The National Football League (NFL) may soon have its own subscription-based streaming service.
A recent report from The Athletic mentioned that the professional American football league is developing its take on a streaming service, naming it "NFL+" or NFL Plus.
The report did not mention when this subscription service might launch, but it did say that the service would cost $5 a month and that the NFL would find a solution to launch the service before the 2022 season begins in September.
NFL Plus Details
The report mentioned that the upcoming streaming service would "theoretically" replace NFL Mobile, the league's previous solution for distributing in-market games to phones and tablets, per The Verge.
NFL+ was said to include games, radio, podcasts, and team content, and that the NFL had already briefed the league's 32 teams on the streaming service's development at the league's annual owners' meetings in Palm Beach, Florida.
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The NFL+ brand was among the topics discussed by team presidents during a meeting on March 27 at The Breakers Resort, which was the place that hosted the meetings. A team president who requested anonymity from The Athletic mentioned that the streaming service was nascent. It is also likely that it will be discussed at an NFL owners' vote meeting in May, per Fierce Video.
What Would NFL+ Mean In the Future?
Lee Berke, a sports media consultant, told The Athletic that NFL creating its subscription-based streaming service for it to enter the ongoing streaming wars is "a sensible move," saying that it makes perfect sense.
"It makes perfect sense that the NFL would be exploring the development of a streaming channel, much like they developed platforms for cable and satellite when each was cutting-edge media technology," Berke said. "That noted, any streaming launch could tie into the NFL's negotiations to potentially sell a portion of MFL Media to a technology partner like Apple or Amazon."
The streaming wars are indeed a thing that has been going on lately. CNN was previously reported to be launching its streaming service called "CNN+" this spring, presenting customers a "completely distinct experience" as it offers new live shows, original series, and new features like interactive interviews.
NBC Sports reporter Mike Florio mentioned in his article that the league chose a peculiar time to develop its streaming service, as it came when it is currently selling mobile rights.
However, the NFL might encounter profit losses with its new streaming service due to it already selling the rights to most of its live games to the Sunday Ticket and the Thursday Night Football deal with Amazon. This loss could be attributed to the fact that the payment of outside companies for the rights is way bigger than what the NFL could earn if it cut out the interested outside companies.
