YouTube's ready to go all-in on the NFL. And the league's not shy about letting them.
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Christian Oestlien, who heads up subscription products at YouTube, told Bloomberg the company is absolutely eyeing more NFL rights. With Sunday Ticket already in its back pocket, YouTube's clearly hungry for more.
"We really value our partnership with the NFL," Oestlien said. "Everything we've done with them so far has been really successful. And so we're very excited about the idea that we could be doing more with them."
They're not just window shopping. NFL Media boss Hans Schroeder confirmed the league's talking to potential new partners about adding live game rights, via Awful Announcing.
Not just the usual suspects like Fox, CBS, or NBC. Real talks. Real deals. Real money.
YouTube's exclusive broadcast of the Week 1 Chiefs-Chargers game in Brazil pulled 17.3 million viewers worldwide. That includes 16.2 million in the U.S. for a game that didn't air on cable. That kind of number gets attention.
The NFL's current TV deals run through 2033, but they can get out early after 2029. And with ESPN offloading four Monday night games to help close their NFL equity deal, there's extra inventory sitting around right now.
That's prime territory for a streaming giant to swoop in.
Whether it's international matchups or something bigger, YouTube's checkbook will be ready.
