Sprint to Run Live NFL Network Games
NFL Network games are going live via Sprint’s Now Network, marking the first time pro football games will be ported to wireless screens.
So for those National Football League fantasy freaks frantic to stay current on stats, or anybody else who doesn’t want to miss the Thursday night NFL Network tilts during their commutes, there is NFL Mobile Live.
The NFL outlet will be part of Sprint’s Data Pack, a $15 monthly subscription service. It will also be available in Sprint’s high-end Simply Everything, for $99.99 per month.
“It’s for fans who are on the go. It enables a multi-screen viewing experience,” said NFL spokesman Dan Masonson.
The target is clearly young, affluent fans who are far more likely to digest video in large chunks on small screens than baby boomers.
Meanwhile, the NFL Network has incurred the wrath of Sen. Arlen Specter (R.-Pa.) and a dozen other senators who criticized the league’s limiting access to games on the network. The network is typically carried on premium sports tiers on cable systems around the country.
The NFL responded in part by saying it has been “undercut by several of the largest cable operators that are discriminating against our network by either refusing to carry it or placing it on a much more costly tier.”
Those networks include Comcast, based in Specter’s home state, and Time Warner Cable. Earlier in November, the FCC ruled the NFL had made a prima facie case against Comcast and sent it to an administrative law judge for review after Comcast put the NFL Network on a higher sports tier behind its own owned sports channels.
The NFL said that it was interested in getting deals with the MSOs to put those eight games in front of as wide an audience as possible.
Putting games on Sprint cell phones doesn’t put the NFL games on screens its network most wants to reach. And it doesn’t answer Specter’s criticism of a sports video network playing to an elite audience.
But it does create an alternate, mobile video source to reinforce the Thursday night viewing habit among NFL fans who typically watch games on weekends.
More than one million Sprint wireless customers have downloaded NFL Mobile Live to date.
