The National Football League is developing its own streaming, according to The Athletic. NFL officials reportedly showed off a service tentatively called NFL+ to team owners at the league’s annual offseason meeting in Florida this week. Among other content, the service would include games and podcasts.
The Athletic reports the platform likely won’t be ready until team owners meet again in May. At that point, a vote would decide whether the NFL moves forward with the project. Potentially complicating the rollout of a subscription service is the state of the NFL’s various media deals.
In 2021, the NFL and Verizon extended their longstanding marketing and technology partnership but did so without agreeing on new terms related to mobile streaming. Up until 2018, the carrier had exclusive rights to that content. One analyst The Athletic spoke to suggested the league could use NFL+ as a way to leverage a better deal from either Verizon or another mobile carrier. The league also recently entered into an 11-year deal with Amazon for the retailer to carry Thursday Night Football games through its Prime Video service.
We’ve reached out to the NFL for comment.