Internet colossus Yahoo has won exclusive rights to deliver the first-ever free and live streaming of a National Football League (NFL) regular season game to users worldwide.
Yahoo will broadcast the October 25th International Series game between the Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars from London’s Wembley Stadium.
The parties did not disclose the deal amount, but Re/Code reported that Yahoo could have paid at least $20m to stream the game in exchange for advertising rights, citing executives who were familiar with the industry.
The NFL has advertising partnerships with NBC and FOX but for the first time, the NFL games will be streaming one of its regular season games online.
The Wembley game will be available via web browsers, within a Yahoo app on a mobile phone, or on a television equipped for streaming video.
“Through this partnership with Yahoo — one of the world’s most recognizable digital brands — we are taking another important step in that direction as we continue to closely monitor the rapidly evolving digital media landscape,” said NFL commissioner Roger Goodell in a statement.
“We’re thrilled that the NFL has chosen Yahoo for this historic opportunity,” added Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo. “It marks a significant change in the way users can access this amazing content. The NFL and Yahoo have both long engaged football fans around the world. Our partnership provides the ultimate football experience — with digital availability, designed for the modern fan.”
Yahoo, through the deal with NFL, expects to attract more customers to its platform and generate more advertising revenues.
UK to ban sports streaming sites
Meanwhile, in UK, judges extended the country’s piracy block list with three sports streaming sites: Rojadirecta, LiveTV and Drakulastream, which join the previously blocked streaming service FirstRow Sports.
The blocked sites will be gradually rolled out, bringing the total to 128 sites.
Additional sites accused of aiding piracy are expected to be added in the coming months. The Publishers Association banned popular torrent sites including The Pirate Bay and Torrentz.io and various ebook sharing sites.
