The NFL is in the process of revamping its online outreach with promises of a new app. In a letter that went out to subscribers to NFL Now’s premium NFL Now Plus. service the league informed users that the paid version of NFL Now was no longer going to cost money. The service features a number of NFL licensed programming options including NFL highlights,  Hard Knocks, Video Yearbooks, past Super Bowl videos and more. We featured the full lineup in our article here.

So what is happening To NFL Now?

The league informed subscribers that it would be announcing a new service for the 2015 season. When NFL Now was announced as a concept in january of 2014 we theorized based on comments by the NFL’s vice president of digital media business development Vishal Shah, that the app on multiple streaming devices and wireless devices was a stealth way for the NFL to work its way into the OTT world without arousing the suspicion of its current TV partners in the cable and broadcast world. Shah clearly implied that the NFL would look at live game streaming See here Most at risk if the NFL were to jump into streaming headlong would be the pay TV industry which leverages the popularity of the league by offering the NFL Network. Could the NFL be looking to take the next step of offering the NFL Network via Roku, Apple TV, Android TV and FIre TV?

Does the NFL want to Copy the WWE Network Model?

The NFL Network as an over the top option would be another major blow to cable. Ironically if it were to jump to OTT it would be following the WWE Network, which of course is actually a sports entertainment company. The company claims to have at least 1 million subscribers to its service which included access to WWE original content, archived wresting event from multiple decades as well as the jewel of the offer access to live PPV events each month for $9.99.