Canadian streaming deal could hint at NFL's future in cord-cutting world

Canadian fans without cable who want to watch NFL broadcasts this season can pay a monthly fee to stream games on a service that is being called the "Netflix of sports."

The NFL has sold its streaming rights in Canada for the next five years to a London-based service called DAZN (pronounced "Da Zone," for some reason) and cable and satellite providers north of the border will no longer carry Sunday Ticket nor the NFL RedZone channel.

Games will still be aired on cable TV in Canada, but fans can also stream games (supposedly without blackouts) via DAZN for $20 per month or $150 annually. The streaming package will also reportedly include the beloved RedZone channel.

It's not hard to see the NFL's partnership with DAZN as the league testing the streaming waters before deciding on a strategy in the U.S.

Currently, there is no legal way to stream most live NFL games in the U.S. The NFL-owned GamePass service is available, but games can only be streamed after they have completed.

As millions of sports fans cut the cable cord every year, it appears the inevitable future of live sports is online streaming.

Whether the NFL prefers to partner with a third-party streaming company like DAZN or launch its own "Neflix of football" remains to be seen, but the league will surely keep a very close eye on how its Canadian experiment goes.