Are you ready for some football? While there may be less than a week in the 2014-2015 football campaign, marketers and online platform managers are talking with the NFL about how to expand their online presence. Google announced a new pact with the NFL that will help you track your games via Google search and Youtube.
The NFL has officially started their own YouTube page, where they will host the highlights for each game. On top of that, all Google searches for the team will show video footage, up-to-date scores, broadcast times and other details. So, for example, let's say you Google the Minnesota Vikings. Google will now show you the latest score from their last game, as well as related video, when the next (known) game is and other details. Any and all ad revenue Google receives from these searches will be split with the NFL.
Will Google ever host entire games online? It doesn't look like it. It doesn't look like the NFL wants to create competition between Google and their normal broadcasters, including ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and NFL Networks. However, this won't affect the upcoming NBC stream of the Super Bowl.
This isn't the NFL's first move into the digital wild. The NFL made an agreement with Facebook in December about showing NFL videos and highlights on their feed.
This move is a big deal for the NFL. As Engadget explains, "It's a long-overdue step for the NFL, which has only recently dabbled in selling digital content rights. It's also a welcome change for fans, as YouTube's NFL previews and recap packages are quite complete and don't appear to be region locked -- good news for Euro fans and expats."
