In recent years, the NFL has tightened the leash on allowing its content to be streamed for free on various platforms. However, last year, the league allowed in-game highlights and other shortened content on YouTube. YouTube and the NFL worked together in 2015 to form a channel on YouTube, which garnered more than 900 million collective views. To ensure viewers watched the content on YouTube, the NFL banned embedding the content for use on other websites.
Because of the success, the agreement between the two parties will expand going forward and include a unique caveat. The NFL will be providing three classic games for each NFL team to be streamed via YouTube. Other additions to the agreement include exclusive multimedia to fans which wasn't previously readily available through simple Google searches.
"This expansion of our partnership will make it easier than ever for the millions of highly engaged avid and casual fans on YouTube and Google to discover and access an even greater variety of some of the most valuable content in the sports and entertainment business," Hans Schroeder, Senior Vice President, Media Strategy, Business Development, & Sales for the National Football League said in a press release. "Our fans continue to demonstrate an insatiable appetite for NFL digital video content online."
There are a number of choices for the league to choose for the three classic Bengals games they'll feature. The two Super Bowls jump to mind, even though those were both painful losses, and even this year's Wild Card loss might be another. Though, more cheerful games could be better options. The 1981 AFC Championship Game, known as "The Freezer Bowl", is another iconic NFL game which pitted Dan Fouts against Ken Anderson in the second-coldest game in league history.
Which Bengals games would you want made available for viewing on YouTube?