The way we watch sports is rapidly evolving. Last season was the first in which NFL fans could live stream all local and primetime games for free—no cable authentication required—via the Yahoo Sports app. This season, games are also live streaming through the company’s fantasy sports app.
Yahoo’s parent, Verizon, originally signed a five-year, $2 billion streaming deal with the NFL in 2017. A year later, the average user spent 41 minutes watching NFL games per visit on the Yahoo Sports app. According to NFL chief information officer Michelle McKenna, the league had hoped for even greater consumption of live NFL games through its deal with Yahoo.