NFL won’t live-stream London games following Twitter deal

Fans during cheer as the St. Louis Rams practice with the Dallas Cowboys at River Ridge Playing Fields in Oxnard, CA, Monday, August 17, 2015. (Hans Gutknecht/Staff)

Fans during cheer as the St. Louis Rams practice with the Dallas Cowboys at River Ridge Playing Fields in Oxnard, CA, Monday, August 17, 2015. (Hans Gutknecht/Staff)

Cord-cutting Rams fans might have a harder time trying to watch the team’s October game against the New York Giants in London.

An NFL spokesperson told Reuters on Monday that the league will not live-stream its three London games this upcoming season, a reversal from its broadcasting strategy a year ago. The news comes less than a week after the NFL announced a 10-game streaming deal with Twitter, one that Re/code reported to be worth less than $10 million.

However, this latest deal deal will be restricted only to Thursday night games, according to Reuters. Yahoo! paid $17 million to live-stream the Jaguars’ 34-31 win over the Bills at at Wembley Stadium last October, but the NFL told Reuters that it does not have plans for a separate deal to stream this year’s contests across the Atlantic.

“When we discussed potential streaming packages with interested parties, there were many options on the table, including the London games,” a league spokesperson told Reuters in an email. “Ultimately the package we agreed on with Twitter involved ten of our Thursday night games which we felt was the best option at that point.”

That leaves out Los Angeles’ Oct. 23 tilt against the New York Giants at Twickenham Stadium, as well as games at Wembley Stadium between the Jaguars and the Colts (Week 4), as well as Cincinnati and Washington (Week 8).

More than 15 million unique viewers tuned into last season’s London live stream, according to Yahoo! and the NFL, but a streaming industry consultant told Variety that those figures were skewed by auto-streaming.