Next year’s Week 7 game between the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Buffalo Bills is an experiment in all facets of the word. It is the NFL’s attempt at reaching two different audiences that it currently is not.
First, the game will be played at Wembley Stadium in London, as the league continues to make attempts to grow American football overseas. The sport does not nearly have the international clout, which basketball and baseball have acquired in recent years, and wishes to tap into that market.
But, the NFL has been playing games overseas since 2007—what is more significant about this game is the way in which the NFL is choosing to broadcast it.
As the The Wall Street Journal first reported, the league owners made the decision this offseason to sell the rights of the Jaguars-Bills game to a digital distribution company. This means that a company like YouTube, Facebook, Google or Apple could vie to stream the game online. The game will only be broadcast on local television networks in the Buffalo and Jacksonville areas.
Online streaming has consistently been increasing in popularity every year. According to the NCAA, this year’s March Madness Tournament set a record number of live streams with 80 million total. The championship game alone had 3.4 million viewers on the live stream. This marks a 17 percent increase in live video streaming from last year’s tournament.
As far as NFL football goes, CNN Money reported that 1.3 million viewers watched Super Bowl XLIX at its peak via NBC’s online stream. This broke the previously held record from the Super Bowl prior, which had its highest online viewership at 1.1 million.
Live streaming has become increasingly popular due to a number of reasons. It is a cost effective option for young people who do not have a television, or do not wish to pay for a cable package. Also, it has the ability to reach a greater number of people around the world, as a person would only need an Internet connection to access the game.
However, the NFL’s true experiment with the Jaguars-Bills game is in selling the rights exclusively to a digital distribution company—not a NBC, CBS or Fox, but a company that is does not usually going to televise sporting events of this magnitude.
YouTube began live broadcasting sporting events in 2011, but has yet to break through in negotiations with major American sports leagues.
Looking at the sheer numbers, it appears as if the NFL is jumping the gun in selling the rights to their games to a digital distribution company. Those 1.3 million people that watched the Super Bowl online made up a small minority—not even 1 percent of the total number of people who watched the game.
According to a Chicago Tribune article from 1987, the NFL was the last major sports league to switch to cable, back in the 1980s. Perhaps they are trying to learn from their mistakes, and look for the future of broadcasting their sport.
In general, though, it appears that people prefer the experience of cable television over live streaming. A larger, clearer screen and the lack of technical issues that comes from viewing live video over an Internet connection means that cable is the preferred option for now (at least for those who haven’t cut the cord yet!).
But, in its essence, the game is an experiment. It does not matter overly much if viewership flops and the NFL chooses never to broadcast their games with a digital distribution company again. This is not the Super Bowl—it is the Bills and the Jaguars. Not exactly Brady versus Manning.
So, do what you want, NFL. Maybe this will be the start of a sports broadcasting revolution.