The NFL has grown exponentially over the last few years, averaging 18.7 million viewers per game during the regular season, the second-highest number since 1988. That aggressive growth is making the NFL execs rethink their partnerships with media partners, and a change might be coming soon. And the NFL’s executive vice president of media distribution, Hans Schroeder, opened up about that on CNBC Sport on Friday.

“We’re going to have those conversations,” Schroeder told them. “We want to understand all our options and how to think about the best model for us, for our fans, for our teams going forward. So, to your question, you know, we’re going to listen and probably have a lot of different people who want to have a conversation with us.

“That’s very fortunate. We say that humbly, and we’re going to make sure we have those conversations to understand.”

He further said the league plans to partner with non-traditional media companies about the possibility of carrying a live NFL game. Even the idea of those talks sends a message to the league’s long-standing broadcast partners that competition will ramp up. Now, Schroeder didn’t name specific companies, but the league has already tested the waters by selling a Week 1 game to YouTube for roughly $100 million earlier this season. That kind of one-off deal seemingly gave them a blueprint, similar to how Netflix carried the Christmas Day games this year.

From a broader perspective, as streaming continues to pull audiences away from traditional television, digital platforms are no longer a secondary option for Schroeder and the NFL. For years, broadcast TV has been the NFL’s preferred distribution method because of its reach, which is now being challenged and even matched.

That puts established partners like Disney, FOX, Paramount Global, NBCUniversal, and Amazon on alert, because if non-traditional players enter the bidding, the market only gets more crowded and the pie becomes smaller. Schroeder explained the league’s thinking:

“Looking back over the last five years, we’ve continued to grow viewership, we’ve seen us taking an even bigger leading place across the media landscape, we’re driving on digital distribution now,” he said. “Value is part of that, and we certainly think there is more value there.”

That’s hard to argue with, since the per-game average across television and digital platforms jumped 10 percent from last season’s 17.5 million viewers and was up 7 percent from 2023. Every media partner benefited, and Prime Video saw the biggest jump, with TNF viewership up 16 percent.

Timing is critical here as well. Traditional media partners are expected to begin early discussions about the next round of media rights later this year, four years before the current deal’s opt-out window. It’ll be interesting to see how they respond, or if someone decides to pull out.

There’s another angle here, too. With every game proving to be more valuable than the last, it’s fair to wonder whether the NFL would revisit the idea of an 18-game regular season.

Hans Schroeder discusses the potential for an 18-game season

The Broncos–Chiefs matchup on Christmas drew an average of 21.06 million viewers, and it’s easy to see why the idea of adding another week to a 17-game season keeps becoming a talking point. More games mean more inventory and money for everyone involved, and the only group not thrilled by the idea is the players.

NFL Media executive Hans Schroeder was asked directly about the league’s stance on an 18-game regular season, and his response suggested it’s not some far-off idea.

“If there’s an opportunity to look into an 18-week season, I’m sure Roger [Goodell] and the NFL would sit down and have that conversation,” Schroeder said. “It’s something we need to work through and agree to with them, and I’m sure those conversations will happen at the right place and time.”

Schroeder was careful to note that the current 17+3 season is functioning well, and for now, that’s where the focus stays. Still, even acknowledging future talks is enough to raise concerns on the player side, where opposition to an expanded schedule has been pretty vocal and official.

The NFL Players Association leadership has made it clear that they are completely against the idea of an expanded regular-season schedule.

“Our members have no appetite for a regular-season 18th game,” interim executive David White said earlier this week. “The 18th game is not casual for us. It’s a very serious issue. It’s something that comes out of negotiations, and nothing will move forward until players have the opportunity to account for all of those factors.”

“But as it stands right now, players have been very clear they don’t have any appetite for it.”

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, speaking ahead of the Super Bowl, said an 18th game is far from a done deal. But comments from Robert Kraft made it sound like the conversations are progressing pretty well.

“I want to tell you guys that we’re going to push like the dickens now to make international [games] more important with us,” Kraft told the Zolak & Bertrand show in January. “Every team will go 18 [regular-season games] and two [preseason games] and eliminate one of the preseason games, and every team every year will play one game overseas.”

The league last expanded the regular season in 2021, when the 17th game was added. Any further tweaks wouldn’t happen until at least 2027, which would also be complicated because schedule changes require collective bargaining, and the current CBA does not expire until 2030.

It’s understandable why the owners are pushing for another week while the players are openly objecting. Owners see record viewership, but it’s the players who are putting their bodies through a grueling 17 weeks.

The players’ resistance is fueled by a grueling season that already takes a significant toll. High-profile injuries late this year to stars like Patrick Mahomes (ACL tear) and Gardner Minshew serve as a stark reminder of the physical price of a 17-game schedule, let alone an 18th game.

Mahomes said last summer he would only consider supporting an 18th game if the league added additional bye weeks, effectively stretching the regular season to 20 weeks, but we don’t know if Roger Goodell will consider that. While the league sees a 20-week season as a potential compromise, the fundamental clash between owner profits and player health remains the biggest hurdle to any schedule expansion.