Streaming deals are key to future of NFL viewership, fandom

The National Football League’s bet on streaming is paying off — and helping to broaden its fanbase in the U.S. and globally.

Hans Schroeder, the NFL’s executive vice president of media distribution, said at CNBC x Boardroom’s Game Plan sports business event on Tuesday that the league’s recent slew of exclusive streaming deals with media companies showcases its push to grow its audience.

When the NFL signed an 11-year, $111 billion media rights deal in 2021, streaming was already part of the mix. “Thursday Night Football” found its exclusive home on Amazon‘s Prime Video under that deal, while other legacy media broadcast partners got the green light to begin streaming games on their services.

And that was just the beginning. The following year, the NFL’s “Sunday Ticket” package that allows viewers to see out-of-market games went to Google‘s YouTube TV. Comcast‘s NBCUniversal started streaming “Sunday Night Football” games on Peacock alongside its regular broadcast, and it later landed an exclusive Wild Card game that would only show on its streaming service. Streaming giant Netflix then secured a deal to air games on Christmas Day, beginning this year.

“I think these latest steps are the latest in a journey that goes back probably 15 years ago, where we had a meeting with Steve Jobs and a small group of us,” Schroeder said, referring to when the former Apple CEO showed the group an early iteration of the iPhone and described how it would affect consumers. “That led us, in part, to retain the rights for live games on mobile phones.”

Schroeder said that was the first of various steps the NFL took to get its current day, in which much of its media rights strategy is focused on streaming.

The NFL Wild Card game that aired exclusively on Peacock earlier this year was a sign the strategy is paying off. It is considered the most-streamed live event in history with 27.6 million viewers, according to Nielsen.

“I think for us that was maybe the most transformative moment in the last few years that we could put a Wild Card game, one of the truly highest valuable, highest viewed games of the year [on Peacock],” Schroeder said.

The expansion into streaming has carried over into this season. Last week, the NFL’s first-ever game in Brazil was available exclusively on Peacock, averaging 14 million viewers.

“I give the NFL a lot of credit putting the white lab coat on with us and experimenting,” said NBC Sports President Rick Cordella at the Game Plan event.

He noted that Peacock’s sports strategy started with its launch in 2020 with English Premier League games, along with other sports like the NFL, and will keep growing in the 2025-26 season with NBA games.

Similarly, Lori Conkling, YouTube global head of TV, film and sports partnerships, said during the Tuesday session that the data the company has across its various platforms shows high sports viewership and underscores why “Sunday Ticket” made sense as an offering.

The majority of the NFL’s media rights deals are sewn up with traditional broadcast partners. Live sports broadcasts have maintained a large audience on traditional TV, even as consumers flee the cable bundle for streaming services. The majority of viewership still comes from traditional TV, according to ratings data.

Schroeder said Tuesday that the NFL’s strategy exists in both the traditional TV and streaming worlds. Still, the league has said it wants to grow its fanbase and move in the same direction as the consumer, which is toward streaming. The league has also been trying to expand beyond its U.S. footprint, and playing games overseas is just part of the equation.

“The Netflix deal will maybe be the first of its kind that is truly global,” Schroeder said. “And for us, I think there’s expectations that our global audience alone is going to rival what a window would do in the states.”

Netflix will stream NFL games for the next three years, with two games being streamed this year on the platform, and at least one matchup in both 2025 and 2026.

Disclosure: Comcast’s NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.