Blog...

The National Football League and NBC Sports will stream 17 live regular season match ups on the Internet this upcoming NFL season. The majority will be Sunday night games that are televised on NBC. This is the first time in the league’s history that the NFL will distribute complete games live to a wide audience according to the Wall Street Journal. The newspaper says this will help the NFL show how much value there is in having rights to stream games online.  Streaming online coverage can potentially be another piece that goes into negotiating broadcast deals with television networks.
 
“This is an exciting step forward for us as we offer our fans a new way to watch NFL games,” says Steve Bornstein, NFL Executive Vice President of Media, on NFL.com. “We are combining NBC’s outstanding Sunday Night Football telecast with extras that will enhance the fan enjoyment of the game.”
 
Streaming games live on the Internet can lead to a whole new set of possibilities for online viewers. The NFL and NBC hope they can use the internet to add some interactive elements for online viewers.  The NFL says it is hoping new elements like different camera angles, in-game highlights, picture-in-picture technology, and updated statistics during the game will generate more interest in viewing games online.  It also creates a great opportunity for advertising online. The NFL and NBC will share ad sales since NFL.com and NBCSports.com’s coverage will show NBC’s coverage on their respective web sites. The NFL will also sell subscriptions of streaming the games online to people overseas.
 
The choice of featuring Sunday night games has its advantages and disadvantages.  By choosing Sunday night, the NFL and NBC are targeting a time slot with a sizable viewing audience.  On the downside, is the limited number of Sundays in a normal football season.  The NFL only has a 17 week schedule. Therefore, there is not as much variety for people to check out games that are being shown live on the web. Baseball in comparison has a 162 game schedule where viewers would have many games to view online. Because of the NFL’s 16 game schedule and 17 week season, it may be difficult to get a good barometer of just how many people would be interested in watching games live online as opposed to watching them live on TV.
 
A main point of interest with this experiment is how viewership numbers will be affected.  NBC’s nationwide broadcasts averaged 15.9 million viewers last season according to the Wall Street Journal. By analyzing viewership numbers over the web, the NFL and NBC will have a better idea of whether fans are moving from TV to internet or if they are increasing viewership via web broadcasts.  If successful, there will be other opportunities for this online streaming idea to expand in the future.
 
Streaming webcasts of Sunday night games is another step the NFL is taking to embrace technology.  Fantasy football leagues helped increase viewership for the NFL by creating a fan base that wanted to watch more than just the home team.  Fans are sitting in front of big screen TVs with their laptops, able to track the statistics of their players and chat with friends online about the game.  With streaming video, the NFL can offer fans another way to view the game.