Inglewood, CA, Sunday, November 20, 2022 – Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce (87) turns upfield on a touchdown catch and run against the Chargers at SoFi Stadium. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
In recent years, YouTube has become a destination for sports programming and a primary digital focus for industry executives. Over 40 billion hours of sports content is consumed annually on the platform globally, according to the company.
Perhaps the biggest live sports test for YouTube yet will be Friday night’s broadcast of the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers in São Paulo, Brazil. The Week 1 matchup marks the first-ever live NFL game broadcast by the technology behemoth.
“I really think about this game as, frankly, just the next phase or evolution of our partnership with the NFL,” said Jon Cruz, global head of sports partnerships at YouTube, in an interview.
YouTube’s formal partnership with the NFL dates back to 2015. Its foundation has centered around clips and highlights but has evolved to feature more offerings, including broadcasting the league’s out of market games (Sunday Ticket) via YouTube TV.
In 2024, people spent over 350 million hours watching official NFL content on YouTube, per Mary Ellen Coe, YouTube’s chief business officer.
Broadcasting Specifics For Chargers Vs. Chiefs In Brazil
Friday’s kickoff is set for 8 p.m. ET from Corinthians Arena. Play by play caller Rich Eisen, Super Bowl champion Kurt Warner and Cam Newton, the NFL Most Valuable Player in 2015, headline the broadcast talent around the regular season game in Brazil. It’s the first of seven international contests for the NFL during the 2025 regular season.
As part of the free YouTube broadcast, several creators will host their own co-streams, including global phenomenon iShowSpeed and comedian Tom Grossi as well as CazéTV, a Portuguese digital sports channel that’s led by top streamer Casimiro. CazéTV’s live stream of Chargers vs. Chiefs will differ slightly from the others because Casimiro and his team will be live on-site at the stadium providing commentary.
“We know not only domestically, but globally, fans like to watch — even without live content being a part of the equation — they like to watch and engage with their favorite creators during game windows,” Cruz said.
“We wanted to make sure that we’re leaning into a lot of these newer product features. … I think it’ll be innovative for fans, and my hope is that they’ll find it enjoyable. For us, similar to adding the live game, this is really just an extension of a lot of the work that we already had in progress.”
Inspire Brands, Jeep and Lucid Motors are among some of the advertisers for the YouTube broadcast.
YouTube Exec Talks Live Sports
When asked about where YouTube is currently at when the company thinks about the future of live sports on the platform, Cruz said “we’re bullish on it” ahead of the Chargers vs. Chiefs.
“We have amazing coverage of live sports through YouTube TV,” Cruz continued during our conversation. “More and more, we’re seeing live programming, live sports in particular, become a bigger part of the main app.
“It aggregates audiences like no other media property out there, but at the same time, we do view ‘live’ as one of many formats, and really, the focus for us, is on finding programming that users love and attracts viewership and engagement. Live NFL games are obviously right at the top of that list. As long as we’re able to perform well, drive engagement and prove to both advertisers and fans that we can deliver the sort of experience that they’re looking for, I think that opens up a lot of runway for us. … We’ll continue to look for opportunities to bring amazing programming like our Week 1 Chiefs-Chargers game to our platform.”