This is great for football fans — I may have to switch over to Verizon! The NFL and Verizon Wireless announced Tuesday the renewal of their agreement and it’s crazy. Check out the details…
Via WSJ:
Verizon Wireless will pay $1 billion for rights to air more NFL games over its customers’ smartphones, placing a big bet on changing viewer habits as Americans watch more of their favorite shows on screens other than the television.
Next year, the National Football League will begin to show Sunday afternoon games from customers’ home markets on Verizon Wireless phones, adding more of television’s most valuable content to the growing inventory that users can watch on mobile devices. The league is already showing games from Sunday, Monday and Thursday nights on Verizon phones. Typically, only one game is played on those nights, while about 10 to 12 are played across the country on Sunday afternoons.
Verizon Wireless will pay the NFL $1 billion over four years, according to a person with direct knowledge of the terms.
That is nearly 40% more than Verizon agreed to pay when it signed the current four-year, $720 million agreement in 2010, a growth rate similar to what the NFL and other sports leagues have received in their latest TV deals.
According to the terms, Verizon Wireless customers who sign up for the service will be able to access NFL games through an app on Sunday, Monday and Thursday nights this season, as well as the league-owned channel, NFL Network, and its NFL RedZone, which shows scoring plays on game days. Beginning in 2014, they also will be able to watch all home-market games on their mobile phones, as well as all postseason games, including the Super Bowl.
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