With the 2024 NFL season beginning this week, Samsung showed the league some love by launching new NFL Galaxy Z Flip 6 Flipsuit Cases. These cases have been launched for some of the league's biggest teams, enabling fans to show their love for their favorite teams on their Samsung foldable phone. These cases hold a unique NFC card at the back which is in the colors of the supported teams and it also downloads unique themes and graphics on the device itself for full-on immersion in team colors.
For those who are unaware, the NFL is a pretty big deal in North America. It's one of the most lucrative sports leagues and the teams have an extremely loyal fan-following. Those fans love to spend money on merch to support their teams. The league sells more than $4 billion worth of merchandise in a year alone, with some fans even spending more than $1,000 on merchandise in a single year.
This level of support is unheard of in many other sports, but NFL fans have got money to spend and they're not shy of spending it to highlight their pride in the teams they support. Yes, there's the added benefit for Samsung that by enabling those fans to use their phones as a projection of their support, it hopefully ends up selling more Galaxy Z Flip 6 phones in one of the most important smartphone markets on the planet.
It's also great for the league, as the teams that play in it get exposure on fans' phones, the devices that they have out in their hands for a significant amount of amount daily. Whether that's scrolling through social media while on the train or sitting on a park bench reading the news, anyone who glances at their phone will instantly know that they're an NFL fan. Since NFL has a tight grip on merchandising, it's likely that Samsung's having to pay a fee to create cases featuring teams in the league.
Clearly it's all good vibes for the NFL from Samsung, but the league continues to make a puzzling decision that doesn't impact Samsung at all, but it does make life difficult for its fans. It still hasn't made an official NFL app for Samsung's smart TVs, which run on Tizen. The app is available for Android, though, so anyone with a smart TV powered by Google's platform gets access to the app.
It's a very useful app for fans. They can watch available NFL content, get in-game highlights and charts, follow up on news and breaking stories, watch ad-free highlights from every game, and even access everything from their NFL+ subscription. All this, and much more, is available through the NFL app, but not on Samsung smart TVs. This is counterproductive because when people go to buy a new premium TV, Samsung is likely at the top of their list.
There are numbers to back this up. As of June 2024, Samsung leads the market with 33% of US consumers owning one of its TVs. LG is in a distant second place with 18%. It's not just the United States. Samsung has continued to be the leading supplier of TVs across the globe for several years now. It's domination in this segment is clear as day and the company goes from strength to strength, as the best new Samsung TVs of 2024 show, the company raises the bar with its new models every year.
So it goes without saying that many of the league's fans catch games on a Samsung TV and yet they remain unable to elevate that experience simply because the league doesn't bother to create an app for Tizen that would allow all of those Samsung TV owners to access the content. Sure, they could use the app on their phones, but games and content related to games is best enjoyed on the largest screen in the house.
Samsung is obviously not bothered by it. The company will continue to sell its TVs hand over first because they're just that good. The lack of an NFL app isn't preventing people from choosing other brands over Samsung, at least not in any meaningful numbers, while the league is sticking with an unnecessary pain point for its fans that can easily be rectified. There's a lot of potential that the NFL can unlock for its content marketing efforts if it just got over this self-imposed roadblock saw the potential in tapping into Samsung's colossal network of smart TVs.
