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The only place upsets in the NFL happen is on the field. The league rarely holds back when it comes to increasing its media rights coffers. If you had to bet on whether Saturday’s first exclusive, live-streamed NFL playoff game would be repeated in the future, you would be wise to place a big bet on the same thing happening during the 2024 postseason.
Hans Schroeder, the NFL’s executive vice president of media distribution, said much the same during a conference call with reporters three days before the game.
“As it specifically relates to the wild-card game, we’re excited to continue the conversation,” Schroeder said. “It’s a deal for this year, but it’s an NFL playoff game. I hope there will be a lot of interest in it. We’re excited to continue the conversation with NBC about what we do this year and see where those opportunities lie for next year.
no matter politicians sending social media posts, It doesn’t matter if the current players are worriednothing else matter Perfectly Legitimate Fan Complaints To make additional payments for NFL playoff games, the league as an entity has one purpose – to continue to act as an ATM for its owners. This was a money grab for the present and the future, and in many ways, viewership for the game is irrelevant to whether the NFL continues to sell playoff games to streamers.
Peacock paid $110 million to broadcast the Kansas City Chiefs’ 26–7 victory over the Miami Dolphins on Saturday night in the AFC wild-card round, an effort to add to its current count of 30 million subscribers. The strategy for Peacock, as for other streamers that broadcast sports, is to use the exclusivity of a major live sporting event to drive mass viewership. It’s a strategy that has historically worked for linear institutions, and Peacock is sticking to its strategy despite losing $2.8 billion in 2023. (Peacock expects $2.8 billion to represent extreme losses.)
But the game was a massive success in terms of viewership. According to Nielsen Custom Fast National data, viewership on mobile was 23 million with Peacock, NBC stations and NFL+ in Miami and Kansas City. It is the most streamed NFL game ever in the US based on average viewers. The Dolphins-Chiefs game averaged 24.6 million viewers in the second quarter, including away-from-home viewers. The average of 23 million viewers tops last year’s least-watched playoff game (Los Angeles Chargers at Jacksonville Jaguars, which averaged 20.61 million viewers on NBC) by a few million viewers. (For broader context, last year’s six wild-card games on Fox, CBS, NBC and ABC/ESPN/ESPN2 averaged 28.8 million viewers.)
Daniel Cohen, executive vice president of global media rights consulting at Octagon, said: athletic Subscriber churn and piracy are two of the biggest challenges facing subscription video-on-demand growth in the US. This is one of the questions that will be answered in a few months: How many people signed up to watch the game, and then how many of those new subscribers canceled after the game? (The cheapest option to purchase the game was $5.99 for a one-month premium plan.) Peacock topped the iPhone and iPad charts for downloaded apps Saturday night.
NBC naturally carried Peacock’s offering early Saturday morning during the fourth quarter of the Houston Texans defeating the Cleveland Browns, which also included showing Taylor Swift walking inside Arrowhead Stadium. The “Football Night in America” crew also advocated for the Peacock game, and that group provided bonus coverage at the beginning of the game on NBC with Ahmed Farid, Devin McCourty and Chris Sims providing play-by-play on a split screen of the game. be provided. ,
An average of 23 million people watched the Dolphins-Chiefs wild-card game Saturday night, which streamed exclusively on Peacock outside the Miami and Kansas City markets. (David Ullit/Getty Images)
NBC Sports president Rick Cordella said before the game that the company’s two big goals are to produce great content and provide a clean experience to users across America. There were no widespread reports of major streaming issues, so this is known as a win for Peacock. (Peacock cannot control so-called last-mile issues, including local cable and Internet companies or individual devices.) How you processed the game probably depends on your views of Mike Tirico and Jason Garrett and whether you Wondered whether the payment was fair if you were new to Peacock. Tirico is always a professional. Garrett’s energy was miles better than Dungy’s last year, although there are many better NFL analysts. If you were a neutral fan and not a Miami or Kansas City supporter, the game wasn’t very memorable.
Peacock’s first exclusive NFL game, featuring the Buffalo Bills defeating the Chargers on December 23, averaged 7.3 million viewers and averaged 8.4 million viewers between 10:45-11 pm ET during the NFL’s first commercial-free fourth quarter. Reached million. quarter. The Chiefs-Dolphins playoff game also went commercial-free in the fourth quarter based on sponsorship from AWS, Geico and Hotels.com. As Sportico’s Anthony Crupi wisely put it, “Comcast is more invested in the long-term growth of Peacock than the immediate adrenaline spike that comes with an additional $18 million to $20 million in commercial cash.”
NBC first began streaming “Sunday Night Football” over the Internet in 2008, and they were the first NFL partner in the US to stream the Super Bowl (in 2012). Peacock would be a natural fit to do so again.
Schroeder said, “We’ve been at Peacock for several years, and we’re excited by the plan that NBC came back with and brought to us last spring.” “We are encouraged by the continued growth in our digital distribution, certainly with ‘Thursday Night Football’ on Amazon, where their weekly viewership on television along with Fox and NFL Network are approaching last year.”
Schroder was careful to say that the NFL remains committed to television broadcasts. It’s true, although Saturday night felt like a seismic moment, a line was crossed.
“This still remains the broadest possible reach,” Schroeder said. “You can’t reach 190 million people in an entire year without very broad distribution of your content, and that’s always been a cornerstone for us and I think it’s a real differentiator for us compared to other sports. Every single one of our games is on broadcast television, at least in their market, and probably 90 percent of our games are on broadcast television as their main platform. For us, that remains really important. We see continued evolution in the media landscape, and we want to be where our fans are. “We know their numbers are growing across screens, especially among younger fans.”
Your possible dislike for this is understandable, but the NFL doesn’t hold back. Bet big, it will happen again next January.
Last week there was a surprise appointment from ESPN – Nick Kyrgios will be a guest commentator for ESPN’s coverage of the 2024 Australian Open. The 28-year-old Wimbledon finalist in 2022 is one of the most popular and polarizing figures in sport. He missed all four major tournaments in 2023 due to wrist, knee and foot injuries and recently said that his playing career is nearing the end.
How did the Australian players and the home of American tennis come together? Mark Gross, ESPN senior vice president, production and remote events, said Stuart Duguid, who represents Kyrgios, contacted ESPN to gauge their interest in his client working the Australian Open.
“The deal happened very quickly because of the interest from both parties,” Gross said. “The plan is to air Nick in prime time East Coast time. We certainly believe Nick will be great on air, and we want to make sure the largest portion of our audience can see and hear him (instead of having him on air overnight).
Gross said Kyrgios will handle a mix of matches and studio work depending on the day and schedule. For now, the deal is only for the Australian Open, but ESPN is certainly open to exploring further things. He and John McEnroe called the Stefanos Tsitsipas-Zizou Bergs match for ESPN on Sunday night and the early returns were excellent.
“For now, it’s just the Australian Open, but we’re certainly open to talking to Nick and Stuart about opportunities moving forward,” Gross said. “In fairness to Nick and tennis fans, we hope to have Nick on the court soon so we can cover his matches.”
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– Very nice note that Noah Eagle called the Texans-Browns game on NBC, while his father, Ian Eagle, called the same game for Westwood One Audio.
– ESPN said “Sunday NFL Countdown” had its most-watched regular season since 2019 and its second-best season since 2016, averaging 1.335 million viewers per show. The number of viewers increased by 8 percent.
– Former U.S. national team star Ali Krieger joins CBS Sports’ soccer coverage as a studio analyst.
– ESPN’s entire slate of college football bowls this season averaged 4.6 million viewers across 40 games, up 5 percent year-over-year.
– The partnership between the NFL and ESPN could soon deepen with the league in advanced talks to acquire an equity stake in the sports network.
– fun to watch Fox NFL Sunday analyst Jimmy Johnson Increase it.
Some things I read over the past few weeks that were interesting to me (there are paywalls here):
• The Ringer’s Brian Curtis examines the past two weeks at ESPN.
• 41 years ago an Iowa paperboy disappeared. The case is still going on against his mother. By CNN’s Thomas Lake.
• This was the path of patriotism, until it wasn’t. By ESPN’s Seth Wickersham, Wright Thompson and Don Van Natta Jr.
• ESPN used fake names to secure Emmys for ‘College GameDay’ stars. By Katie Strang athletic,
• The whale that sank into oblivion. By Ferris Jabr for The New York Times Magazine.
• Jeff Pearlman’s Magnum Opus: VJ Loverro and the Bygone Era of the Sports Photographer.
• A rising star in celebrity trials like OJ Simpson. Then a quiet, mysterious death. By Harriet Ryan of the LA Times.
• A shock snatched Charlie Manuel’s words. Baseball is giving back to them. By Matt Gelb athletic,
• NBC Sports producer Anne Koeblitz and NFL writer Peter King produced a beautifully shot feature on Niners linebackers coach Johnny Holland, who is battling a rare form of cancer.
• Perry High School Principal Dan Marburger, who was injured in the Jan. 4 shooting, has died. By Des Moines Register staff.
• Pulitzer-winning TV critic Tom Shales dies at 79. By Adam Bernstein and Brian Murphy of The Washington Post.
• A filmmaker was producing a documentary series on the Iran hostage crisis. Then his father went missing abroad. By Lucy Sexton and Joe Sexton for Atavist.
• China failed to influence Taiwan’s elections. what happens now? By Damien Cave of The New York Times.
• He spent his life building a $1 million stereo. The actual cost was immeasurable. By Geoff Edgars of the Washington Post.
Episode 361 of the Sports Media Podcast features Karen Brodkin, co-head of WME Sports and an EVP at its parent company Endeavor, and Hillary Mandel, executive vice president and head of media for the Americas for IMG, an Endeavor company. Brodkin and Mandel have served as consultants on countless media deals, from individual team deals to league deals. He recently served as a consultant for the NCAA on its $920 million, eight-year agreement with ESPN.
In this podcast, Brodkin and Mandel explain their jobs and the skill sets it requires; Use of research in evaluating deal points; The current economic climate for sports media rights; Why the NCAA ultimately chose not to separate the women’s basketball tournament from its other championships in the deal; Why women’s college sports are on the rise; The Pac-12 is falling apart; Peacock’s playoff deal with the NFL and what it means for consumers moving forward and more.
You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, and more.
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(Top photo of the peacock sign displayed at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City on Saturday: Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
