Interesting speculation that the NFL is considering bringing in a streaming partner such as Netflix or Google Play for a Thursday Night Football package. That would be a huge move, with lots of obstacles to overcome.
One point to note is that DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket agreement expires at the end of the 2014-2015 season, so now would be the time to reshuffle the deck. I would love to see an online component to the NFL. I wonder if anyone at Apple is pursuing a relationship with the NFL.
To me, this is another sign of the slow transition from the network television broadcasting model to the inevitable internet based model. Very interesting.
I wish the NFL would come to Apple TV. That would truly be perfect. Right now, I have to stream Sunday Ticket from my iPad to the Apple TV which results in a smaller picture on my 55 inch TV.
I second NFL Sunday Ticket (or Thursday night games) coming to the Apple TV. I would happily pay a couple hundred dollars a year to do this. We switched from DirecTV/Sunday Ticket to NFL Rewind to save (a lot) of money and while we can watch all the games, it would be nice to watch them live.
I hear you. I just can’t watch it late. I have to have it live. Which this year meant no 5S. 🙂
Until they actually do something, I wouldn’t call it a sign of anything. DirectTV is going to be willing to write a check with a lot of zeros to keep that exclusive. NFL has proven time and time and time again they are about one thing; $$$.
Seems to me that partnering with an established streaming service makes more sense than having to figure out how to build your own.
blackout restrictions is the more important hurdle in my opinion.
An NFL app that would (be paid) to let the buyer choose to follow ONE team throughout the season!
I can dream for this at lease.
They already have their own (they use Neulion). The only reason to do it would be to reach a large installed base with greater marketing. Their existing streaming services, NFL Rewind and NFL Gamepass, have awesome quality. I use Gamepass even for the games streamed from NBC and ESPN because the quality is so much better.
I think this would be a huge advantage for them. Not everyone is willing to shell out a couple hundred for Sunday Ticket (they won’t sell it for less online, although they might change it to something with less sticker shock like $30 a month), but a lot of people would probably shell out the $40-$60 they charge for NFL Rewind to see all of their team’s games live. The big problem with that would be the local broadcast blackouts, but maybe they’d kick back some to the broadcasters. Still, that kind of targeting is something they can’t do with broadcast platforms.
Thinking about the blackouts they could easily use the GP/Location of the Apple device to enforce blackouts.