Verizon Wireless announced a four-year sponsorship agreement with the National Football League, promising subscribers a wealth of NFL content highlighted by live streaming coverage of NBC's marquee Sunday Night Football broadcast. A Verizon spokesperson confirmed to FierceMobileContent that the deal makes Verizon Wireless the league's exclusive mobile media partner as well as its official wireless service sponsor, roles previously filled by Sprint, which has prominently featured the NFL in its advertising efforts in recent years. According to The Wall Street Journal [1], the new deal is valued at $720 million, including a rights fee and advertising spending--the earlier Sprint package was valued at $120 million.
The Verizon/NFL deal officially kicks off with mobile coverage of the 2010 NFL Draft, which begins Apr. 22--during the regular season, Verizon will introduce to mobile the NFL Network's NFL RedZone channel, which supplies live look-ins of every touchdown and signature play from the Sunday afternoon games. In addition to NBC's Sunday Night Football, Verizon will also simulcast the NFL Network's own Thursday Night Football matchups, with the cable channel's related football programming airing live 24/7/365.
Verizon's NFL Mobile package is also slated to include on-demand video and analysis from the NFL Network and NFL Films, fantasy information, news and statistics, and customizable alerts, ringtones and graphics. Verizon adds that information on specific handsets and associated pricing will be announced in August, prior to the start of the regular NFL season.
Sprint initially launched NFL Mobile in the fall of 2005, upgrading [2] to the NFL Mobile Live application--complete with live radio broadcasts of all regular season games as well as all eight Thursday Night Football matchups--three years later. According to Sprint, the NFL Mobile Live app set the company's single-day record for downloads on Sept. 7, 2008, the first Sunday of the NFL campaign.
For more on the Verizon Wireless/NFL deal:
- read this release [3]
Related articles:
NFL [4], DirecTV to offer Sunday Ticket package on mobile
Motorola teams with NFL [5] stars to cover Super Bowl XLIV
Links:
[1] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704869304575110180782484198.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_tech
[2] http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/sprint-adds-nfl-mobile-live-starting-lineup/2008-08-18
[3] http://www.fiercewireless.com/press-releases/nfl-mobile-kicks-verizon-wireless-april-0
[4] http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/nfl-directv-offer-sunday-ticket-package-mobile/2009-07-22
[5] http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/motorola-teams-nfl-stars-cover-super-bowl-xliv/2010-02-02