NFL could sell rights to games to none traditional media partners

The NFL plans to hold talks with non-traditional media companies to potentially sell them the rights to a live game, NFL Media chief Hans Schroeder said.

Schroeder didn’t offer details on which companies could be interested in buying a live game, but the NFL sold a week one game to YouTube last season for about $100 million.

The NFL and its traditional media partners — Disney, Paramount Global, Comcast’s NBCUniversal and Amazon — will likely begin discussing a new media rights later this year, four years ahead of the current agreement’s opt-out clause, according to people familiar with the matter.

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/06/nfl-to-discuss-live-game-rights-with-new-media-partners.html

 

The slow death of legacy media continues.


If video killed the radio star, the web ended the video star.


I also don't expect legacy companies like NBC, CBS, ABC or even Fox (though a lesser extent) to last much longer. The NFL did an experiment earlier this season in having multiple of the top YouTube Football Creators livestream the first game of the NFL Season. There were some hiccups, namely on Tom Grossis part, but it was a success. Given how more authentic such personalities are, I expect the NFL to target more of these Creators to Live Stream to their Audience under NFL Guidelines.


There will have to be both procedures and protocols of course to follow as to who will be worthy of using the NFL License but the foundation is already there. Websites like Twitch, YouTube and others are the future. One more thing?!


Expect other sites like X and Rumble also to follow suit.

 

Didn't they already do this with Netflix? I could have swore the Christmas game was on Netflix.

 

Yes Netflix has had the NFL games on the last 2 Christmases.

 

No mention of Netflix in that article at all. What else would be a non-traditional media?


Could the NFL be looking at a Pay-Per-View game?

The NFL is expanding the number of international games to nine next season — a record high. The league may sell a new package of some of those games to a media partner as soon as next year, he said.