This article was originally published on PaidContent.org on November 17, 2003.
Evan Kamer, Senior Director of New Media at the NFL, made a solo presentation to the audience on the NFL’s online subscription business.
Kamer said key factors that prompted NFL.com to launch an online subscription service this season were 1) a large and passionate audience and 2) a critical mass of broadband users.
Kamer shared data with the audience: by January 2003, NFL.com had built an audience of 15 million unique users; and research sized the broadband audience at 40 million broadband users (Nielsen), with 40-50% saying they would pay for content.
The NFL decided to launch an online subscription service to further diversify their revenues while still maintaining a significant amount of free content on the site. There are currently two products on the NFL’s roster: NFL Field Pass (includes live game audio) and NFL Fantasy Extra (a fantasy sports game). Results according to Kamer: approx 100,000 sign ups to-date; half annual subscription and half monthly subscriptions.
Next up for NFL.com, according to Kamer: bundling and packaging of multiple services, more team involvement, new products and wireless.
In my next report, I’ll have an exclusive one-on-one interview with Bobby Burton, Executive Vice President at Rivals.com.
