By Brad Hubbard | @bradhubbard
One high quality, unscripted show about an NFL franchise wasn’t enough so now we’ll have two.
This week the NFL announced that the Los Angeles Rams will be featured on the 2016 edition of HBO’s “Hard Knocks”. Meanwhile the NFL also announced a new original series on Amazon.com called “All or Nothing”. This show will feature the Arizona Cardinals and run the length of the season.
Both teams are logical choices and offer up a bunch of storylines for the producers to use. It is interesting that the NFL is going with an over-the-top (OTT) provider like Amazon because it begs the question, is Amazon the leading candidate to stream live NFL games? It was only a few weeks ago that SI reported that Facebook was in the fray for live streaming the Thursday Night games this fall.
Regardless if this is an indicator of who will stream live NFL games this season, this new show with Amazon only leads credence to the fact that OTT outlets are becoming more and more important. The NFL knows that OTT is going to be an important space for them and they better get some original content there sooner rather than later.
Launching a 20 plus week documentary is not an endeavor to be taken on lightly but the NFL is showing some caution in doing so. Let’s face it, it’s the Cardinals and they are not the Denver Broncos, Pittsburgh Steelers or New England Patriots. It’s a quality football team with good storylines but not one of the marquee NFL franchises. This shows that the league is going into this with some caution and if some things don’t come off and views aren’t great, it is only the Cardinals after all.
You want more NFL? Well you got it.
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