Yahoo! boss Marissa Mayer is going to have to get up awfully early to see the Buffalo Bills take on the Jacksonville Jaguars on Oct. 25.
But you’d better believe she will — even though kickoff time for the London-based game will be at 6:30 a.m., nearly an hour before sunrise at the Yahoo! chief executive’s Sunnyvale, Calif., office.
The Internet company is reportedly paying $20 million for the privilege of streaming the one game — the NFL’s first Web-only game, except for local broadcast TV in the teams’ home markets.
The whopping payment, if correct, means Jets owner Woody Johnson and his 31 other owners will each receive $625,000, as per the league’s revenue-sharing agreement.
To get the game, fans will have to do nothing more than log onto Yahoo!, Yahoo! Sports, Yahoo! Screen or Tumblr.
The streaming will feature the usual number of ads, which will help offset some of the cost.
“It marks a significant change in the way users can access this amazing content,” Mayer said in announcing the partnership Wednesday.
The CEO has got to be hoping many of the eyeballs drawn to the game remain as fans of the Web portal.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, after agreeing to the mega-deal, said, “The NFL has always been committed to being at the forefront of media innovation.”
Tech news site Re/code, citing sources, reported the $20 million rights fee. CNN Money reported that Google was also involved in the bidding.