After weeks of speculation, YouTube has officially locked up the exclusive broadcast rights to an NFL game. The home of NFL Sunday Ticket will offer a free broadcast for the September 5 matchup between the Los Angeles Charges and the Kansas City Chiefs — a game that will take place at the Arena Corinthians in São Paulo, Brazil.
The broadcast deal is a major coup for a platform that has dramatically upped its gridiron presence since it became the official distributor of the Sunday Ticket package ahead of the 2023 NFL season. YouTube is primed to compete with the likes of Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, and Peacock (all of which have scored their own exclusive NFL broadcasts), but we still have some questions about the Xs and Os of this particular strategy. Here are some of the queries that have crossed our minds:
Will this be the first of many free NFL broadcasts?
Technically, viewers can already watch local NFL games for free using an over-the-air receiver, but even that viewing technique requires the purchase of special equipment. YouTube is offering something radical, especially by NFL standards: Worldwide access to a regular season game, with no paywall.
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It’s a bold tactic that could draw in new subscribers for Sunday Ticket (more on that in a sec). At a more basic level, YouTube will endear itself to football fans with its inclusive access policy. Streaming hubs looking for a jolt of positive PR could consider a similar move. Those companies already offer some free episodes when marketing new and returning shows. Why not apply that same idea to an NFL broadcast?
Will YouTube’s NFL broadcast move the needle for Sunday Ticket?
The premium package for coast-to-coast NFL access is expensive; YouTube is reportedly paying $2 billion per year for the right to distribute Sunday Ticket. We’ve already seen YouTube experiment with discounts and deals as it looks to recoup its ten-digit costs. The free September 5 broadcast is the latest carrot YouTube has dangled in front of potential Sunday Ticket subscribers.
YouTube’s Sunday Ticket experience has received rave reviews, so the platform may figure that it can get football fans to stick around once it gets them to sign up. A clean broadcast during the São Paulo game — one free from buffering, coverage interruptions, and other technical hiccups — would show viewers that they can trust YouTube to deliver the biggest NFL moments as they happen.
What role will creators play?
In my initial coverage of this deal, I speculated that YouTube could assemble a broadcast team consisting of its homegrown creators (I suggested a pairing of Deestroying and Haley Kalil.) It doesn’t seem as if that will be the case. NBC is set to produce the Brazil game on YouTube’s behalf, so we’re most likely to see the Peacock’s familiar stable of announcers on the call.
At the same time, YouTube would be foolish to omit creators from the broadcast altogether. Some creator-led sideline segments seem like the most natural way to integrate YouTube’s homegrown community into the proceedings. As was the case at the NFL Draft, numerous creators would line up for an opportunity to be included in YouTube’s exclusive broadcast.
Would YouTube have acquired these rights if the game wasn’t being played in Brazil?
The South American nation is a prominent market for YouTube. In the past, the platform has gone there to test new features, such as its Hype leaderboard. Is it trying to market the NFL there, too?
Sunday Ticket is a U.S.-only product for now, so YouTube can’t recruit Brazilians as new subscribers for its football package. Even so, the game YouTube chose for its exclusive NFL broadcast feels like a symbolic choice. CEO Neal Mohan has been keen on international expansion of late, and this move may be part of that plan.
Is YouTube going to make deals like this in other sports?
The platform seems to go where its creators go. As stars like Deestroying rubbed shoulders with NFL greats, YouTube ponied up for exclusive broadcast rights. Amid a trend of golf-related content, YouTube became the exclusive home of several links-based competitions.
So what sport is next? Basketball would be the most obvious answer, since hoops creators have woven themselves into the fabric of the game’s culture. But NBA rights can be tricky to negotiate. Maybe an exclusive college basketball broadcast — one populated by NIL stars — would be a good jumping-off point.
Will we hear about this at YouTube Brandcast?
The deal was announced one day before YouTube’s annual pitch to potential brand and agency partners. That presentation typically focuses on YouTube’s presence on TV screens, so you can be sure that a get of this magnitude will be mentioned. We’ll update this post once we hear what YouTube has to say at Brandcast.
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