NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell appeared on CNBC’s ‘Squawk Box’ ahead of tonight’s first ever game for the league in South America. The interview touched on a number of subjects including potential international expansion as well as the league’s partnership with various streamers. Tonight’s game between the Green Bay Packers and the Philadelphia Eagles will be a streaming-only game on Peacock.
After a question asking how the league plans to take NFL football everywhere, Goodell said, “The reality is the media platforms are essential in that process. We obviously want to reach the most number of people we can through our media partners because that’s how they mostly experience football. But the reality is when we bring our NFL regular season games here, it just creates a whole new environment. It creates really the spark that lights the flame, and everything seems to really take off after that point in time.”
As for the international fandom, Goodell said, “And we have 38 million fans here already. We hope this will really ignite this market and really become passionate football fans. And we’re obviously continuing our games in Europe, we’re continuing games in the UK as we’re going to Spain next year, we’ll be in Germany this year, hopefully back to Mexico next year. So we really believe playing the games is a big part of making our game global.”
Goodell was also asked about how far out he thinks the league can go especially given the time difference involved in playing in in Europe. “Well, we can’t change the time zones, but I would say that we learn from every experience,” he said. “And I think the trip down here, talking to players on both teams yesterday, the trip down here being 11 hours, 11 hours plus for both teams, they really didn’t have the same impact, and they think it’s really the time zone. So that’s a big factor for the guys. We play once a week, so that helps. We can adjust when they get back to their home cities tomorrow. They’ll be on a similar time zone, and they’ll also have eight days before the next game.”
When it comes to the new NFL media rights deals involving streamers, Goodell said, “The bottom line is you have to go where your fans are and our fans are moving off on the streaming platforms. Netflix is a good example of that. Peacock’s a good example of that. Amazon’s a good example of that. Our fans are on different platforms, and we need to reach them. But at the same time, over 85 percent of our games are still available on free television. We think we have the most fan friendly policies for our fans and the media world of any league by far.
“…Streaming also brings in technologies that I think are going to be really valuable to improve the experience for consumers. There are more things that they can do with their platforms and technology that I think is going to be very, very positive with our fans.”
