CBS All Access Secures Right To Show NFL Games In Multiyear Deal
CBS just tied up a big loose end for CBS All Access with a multiyear deal that will allow the streaming service to offer NFL games beginning this Sunday.
Terms include all NFL on CBS games, including Thursday Night Football, preseason and postseason matches.
CBS All Access subscribers can watch games in their local markets. And starting next season these subs, as well as what the company calls “eligible pay TV subscribers” will be able to watch NFL On CBS content from NFL digital properties.
Subs can also sample content from NFL Game Pass, the league’s on-demand digital video service.
The announcement adds that all NFL On CBS games “remain available on mobile devices exclusively through the NFL Mobile app for Verizon Wireless customers.”
Verizon has an exclusive mobile phone rights deal with the NFL: You need an iPhone connected to Verizon to watch football on a smart phone. But all CBS All Access subscribers will be able to watch games on tablets and internet-connected TVs.
“Adding the most watched programming on television, to the most watched network on television, will be a powerful combination as we continue to grow CBS All Access into the future,” CEO Les Moonves says.
CBS Interactive President Marc DeBevoise calls this “a very significant step in our digital strategy and provides additional value to our subscribers.”
CBS All Access subscribers can watch NFL games on the CBS App for iOS, Android and Windows 10. It also will be on device platforms including Xbox One and Xbox 360, Roku Players, Apple TV, Chromecast, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, and PS4, and — in more than 150 markets — online at CBS.com.
Last month Moonves told analysts that he hoped to have a streaming deal with the NFL “fairly quickly.” Many wondered why the league had agreed to let Twitter offer Thursday Night Football games, but not the company that shows the games on broadcast TV.
“They’re experimenting,” Moonves said. “Obviously, the numbers on Twitter aren’t particularly high. They’re certainly not affecting our ratings whatsoever. And I think everybody is trying to figure out what life looks like in the brave new world.”
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