The NFL is ready to hand off its Thursday Night Football streaming package as a carrot to get phone giant Verizon to cough up more cash to renew its existing mobile-phone rights deal, The Post has learned.
Verizon wants to renew its phone rights to NFL games on Sunday, Monday and Thursday and win wider streaming rights beyond what it already hosts, sources tell The Post.
The deal could boost its virtual cable-style programming bundle branded go90. The $1 billion phone rights deal is set to expire after next year’s Super Bowl.
“The [NFL] wants to tie [Thursday streaming rights] to an extension of Verizon’s NFL sponsorship and its $1 billion exclusive lock on mobile,” said a source close to the talks, adding that Verizon wants to renew the deal but has been pushing back on the price. Part of the deal would include a renewal of its NFL sponsorship, too.
It is not known how much more Commissioner Roger Goodell wants from Verizon coffers, but CBS and NBC recently agreed to pay $45 million per game, an increase for CBS of $7.5 million to share the broadcast TV rights to Thursday games. CBS had them exclusively this past season.
The two broadcast networks are to split a package of eight games, which will be shared with both NFL Network and an as-yet-unknown streaming partner. A new deal is expected in a few weeks, sources say.
The streaming rights for Thursday night games have excited interest from several companies — with Bloomberg reporting Monday that AT&T, Verizon and Yahoo are expected to bid.
An oversize bid for streaming Thursday night NFL games from Yahoo would likely cause shareholder angst for those who want to see Yahoo cutting costs. Yahoo bid $17 million to gain streaming rights to a London game last year.
AT&T meanwhile holds NFL rights via DirecTV’s Sunday Ticket. It has an eight-year exclusive lock on that package. Nevertheless, sources say Amazon has been eyeing a way to win streaming rights to Sunday Ticket.
The Sunday Ticket renewal signed in October 2014 is worth $12 billion but has been targeted by antitrust lawyers arguing that the NFL teams and their agreement with AT&T unit DirecTV prevent real price competition for the bars and restaurants that pay to screen it.
In separate news, Bloomberg is reporting that Verizon has been using AOL chief Tim Armstrong to reach out to Yahoo for a possible acquisition.
Armstrong’s prior approaches, before his AOL was acquired by Verizon, were rebuffed by Yahoo boss Marissa Mayer, who has preferred to pursue her own vision for building the company.
Verizon Chief Executive Lowell McAdam confirmed to CNBC on Friday his firm’s interest in acquiring Yahoo.
“We have to understand the trends that we are seeing in some of their results now. But then, at the right price, I think marrying up some of their assets with AOL under Tim Armstrong’s leadership would be a good thing for investors,” he told the network.
The NFL had no comment.