NFL EVP\/chief media officer Hans Schroeder discusses a potential consistent NFL international window; NASCAR CEO Steve O\u2019Donnell talks about possibly airing events on CBS; and NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman discusses the league\u2019s forthcoming media rights negotiations. Plus news on the WNBA Finals, Netflix, Nielsen and SiriusXM.<\/p>\n
Schroeder: NFL international window opportunity for \u201cglobal streamer\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking at the Front Office Sports Tuned In Summit on Tuesday, NFL EVP\/chief media officer Hans Schroeder described the league\u2019s international game windows as providing an opportunity to create a potential \u201cconsistent window\u201d that could be of interest to \u201ca global streamer\u201d with worldwide reach. Though he did not specify any particular platforms, the description fits the major streamers Netflix, Prime Video and YouTube, all of whom have reached deals with the NFL in recent seasons.<\/p>\n
So far, International Series games have primarily aired in early morning windows on NFL Network, with Fox getting one of those slots this season. A handful have been standalone primetime windows in Week 1 of the season, each of which have aired on streaming services \u2014 Peacock in 2024, YouTube in 2025 and Netflix this year, with the latter two distributing the game globally. Prime Video has not carried an International Series game as of yet, but obtained global rights to its Black Friday Football game beginning last season.<\/p>\n
The league has not shown any signs of slowing its pursuit of deals with streaming services, despite a widely reported federal investigation into those contracts.<\/p>\n
The NFL is able to opt out of its national media rights deals following the 2029 season (with the exception of Disney), but Schroeder did not definitively state that the league plans to exercise that option, as is widely assumed. He said the league has \u201cflexibility\u201d in navigating the changing media landscape. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of work that goes into it, there\u2019s a lot of discussions. I\u2019d say we\u2019re [continuing] to do our work and our homework and make sure we\u2019re prepared when and if the right time to really dive into those discussions comes.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Donnell to meet with Berson about possibility of NASCAR airing on CBS<\/p>\n
NASCAR CEO Steve O\u2019Donnell said Tuesday that he will meet with CBS Sports president\/CEO David Berson about the possibility of TNT Sports races airing on the CBS broadcast network. TNT Sports, which is the second of a seven-year deal with NASCAR highlighted by a run of five midseason Cup Series races, is now under the same corporate umbrella of CBS Sports after their parent companies Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery merged into Skydance last week.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Donnell, who spoke at the Front Office Sports Tuned In Summit, added that he met with Skydance Sports chairman\/CEO David Ellison prior to the merger<\/a> and that the two sides spoke about the possibility of airing and\/or simulcasting races on the CBS broadcast network.<\/p>\n \u201cCBS used to be a great partner of ours, Turner has been fantastic, so who knows?,\u201d O\u2019Donnell said. \u201cI think it\u2019s an opportunity for us, especially as you look forward, to keep everybody close, but we\u2019re very happy with the folks we currently have for sure.\u201d CBS Sports last aired NASCAR races for four decades ending in 2000. As the TNT Sports package consists of the five aforementioned Cup Series races and late season practice and qualifying sessions, there is limited inventory available to shift.<\/p>\n John Ourand of Puck reported<\/a> that \u201caffiliate deals with distributors\u201d are holding up sports leagues from simulcasting games on CBS.<\/p>\n Berman discusses forthcoming NWSL media rights deal, Victory+<\/p>\n NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman said at the Front Office Sports Tuned In Summit Tuesday that the league\u2019s media partners \u201care really excited to continue\u201d with the league as it heads into rights negotiations. Berman said that the suite of NWSL rights partners \u2014 ESPN, CBS Sports, Prime Video, Scripps and Roku \u2014 will be able to lean into the tailwinds generated by upcoming events, such as the 2028 Olympic Games and 2031 FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup. \u201cWe\u2019ll obviously be in discussions with [our partners] and others as we sort of assess the landscape and navigate what makes sense for us for this next chapter.\u201d<\/p>\n The NWSL exited one of its rights deals this summer after Victory+ reportedly<\/a> missed<\/a> rights payments to some of its rights partners and subsequently collapsed. The league has since replaced that deal with a contract with Roku.<\/p>\n Berman emphasized that the league wanted to bring in a new partner that would render it simple for fans to access the games. \u201cWe were quick to act once we understood what we believed to be what was happening and wanted to make a decision that, most importantly, put our games in a place where our fans already are convening,\u201d Berman said. \u201cAlthough Roku wasn\u2019t a previous broadcast partner, we had had previously, for the last couple of seasons, a third-party media partnership with them.\u201d<\/p>\n Under its current contracts, more than 120 NWSL games air on national television across the league\u2019s various partners, in addition to select games on the league-owned streaming platform NWSL+.<\/p>\n Plus: WNBA Finals, Netflix, Nielsen, SiriusXM<\/p>\n Games 3 and 4 of the Valkyries-Dream WNBA Finals have been rescheduled to allow Atlanta to host games at the 17,000-seat State Farm Arena rather than the 3,500-set Gateway Center Arena. Game 3 has been moved to Wednesday, Oct. 21 at 8 PM ET, while Game 4 remains on Saturday, Oct. 24 with tip-time changed from 3:30 PM to 1 PM ET. Network designations \u2014 USA and CNBC for Game 3 and NBC for Game 4 \u2014 are unchanged.
\nNetflix has acquired exclusive rights to the 2030 FIFA World Cup in host nation Spain and Andorra, marking the first time the media conglomerate will stream the men\u2019s edition of the tournament, it was announced Tuesday. Under the deal, Netflix will offer one game per day for free in Spain, while all matches featuring Spain \u2014 along with the semifinals and final \u2014 will be accessible through free, over-the-air television. Netflix has broadcast rights to the next two FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup tournaments in the United States and Canada as well as select MLB and NFL games.
\nNielsen global head of sports Seth Ladetsky said at the Front Office Sports Tuned In Summit on Tuesday that the company\u2019s shift to Big Data + Panel methodology has resulted in an estimated viewership volume lift of 5% to 8% for sports audiences \u201ccompared to traditional panel-only formats.\u201d Zadetsky added that the inclusion of out-of-home viewing, which began in full last February in the contiguous U.S., has resulted in a 10% to 25% sports audience lift \u201con top of traditional in-home sports viewership numbers.\u201d
\nFormer National League MVP Andrew McCutchen has joined SiriusXM MLB Network Radio as an analyst for the MLB postseason, the company announced Tuesday. McCutchen, who has played 18 seasons in the major leagues, will appear twice weekly on \u201cPower Alley\u201d for the remainder of postseason action. Earlier in the postseason, McCutchen appeared on MLB Network as a guest analyst on programs such as \u201cMLB Central\u201d and \u201cMLB Tonight: National Pregame Show.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NFL EVP\/chief media officer Hans Schroeder discusses a potential consistent NFL international window; NASCAR CEO Steve O\u2019Donnell talks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":932667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,320050,126078,320051,320052,82],"class_list":["post-932666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-media-rights","tag-nascar-on-tnt","tag-nfl-international-games","tag-nwsl-media-rights","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=932666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/932667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=932666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=932666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=932666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}