Major carrier Verizon has announced that it has entered into an expanded partnership with the NFL that will last multiple years and will allow the carrier to provide subscribers witj live streams of NFL games on various mobile outlets. The partnership will begin in January when Verizon will begin streaming the Playoffs, then lead into the Super Bowl in February. Verizon has always had a rather prominent relationship with the NFL, but the difference is that this one will cater to users of the platforms that it has built and bought up. The Oath umbrella will be covered by NFL game streaming on Yahoo and Yahoo Sports, and Go90 users will get the same coverage. Those who aren’t into those platforms and would rather simply use Verizon’s NFL app or the official one can go that route to stream full games as well. No specific end date was given for the partnership.
Another important thing to note about this partnership is that the NFL live streaming is not exclusive to Verizon customers; anybody can download the Yahoo Sports app on iOS or Android to get in on the streaming. Since Verizon now owns most of Yahoo, the carrier will get a chunk of the revenue generated from the deal no matter who’s watching the action. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was the one who pointed out that fact while unsurprisingly stating his excitement over expanding the NFL’s distribution network through its partnership with Verizon.
This is the first year that Verizon’s been able to help distribute NFL content beyond its own network and actually get a cut of the profits, thanks to owning almost all of Yahoo’s US operations and holdings. It has distributed NFL content in the past, but only through its own channels, including Go90 and its own NFL app that comes pre-installed on most of its devices. Just like last year, Verizon is going to have an instrumental hand in getting the Super Bowl out to as many viewers beyond the traditional TV space as possible, and this year, that role can expand far beyond the company’s normal purview.