YouTube, NFL transfer towards deal for 5 2026 video games

Antitrust, shmantitrust.

Over the weekend, we reported that the candidates for a five-game 2026 package deal of standalone video games included Netflix, YouTube, and Fox. The obvious winner is YouTube.

Ryan Glasspiegel of Front Office Sports stories that YouTube and the NFL have “entered a long-form contract review” for the slate of video games. This means they’ve reached a consensus as to the most important phrases, and that they’re hammering out the exact language of the contract.

The NFL had despatched out an RFP that allowed the bidders to pick 5 video games from a broader menu of potentialities. It’s not but recognized which video games YouTube will get.

The choices have been believed to incorporate the Week 1 49ers-Rams sport in Australia, a Thanksgiving eve sport (which isn’t official however apparently inevitable), a second Black Friday sport, and a Christmas Eve sport.

The transfer comes at a time when the NFL is beneath elevated scrutiny on the query of whether or not its broadcast antitrust exemption permits the league to promote video games to streaming firms. If the video games will probably be obtainable without spending a dime on YouTube (because the Week 1 Chiefs-Chargers sport from Brazil was), that may take a bit of steam out of the difficulty.

Still, the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 arguably applies solely to league-wide rights gross sales to three-letter, FCC-regulated broadcast networks. The resolution to take video games that would have been broadcast on Fox and put them on YouTube gained’t take any steam out of the present assault.

Last yr’s Friday night time sport on YouTube averaged 19.7 million viewers globally, regardless of being made obtainable at no cost. That was objectively disappointing.