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With the 2023 NFL season officially over, the league’s focus quickly shifts to the offseason, which brings several major questions around media and stadiums.
How much more streaming is on the way?
The 2023 season brought a number of major exclusive streaming firsts: A Black Friday game on Amazon Prime Video, a regular-season and playoff game on Peacock, and the transition of NFL Sunday Ticket from DirecTV to YouTube. Still, there could be even more room for streaming in the NFL’s broadcast schedule, particularly around international games. A broadcast partner has not been announced for the NFL’s debut game in Brazil, featuring the Eagles on Friday night of kickoff weekend, and annual games in Europe could create their own new streaming package. NFL executives have previously told Front Office Sports that NFL+ could be a landing spot for some exclusive game broadcasts. Will 2024 bring even more streaming? That should be answered in May, when the league announces next season’s full schedule, if not sooner.
What teams, if any, will make progress on stadium deals?
The Bears and Commanders are in the process of searching for sites to build new stadiums, while the Jaguars are working on completing a deal that would see the city fund half of their $2 billion project to renovate EverBank Stadium. The more time that passes without a deal for any of the above franchises simply means a longer wait until a new or renovated venue is completed. All three will certainly be using this offseason to solidify their futures.
Will the viewership spike extend into the spring?
Viewership during the NFL’s 2023 regular season (17.9 million viewers per game) was the league’s highest since ’15. That growth continued during the postseason as games during the wild-card, divisional, and conference championship rounds averaged 38.5 million viewers—the most ever for the playoffs. Super Bowl LVIII viewership will be released later this week, and the NFL will look to keep things up over the next few months. The league has yet to turn the four-day NFL Scouting Combine, which begins later this month, into must-see TV on the NFL Network, but the NFL draft, which takes place in April, has become one of the premier sporting events in the U.S. Last year’s first round telecast drew 11.29 million viewers (up 13% from ’22), boosting the three-day event to an average of six million viewers (up 12% from ’22).
