NFL Wembley Stream Attracts 15.2m Viewers

27 Oct 2015 | tshego

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Yahoo’s live webcast of Sunday’s National Football League (NFL) game at Wembley Stadium had an audience of 15.2m unique viewers and 33.6m total views.

Overall, more than 460m total minutes of video were watched, according to Yahoo and the NFL, with 33% of streams from international users across 185 countries.

It was the first time that international viewers could access an NFL game without cable or satellite and viewers were able to watch the 34-31 Jaguars victory on smartphones, tablets, laptops and smart television.

Last week the NFL also announced they would continue to play regular season games in London until 2020, alongside the Jacksonville Jaguars who committed one regular season game a year.

The goal for the NFL in selling streaming rights to Yahoo was to gauge the global market the league could attract in future, with Yahoo reported to have paid around $20m for the rights.

Hans Schroeder, NFL’s senior vice president for media strategy, business development and sales said: “This experience gives us more options to consider. This was a really great way to learn how big an audience is out there.”

Adam Cahan, Yahoo’s SVP of product and engineering, in a statement added: “It’s been a great opportunity to partner with the NFL and deliver a truly exceptional global live streaming experience for our users. We’re seeing a dramatic shift in the industry as audiences’ primary video watching moves away from TV. We were thrilled to join the NFL in setting a new standard for sports programming for our users and advertisers.”