The NFL is under fire this summer as defendants in a class-action lawsuit over alleged price-gouging by the league on its Sunday Ticket product at YouTube TV, which forced commissioner Roger Goodell to the stand to testify on behalf of the league’s broadcast business practices.
In an interview with Pat McAfee on Wednesday ahead of the season opener in Kansas City on Thursday, Goodell claimed the NFL’s broadcast policies are “as fan-friendly as you can get” while reiterating the universal availability of live, in-market games for fans and defending recent streaming-exclusive deals with Peacock and Netflix.
“Every game in those home markets, it is shown on free television,” Goodell said. “Eighty to 90 percent of our games are shown on free television, and that’s far and away more than any league worldwide … that’s why we were so strong on defending it. Because we think our media policies are as fan-friendly as you can get.”
When it comes to the NFL’s new Netflix deal to air two games on Christmas Day at $75 million apiece, Goodell said the appeal from the league’s standpoint was Netflix’s global reach and the streamer’s desire to “bring a different twist” to the broadcast.
“They really wanted to get into live sports with the NFL, we loved that. They wanted to own Christmas Day; we love that, too. And I think this was a chance for us to take our games on a platform that we know, a lot of our fans are there,” Goodell explained. “And we need to go to those platforms.”
In addition to making the broadcast “something different than what you would see on the other carriers,” Goodell emphasized that the NFL’s deal with Netflix was about finding a larger audience.
“At the end of the day, the number one thing we look for is reach,” Goodell said. “If someone paid us a lot of money and had a very small audience, we wouldn’t do it because that doesn’t help us much.”
While that may appear to run opposite to the strategy exclusive games on the much-smaller Peacock streaming service from NBC Universal, including this week’s Friday night game in Brazil, Goodell said the league saw an opportunity to help build up a new distribution channel in streaming alongside a longtime partner.
“And it worked,” Goodell said. “Now Peacock has got the NBA, they have the Olympics. That’s now providing a better platform and a better service to our fans, and ultimately, the NFL was part of building that.”
In the class-action suit, the NFL was accused of declining ESPN’s offer to sell the Sunday Ticket product for $70 annually in favor of a deal with Google and YouTube priced at $349 for customers. After a judge initially ruled against the league, the decision was overturned in August.
The plaintiffs recently filed an appeal.
Meanwhile, the league continues to grow the revenue and reach of its national streaming-exclusive broadcasts. Goodell is not wrong that local fans can always watch their favorite teams’ games for free, but as the league’s popularity and reach grow with these new deals, fans may increasingly root for players and teams out of their market the more they are exposed to them.
And to keep up with the best teams and players, fans increasingly must shell out for more services (Prime Video, Netflix, Peacock) beyond cable television to watch the NFL.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.