Verizon, NFL Bring RedZone to Phones

The National Football League announced Tuesday that it is bringing National Football League coverage -including the NFL Network's popular NFL RedZone Channel- to Verizon Wireless phones with a package called NFL Mobile. The first broadcast to be available on the network is the NFL Draft, which is scheduled for late April.

When the season starts in the fall, Verizon customers will have access to the RedZone Channel, which toggles between different in-progress games in order to show teams as they are about to score touchdowns. The deal also gives customers 24-hour-a-day access to the NFL Network, as well as to live games broadcast on both that channel and on NBC's “Sunday Night Football.”

As part of the deal, Verizon Wireless becomes the NFL's official wireless service sponsor.

An NFL mobile/RedZone deal had been rumored in recent months, but Verizon was not named as a participant.

“This is an agreement that has, at its core a mutual desire by both the NFL and Verizon Wireless to provide consumers with what they want on and off the field,” said John Stratton, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for Verizon Wireless, said as part of the announcement.

 ”For Verizon Wireless, it is NFL content delivered over our 3G network so football fans can extend the excitement of the sport long after the last touchdown of a season.  And the NFL content is customizable in that consumers have options from video to ringtones to alerts; the choice is theirs.”

The parties did not announce pricing information for the new NFL Mobile package.