When the Bills and Jaguars face off in London in Week 7 of the NFL season, it won’t be shown on a national TV broadcast. The only way that any NFL fan who doesn’t live in the Buffalo or Jacksonville areas can watch is to stream it online via Yahoo.
It’s the first time in history that an NFL game will be only available nationally via livestream, but it’s not the only regular-season game this year that fans can watch live online.
As CBS said Tuesday, via the Associated Press, other NFL games will be livestreamed for free on computers and tablets via CBSSports.com. Those games are the Oct. 4 meeting between the Jets and Dolphins that occurs in London and the Thanksgiving matchup between the Panthers and the Cowboys.
Those who use Xbox One, Apple TV, Chromecast, and Roku players will have the opportunity to watch those games on television.
CBS also will livestream the Super Bowl, which the network first offered in 2012. All of the NFL’s prime-time games, including those on ESPN and NBC, are available live on the Internet, along with every playoff game.
Interestingly, the only time the NFL has allowed its games to be livestreamed is when there are no other contests being played (the NFL games in London occur early in the morning in this country, and the games on Thanksgiving don’t overlap with each other).
“We’re very excited to offer more NFL ON CBS streaming coverage across more digital platforms than ever before,” Jeff Gerttula, senior vice president and general manager of CBS Sports Digital, said in a statement.
This, however, shouldn’t be a surprise. As we’ve been learning, the future of sports is in the stream.
Photo via Andy McLemore/Flickr (CC BY SA 2.0)