American football’s NFL has agreed a four-year extension, from 2014-15 to 2017-18, to its partnership with telecommunications company Verizon.
According to the Wall Street Journal newspaper, the new deal is worth a total of $1bn (€769m) and expands Verizon’s existing sponsorship and content deal to include enhanced live streaming rights to NFL games from the 2014 season.
For the 2013-14 campaign – the final season covered by an existing four-year deal between the two parties – NFL and Verizon will launch an updated version of the NFL Mobile application. NFL Mobile from Verizon will continue to offer exclusive access on phones to Thursday, Sunday and Monday Night Football game coverage, along with the league’s television channel NFL Network and the NFL RedZone service.
Beginning with the 2014-15 season, the app will expand to include access to live Sunday afternoon games from the CBS and Fox networks within their home markets, as well as all post-season playoff games, including the Super Bowl.
The deal marks the latest shift from the multi-platform exclusivity the league long granted its network and pay-television partners Fox, CBS, NBC, ESPN and DirecTV. In their new rights deals, the NFL retained the ability to market mobile phone rights, leading to the expanded agreement with Verizon.