Verizon Wireless Extends NFL Deal

Matthew Futterman and Spencer Ante, reporting for the WSJ:

Next year, the National Football League will begin to show Sunday afternoon games from customers’ home markets on Verizon Wireless phones, adding more of television’s most valuable content to the growing inventory that users can watch on mobile devices. The league is already showing games from Sunday, Monday and Thursday nights on Verizon phones. Typically, only one game is played on those nights, while about 10 to 12 are played across the country on Sunday afternoons.

Verizon Wireless will pay the NFL $1 billion over four years, according to a person with direct knowledge of the terms.

That is nearly 40% more than Verizon agreed to pay when it signed the current four-year, $720 million agreement in 2010, a growth rate similar to what the NFL and other sports leagues have received in their latest TV deals.

Tablets not included, only phones.

★ Tuesday, 4 June 2013