NFL now offering NFL Network RedZone over-the-top to mobile users for $4.99 a month

In a move aimed at cord cutters, the NFL is offering NFL Network RedZone to mobile users via Android and iOS for a monthly subscription of $4.99.

Available through the NFL app, if you’d like to sign up you’re offered the chance to either log-in with your existing credentials (if you already subscribe to a cable or satellite package with NFL Network’s RedZone) or you can sign up for the monthly subscription. Along with the NFL’s move to allow mobile in-market streaming to anyone (Verizon customer or not) via the Yahoo Sports app, it’s pretty clearly a strategy aimed at the cord-cutting user base, who generally are comfortable with mobile devices and monthly fees.

That’s also supported by the restrictions on the app; as Cord Cutters News first noted, the service is only for your phone:

Now there are a few limitations this subscription option only works on mobile devices. As best we can tell both iOS and Android have blocked the ability to cast the NFL RedZone stream from your mobile device to your TV. 

…

The other catch is this will not work on tablets. According to the terms and conditions, it will only work through mobile phones that are capable of two-way communication through voice, text, and/or data. From that legal description, it looks like iPads and other tablets are out of luck. So if you want NFL RedZone on your TV, you will still need a service like Sling TV.

That restriction positions it pretty clearly as an attempt to capture a market that wouldn’t otherwise be watching on TV, via either casting or a device like Apple TV or Chromecast. It is, however, a way for people who have gone with in-market streaming (or over-the-air antennas) and a package like YouTube TV to get access to the RedZone stream for supplementary Sunday viewing.

Whether the channel is worth $4.99 a month is probably dependent upon how much you like football, but it’s hard to complain about more viewing options.

[Cord Cutters News]