NFL’s Brian Rolapp: ‘No, We’re Not Worried’ About Netflix’s Streaming Capabilities for NFL Christmas Games

Also: Comments on Skydance Media’s acquisition of Paramount Global and other issues

Despite the technical issues that Netflix experienced during the massive live stream of the Jake Paul–Mike Tyson fight last Friday, the NFL doesn’t appear concerned about its upcoming debut on the streaming platform on Christmas Day.

“No, we’re not worried,” said NFL Chief Media Officer Brian Rolapp at the SBJ Media Innovators conference in New York yesterday. “We’ve worked a ton with Netflix getting ready for this. I think there’s a reason they did the fight when they did [to prepare for the NFL Christmas games].

NFL’s Brian Rolapp: “And just when you didn’t think it was going to be that big, they went out and got Beyoncé to do halftime.”

“I think it’s a process and they’re learning,” he continued. “All of these new tech companies getting into large-scale streaming are learning this. I think they’ve been pretty clear about what the issues are, I think they have a handle on those issues, and I think they’ve been pretty clear on how they’re addressing them.”

Rolapp referenced the league’s own early struggles in live streaming as proof of just how much the industry has evolved. For example, in 2008, the NFL opted to take a Packers–Cowboys game carried on NFL Network and live-stream it on NFL.com. When 500,000 concurrent users were watching the game, he noted, Akamai and other CDN operators were contacting the league saying, “I think you’re breaking the internet.” The league experienced similar technical issues when it partnered with Yahoo to live-stream a Bills–Jaguars game from London that drew a peak of 2 million concurrent viewers.

Fast-forward to this season: Amazon Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football averaged 13 million viewers through the first eight weeks, and Peacock’s exclusive coverage of the Eagles–Packers from Brazil during opening week drew 14.2 million viewers. Rolapp believes that Netflix will be able to adapt quickly, and he is confident its platform will be ready for Christmas despite its struggles during the Paul–Tyson fight.

“It is staggering the scale of the [Netflix] platform and what they’ve done,” he said. “I think they’ll be ready [for Christmas]. I think [the fight] shows the power of their global platform and where they were internationally, which is one reason we did this deal. I think what they did was pretty extraordinary.”

Rolapp also cited the unprecedented global scale that Netflix will be able to offer the Chiefs–Steelers and Ravens–Texans broadcasts as a major reason the league signed the deal in the first place. “Clearly, with a scaled platform, Netflix is by definition scaled and international, and you get that reach for one window all at the same time. That’s their business model. I don’t think many other platforms can say that. I think we’re going to learn a lot.

“Netflix won that bidding because of the global reach in their plan to make this a global event,” he continued. “And just when you didn’t think it was going to be that big, they went out and got Beyoncé to do halftime.”

Some other highlights of Rolapp’s Q&A at the SBJ Media Innovators Conference:

On the league’s finding more standalone windows like Christmas Day games: “We don’t play windows just for the sake of playing windows. I think we’re pretty deliberate about it and how we think about it. I think there’s a natural limitation of windows just because of the nature of the sport. Christmas is obviously something we’ve seen grow tremendously that’s of interest. I think you’ve seen those 930 windows that help us play some of our international games — those are growing in popularity and have been successful. Of course, we’ve been playing on Saturdays in December for a long time, for decades. Those aren’t new. I think you’ll continue to see us lean into those if they make sense.”

On the NFL’s position regarding Skydance Media’s acquisition of Paramount Global and whether it allows the league to reopen its contract with CBS Sports: “We know the Skydance folks well; we know [CEO] David Ellison well. We have a joint venture with them in Skydance Sports, a studio that has been very successful. He and his team are innovative, they’re smart, they have a big vision, and we are always interested in all of our partners’ figuring out how to successfully navigate to the next iteration, to be well-capitalized to do that. I think where Paramount has landed is, they’re certainly now well-capitalized.

“We don’t talk about our contractual provisions, but … we want our partners to be stable and healthy and innovative, especially now and especially in the change that you see the next 10 years. We expect and want that from all of our partners.”

An update on the league’s search for an equity partner in NFL Media: “I wake up every two weeks and read about somebody who’s evidently talking to us about those assets, and sometimes there are surprises in what I read, but that’s one reason we came out [publicly three years ago about speaking to strategic partners]. … We’ve probably had more conversations in the last two months than we’ve had in the last 10. I think we’ll continue to be patient, and, when we see it, we’ll know it. … We have not seen a plan that achieves our strategic and financial objectives, but I think we will at some point. But we’re fine with operating the way we operate now. We’re in zero hurry, and they are really healthy assets.

On the evolution and growth of NFL+ DTC streaming service: “It is essentially serving a pretty interesting use case where you’re able to get NFL Network and Red Zone channel across the platform. You also get all live in-market mobile games, on which the consumption is extremely high. Unless you have YouTube TV or something else, this country has not solved TV Everywhere, and there is still a huge demand for these live games that people want on the go [and are] fairly priced, as well as Red Zone and NFL Network. It’s serving a specific need that people seem to like and complements our linear and another business. And it’s extremely profitable. Our customer-acquisition and content costs are low because [we’re] repurposing a lot of current games, but, from an acquisition standpoint, we do it extremely efficiently. It’s a growth engine in our owned-and-operated business.”

On the league’s plans to take its NFL Draft broadcast rights to the open market: “The NFL Draft, as you know, has become an extremely valuable property outside of our game rights. It’s one of the biggest things we do. ESPN has done a great job with it through the years. That has always been part of the ESPN agreement, the Monday Night Football agreement. But we made a change this time: this is the first time we’re fully taking it to market independently. We’ve had a tremendous amount of interest from traditional players and, of course, streamers who see it as an event. So nothing new to report other than we’re having a lot of productive conversations.”

On ESPN’s simulcast of Monday Night Football games on ABC and the potential for more in the future: “There’s a common theme you’re probably hearing about: reach. We’ve been very consistent with our partners: we want reach. This was a really innovative way to do it that gained traction during the Hollywood strikes, when there was no entertainment programming on broadcast. We started to fill out that distribution with Disney on ABC, and that carried forward to this year. … It should be no mystery to anybody or our partners that we’re looking for ideas on reach. Disney leaned in on this one. We say to all our partners, if you’ve got the ideas, let’s do them; let’s look at it. And they’ve been great partners in that regard. I think, if there’s an opportunity or it makes sense [to simulcast more games on broadcast], we want to do it.”