As the NFL slowly pivots from traditional broadcast platforms to streaming services, another name as emerged as a potential partner for the league.
Daniel Kaplan of TheAthletic.com reports that the NFL is considering selling equity in NFL Films, and that Netflix could potentially purchase a piece of NFL Films or NFL Media. At last week’s league meetings, a slide listing companies to which the league had spoken included Netflix.
The league has been trying to find a buyer for a piece of NFL Media, for a while. The league wants that partner to help distribute content. However, the league has struggled to find the right partner.
Via Kaplan, the full list of companies to which the NFL has spoken include Amazon, Apple, Roku, Fubu, Netflix, Paramount, ESPN, Peacock, and DAZN. The process could ultimately result in part of NFL Films being sold, with NFL Media being handled separately.
Looming over all discussions is the possibility that the league will tie an equity stake in NFL Media or NFL Films to the Sunday Ticket package.
Then there’s the fact that the NFL has a well-known reputation for driving a hard financial bargain. The NFL has grown accustomed to its partners paying a premium for the privilege of doing business with Big Shield. While that may work with networks that hope to use NFL games for promoting their other televised offerings, it may be harder for the league to persuade streamers to dig deeper than the balance sheets say they should in order to add the NFL to the broader list of offerings.