Subscribe to JohnWallStreet

June 20, 2023

Expanding YouTube Relationship is Natural Progression of NFL's Media Strategy

The National Football League awarded NFL Sunday Ticket to YouTube back in December. The Google subsidiary will pay $2 billion over the next seven years for the distribution rights to the league’s out-of-market package.

But as NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell explained at YouTube’s Brandcast event in May, the Sunday Ticket deal is “only the beginning” of an expanding relationship between the league and the video sharing and social media platform.

The NFL intends to ramp up production of the original, short-form content it creates for YouTube this season.

“You will see a lot more showcasing of players with their helmets off. Seeing their faces, their personalities, and getting to know them more on a personal level,” Blake Stuchin (VP and head of digital media business development, NFL) said.

The league will also look to increasingly tap into YouTube’s content creator network (think: Mr. Beast). It plans to invite creators and influencers to games and events, and help to facilitate unique access for them once there.

The NFL sees its Sunday Ticket deal and the broader YouTube relationship as a natural progression of the league's long-established media strategy.

“For eight decades, we have always gone where [the] fans spend their time,” Stuchin said.

And a growing number of league supporters –and prospective fans– are migrating to the platform.

More than one billion people now spend time on YouTube every day.

And they are consuming an increasing amount of NFL-related programming (+27% from ’21 to ’22). Come September, consumption will grow further as fans will be able to watch live games on the platform for the first time.

From the NFL’s perspective, the expanding partnership is “all about complimenting the highlights and core game footage that [it] puts on YouTube, with different perspectives that will be compelling to [a] broad audience,” Stuchin said.

The league will lean on content creators and influencers to deliver those views.

These are “people who have their own audience and have built a presence on YouTube,” Stuchin said.

The content they create may or may not be about football. Some of the creators the league will partner with have built fandoms outside of sports (think: fashion, fitness, gaming, music, cooking).

That is by design.

The league wants “to try and invite people to find their own fandom in different ways,” Stuchin said.

The approach also helps the NFL to reach diverse audiences outside of the typical fan demographics.

To be clear, the NFL has had an influencer program in place, at the league level, for more than four years. It works with more than 1,600 creators worldwide.

The expanded YouTube partnership will give the league access to more of them, and creators already in the program will get a chance to work even closer with the sports property.

NFL fans on YouTube, at least those who subscribe to the league’s main channel, are younger (37 years old) than those consuming league content on other platforms that hold live rights, including Amazon.

However, there are also older fans –and potential fans– on the platform, both domestically and abroad, who may find themselves captivated by NFL-related content. Remember, YouTube is a global platform.

“When we think about our international strategy, YouTube is a big part of how we’re able to first reach people who are discovering [the game] or becoming much deeper fans,” Stuchin said.

YouTube is particularly influential in key markets where the time difference makes watching games live a challenge (think: Germany, U.K., Brazil). By programming its channels 24/7, the league ensures there is always something new to keep viewers on the platform entertained.

The NFL began posting short video clips and highlights to a single YouTube channel in 2015. It has since added nine more channels, each with a differentiated content strategy and target audience.

Tack on the 32 team channels that exist and there are now 42 authentic NFL channels on the platform. Collectively, they house more than 30,000 football-related clips.

“What’s [unique] about YouTube is its versatility and breadth,” Stuchin said. “We have highlights and other types of behind-the-scenes access where we’re leaning into YouTube Shorts. On the other end of the spectrum, we have original programs that are 20-30 plus minutes long and highly produced [on the platform].”

Game Day All-Access

, one of the longer form shows the league has exclusive to YouTube, won Sports Emmys in ’21 and ’22.

The existing content library gives the NFL a strong base to expand on as it leans into the platform over the next half decade plus. The plan is to put “many more resources, and so much more promotion, [behind all of its YouTube programming in the years ahead],” Stuchin said.

Eight years of success building and cultivating an audience on the platform has given the league the confidence it nee needed to invest further. The NFL’s main YouTube channel now has more than 11 million subscribers.

Naturally, the number of people consuming league-related programming on YouTube is much greater than that. The platform surfaces content algorithmically. People also share it.

There is always risk associated with investing resources in a third-party platform that could change its algorithm at any time. The NFL understands that to be the case.

But the league feels its content will be dynamic enough to cut through and resonate regardless of circumstance. It also plans to work closely with YouTube to understand any changes that do occur so that it can adapt accordingly.

The NFL sees the Sunday Ticket product and its broader YouTube efforts as complimentary to one another. The idea is to leverage the platform and its influential creator network to grow the league's following. Some of those new fans may eventually subscribe to the out-of-market product. But even if they don't, many will still buy tickets or merchandise, or engage with the league or its sponsors in another way.

NFL Sunday Ticket has been and will remain a subscription product targeted at the most avid of fans. However, it will be more widely available through YouTube TV and the YouTube Primetime channel lineup than it was under DirecTV control (fans needed a satellite contract to subscribe).

“Part of the appeal and the way we thought about this partnership is that it offered us the ability to expand distribution of the Sunday Ticket product with a model that still supports our partners across broadcasting,” Stuchin said.

The league expects Google and YouTube will also bring some much needed innovation to the out-of-market product.

Of course, it wasn’t as if there was a long line of suitors willing to pay the league’s asking price.