According to a report from Bloomberg, Facebook has pulled out of talks with the NFL to live stream some of the league’s games next season.
Streaming NFL games may have large appeal, but according to sources, Facebook rejected the NFL’s traditional advertising model. The social media giant prefers its videos to be commercial-free, something that NFL wasn’t comfortable in offering. Another issue were the early morning London games.
The NFL continues to shop its digital rights for its Thursday night games. Verizon Communications, Yahoo, and Amazon are considered to be the top contenders at this time.
Aware that a growing number of households are comfortable streaming video over the Internet, the NFL has used this recent round of negotiations for Thursday night games to aggressively court technology and telecommunications companies eager to serve so-called cord-cutters, as former cable-TV subscribers are known.
Jason Barrett is the President and Founder of Barrett Media since the company was created in September 2015. Prior to its arrival, JB served as a sports radio programmer, launching brands such as 95.7 The Game in San Francisco, and 101 ESPN in St. Louis. He also spent time programming SportsTalk 950 in Philadelphia, 590 The Fan KFNS in St. Louis, and ESPN 1340/1390 in Poughkeepsie, NY. Jason also worked on-air and behind the scenes in local radio at 101.5 WPDH, WTBQ 1110AM, and WPYX 106.5. He also spent two years on the national stage, producing radio shows for ESPN Radio in Bristol, CT. Among them included the Dan Patrick Show, and GameNight.
You can find JB on Twitter @SportsRadioPD. He’s also reachable by email at Jason@BarrettMedia.com.
