Starting next week, football fans will have a new way to listen to games: on their iPods.
The National Football League on Tuesday announced an agreement with Audible Inc., an online distributor of audiobooks and other spoken-word programming, to make recordings of this year's remaining playoff games available for portable audio players, including Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod.
The recordings will be available for purchase through Apple's iTunes Music Store, which has an existing relationship with Audible, and other sites that sell audio over the Internet, according to the NFL and Audible.
The first recordings of football games for sale under the agreement will be this Sunday's NFL conference championships, which will be available on the Internet the following morning.
Replays of the Super Bowl will also be available under the deal.
Chris Russo, senior vice president of new media and publishing for the NFL, said complete recordings of games, including versions that feature local sportscasters, are expected to cost around $10 each, while highlights of games are expected to cost between 95 cents and $4.95.
"This is not a replacement for watching games," Russo said. "It's really for fans who want a keepsake of the event or who to want hear the local call of the event."