Verizon to stream NFL games and other coverage on phones
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Verizon Wireless has scored a deal to stream National Football League games and other coverage, starting with the April 22 draft. Sprint previously had an exclusive deal with the league and will retire its NFL Mobile Live service.
The largest U.S. wireless company reportedly spent $720 million on the deal, according to the Wall Street Journal. Verizon subscribers won’t get the holy grail -- that is, access to watch every game on demand.
The package includes live video for NBC’s ‘Sunday Night Football’ and the NFL Network’s Thursday night games, 24-hour news coverage and the RedZone channel. The latter is Sunday afternoon football for the ADD generation; coverage constantly switches between games whenever a team has scored or is likely to.
Die-hard fans can rest assured that video highlights and radio broadcasts for every regular-season and playoff game will also be accessible. Fantasy football mavens will have access to news, stats and rosters from their phones.
The service will be available on some Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile and Brew (a not-so-smart phone operating system from Qualcomm) devices, wrote a Verizon spokesman in an e-mail. Verizon will announce which models and how much subscriptions will cost ‘closer to the start of the NFL season in August,’ according to the press release.
Mobile sports fans will also be able to tap into a CBS Sports app for the NCAA basketball tournament’s March Madness games.
-- Mark Milian
twitter.com/markmilian