NFL teams would be permitted to sell preseason game TV rights and original shows to streamers under a plan heading to owners for approval at next week’s league meeting, sources said. This is seen as a marginal but intriguing new asset for teams in the highly centralized NFL media ecosystem, where the league controls most everything of value. The NFL last season saw its best preseason viewership since 2018, averaging 2.2 million viewers a game for national broadcasts.
Today, most teams have relationships with local TV network affiliates, who typically enjoy “official partner” status and the exclusive broadcast of preseason games locally. This would expand possible buyers of those rights to include streamers, in the same fashion that Prime Video streams 21 Yankees games only in the NYC region. These NFL local TV rights tend to be priced in the low millions, sources say, though the biggest teams can do better.
Separately, these proposed rules also would allow teams to, in essence, buy the right from the NFL to distribute their preseason games beyond their home markets, sources said. Details, including how the fees would be determined, may be more forthcoming after an ownership vote. Sources also said they’ll be eager to hear more details on the new right to sell nongame productions, like coaches’ shows, to streamers, and whether the specific rules undermine the potential value.
All of these questions have been under the microscope amid a lengthy review of the NFL’s “internet resolution” and other policies that govern how teams and the league make money on the Internet, which has been ongoing since at least 2024 and is now complete, waiting for final owners’ approval.
The internet resolution dictates what intellectual property belongs to the NFL and what belongs to teams, and under what circumstances each entity can monetize it online. These rules often veer into extraordinary minutiae, but collectively, they are very important — they are the actual black-and-white text that determines, in practice, the extent to which the NFL is truly 32 separate businesses versus a single entity.
Of course, the league has built a nearly $25 billion business with a highly centralized model, and nobody is suggesting that goes away. But team revenues have not increased as quickly as league revenue has, and some believe that can be addressed by giving teams more rights without undermining league initiatives. The existing internet resolution is scheduled to expire March 31, so some kind of league vote is required. I expect to have more details of the changes after the vote.
“It’s been updated over the last couple decades, but with the continued shift to digital, they are even more opportunities for clubs to expand their digital businesses better engage their fans and develop new partners,” an NFL spokesperson said. “The changes being recommended are intended to do just that and a natural step as we continue to evolve our entire business to reflect the landscape we’re operating in.”