 or more. During that time frame the bandwidths in US will get much better and wifi will get a big boost.

 

[drjekelmrhyde]

It would be nice if Netflix had it since they're platform agnostic

 

[senketsu]

Dorna Sports seems to be doing well with their motorsports set-up.
"Dorna Sports is the exclusive commercial and television rights holder of the FIM Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix (MotoGP), along with the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK), the FIM CEV Repsol, the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup, the Idemitsu Asia Talent Cup and the British Talent Cup."
They get money when TV stations the world over show the races, but they retain the rights. This has allowed them to create websites, for example MotoGp.com, where you can buy a Season's Pass and watch all the races back as far as 1993 at your convenience and commercial free. They even have a 'no-spoiler' page in case you missed a race live and don't want to know the results before you watch it. In 2017 they went from 720p to 1080p, but of course for a 1993 race it's going to be 4:3 aspect, 480p. As @drjekelmrhyde mentioned they could sell seasons to Netflix, get even more cash.