More sports are crashing into the streaming arena: YouTube nabbed exclusive rights to an NFL game for the 2025 season, marking the first time the video platform will livestream an NFL game for free in its entirety. The deal builds on YouTube’s pact as the U.S. home for the NFL’s Sunday Ticket premium package.
YouTube will exclusively stream the NFL’s Friday night Week 1 game of the upcoming season from São Paulo, Brazil, on Sept. 5, 2025, to most users globally on YouTube and YouTube TV. (It won’t be available on YouTube in Canada, where the NFL has an existing streaming deal with Bell Canada, and will be blacked out in a few other countries.) YouTube made the announcement ahead of its Brandcast upfront event Wednesday evening in New York.
In February, the NFL announced that it would reprise a Week 1 game at Corinthians Arena in São Paulo, Brazil, kicking off the 2025 International Games with the Los Angeles Chargers as the designated team. The Chargers’ opponent will be announced on Wednesday, May 14, when the full 2025 NFL schedule is released at 8 p.m. ET.
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The amount YouTube is paying for the rights to the Week 1 game wasn’t disclosed. But the NFL continues to be the hottest commodity on television: In the U.S. last year, 45 of the 100 most-watched TV broadcasts were NFL games, including the entire top ten, per Nielsen. Last year, NBCUniversal paid $105 million for Peacock streaming rights to the NFL’s first Brazil game during Week 1, the New York Times’ The Athletic reported.
The NFL and YouTube have been media partners for years, but they significantly bolstered the partnership starting with the 2023-24 season when YouTube became the exclusive U.S. retailer for the Sunday Ticket out-of-home package. Under the seven-year Sunday Ticket deal, Google is reportedly paying the NFL upwards of $2 billion per year. Sunday Ticket includes access to all out-of-market Sunday regular season NFL games (based on viewer’s location) broadcast on CBS and Fox.
The NFL has been steadily carving out media rights to streamers for live games in a bid to expand their reach to younger fans and audiences overseas. Netflix had two Christmas Day games last year, including a buzzy halftime performance by Beyoncé, and it’s getting another Xmas doubleheader in 2025. In addition, Amazon’s Prime Video will get one Dec. 25 football game for the upcoming season as part of Amazon’s deal for “Thursday Night Football” (which currently runs through the 2033 season). Prime Video also has a wildcard game in January 2026 and will present the third edition of “Black Friday Football” the day after Thanksgiving featuring the Chicago Bears at the Philadelphia Eagles.
“We are excited to expand our relationship with YouTube to bring this year’s Brazil game to a worldwide audience,” said Hans Schroeder, the NFL’s executive VP of media distribution. “YouTube and YouTube TV have been incredible partners of the NFL for several years and boast an immense global reach, and we look forward to Week 1 in São Paulo.”
YouTube chief business officer Mary Ellen Coe said, “Streaming the Friday night game to fans for free around the world will mark YouTube’s first time as a live NFL broadcaster — and we’ll do it in a way that only YouTube can, with an interactive viewing experience and creators right at the center of the experience.”
YouTube didn’t provide details on the production partner or commentators the Brazil broadcast. According to YouTube, in 2024, users spent more than 350 million hours watching official NFL content on YouTube.
In addition to the rights to the Week 1 game, YouTube signed a multiyear deal with the NFL for the annual Super Bowl Flag Football game featuring creators and artists, with additional international flag football games. They teamed up for the first livestreamed flag football event at Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans this year, which garnered more than 6 million live views across the YouTube channels of the NFL and participating creators, athletes and artists (which included IShowSpeed, Kai Cenat, Jason Kelce, Michael Vick, Cam Newton, Quavo and Jordan Chiles).
The NFL first launched its official channel on YouTube in 2015 and now has more than 14 million subscribers. The channel features clips, highlights, game-day compilations and exclusive original content series.
Pictured above: L.A. Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert during the NFL game against the Arizona Cardinals on Oct. 21, 2024 in Glendale, Arizona.
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