TV Rights deals - Gen discussion

XFL Football discussion.
GregParks
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Re: TV Rights deals - Gen discussion

Post by GregParks »

laxtreme56 wrote: Tue Mar 09, 2021 11:53 pm If the XFL wants to receive a rights fee, they may have to look at more non-traditional outlets. Maybe it's better to be the star player on BR Live, Twitch, Amazon Prime, and TNT than 3rd fiddle on Fox, ESPN, and ABC.
With the way Garcia has talked, having SOME sort of XFL programming on a streaming service, whether it's the games themselves or shoulder programming, almost seems inevtiable. For a streaming service wanting to dip their toe into the live sports waters without paying billions for one of the premiere sports packages, the XFL might be more in their wheelhouse.
MGB01 wrote: If rights are the thing, I just don't see it coming from ESPN. The three things in the last three months they've acquired/retained (SEC, NFL, NHL) all cost a few pretty pennies, where the hell do they have $$$ for anything else?
After the NHL deal announced yesterday, it does seem to make ESPN a less likely destination. Not only the money, but we don't know when the NHL will air games on ESPN and if it's a weekend package, it's something else that could interfere with the showing of XFL games.
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TV Rights deals - Gen discn: Amazon moves up a Yr

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https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2021/0 ... arly-2022/

>> Amazon will take over rights to the NFL’s Thursday Night Football package a year earlier than planned in 2022, it was announced Monday. Per Sports Business Journal, Amazon wanted to start its new deal as soon as possible and FOX “was happy to get out of its deal early.”

FOX won rights to TNF in 2018 in a five-year deal worth anywhere from $550-$650 million per year. The coming 2021 season is the fourth under the deal. Prior to FOX, CBS and NBC split rights in 2016 and 2017. <<

Fox "loses" well divests itself of NFL-TNF pkg early
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Re: TV Rights deals - Gen discussion

Post by MGB01 »

Making this the second property that FOX has gotten out of early in the last year--they cut out of the U.S. Open halfway through and it went back to NBC. Unlike CBS/Masters they didn't have a sole NFL window the week they were originally scheduled to do so. Golf is the least suited for FOX so that wasn't unexpected.
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NFL 2nd and 3rd draft days down from 2020 & 2019

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https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2021/0 ... y-decline/

>> The final two days of the NFL Draft could not measure up to its near-record start.

The complete, three-day NFL Draft averaged 6.08 million viewers across ESPN, ABC and NFL Network, per John Ourand of Sports Business Journal — down 28% from last year’s all-time high of 8.4 million and down 2% from 2019 (6.1M). Last year’s Draft took place during the quietest period in modern sports history and faced zero competing sporting events.<<

Still that's alot of total air time and massively impressive.
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johnnyangryfuzzball
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Re: TV Rights deals - Gen discussion

Post by johnnyangryfuzzball »

MGB01 wrote: Mon May 03, 2021 3:26 pm Making this the second property that FOX has gotten out of early in the last year--they cut out of the U.S. Open halfway through and it went back to NBC. Unlike CBS/Masters they didn't have a sole NFL window the week they were originally scheduled to do so. Golf is the least suited for FOX so that wasn't unexpected.
It's odd. We've heard all along that Fox needs content now that they spun off 20th Century to Disney. But the sports content they have, they keep getting rid of it. What gives?
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Re: TV Rights deals - Gen discussion

Post by MGB01 »

johnnyangryfuzzball wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 8:43 pm
MGB01 wrote: Mon May 03, 2021 3:26 pm Making this the second property that FOX has gotten out of early in the last year--they cut out of the U.S. Open halfway through and it went back to NBC. Unlike CBS/Masters they didn't have a sole NFL window the week they were originally scheduled to do so. Golf is the least suited for FOX so that wasn't unexpected.
It's odd. We've heard all along that Fox needs content now that they spun off 20th Century to Disney. But the sports content they have, they keep getting rid of it. What gives?

Well two things specifically here: FOX is (or was) paying an awful lot to cover three golf events (US Open men's, women's, and senior) a year, plus FOX is really ill-suited for golf. IIRC they did the deal with the USGA right around the time they were developing FS1, obviously it didn't play as well on the field, so they got their mulligan. For TNF, they lose Buck and Aikman on Sundays they don't have the doubleheader, plus I think there were talks of having pre-TNF bye scheduling (which ultimately became just Game 17) so you could have a game like the "Har-Bowl" in 2011. As with the first one, it didn't play out as well.

So while they lost it, which definition of lose are we talking here? Lose as in loss, or lose as in pass? It's probably more towards the latter, I don't think tacking TSL onto MLB as a lead-in for four weeks qualifies as not actively going for content, just reconsidering the ones that don't serve their purpose anymore.
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Re: TV Rights deals - Gen discussion

Post by nick1091 »

johnnyangryfuzzball wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 8:43 pm
MGB01 wrote: Mon May 03, 2021 3:26 pm Making this the second property that FOX has gotten out of early in the last year--they cut out of the U.S. Open halfway through and it went back to NBC. Unlike CBS/Masters they didn't have a sole NFL window the week they were originally scheduled to do so. Golf is the least suited for FOX so that wasn't unexpected.
It's odd. We've heard all along that Fox needs content now that they spun off 20th Century to Disney. But the sports content they have, they keep getting rid of it. What gives?
Golf I'm not really sure about, but I can see getting out of the NFL deal. The season's right in the traditional window of first run original programming, so for what's probably a lot less coin they can have properties they own and control so they can use them later for streaming/syndication/physical media sales.

Plus to be honest a lot of the Thursday games are fairly lackluster. Not a lot of marquee match-ups, and you don't have the possibility to flex schedules like you would for Sunday night.
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First NBCSN national and now their RSN's?

Post by 4th&long »

https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2021/0 ... -consumer/

Interesting article on RSNs and streaming OTT - but this really grabbed me...

>> The plan fell through because NBCU executives believed it would have driven up the cost of Peacock in the Philadelphia market. Per the Journal, NBCU is now deciding between the Peacock option and selling the RSNs entirely. <<

Wow... but should I be surprised after shutting down NBCSN?
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MLB TV Rights deals

Post by 4th&long »

MLB rights deals ...

ESPN: current $700mm , new $560mm
https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2021/0 ... wild-card/

FOX: current $525mm, new $730mm
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/280 ... 028-season

TURNER: current $325mm , new $470mm
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/16/mlb-new ... llion.html

Totals: Current $1,550mm , New $1,760mm - or 13.5% increase - whoopee. barely covers inflation.

Conclusion: NHL did much better, even if its still smaller. NFL doubled their rights fees or was that ever more $5b to $11b a year. I'm not quite sure of the cuurent contract but they at least doubled. NBA is up next... good luck with sinking ratings.

MLS and the rest? Any info from the board?
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Re: TV Rights deals - Gen discussion

Post by MGB01 »

I don't know what the NBA's been trying to accomplish the last few years. First Adam Silver makes this big deal about the NBA needing to compete with the NFL (like the infamous Eric Bischoff/Ted Turner meeting that hatched WCW Monday Nitro), and he does it in Sacramento (less than a year after David Stern kept the Kings from moving to Seattle)--and just a few days after the Seahawks won the Super Bowl. Then Mark Cuban went out trash-talked the NFL a couple months later (juuuuuuuust a bit outside). They ditch their Sunday afternoon doubleheader, which when available has been a staple of the NBA going back to its height on NBC three decades ago, for poorly-rated Saturday night games. They stretch the NBA Finals to almost three weeks. And showing they're all about cable they haven't even been on ABC in two weeks, they could have taken today for an old-school doubleheader (as a throwback to the last time the NBA season ended on a Sunday in 1998) but instead it was on ESPN with the FCSCG on ABC. Wouldn't be surprised if in the next contract, if they decide to keep the season stretched out to summer, the NBA Finals ends up like March Madness and the new NHL deal where it's on ESPN or TNT every other year.
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