Touchdown: Inside the NFL’s international strategy and broadcast plans for the growth of its future European fan base

American football is becoming increasingly popular in Europe, thanks to the NFL’s international series which grows in size and splendour every year. We have just witnessed three back to back games happening in the UK, and next up is a match in Germany, where fans will be whipped into a frenzy of excitement by the circus that the NFL inevitably brings to town. We caught up with Henry Hodgson, NFL UK and Ireland general manager, to find out more.

Could you talk about the NFL’s international strategy?

We’ve been in the process for the last year of really looking at our international strategy holistically and trying to see how we can evolve it; how we can change it with the goal of how does the NFL become a truly global sport. Obviously it’s been the number one sport in the US for quite some length of time and by quite some distance, so inevitably the focus has looked at, “okay, how does that become something that could become more global?”. You look at F1, you look at the Premier League, you look to some extent at the NBA, and what they’ve been able to do to garner global attention, and that’s what the NFL wants to do. And so that happens in a few different ways.

I think the most obviously the global piece of it is playing international games, and we’ve [just played] three in London. We’ve been playing games here [in the UK] since 2007. I think to some extent this market, the UK, has been a bit of a blueprint for what we want to do internationally in terms of not just playing games, but then really putting roots down.

While on the one hand we have a really exciting opportunity to play games in more markets – up to eight games per year, and the commissioner has talked about even potentially extending that to 16 at some point in the future – that’s, as I say, the most obviously external facing facet of being a global sport. As part of that, it can’t just be about showing up in a market, playing a game and waving goodbye again; it needs to also be about putting down real roots and being accessible to a sports fan in that market, or even just an entertainment fan who’s come in via all the other ways that you might be attracted to the NFL, but being more accessible to them for the other 364 days a year that we’re not playing games.

Henry Hodgson, NFL UK and Ireland general manager

How are you working with European broadcasters to push that agenda?

I think a big part of that is finding the right broadcast partners, finding the right ways to distribute our content, and make it accessible to the broadest possible audience. And by accessible, I don’t just mean you can access it, but also relevant locally to that audience so that it’s understandable whether that means language, and that if needed – because perhaps you don’t have the capacity or desire to watch a three-plus hour game – that it’s on the platforms that are most relevant in that market. Obviously that changes depending on both market by market, as well as the demographics that you’re targeting in a market. So I think there’s lots of bits that go into it. There’s also a whole piece on grassroots and trying to grow participation in the sport that will help us make it global.

Certainly we work with our broadcast partners, especially in the UK with Sky Sports, ITV and Channel 5, who are our broadcast partners here, and we’ve worked with them on evolving that production and as I say, to make it more accessible to a more casual fan. So that’s certainly one part of it. That’s our broadcast partners and us working closely with them to help them build the audience.

On the production, if you’ve been looking at what you’ve been doing overseas in a bit more depth in the last year or two, have you changed your production over that period for this market?

The one element that we’ve been able to directly touch is producing a world feed of games, so that instead of it having the US broadcasters’ logos and bugs on the graphics, it’s more of a neutral one that then can be overlaid by our international broadcast partners in ways that they would want to as well. So I think that’s probably the biggest evolution specifically to the broadcast production that we’ve been able to do ourselves rather than influencing through a partner.

The NFL I think is incredibly consistent in terms of its production, whether it’s in the UK or the US, or we played a game in Brazil for the first time earlier this year. But the reality is that that shouldn’t change anything in terms of the quality of the broadcast, number of cameras, etc, would remain identical. And in fact, that’s part of the process as we look at new cities and new stadiums around the world that we may end up playing in; [we ask] can you accommodate all of the different needs of our broadcast partners, to be able to deliver the high quality broadcast that fans – wherever they’re watching in the world – expect from the NFL?

Is there anything you can tell me about the game in Munich which is coming up 10 November, with the New York Giants versus the Carolina Panthers?

From a broadcast standpoint, again, it’ll be broadcast globally. NFL Network will carry it in the US, it’ll be broadcast in the UK by Sky Sports and in Germany, RTL. But again, the broadcast itself will look like a normal NFL game, but they’ll be highlighting all of the unique things that are relevant to Munich, and showing cityscapes and all those kind of things as they intro and come out of ad breaks, etc.

Is there a real interest from the US fans at home on what these international games

I think probably one of the more remarkable bit of data is that the NFL London games that are taking place at the moment are on an annual basis – and will again be this year –

the most watched sports broadcast from the UK back in the US. So more than the Wimbledon final, more than an F1 race at Silverston, the London games will be the most viewed sports events that take place in the UK back in the US.

That puts into perspective the popularity of the sport in the US and also that the fans there, when they see [the London games], they just see them as just another game [in the season].

But there’s something special about it being in London, and there’s something special about it living in its own specific time slot, kicking off at 9:30am Eastern, but outside of that, it’s part of the NFL regular season and fans have the desire to watch as much of that as they can.

How mature is your fan base in Europe thanks to broadcasters, and where are you planning on going next?

In many respects Germany may be ahead of the UK, just certainly in terms of fandom, and that really comes down to how long the sport has been present and active in the market. But I think the UK and Germany are both very mature markets for the NFL internationally.

As we press ahead, we’ve announced that there’ll be a game in 2025 in Madrid, so Spain is the next market in Europe.

I would say that Spain, France, some of the other markets we’ve looked at in are some way behind the UK and Germany, both in terms of number of fans as well as in terms of the depth of that fandom as well.

What’s the end goal for the NFL?

I think it is to become a global sport, it’s to be seen alongside sports leagues that I mentioned, the Premier League or Formula One or the NBA in terms of reaching and engaging with more fans around the world.

I think it’s a great sport; there’s a huge potential audience for it. There’s a lot of interest both in the sport itself, on the field, but also all of the other cultural connections that come with the NFL, the Americana, the other things that potentially get a certain audience excited about the sport. And so what we want to be able to do is really connect with those people and bring them into the fan base in the future.