The NFL is gearing up to ink another deal with a technology giant.
Sports Business Daily reported Wednesday that the league sent out request-for-proposals for its Thursday Night Football package to both traditional TV companies like NBC and CBS, but also to companies like Google, Yahoo, Apple, and Amazon — one of which could purchase the online streaming rights to each Thursday night game.
SBD notes that the streaming deal would not be exclusive. Earlier this season, Yahoo paid the NFL a reported $17 million for the exclusive rights to stream the Jacksonville vs. Buffalo game from London. It was the first NFL game to be broadcast strictly online.
It’s still unclear if the NFL would sell the entire Thursday Night Football broadcasting rights to a tech company like it did with Yahoo for the game earlier this year. On a recent Re/code podcast with reporter Peter Kafka, NFL media head Brian Rolapp noted that it’s really about how many viewers the league can reach with an online stream versus traditional TV.
You can read about our experience with Yahoo’s NFL stream here.
