The National Football League has changed its mind and won’t be streaming its three London games scheduled for next season reports Jessica Toonkel of Reuters.
Reports in January suggested the NFL intended to live stream the games following the success of the Buffalo Bills-Jacksonville Jaguars London matchup which streamed exclusively on Yahoo! The stream was a success drawing 15.2 million unique views although those numbers were inflated in many ways by Yahoo by autoplaying the feed on various Yahoo platforms. Regardless of the total audience size that did opt to view the game, streaming the trio of games seemed like a no-brainer.
As Reuters reports, the NFL decisions to nix the games stems from the league’s recent exclusive agreement with Twitter to live stream ten Thursday night games.
“When we discussed potential streaming packages with interested parties, there were many options on the table, including the London games,” the NFL spokesman wrote in an email statement to Reuters. “Ultimately the package we agreed on with Twitter involved ten of our Thursday night games which we felt was the best option at that point.”
It’s good to see more games available free for fans to consume online, but it’s unfortunate the London games won’t be live streamed due to the new agreement with Twitter. The London games drew a large international audience and more new fans to the game, which is exactly what the NFL wanted. It’s hard to complain considering the NFL is adding more free games, but the London games brought an international appeal.
The NFL told Reuters the announcement doesn’t mean streaming is finished in London, as a spokesperson said they’ll continue to try to make more games available internationally on digital platforms. That’s the right move from the league. If we’ve learned anything from the NFL in regards to international games and the Thursday Night package, it’s that they’re not committed to any long term plan and rather revisit every few years in hopes they can identify a new way to squeeze out some additional revenue.
