Facebook is currently in negotiations with the National Football League to acquire the rights to live stream Thursday Night Football throughout the 2016 season. The social media giant is not the only online platform that is a part of the negotiations. However, it is unclear at this point if any of the contenders, Yahoo, Amazon, Verizon, and Facebook are really ready to pull the trigger before March 20th – the date the NFL wants the potential deal to be completed by.
Get The Latest Football Tech News In Your Inbox!
The NFL’s Thursday Night Football television rights have already been sold for 2016 to, CBS, NBC, and NFL Network. They spent $450 million in total to split the coverage of the games last season. Although the NFL is listening to offers from online platforms to live stream these games, they are allowing CBS, NBC, and the NFL Network to live stream the games online that they have the rights to as well.
Currently Facebook is at the top of the heap in terms of companies that are actively seeking the live online rights for Thursday Night Football, however the list of qualified suitors features more big names.
Verizon, who already has the rights for mobile streams of NFL games is in contention for the Thursday Night streams. They recently launched, Go90, a live streaming service to watch primetime shows as well as live sports and music.
Yahoo is another potential buyer. Last year they bought the rights to live stream one of the NFL’s games played in London, becoming the first company to acquire that right, for a reported $20 million. They recently made moves to bolster their live streaming services, as they launched Yahoo eSports. As we recently saw they have begun to live stream, in the ever-growing world of video game competitions.
Amazon is also a looking into buying rights for Thursday Night Football. A couple of years ago they acquired Twitch, a live streaming service that covers video game competitions as well, and it has been very successful so far. They have not yet worked with the NFL with streaming content.
Facebook recently made their jump into live streaming, as well as paying for content in general, as they have begun to pay celebrities to live stream content. Facebook also recently established Facebook Sports Stadium, in an effort to compete with Twitter as an online platform to discuss live sporting events.
Facebook’s VP of Partnerships, Dan Rose, has been direct in his rhetoric about trying to acquire NFL live streaming rights. However, Mark Zuckerberg has stated in the past that “You are not going to come to Facebook to watch…long-form stuff.” It is for “unique types of content that you can’t get anywhere else.” That is why today the company is considering purchasing the live rights to stream behinds the scenes footage before, during, and after games. Since the mobile rights to live streaming Thursday Night Football are not up for sale this could prove to be a major point of contention, as a vast majority of Facebook’s ad revenue is generated from mobile.
It is not clear at this time what the game coverage would look like if Facebook acquired these rights. It is likely they would tap into the broadcast of whatever television network is doing the game that night, as Yahoo did with their live stream last year.
At this point it is unclear if a deal with any of these companies will get done by the time of the NFL Owner’s meetings begin, March 20th. However, Facebook is moving into the live streaming market and it seems like only a matter of time before they are providing access to some type of live sports content.