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YouTube’s First Exclusive NFL Game Will Stream for Free
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- YouTube’s First Exclusive NFL Game Will Stream for Free
YouTube will air its first exclusive NFL game a day after the 2025 season kicks off, the league and streaming giant announced Tuesday. The Chargers will be the home team for the Sep. 5 international affair in São Paulo, Brazil, with the visiting squad to be revealed Wednesday. The Kansas City Chiefs—one of the league's top TV draws—have reportedly been tasked with the trip.
Financial terms of the single-game agreement were not shared. Last year, Peacock paid a reported $105 million for the NFL's first Brazil game, also played on Friday night of kickoff week. NBC will produce the game for YouTube, which will join Amazon Prime Video and Netflix as streaming-only companies carrying football in the U.S. this season, alongside the full list of traditional partners.
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YouTube will present the game for free in the U.S. and globally, with the Google-owned outfit's accounting likely including promotional opportunities for the platform's Sunday Ticket product, as well as extra oomph in its push to dominate television screens. The game will also be shown on over-the-air broadcast television in the competing teams' local markets.
"YouTube's next frontier is the living room," CEO Neal Mohan wrote in a blog post last year. "Viewers want everything in one place, from a live sports game to the BBC to Khan Academy and NikkieTutorials."
As of February 2025, TVs now represent the primary viewing device for YouTube in the U.S. by watch time.
The NFL-YouTube relationship has steadily grown in the 10 years since the league launched its first official channel in 2015. The shield has increasingly turned to YouTube creators to help it connect with younger generations .
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YouTube chief business officer Mary Ellen Coe said in a statement that YouTube plans to broadcast the game "in a way that only YouTube can." Specifically, she highlighted creators being "right at the center of the experience" in addition to interactive functionality available to gameday viewers.
Last month, YouTube teased an upcoming redesign to its TV platform, including streamlined access to comments. Coe and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell are expected to formally announce the news, including the Chargers' opponent, during YouTube's annual pitch to advertisers on Wednesday.
The full NFL schedule will be released at 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday.
While the Chiefs' participation remains unconfirmed, team owner Clark Hunt has been open about sending his players around the world. "We make the league aware every year that we would be delighted to play [internationally]," Hunt said at the NFL's spring owners meeting. Kansas City last played outside the country in 2023, when it took on the Miami Dolphins in Germany. The franchise has previously embraced the challenge of becoming not only America's Team but the " World's Team ."Global YouTube exposure, alongside internet-famous personalities, certainly wouldn't hurt that pursuit.
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