The NFL has launched its own streaming service called NFL+, at either $4.99 per month or $39.99 per year for users to access all things NFL. Eric Mitchell, a sports analyst and the president and CEO of Life Flip Media, joined Cheddar News to give his take on the new digital platform. "This is designed for the extreme fans, the fans that can't get enough that will buy everything," he said.

Opening Bell

New NFL Streaming Service Looks to Be 'Designed for the Extreme Fans'

here to break this all down is eric Mitchell president and Ceo of life flip media and sports analyst. Good to have you on the show got to know if you think this is a smart move by the NFL, given how crowded the streaming space already is, I don't understand why the NFL did it because it doesn't make a lot of sense because they're almost stepping on their own deals that they have with the major networks that already aired tv all the time. This is just to me, it's odd. It doesn't make a lot of sense because as we all know, they're bidding on this, they're taking bids for the new NFL sunday ticket as we all know, direct tv has of course decided not to. There's three monster tech companies, the ones that seem to believe in that model with the, with the one with the most toys wins with apple and amazon and now Google has stepped, they're throwing their hat in the ring. There's some tech giants out there just throwing money in. The NFL basically is going, hey, we're going to have this other package to go with all of these. So it doesn't make a lot of sense to me personally. Yeah, I'm glad that you mentioned that because that was one of my first reactions to this. We know Apple tv plus has also been doing relatively well in the streaming wars and I believe they're entering their ticket into this bid as well. Um, so it kind of confuses a lot of investors, I'm sure, but at the same time we know the MLB and NBA already have their own streaming services. So it kind of makes sense for the NFL to want to take a dip into the water when it comes to streaming. What do you think took it so long though to launch its own version? Well, they've tried before, it's failed had exclusivity with Verizon, you remember they had that deal with Verizon, if you're a Verizon phone number, you got access to all the NFL games and then they tweaked that over the last few years. And if you're a yahoo fantasy football fan or a person who participates in that, which I proudly say I am, you could watch the games for free there. So they threw their hat in the ring here now charging for 99 a month for it. The NFL says that this is going to be a complimentary package to what you're seeing on mainstream because NFL plus does butt heads with the other networks already covering it. You have CBS, you have Fox, you of course have NBC who has sunday night football ESPN, who has monday night football and of course, let's not forget amazon amazon has a $1 billion a year deal for, for rights to thursday night football at the top. There also taking a $2.5 million bid. This is all about money, right? $2.5 billion is what they're looking for for NFL ticket, that's not including the NFL plus package. So when you think about that, that's a 1.5 that's a $1 billion bump from what they were already making annually. Under the current agreement with direct tv who by the way, was losing, get this About $500 million dollars annually off the package they were doing. So when you put all this money together, I agree with you on the investor side, this is going, what is going on here? If you're, if you're a tech giant, you've got to be a fan of this. And of course, if you're, the league's looking at these folks to play in a different realm when it comes to money, that's good for you. But probably hard for the big networks because it's hard to compete against that kind of money. Yeah, and to that end, it's almost even more impressive that they're launching this platform because you would think there would be some sort of red tape from other contracts in place where they couldn't do something like this. I do also want to ask you because you mentioned the MLB and maybe potential lessons they could have learned. How do you think the NFL will stack up compared to the counterparts of other leagues that have debuted their own streaming services that are outside of the realm of major network or cable deals. Um, and is there something you think they can learn at this point from those other networks. I think the NFL has targeted their audience, correct here. Remember NFL fans are a different breed than any other league. Trust me, I love the NBA, Love MLB NFL is a different breed. Remember just last week or two weeks ago they could have sold three million tickets to a football game in november in Germany ticketmaster had to turn it off because so many people are in queue to buy tickets. The NFL is a hot commodity. So doing this gives the fans the breakdown because there's added packages to this NFL plus package that you could go into the film room, like what the coaches see. This is designed for the extreme fans, the fans that can't get enough that will buy everything. And at the end of the day they also have it for what they're calling snackers folks who can't watch a full game and they can have it. The one caveat, they do have that, they're kind of avoiding this whole bumping heads with the other deals they have is it's only available on mobile, it's not allowed to stream to your tv, it's not allowed to do any of that. So they're keeping it in your pocket but they're still bumping heads because you can still watch all those games in the same place. So what they're learning is they're making it a little bit more for the Fan Diving where the other two leagues haven't done that yet with their streaming packages. It just makes it interesting. But remember Apple also is putting the shiny bow on everything and cool coverage, they just signed that $2.5 billion deal with Major League Soccer back in june and that's supposed to change the way that we're watching the game. So the NFL is going to have to do that. But then keep up with these other folks who are bidding for their own product to put a really cool product on the field. But right now the NFL at least is feeding their main base, their fan base, the fan that can't get enough to get them in the film room and the NFL archives, which as an NFL fan that's okay. Nobody has that. They're the ones with it. So they have the archives. So that will be fun for a lot of fans. There's so many good points there and something that sticks out to me is the fact that you mentioned this is supposed to be a complimentary service. So the question is, if fans, those extreme fans that you talk about are willing to shell out the money for something that can only be viewed on tablet or mobile considering the landscape of streaming right now, especially when it comes to live sports, do you anticipate that fans are actually going to bite at this? Will this also be beneficial to the NFL if they're trying to pull in a younger audience. I think it will, I don't know about to start. I mean to start, I think a lot of people will just go get it because the price points nice. I think it's great. And you get the archives and you get access to things that you normally don't get when you want to see how plays are done going for the younger audience. And knowing that the NFL wants to go international, putting, Uh, general managers in Australia and throughout the rest of the country, trying to grow the fan base from 100 and 50 million international fans to another 50 million over the next decade, definitely going after the younger audience and putting this in their hands probably will be a success in the long run. And at the end of the day we have to remember, we're talking about tech giants here and the NFL is trying to play in that same pool and I think they're going to do well because they will partner with one of these three and I think that's going to take them to the next level. And I think that's what the NFL's gamble is, Roger. Goodell is going to play the long game here and go, okay, we're gonna, whoever is going to be our dance partner here where they make their decision in the next 60 days of who's gonna take over NFL tickets starting next season, that's gonna lead us everywhere. And that's the way that the tv rights game is going to be played, not just in the NFL, but you're gonna see it moving forward in 2023 for women's sports as well, which is gonna be rumored to be almost a $1 billion industry in the next two years when it comes to tv rights that women's sports have. So Roger Goodell's saying, hey, we're the best show out there and let's go show it and grow this internationally. Yeah, How do you think this NFL platform potentially changes the landscape for live tv and live sports? And do you think it inadvertently will push some of these major networks and streamers to consider some of these different things when it comes to contracts moving forward so they can almost tie down the NFL for some of these benefits. Oh, absolutely. I think if we watched over the last decade of the way live sports has been streamed, it's changed the NBA and Major League Baseball showed it showed everybody how to get it done. The NFL has been paying attention and they put it together and it does compete when you look at NBC, they have their peacock platform, which has all their games that they televise and anything that they cover in the playoffs and the Super Bowl deals, they're gonna see abc do that. Of course they have Disney money and marvel money. They can have a lot of fun and really build their product up, They did a great job in the NBA finals. I see them when contracts come up, they're gonna do the same thing. You see CBS going to do the same thing. I think all these networks are going to have to come together and their big fear is competing against the big tech giants because the financial games are completely different in the rules they play by are different. You have three that basically can print money with amazon and Apple and google competing at CBS and the rest that are just depending on ad dollars, they can go get Apple, can go sell a couple of phones. They're doing pretty well. I mean there's a line out every Apple store in America. So I think it's going to be the struggle for some of these networks isn't to keep the deal and be cutting edge. It's to try to outbid these bigger tech giants that they're not just in it for money, they're in it to win because that's the Silicon Valley way. Yeah, absolutely. As we've had this conversation, it started off as a head scratcher, but now you've led me to believe maybe the NFL knows exactly what they're doing and there are a few plays ahead trying to make this a proof of concept for future bidders, Really good insight there. That's erIC Mitchell president and Ceo of life flip media and also sports analyst. Thanks again