Are You Ready for Some Football? These Streaming Stocks Are.

The Eagles and the Cowboys will kick off the NFL season on Thursday. (Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)

Football fans are gearing up for the season to kick off tonight, while streaming companies are getting ready to reap the rewards of the continued popularity of America’s Game.

The Philadelphia Eagles will face off against the Dallas Cowboys at Lincoln Financial Field on Thursday night to officially start the 106th season of the National Football League. But it isn’t just sports fans that look forward to the start of the season each year. Media companies view NFL games as a powerful way to bring in and retain customers, either through traditional cable or, now more than ever, through streaming services.

Some entertainment stocks that are betting big on football to keep an eye on this season include Netflix, Comcast, Walt Disney, Amazon.com, and Fox.

Traditionally, football fans had just to turn on their cable box and go to a channel—typically CBS, Fox, NBC, or ESPN—that was hosting the game that day. The landscape has shifted dramatically, however, as streaming has become more popular than traditional TV viewing.

According to research firm Nielsen, streaming accounted for 47.3% of the time spent watching TV in July, while cable had 22.2%, and broadcast had 18.4%. Still, sports accounted for 75 of the shows on Variety’s list of the 100 Most-Watched Telecasts of 2024, and 45 of them were NFL games.

Media companies are well aware that live events can garner a massive audience, specifically football games—a rare advantage in a world where streaming and binge watching shows has overtaken traditional appointment viewing.

“Live sports events, including NFL games, retain broad appeal among fans across the globe and have become such valuable media assets,” Lionel Oisel, head of Video Labs at R&D firm InterDigital, told Barron’s.

Entertainment companies have made big changes to make sure they’re getting in on the sports action. Netflix, which previously had always just been a streamer of TV shows and movies, now hosts NFL Christmas games. Amazon’s Prime Video is also the only place NFL fans can watch Thursday Night Football. The purpose—growth.

Investors want to see revenue and subscribers rise for streaming companies, which face a risk of decelerating growth after years of bringing in new customers to their platforms. But if Wall Street sees growth from these sport investments, that could boost sentiment.

Sports fans are an important asset, as many will subscribe to whatever platforms they need to watch their favorite teams play. According to data collected by market researcher Parks Associates and InterDigital in August, 43% of consumers in U.S. internet households classify themselves as “sports viewers.” Among those viewers, 40% watch sports only via streaming services. An additional 30% watch sports content via both streaming and broadcast/antenna or traditional pay TV services.

Although streaming is taking viewers away from traditional TV, cable is still hanging on, and sports are a major reason for that.

Comcast’s NBCUniversal said Wednesday that the coming NFL season marks the highest-grossing season to date for the media company, with overall revenue increasing across all platforms. NBCUniversal has sold out of all ad inventory for Super Bowl LX, which will air on NBC, the streaming service Peacock, and Telemundo on Feb. 8. NBCUniversal has also sold out 90% of its NFL ad inventory separate from the Super Bowl.

“This Super Bowl sellout is a month earlier than Fox’s similar announcement last year, and overall, this should be the highest-grossing NFL season to date. For the 3-hour Super Bowl alone, that could be a $575 million revenue generator for the network,” Seaport analyst David Joyce wrote in a note Wednesday. He rates Comcast as a Buy with a $43 price target.

While Disney and Fox host NFL games on their traditional cable channels too, they have also shifted gears to bring football to streaming.

Disney launched its ESPN streaming app last month. The House of Mouse has also made several recent deals with sport entertainment companies to try to compete. On Aug. 5, it announced that ESPN will acquire NFL Network and other media assets owned and controlled by the NFL, in exchange for a 10% equity stake in ESPN.

“Excellent progress in the DTC [direct-to-consumer] segment, continued strength in the Experiences unit, and steady results at ESPN are overshadowing the ongoing deterioration in linear networks. While Disney still trails Netflix by a wide margin, it is a strong #2 player in the streaming market,” Gimme Credit analyst Dave Novosel wrote on Aug. 12.

Fox also launched its FOX One streaming service in August, which includes Fox’s news, sports, and entertainment content.

It’s clear that media companies aren’t going to slow down their attempts to become the MVP of sports streaming. Investors should stay tuned to see who comes out on top.

Write to Angela Palumbo at angela.palumbo@dowjones.com