The NFL sees Netflix not as a platform it is trying to drive viewers to join, but one where its audience already resides.
Asked by this writer about the added cost of the newly-expanded Netflix NFL schedule — which will now span at least two additional billing cycles — NFL EVP/media distribution Hans Schroeder said in a Friday conference call that the league views the streamer as a platform its viewers already use: “When we’re going onto Netflix, we’re going onto a platform that is already massively adopted and a huge number of viewers on that platform already, including a huge number of NFL fans.”
Echoing comments made by league commissioner Roger Goodell and VP/broadcast planning Mike North, Schroeder described platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime as “very, very large ones already” and “much larger than even the pay TV ecosystem today.” Goodell previously described Netflix as being arguably “bigger than some of the networks,” and North suggested that the league shifting some rights from ESPN to streaming could be seen as “more fan-friendly” because those platforms are “arguably more widely distributed.”
Schroeder: “We think we’re going on to platforms where NFL fans are already spending their time, particularly younger fans … We think our fans are already there, that’s why we’re going there, is because we think we’re better serving them on the platforms where they’re already viewing and spending their time.”
The comments shed more light on the league’s approach to streaming services, which has been under scrutiny — including a federal investigation — in recent weeks. If the NFL argument is that it is meeting viewers where they are, it would seem to undercut the idea that streaming services are less available and anti-consumer. It would also render moot any discussion of cost, as the league’s audience would simply be watching on services for which they are already paying.
The key question then is whether the NFL audience is indeed already subscribed to Netflix and other streamers. In two years airing Christmas Day doubleheaders, Netflix averaged about 24 million viewers (including over-the-air simulcasts in the home markets) — a strong, broadcast-sized audience. But the league averaged 28 million for its Christmas games in 2023, the year before the Netflix deal, when each game aired on broadcast television.
There is little doubt that the overwhelming majority of NFL viewers can find their way to Netflix, but given the size of the NFL audience, that could still leave a sizable number of exceptions.
On the same Friday call, NFL VP/communications Jeff Miller was asked about the scrutiny of the league’s streaming deals and the role of Fox Corporation in cheerleading — and potentially instigating — the involvement of the federal government. Miller described the push to revisit the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 as “odd” coming from Fox and the National Association of Broadcasters, citing a “mutually beneficial” relationship between the league and broadcast television.
“There’s really probably no better friend to broadcasters than the NFL,” Miller said, noting that the league was at one point inducted into the NAB Hall of Fame. “I don’t know what revisiting the SBA does for broadcasters. I guess if I were a local broadcaster, I would ask the NAB how that benefits me, because certainly we’re committed to being on broadcast television in ways that other content is not, and continue to be in the hopes of reaching our fans. … So, if the NAB or Fox or others, you know, are questioning the merits of that, I’m not sure I really understand where that comes from — but we’ll continue to do what’s best for our fans, and that means continue to stay on broadcast television.”
