Internet company Yahoo has sold out its advertising inventory for the first ever free live global stream of a regular-season game from the NFL, with the American football league stating it will closely monitor the results of the initiative as it seeks to determine whether it will proceed with further deals.
Yahoo will provide live coverage of the NFL International Series game in London, England between the Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, having sealed a deal with the league in June. The live stream will appear on Yahoo and Tumblr, which reach more than one billion monthly users.
The game kicks off at 2:30pm local time in London and Vishal Shah, the NFL’s vice-president of digital media strategy, told the Reuters news agency that the league will be closely studying not only how many viewers watch the game, but also what kind of devices they use to watch it, the quality of the viewing experience and whether the game draws a larger share of millennial viewers and how they are using social media to talk about the fixture
It also will study viewership in various regions, Shah said, with the game taking place in prime time in Asian markets. “All distribution formats are on the table for future games and other content where rights are available,” Shah added. “How we distribute live games can take a lot of shapes.”
The New York Times newspaper said Yahoo paid around $20m (€17.6m) to carry the game, which will be produced by US network CBS and carried on television in the United States only in the Buffalo and Jacksonville markets. Yahoo has said it has completely sold out advertising for the game, with more than 30 brands partnering for the project. Over the past few months, Yahoo dropped its asking price for advertisements during the game from $200,000 to less than $100,000, according to Reuters.
For the NFL live stream on Yahoo, advertisers include American Express, Applebee’s, Arby's, Bose, Burlington Stores, Cadillac, Chrysler, CiCi’s Pizza, Citi, CompareCards.com, Dairy Queen Brand, Danone Nations Cup, eHealth.com, Emirates Airline, Esurance, KFC, Kohl’s, Lincoln, Microsoft, Nationwide, Papa John's, Redd's Apple Ale, Snickers Brand, Subway Restaurants, T-Mobile, Totino’s and Toyota. The Dairy Queen Brand is the pre-game show sponsor on Yahoo, and Toyota will sponsor the halftime show.
Advertisers have been able to select global or US only advertising to reach the most attractive audiences for their brand and messaging.