On Wed, Dec 9, 2020 at 10:36 AM PGage <pga...@gmail.com> wrote: I would be delighted if they just got rid of Thursday Night Football > entirely. > > The article kind of buried the lead; the cost of broadcasting the NFL is > expected to go up 50-80%, which would be a combined total of $4.5 to $5.6 > BILLION. > > The deplorable that own most NFL teams only think in terms not of making a > profit, but of continually increasing and maximizing their profit. > Businesses exist to make a profit. If there is a problem with a capitalist enterprise it is structural and the solution will be found in regulatory change not hoping wealthy people have better judgment. If the money is out there to be had they will be going after it.
Thursday Night Football is the result of a failed business decision. The NFL started its own media operation with the NFL Network (with its own journalists which ties to another thread) and they intended to put the channel on to cable systems at a premium price. The cable companies had no enthusiasm to add them to basic service so the NFL decided to form an exclusive weekly game for its network to strong-arm the cable companies. It soon became clear that the tactic backfired and the game needed network coverage so the NFL offered it up to the networks and made more money. And it turns out the networks can't make enough money from the Thursday game to justify keeping it. The growth area in media is now in streaming and media companies will drop overpriced content in order to free resources up for streaming. Thursday Night Football doesn't exist because there was a strong demand for it and no one will suffer if it disappears. The players and coaches certainly hate the short week if they're scheduled to play. As for the projected rise in rights fees, that is more interesting. As we have noted on this list the ratings for live sports are cratering. Whether it's a direct result of the pandemic and displaced spring sports, and the ratings will return to higher levels once the emergency is over, or people were watching just from habit and once the habit is broken they won't be back, we won't know for a while. I haven't checked football ratings to see if they are stable or falling like the other sports. The reason I think the league can project much higher rights fees is the entrance of sports betting companies as advertisers. Since their business is so high margin they have a lot of cash to spend and they will buy up air time if other advertisers drop out. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAJE-FiHv%2BG1bc-vBFtU2VEGSiTwjcfo1RW0d1rNvCU6ALoAG5Q%40mail.gmail.com.
