Everyone Loses in NFL / DirectTV Deal

The NFL and DirectTV announced that they have signed a deal that will give DirectTV subscribers access to NFL games online.

This raises a few issues:

1) If this is an exclusive deal, that would mean that the only way NFL fans could ‘legally’ watch NFL games online is by subscribing to DirectTV, a service that doesn’t seem to work when it is raining.

2) This will only encourage the spread of illegal streams online – something already prevelant but not widespread.

3) If the NFL decides to provide legal streams online in a way that doesn’t require one to sign up for DirectTV, nobody will bother with DirectTV.

I remain baffled as to why CBS’s success with March Madness on Demand cannot be easily replicated by all the major sporting leagues.  More eyeballs means more ad dollars or am I missing something?

More on the deal here.

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