Earlier this week, the National Football League and Verizon Wireless announced the renewal of their agreement with a new, innovative and expanded multi-year extension.
As a result, Verizon Wireless – the official wireless service provider of the NFL – will continue to provide fans with access to football and related coverage, regardless of whether they are at home or on the go.
In light of the new deal between Verizon Wireless and the NFL, Sephi Shapira, CEO of MassiveImpact (a performance based mobile advertising company), and Roger Entner (Lead Analyst and Founder of Recon Analytics) connected with MMW to discuss how the expanded partnership with Verizon and the NFL will affect mobile advertising.
“Verizon and the National Football League have extended their agreement through 2014, stressing the importance of mobile media partnerships,” says Shapira. “In the works a new mobile app offering exclusive phone access to Thursday, Sunday, and Monday Night Football coverage, as well as game highlights, video analysis, fantasy football options, and customizable alerts. While NFL broadcasts are traditionally known for reaching a mass amount of consumers, now with the mobile app users can personalize content creating a unique opportunity for retailers to address individual interests and geo-location.”
“In the largest ever deal between a sports league and a mobile operator, Verizon is spending one billion dollar over four years to not only be the wireless sponsor of the NFL, but also expanding its ability to show more NFL games on mobile phones,” Entner adds. “Verizon will now be able to show every game including black-out games in home markets. This agreement is another step in the NFL’s embrace not only of mobile, but other digital platforms as it came on the heels of a $400 million four-year agreement with Microsoft to integrate NFL games and content into the Xbox One. The Verizon contract is for mobile phones only, whereas the Microsoft contract is for consoles and Surface tablet line. What will be very interesting is where the dividing line between phones and tablets lies – is the Samsung Note at 5.3 inches a phone or a tablet?”
“No other sports league is as aggressively focused on reaching and integrating the second and third screen as the NFL and the Verizon and Microsoft agreements give us an idea of the direction of integration,” Entner concludes. “Both agreements create a companion universe that enriches and expands NFL and associated content as they give users access to news, stats, Xbox easier Fantasy Football with ESPN SmartGlasses and Kinect integration with real time integration. It is common knowledge that sponsors of the NFL enjoy a significant advertising lift over non-sponsors, making their ads significantly more impactful.”
