With Albert Breer on vacation, we bring back our annual tradition of having guest writers fill in for his Monday Morning Quarterback column. This column comes from Brian Rolapp, chief media and business officer of the NFL. Check out last week’s column from Cardinals defensive coordinator Vance Joseph.
How did you fall in love with the NFL? If you are like me, it was because you discovered America’s Game on one of America’s most famous inventions: television.
In the early 1960’s, commissioner Pete Rozelle and NFL owners had a unique idea to make NFL football available in every home in America. Television made that possible for the first time. In 1950, approximately one in 10 living rooms had a television, according to Britannica. By 1960, eight in 10 homes had bought a TV set, making the television the best way to reach a sports-crazy nation. The thinking was—by making the NFL widely available—the country would love what they saw. And they did.
Sports Illustrated
Since then, the NFL has turned that idea into our guiding star—serve current NFL fans and build new ones by reaching as many people as possible. Needless to say, today’s world is much different than it was in 1960. All of us are interacting with the world in new and ever more dynamic ways, not simply watching television. We are streaming, reading, texting, posting, creating and even tweeting and snapping—things Pete Rozelle never imagined. So, while the goal of reaching everyone remains the same, the way we do it is not.
Over the past decade, we have spent considerable time with our fans learning how they want to engage with the NFL and, working closely with our media and technology partners, have evolved our strategy by increasing not only the digital distribution of our games but also the myriad ways fans can follow and interact with our sport.
Much of that work culminated in our latest round of media deals, which we announced during the spring of 2021. Along with our media partners, we focused on a few priorities to make NFL football more available and better for fans. Let me share those priorities and how our fans will benefit now and into the future:
- More and better football
- More digital streaming of NFL games
- More innovation of the game broadcasts
- More ways to experience the NFL
More and better football
Our fans have come to expect the best, most competitive games possible and over the past several years we have made numerous innovations to the game experience to deliver on that expectation, including:
Expanded season and playoffs: New in ’21, we added a 17th regular season game while shortening the preseason to three games. We heard from fans for years and agreed we needed to limit the preseason. As a result, we were able to create another week of meaningful football.
In ’21, that extra week of football was meaningful to say the least, with 14 of 16 games in Week 18 last season featuring at least one team either in the playoffs or in playoff contention.
This came on the heels of expanding our playoffs by adding an extra playoff team to each conference, thus creating two extra wild-card games. As a result, we were not only able to bring more playoff excitement to fans, but also improve the regular season. For example, now only the No. 1 seed in each conference gets a bye for the wild-card round, placing additional emphasis on having the best record in the AFC or NFC conferences during the regular season.
Flexible scheduling: A top priority each and every year is creating the best possible schedule and leveraging data to put the right games into the right television time slots. Technology has greatly enhanced this process and now, thanks to computing power from our friends at Amazon Web Services, we have 5,000 cloud computers creating upwards of 50,000 potential schedules to give us the best chance of finding that perfect schedule.
That cloud computing power is needed to help us sift through thousands of conflicts over a season, including stadium blocks in the form of concerts, college football games, or possible postseason baseball games, travel and bye requirements around international games, and maximizing division games late in the season.
But there is no crystal ball that can forecast all the twists and turns during an NFL season and that’s what makes flexible scheduling so important.
Flexible scheduling now allows NBC, with just one week of notice, to adjust the Sunday Night Football matchup to ensure the most compelling game is being played during primetime.
Flexible scheduling is extremely beneficial late in the season when there are games on Saturdays. Within a relatively short runway, we have the ability to flex those Saturday matchups to create the most compelling games available nationally.
Finally, starting in ’23, we will increase our flexible scheduling efforts to include Monday Night Football, increasing the probability that every Monday night game will be a meaningful one.
While our scheduling crystal ball is not perfect—combining data, cloud computing and flexible scheduling—it’s getting clearer every season.
Week 18 changes: The newly expanded regular season has made Week 18 vitally important to teams fighting for a playoff berth and consequently great theater for fans wanting to watch all the drama unfold.
We schedule the Week 18 games starting with two Saturday matchups, leading into 14 Sunday games with a focus on creating compelling matchups with playoff berths on the line, culminating with a drama-filled Sunday night game to end the regular season. By doing so, we’re a step closer to making every national game the final week of the season meaningful.
Double headers in Weeks 1 and 18: This new change, which just debuted this past season, means that in Weeks 1 and 18, fans get to watch four games on Sunday afternoon on CBS and Fox in their local market, one more than every other weekend.
All these changes, from implementing an expanded season, to increased emphasis on flexible scheduling and innovation around our scheduling, are meant to make sure fans get the best, most exciting and meaningful games as possible every week all season.
More digital streaming
While traditional television continues to be a vital way many of our fans experience the NFL (and will be for the foreseeable future), we recognize that platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Peacock, Paramount+ and ESPN+ are increasingly important for our fans, and especially for those fans under the age of 30.
A key decision we made in our recent media deals was to partner with Amazon Prime Video for Thursday Night Football. TNF launched 15 years ago with a small number of Thursday games on NFL Network knowing fans were asking for more football. After much work to make sure Thursday football was competitive and entertaining while prioritizing player health and safety, Thursday night has clearly become a football night, as ratings increased for a second consecutive season according to Sports Media Watch.
Digital viewership of our games has doubled over the past three seasons and is attracting audiences that approach or even exceed television viewership for other professional sports leagues. A perfect example is Super Bowl LVI viewed by an average audience of more than 11 million fans just on digital platforms. This digital viewership will continue to grow rapidly.
The evolution of TNF takes its biggest step this season moving exclusively to a digital platform. It is not unlike 35 years ago when the NFL created a package of live NFL games on ESPN for the first time, creating an entire new way to watch football. Back then, not every household had cable television, but that was changing. When TNF kicks off in Week 2 on Sept. 15, Prime Video will help us take the next step in TNF’s evolution and we couldn’t be more excited.
And the NFL soon will be launching its own direct-to-consumer service called NFL+.
NFL+ was born out of our belief that to better serve our current fans and help grow new ones, we need to increasingly meet fans where they are. NFL+, a subscription video service housed inside of the NFL app, will do just that.
NFL+ will provide fans access to live local and national NFL games on mobile devices, live out-of-market preseason games across all devices, live local and national audio for every game, NFL Network shows on-demand, NFL Films archives and more—providing football flexibility so fans never have to miss football again.
More innovation to game broadcasts
There are approximately 184 million NFL fans today. And like any group, NFL fans are individuals, with different views, preferences and backgrounds, who happen to be united around a game we all love. Technology not only allows us to increase the availability of NFL games through digital streaming to fans, but also helps us serve their individual tastes better. Innovative and different game presentations—we call them “altcasts”—are providing fans with entirely new ways to experience an NFL game. Some noteworthy examples include:
- ESPN’s “Manningcast”: We have all come to love the unique Manning brothers’ perspective on the games along with special guests, making X’s and O’s fun for avid and new fans, all while keeping viewers entertained with social buzz-worthy interviews.
- Amazon’s Twitch Altcast: Targeted toward gamers, fans can watch Thursday Night Football games with their favorite Twitch co-streamers and interact with fellow fans in the chatroom.
- Spanish Language broadcasts: To engage a key and growing segment of our fan base—LatinX fans—we continue to increase the number of fully produced Spanish Language broadcasts with custom graphics and content. This past February, nearly two million viewers watched the first Super Bowl on a Spanish language broadcast network.
- NFL Wild Card Game on Nickelodeon: In a game presentation focused on younger fans and families, the NFL partnered with our friends at CBS and Nickelodeon to create a slime-filled presentation of a playoff game.
- ESPN’s “Between the Lines”: An alternate viewing experience for those seeking deeper analytics and sports betting and fantasy football conversations.
Another example of innovation is Next Gen Stats, the NFL’s player and football tracking initiative, which has touched and changed nearly every part of the professional football ecosystem.
By partnering with the NFL Players Association, we have placed tracking devices on each player’s shoulder pads and inside the football. By doing so, the NFL is able to gather countless data points, many in real time. This data includes location, speed and acceleration that allow for the calculation of more complex statistics such as completion probability and rushing yards above expectation.
These statistics and insights are shared with our TV partners, fans and football personnel alike, allowing everyone to better understand the action that unfolds on the field. Additionally, the NFL league office is able to use the data to evaluate potential rule changes and thus better the game. We are even using the data to create the Digital Athlete, a virtual representation of an NFL player that can be used to better predict and eventually prevent player injury.
More ways to experience the NFL
Considering that over the last five years (2017-2021) the NFL has delivered 48 of the top 50 and 88 of the top 100 most watched programs on television (Sports Business Journal), it’s no surprise there is an outsized level of attention on how game telecasts are changing. However, almost all of our fans spend time with NFL football when the games are over and throughout the offseason. Not surprisingly, technology is also having a major impact in these times as well.
To see this, go no farther than social media. Today, we have thriving partnerships with every major social media platform, reaching more than 600 million fans, and are now the fastest growing U.S. sports league on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Twitter. Last year, fans watched NFL social media videos more than 12 billion times, highlighted by a number of activations across some of the world’s most popular platforms. Examples include:
- This year, 107 million people watched NFL content on YouTube. From highlights of the game, to the most memorable ads, to the Super Bowl Halftime Show, to the two-time Emmy award-winning YouTube exclusive original series Game Day All-Access, where fans can hear what was really said in the huddle and on the sidelines from the dozens of mic’d up players in the game.
- On game day, the second annual TikTok Tailgate was watched more than 32 million times, capped off by a concert from The Chainsmokers sending users around the world directly into the game. Overall, NFL content on TikTok was viewed more than 125 million times during Super Bowl week.
- During Super Bowl LVI, the young audience on Snapchat used augmented reality lenses 22 billion times to express themselves and their fandom.
- For some time we have been meeting NFL fans in the Metaverse (we just didn’t know that’s what you call it). We partnered with Meta to enable users on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to dress their avatars in Rams and Bengals apparel ahead of Super Bowl Sunday. Additionally, we launched “NFL Tycoon” on Roblox, becoming the first official major sports league to offer a persistent experience on the popular gaming platform, engaging the next generation of NFL football fans in early metaverse experiences.
- Video gaming also plays an important role in reaching fans through digital experiences. EA’s Madden football franchise continues to engage fans with best-in-class video games that authentically simulate the NFL game on the field. Additional video gaming activations include an integration with the popular game franchise Fortnite, allowing players to wear NFL-themed outfits as they compete against millions of people worldwide.
If that all sounds like a lot of work and innovation, it is. If you think we are done, trust me, we are not.
NFL Sunday Ticket has been a fan staple since its inception in 1994 providing a way for avid fans to watch all the NFL games played on Sunday. But we believe it can be a lot better and we are planning a new rollout of NFL Sunday Ticket for the 2023 season. While we are not ready to reveal that just yet, one thing we can say is it will be more innovative, accessible and digital.
At the same time, we are also plotting a new future for NFL Media, our collection of owned-and-operated media assets which include NFL Network, NFL.com, the NFL app and NFL RedZone. For nearly 20 years now, with the support and guidance from our ownership, we have been able to build NFL Media into a leader in the sports media space.
NFL Media looks much different than it did in 2003 when we launched NFL Network. We have added multiple digital platforms, put games on NFL Network, and created events on a mass scale with the draft, combine and schedule release just to name a few highlights.
The change and consolidation occurring across the media landscape is creating opportunities for us to take NFL Media to its next stage of growth and provide fans with even greater coverage of their favorite sport. In the not-too-distant future, you will see a whole new NFL Media, allowing fans to access an even better NFL Network, NFL Films and NFL RedZone on your terms.
So, what has changed since Rozelle and NFL owners outlined their television plan all those years ago? Well, everything and nothing all at the same time.
On one hand, technology has changed everything about how we consume the NFL content we love. There is so much more to watch, read and listen to then ever before, all made possible by the technology in our pockets and the wireless internet around us. At the same time, the NFL’s mission to reach as many people as possible using the dominant media platforms of the day is the same today as it was then.
Regardless, one thing is for certain: There is no better time to be an NFL fan.
