Report: YouTube is “heavy favorite” to stream Week 1 Friday night game from Brazil
May 9, 2025
Published May 8, 2025 08:58 PM
This year’s Week 1 Friday night game from Brazil will, like last year, be available via streaming. Unlike last year, it will reportedly stream at no charge.
Previously, the candidates were YouTube, Warner Brothers Discovery, and Amazon Prime. Now, Andrew Marchand of TheAthletic.com reports that YouTube is the “heavy favorite” to secure the rights to the game. Marchand adds that the game is expected to be available globally on the massive platform, at no charge.
The Friday night game will feature the Chargers as the home team. The visiting team will be announced on Tuesday, and possibly leaked before that.
Google/YouTube currently holds the rights to the NFL’s Sunday Ticket package, a premium product that was found last year by a California federal court jury to be an antitrust violation. The verdict, which had its multi-billion-dollar damages component thrown out by the trial judge, has not prompted the NFL to make any changes to pricing that was determined to be improperly inflated in order to protect the Sunday afternoon packages currently held by CBS and Fox.
The price to be paid by YouTube isn’t known. Last year’s Friday night game, streamed by Peacock, reportedly came with a price tag of $105 million.
The NFL is able to televise a Week 1 Friday night game only when the first weekend of the regular season lands on the first Friday in September. Next year, when Week 1 coincides with the second Friday in September, the NFL could (if it chooses) shift a Week 1 Friday game to 3:00 p.m. ET, like it currently does on Black Friday.
The Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 hinges the NFL’s broadcast antitrust exemption on the avoidance of televising games on Saturdays and after 6:00 p.m. ET on Fridays from the second weekend in September through the second weekend in December.
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