Verizon is expanding its deal with the NFL so even people using other mobile carriers can watch games on the Yahoo Sports mobile app, the league announced Monday.
Verizon has been the exclusive mobile carrier of NFL games since 2010. The new deal, which runs through the 2022-23 season, will make the games available to users of other carriers using Verizon's Yahoo platform. Verizon completed its $4.5 billion acquisition of Yahoo in June.
Starting with the 2018 postseason, Yahoo users will get the nationally broadcast NFL games offered Thursday, Sunday and Monday nights, as well as their local market games.
Verizon will nearly double its rights fee to the NFL to $400 million to $500 million a year, an indication that demand for the league's content is still robust despite declining TV ratings and bad publicity because of controversies over brain injuries and players' protests of the national anthem before games.
Verizon was in the last year of its current NFL deal, which cost the carrier about $250 million a year and made the games available only to its mobile customers.
