As football season kicks off, streamers like YouTube and Amazon could force a TV turnover

On any given Sunday… more NFL games will be available exclusively on streaming sites this year than ever. Yesterday, YouTube TV kicked off its first season airing the NFL’s “Sunday Ticket,” charging subscribers an extra $300/year for access. YouTube’s paying the NFL $2B+/season for the seven-year deal. Also: NBCUniversal’s Peacock (which has the most live sports of any streamer) will for the first time air a regular-season game and exclusively broadcast a wild-card playoff game. 

• Prime time: Amazon’s on its second year as the exclusive home of “Thursday Night Football,” which Prime members can watch at no extra charge. Last year it averaged 11.3M viewers/telecast, drawing younger fans to the NFL. 

• Red zone: The streaming deals are an effort to reduce the prevalence of illegal streams, too, which lose leagues billions yearly. 

Full-court press… As subscription saturation (#subscripturation) intensifies, streaming growth has slowed. Now streamers are hoping that investments in live sports will fuel growth, with good reason: last year sports made up 94 of the 100 most-watched telecasts — and 82 of ’em were for the NFL. Streamers are spending $6B+ to snag sports rights this year. 

• Free tix: Warner Bros. Discovery is reportedly going to offer a free live-sports trial on its Max streaming service (fka: HBO Max), thanks to its NBA and MLB media rights.

• Wide net: Soccer icon Lionel Messi drove 288K new subs to Apple TV+’s MLS season add-on in a single month. 

• Cord cut: Disney’s said to be planning to offer an “unbundled from cable” ESPN streamer by 2025, and Spectrum parent Charter said it’s reached a “point of indifference” on staying in TV.