The United Football League is off to a strong ratings start halfway through its inaugural spring season as it continues to establish its brand in a schedule crowded with baseball, basketball and hockey action.

Through the first five weeks of the season, the UFL — the league formed from the merger of the USFL and XFL — averaged 845,000 viewers over 18 telecasts on Fox, ESPN, and ABC. That’s a 25% increase over the combined total of last year’s USFL and XFL games through Week 5, according to Nielsen numbers provided by the league. 

The mark also represents a 38% increase over the combined 2023 USFL and XFL regular-season average across all linear networks. The league is also drawing in younger viewers, posting a 33% increase in viewership among 18-to-49-year-olds.

Fox Sports president of insights and analytics Mike Mulvihill told Multichannel News the company is pleased with the numbers, adding that the nearly 1 million viewers tuning in to games on Fox are comparable to typical ratings for regular-season hockey and college basketball games.

“The most important thing is to put a credible professional football product on the field, and I think we’re really happy with the quality of play,” he said. “I think what we’ve always tried to stress is that we want this league to rate at a level that’s comparable to very well-established sports, and I think that’s where we’re at.” 

ESPN president of content Burke Magnus added that the ratings show that spring football is on a “growth trajectory” and is resonating with fans. “We look forward to continued collaboration with the UFL and more success in the second half of the season,” he said.

For the UFL to maintain and potentially increase its ratings fortunes during the second half of the regular season, it will have to compete against marquee spring sports events, including the NBA and NHL playoffs and Major League Baseball’s regular season. Mulvihill believes the league can break through the sports clutter as it continues to appeal to young football fans. 

“There really isn’t an easy part of the calendar … you’re going to have to face tough competition no matter where you go,” he said. “I’m confident that we can hold viewership and confident that we can build.” 

MGM Plus will profile Pro Football Hall of Famers Jim Brown and Charles Woodson as part of a new season of its sports docuseries NFL Icons, debuting October 21.

The third season of the documentary series will continue to offer an in-depth and personal look at some of the biggest names in football history both on and off the field, according to the network. Along with NFL rushing great Brown and Super Bowl champion defensive safety Woodson, the series' new season will also feature profiles of Chicago Bears All-Pro linebacker Mike Singletary and Pittsburgh Steelers’ Super Bowl winning coach Bill Cowher.

"NFL Icons, from the acclaimed and gifted storytellers at NFL Films and narrated by Rich Eisen, has become a fan favorite at MGM Plus,” network head Michael Wright said in a statement. “NFL Icons fits perfectly into MGM Plus’s growing stable of compelling and entertaining docuseries. It entertains and inspires, celebrating the careers of  the most iconic competitors the league has produced, their unique personal journeys, and the incredible impact they have made on and off  the gridiron.” 

NFL Icons is executive produced by Ross Ketover, Patrick Kelleher, Brian Rolapp, Keith Cossrow, Wright and Jill Burkhart. 

Showtime Sports will debut on January 6 a documentary series focusing on a Minneapolis-based high school football team in the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd.

The four-part series, Boys in Blue, chronicles the North Community High School football team during the 2021 season as the players come of age in the aftermath of Floyd's death. The team, made up of mostly Black student-athletes coached and mentored by members of the Minneapolis Police Department, presses on as the officers and students find common ground on the field and kinship in the drive to win a state championship, according to Showtime. As players and coaches return to the field with visions of championship glory, their sense of normalcy and optimism are tested like never before, said the network.

Boys in Blue is executive produced by Peter Berg, Matthew Goldberg, Brandon Carroll and Rob Ford.

Berg said in a statement: "Having lived in Minneapolis/St. Paul, I could not reconcile the city I loved so much with the horrific murder of George Floyd, and I felt compelled to find a way to personally respond,” said Berg. “Spending a year with the North High Football team has provided me access into the soul of a beautiful American community that was deeply suffering. We have captured the wins and the losses, on the field and off. We have been trusted by so many teachers, coaches, parents and students, all living in the immediate wake of the George Floyd murder, and the complexities of trying to survive and find joy in very challenging times. I have so much love and respect for the Minneapolis North community and it is my hope that through Boys in Blue we may get fresh understandings of these issues and find paths to empathy and hope."■

WISH Indianapolis will air 11 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) football games this fall. The games will involve Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) teams, including Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Florida A&M, Texas Southern and Alcorn State. 

The weekly broadcasts will include halftime shows and the high-level marching bands HBCU colleges are known for. The action starts September 3 with the HBCU Go Sport Kick-Off Show, featuring HBCU alum and NFL standouts. A week later, Albany State plays Florida A&M. 

Circle City Broadcasting owns WISH. It acquired WISH-WNDY, a CW-MyNetworkTV duo, in 2019. 

“Circle City Broadcasting is committed to offering unique and diverse programming, and we are excited to expand our sports lineup to include this power-packed conference,” said DuJuan McCoy, owner, president and CEO of Circle City. 

WISH said the “must-watch games” on the station schedule include Southern versus Texas Southern September 17, on tape delay starting at 1 a.m., and Florida A&M versus Grambling State at 2 p.m. on October 15. The schedule concludes November 19 with Texas Southern versus Alabama A&M. ■

The word is that Apple, Amazon and The Walt Disney Co., possessors of three of the deepest pockets in the media business, are the sole remaining bidders for the National Football League’s out-of-market programming package, NFL Sunday Ticket.  While a lot of the talk around the deal is the price tag — at $2.5 billion to $3 billion annually, it is about twice what current rightsholder DirecTV paid for the package in 2014 — what could be most valuable to the streaming bidders is the impact Sunday Ticket could have on subscriber growth. 

There is no doubt that each of the three players have the financial strength to handle a deal. Apple has a $2.29 trillion market cap, Amazon’s is $1.15 trillion and Disney is, well, Disney. And even though all three could use access to the out-of-market package to their respective advantage, it seems at least for now that the one that would benefit most would be Apple.

In an interview, LHB Media & Entertainment president and CEO Lee Berke said that while Sunday Ticket helped DirecTV establish its linear satellite TV business nearly 30 years ago, the package is most likely to benefit streamers today.

“Now, I think it is best offered up as a streaming product because you want increased bandwidth, you want to come up with betting channels, you want to come up with all sorts of variations,” Berke said, adding that in addition to games, there are opportunities like the Manningcast [Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli]  and other peripheral programming that could be tied to the package. Also part of the mix are equity stakes in NFL Media — which houses NFL Network and RedZone — and possibly mobile rights, which could allow a streamer the chance to price and package services more creatively. 

“There have been all sorts of opportunities that haven’t been exploited in part because there is a limited amount of bandwidth on satellite,” Berke added. “I think that’s why you’re looking at a substantial streaming presence for Sunday Ticket going forward that allows you to exploit those games in more and different ways than you have in the past.”   

It’s Apple’s Deal to Lose 

While all three bidders have a streaming presence, Berke believes that Sunday Ticket makes the most sense for Apple TV Plus.

“I think that the overall heritage and philosophy of the NFL from a media standpoint is not to put all of your eggs in one basket,” Berke said. “They like to have as many different media companies as possible involved, because you’re not beholden to any one, you get them to compete, they try different approaches, they create, they’re inventive. Since you have Amazon making a major investment in Thursday Night Football, it just seems like Apple, now developing its sports resources with Major League Baseball and MLS, it seems like the next step would be establishing an NFL relationship as well.”

Amazon is paying an estimated $1 billion per year for Thursday Night Football rights. 

While The NFL would likely gain from a closer relationship with the hardware juggernaut, Apple too could use the relationship to create its own opportunities.

“I think there’s upside because everybody is looking at it like there is this finite number of games. No there’s not,” Berke said. “The NFL on its own created RedZone out of this. They created a Fantasy [Football] channel out of it. Now you bring in somebody else with a huge amount of expertise — an Apple, Amazon or Disney. It seems like you’ll get  some other very creative people, some very tech-savvy people that can come up with all sorts of variations.”

Berke added that the attractiveness of Sunday Ticket wouldn’t stop at just bringing more subscribers into the streaming video fold. 

“It’s not just the profitability of the media,” Berke said. “For Apple, does it help them sell hardware? Does it help them sell watches? Does it offer unique functions on an iPad when you get Sunday Ticket? Those are really, really valuable things.” 

Apple also seems more than willing to dive deeply into sports rights after years of sitting on the sidelines. Earlier this month, the company restarted talks for rights to Big Ten Conference college football, which recently expanded to 16 teams by adding Pac-12 powerhouses USC and UCLA.

“[Apple’s] content appetite is seemingly insatiable between Apple TV Plus originals, MLB, MLS and maybe Sunday Ticket OTT,” Wells Fargo media analyst Steven Cahall wrote in a recent research note.

Streaming Growth 

Apple, despite its dominance in the tech sector, is lagging significantly behind its peers in the streaming video business. Launched on November 1, 2019, Apple TV Plus has about 25 million subscribers paying $4.99 per month for its video streaming service. In contrast, Disney Plus — launched 11 days later on November 12, 2019 — has 137 million global customers. Amazon Prime Video has around 200 million subscribers, but most of those are there for the free shipping from Amazon Prime.  

But streamers have seen the explosive subscriber growth of the past few years begin to slow in recent quarters, as inflation, the overall economy and subscriber fatigue have caused consumers to cut back. While most point to Netflix’s 200,000-subscriber loss in Q1 as a sign that streaming was losing its luster, other SVOD companies have seen growth slow. Disney Plus added 2 million subscribers in fiscal Q4 — half of what analysts expected — but seemed to rebound in later quarters, with fiscal Q1 streaming subscriber additions rising by 11.2 million and in fiscal Q2 additions up by 9.2 million. But there are fears that consumers are backing away from some streaming services because of rising monthly charges, prompting many to offer ad-supported versions of their service at reduced fees. 

Tick, Tick, Tick 

There are still a lot of ways this could play out. In 2021, Amazon was said to be the front-runner for Sunday Ticket, with that momentum shifting to Apple in April 2022. More recently, speculation is that DirecTV could still be in the mix, opting to share rights with a streamer or reaching a deal to retain lucrative commercial rights (sports bars and restaurants) for the package. The NFL also could decide to keep Sunday Ticket in-house, possibly making it available through its own direct-to-consumer offering — NFL Plus — which is expected to launch in July. 

And there is still a lot of time to hammer out an agreement. DirecTV’s exclusivity doesn’t expire until after the 2022-23 season, giving several months for further negotiations. 

On the other hand, it is getting close to the time that the NFL has announced previous renewals — DirecTV signed an eight-year extension for Sunday Ticket in October 2014, a month after the final season under its old deal began. Whether this will take longer is anyone’s guess. 

Do You Wanna Pay for Some Football?

While Sunday Ticket has been around for nearly 30 years, its value depends on who owns the rights. In DirecTV’s early days, it was a big catalyst for subscribers to its satellite TV service — you still have to subscribe to DirecTV linear to get access to Sunday Ticket — and paid off in spades in subscriber growth. While there were other factors such as pricing, quality of service, clearer pictures, a national footprint and access to then-rare HDTV channels, Sunday Ticket helped push DirecTV into the No. 1 spot among TV distributors. A year after DirecTV launched Sunday Ticket in 1994, its subscriber base nearly quadrupled from 332,000 in 1994 to 1.2 million in 1995. By 2014 the satellite service had more than 20 million customers. 

Will Sunday Ticket have the same impact on its new owners? Probably not. It’s not even having the same impact on DirecTV, which has shed a huge number of subscribers over the years — it had 14.6 million as of Q2 — all while it continued to offer Sunday Ticket. DirecTV does not reveal subscriber numbers for Sunday Ticket, but estimates put it at around 2 million customers. Other reports estimate that DirecTV is losing about $500 million per year on Sunday Ticket.  

At Kagan, the media research unit of S&P Global Market Intelligence, research director Deana Myers believes the subscriber tally for Sunday Ticket is “well below” 2 million, and while she sees the package having some benefit to streamers, don’t count on it being too dramatic. 

“I think getting Sunday Ticket would likely put Apple TV Plus on the map, but not to the degree that it did for DirecTV,” Myers wrote in an email message. “Sunday Ticket’s value for DirecTV was that it drew a lot of really high-end subscribers who would sign up for the top packages. In the old, successful pay TV world that worked, but it loses a lot of money today for them. Apple could gain subs, they have the cash for such a deal, they have been buying a lot of sports rights and it could help them with their main goal of selling more devices.” 

But Berke believes the benefit of Sunday Ticket lies in more than just a beefier subscriber base.   

“If Apple is potentially a co-owner of NFL Media and they come up with five different ways to take that package and off it up in different fashions and if it helps them create a whole new version of iPhones that are NFL-specific, it’s more than carried its weight,” Berke said.

And Then There Were Three

Apple has re-established itself as the front-runner, according to some reports, but what appears to be holding up the deal are the equity stake in NFL Media and the ultimate price tag. While the NFL reportedly wants as much as $3 billion for the rights, pundits believe the deal will come in lower, perhaps in the $2 billion range.    

That’s still above the $1.5 billion annually DirecTV is paying, but may point to problems with the deal’s structure. According to CNBC,  sources familiar with the deal say that the NFL is requiring that whoever buys Sunday Ticket price it at or above its $300 to $400 yearly market value, mainly because of deals the NFL has with broadcasters CBS and Fox. So there will be no deep discounting of the service, something that DirecTV has done in the past to keep existing sub numbers up and attract new customers. Apple and Amazon also are said to be very interested in international streaming rights, something that Myers believes the NFL would like to sell separately. 

“I think the limitations that the NFL is trying to put on a deal will mean the deal comes in pretty far below what they are asking,” Myers said.

In the end, any deal will come down to who needs Sunday Ticket the most. And if scale still matters in the streaming business, that would seem to be Apple. ■

Pro football fans will get to watch a second spring football league in 2023 as the upstart XFL league Tuesday reached a multiyear distribution deal with the Walt Disney Co. and ESPN to air all of the league’s regular-season and playoff contests.

The XFL, owned by a group led by actor Dwayne Johnson, will launch February 18, 2023 and will air all of its regular season games on ABC, ESPN, and FX, the parties announced during Disney’s upfront presentation Tuesday. The agreement also includes exclusive content rights across ESPN’s digital, social and direct-to-consumer outlets such as ESPN Plus. 

“The XFL will tap into sports fans’ deep love of football by emphasizing competitive action while dedicating itself to innovation and entertainment,” said Jimmy Pitaro, chairman, ESPN and Sports Content in a statement. “You can see a great path to success when you combine the reach and influence of ESPN and Disney with the collective vision of XFL leadership led by Dany, Dwayne and Gerry.”

Also: Stars Shine Bright at Disney Upfront

Johnson, along with business partner and wife Danny Garcia and RedBird Capital, led by founder and managing partner Gerry Cardinale, purchased the league in August 2020 from World Wrestling Entertainment chairman and CEO Vince McMahon. 

The XFL initially launched in 2001 as a collaboration between the WWE and NBC but was shut down after one season. McMahon resurrected the league in 2020 but ceased operations in the middle of the season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The deal comes as competing Fox Sports-controlled spring football league the USFL continues its inaugural season with games airing on Fox and NBC.

Johnson said the Disney-XFL deal is a “definitive moment” for the league. “We’re excited to be working with global visionaries that are aligned with the XFL’s values, are true team players and share our ambitious goals to grow the XFL as a global sports and entertainment business,“ he said. ”Through the combined power of Disney and the XFL, together we will create a new powerhouse on the sports calendar and bring a dynamic game of football to fans everywhere. Time to ball out.” ■ 

Broadcast networks Fox and NBC on Saturday (April 16) will kick off the opening season of the United States Football League with a rare simulcast of the league's inaugural game, as the USFL looks to succeed where other spring football leagues have failed.

The eight-team, Fox Sports-operated league will play a 10-game regular season -- with all games played at Protective Stadium in Birmingham -- and a three-game postseason that will determine the league's champion. 

Fox Sports and NBC Sports will televise every game via the Fox and NBC broadcast channels, USA Network and FS1 cable channels, and the Peacock streaming service.

Mike Mulvihill, Fox Sports executive vice president and head of strategy and analytics, spoke to Multichannel News senior content producer R. Thomas Umstead about Fox’s operational and programming strategy for the league, as well as how USFL games will differ from the NFL on the field of play. An edited version of the interview appears below.  

Listen to the rest of Multichannel News’ interview with Mulvihill as part of its TV Sportsplay podcast.

Multichannel News: Why is Fox Sports confident that there is viewer demand for pro football in the spring? 

Mike Mulvihill: I think the foremost thing that gives me confidence is that the appetite for spring football has already been pretty well demonstrated. The numbers that we saw in 2020 for the [WWE-owned] XFL were really encouraging. Had the pandemic not turned our world upside down and forced the XFL to suspend operations we would probably be in our third season of XFL football right now. The numbers that they were doing were more than satisfactory – they were doing a little under 2 million viewers for their games on national networks. That’s a pretty good number in the current environment. I think that gives us a good baseline expectation for what we can do.

MCN: How is Fox looking to market and promote the USFL in a very crowded and noisy sports television marketplace? 

MM: I think we can come at that in a couple ways. One is that we’re very fortunate to have not just our own networks, but to have an incredible partner in NBC Sports. To have a scenario where we're able to leverage our own air time and our own promotional vehicles, and also rely on NBC for their own promotional power and production expertise is a really advantageous situation. There have been very few startups that have launched with the full support and the full power of not just one but two major traditional media companies. Hand in hand with that we've developed a schedule that has something like two-thirds of our games on free, over-the-air television networks at a time where a lot of sports content is going to streaming networks. For the viewer right now it’s a little bit tricky to find the content that they’re looking for – they don’t know what streaming platform to go to or what games are on what cable channels. When you have a lot of games on Fox broadcast or on NBC broadcast – the same networks that they go to to watch the NFL every Sunday – that's a huge advantage.

MCN: From an operational standpoint, does Fox’s control of the USFL increase the prospects for the league’s long-term success?  

MM: You raise a great subject, because when people examine the opportunity for success in a spring football league, what they tend to focus on is consumer demand and whether we can  generate an audience. But I think just as important is how we manage costs and how we keep those costs from getting out of control, which I think has been a big issue for previous spring leagues. We feel really confident that the consumer demand is there. Where we think we have a great business advantage is in the fact that we are an owner of the league, and we are able to use the vast resources of a company of this size to help manage the operations of the USFL.

MCN: How will the USFL differ on the field from the NFL? 

MM: I would tell you that probably 95 % of the USFL rule book is identical to the NFL rule book, because we don't feel a need to reinvent the game. When people tune in, we want this product to be instantly recognizable as professional football –  we don't want it to be excessively gimmicky. Where things get a little bit different is after a scoring play, we've got some innovations that we think are going to help keep games close. One of them is that a team can elect to either kick an extra point or try for a two-point conversion. We're actually going to introduce a three-point conversion as well, because when you have a three-point conversion in play that means that a game with a margin that's as much as 18 points is still a two-possession game. We think that's going to keep fans interested. We've got a mechanism in place where rather than attempt an onside kick, we're going to let a team bring their offense on the field and try to convert a fourth and 12 [play] from scrimmage. The play clock will go from a 40-second clock to a 35-second clock – it’s a subtle distinction, but again it should just result in more offensive plays per game. ■ 

The early life and career of National Football League quarterback and social activist Colin Kaepernick is chronicled in Netflix’s original series, Colin in Black And White.

Viewers may be surprised that the series doesn’t start with Colin Kaepernick as the Super Bowl starting quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, or Colin Kaepernick the social activist who has been ostracized from the league since 2016 after he began to take a knee during the national anthem in protest of police brutality. Instead it looks at a young, high-school age Colin Kaepernick —- played impeccably by Jaden Michael — seeking out his identity while pursuing a career as an elite professional athlete.

The six-part miniseries links the experiences of a young Kaepernick — initially highly recruited as a baseball pitcher but with aspirations to be a pro quarterback — with present-day narration from Kaepernick himself, who seeks to put the events of his life into perspective. As part of that narrative, Colin in Black and White throughout the series cleverly weaves historical vignettes that often point back to the country’s sordid racial history into Kaepernick’s experiences as a young black man. Viewers get an early glimpse of Kaepernick and co-series creator Ava DuVernay’s clever and powerfully unfiltered point of view when the series likens the high-profile NFL Combine — where coaches evaluate every aspect of potential players — to slave auctions where Blacks were inhumanely objectified by White slave owners. 

Mary-Louise Parker and Nick Offerman play Kaepernick’s adoptive and very supportive parents who nevertheless aren’t prepared for and are often naïve to the misconceptions, prejudice and outward disrespect that Kaepernick faces as a young Black man growing up in a conservative, mostly White California suburb. 

Overall, Colin in Black And White is a unique series that at times may make its audience uncomfortable but more often than not endears viewers to the struggles, pitfalls and ultimate triumphs of a young Kaepernick. Whether you agree or disagree with Colin Kaepernick’s actions, Colin in Black and White is worth a look. 

Nickelodeon Wednesday night (Sept. 15) will look to endear young viewers to the sport of football with its new original primetime series NFL Slimetime.

The weekly series, a collaboration between Nickelodeon, the NFL and CBS Sports, looks to build on Nick’s successful, network-branded telecast of last January's Chicago Bears-New Orleans Saints NFL Wildcard playoff game by offering league highlights and player interviews delivered from a Nickelodeon perspective. The series is hosted by former NFL player, The NFL Today analyst and CBS Mornings co-host Nate Burleson and Dylan Gilmer, star of the network series Tyler Perry’s Young Dylan series, and also includes sports correspondent Dylan Schefter.

I had a chance to speak to NFL Slimetime executive producer and showrunner Shawn Robbins shortly after he finished filming the series' first episode to discuss expectations for the 23-episode series as well as the collaboration between the league and the kids-targeted brand. An edited version of the interview appears below.

Picture This: What is Nickelodeon looking to accomplish with NFL Slimetime?

Shawn Robbins: The show is really an extension of what we did with the Wild Card game — it extends the partnership with the NFL and it brings sports to Nickelodeon. We know that we were able to really merge the NFL and CBS Sports with Nickelodeon, and obviously nobody reaches a youthful audience better than Nickelodeon.

PT: Was the Wild Card game and now NFL Slimetime an effort to provide kids with a greater understanding of football, or was it an opportunity to provide sports programming for Nickelodeon’s lineup?

SR: Both of those things. I think the game of football is great in itself, but if you want to reach kids, Nickelodeon has this fantastic [intellectual property] that touches kids of all ages. There’s also a nostalgic value to the Nickelodeon brand that also touches adults, so we know that there’s a crossover opportunity where we can reach both kids and their parents. Mom and Dad may watch the live football games on Sunday, and now we’re giving them a product where they can introduce their kids to the game using the Nickelodeon brand. It’s just really special.

PT: What should viewers expect to see on the show?

SR: What’s great is we have a lot of fun with the show. Much like the wildcard game we want to keep the values and tradition of the game and be respectful to the game of football, but we had fun with it. The show will feature action from the games on Sunday, Monday and Thursday mixed with what the Nickelodeon brand represents. We asked the players fun, Nickelodeon-style questions and they had a great time with it. The players aren’t that far off [age-wise] from the Nickelodeon target audience, so it’s been really special to see that come together.

PT: What kind of questions did you ask the players?

SR: Questions like, ‘is having good breath important coming into the huddle, or what might have been the worst thing that you’ve eaten before the game?’ The players really responded fantastically to that. Also Dylan Schefter did an interview yesterday with [wide receiver] Christian Kirk from the Arizona Cardinals who scored two touchdowns in Sunday’s game. They had such a fun interview about the game. I’ve done a lot of these interviews before with all of our big guys at CBS Sports over the years, and it’s such a different experience to see how players talk to kids. The players get it, and I loved how they interacted with Dylan. I’m looking forward to doing a lot more of that throughout the season.

PT: Does the show get into the X's and O’s of the sport?

SR: We do a little bit. You’ll see during the show that Nate Burleson does break down a play, so we will get into some X’s and O’s from a broader base standpoint. We want to bring kids into the game and that’s how we’ll do it … there’s definitely some teaching involved.

Also Read: For CBS Sports's Sean McManus, a Whole Different Ballgame

PT: Do you expect you’ll have to make adjustments to the show as the NFL season progresses?

SR: Oh my goodness, I hope so. We’re going to build on it. This was our first show and we put the team together pretty quickly to get this out. Like any show, you look at the last episode and see what you did and how we can make it better.

About four months after starting talks with the Canadian Football League about a possible collaboration, the XFL said it has put those discussions on hold and looks toward starting play in the 2023 season.

The XFL said in March that it had begun discussions with the Canadian league to “identify opportunities for the leagues to collaborate, innovate, and grow the game of football.” As a result, the XFL said it would postpone its 2022 season. 

News that the talks had ended was first reported by Sports Business Journal. 

Speculation was high that the two leagues were exploring a possible merger. Last year, former CFL player, professional wrestler and current movie star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, his ex-wife Dany Garcia and RedBird Capital purchased the XFL out of bankruptcy for about $15 million.  With the tabling of the CFL talks, the chances of a possible merger appear slim.   

“Our talks with the XFL, exploring the potential for collaboration and innovation, have been positive and constructive,” the CFL said in a statement on its website. “While we remain open to finding new ways to work together in the future, we and our XFL counterparts have jointly decided to not pursue any formal arrangements at this time.” 

The XFL issued a similar statement.

“While our discussions with the CFL did not ultimately lead to a collaboration, the effort reinforced our belief and commitment to developing the XFL for international spring football,” the XFL said in a statement. “We look forward to seeing everyone for kickoff in spring of 2023.”

Just what is next for the XFL remains in question, especially as another spring football league — the USFL — gears up for its 2022 season, with minority owner Fox Sports as its broadcast partner.

Fox won Tuesday prime ratings easily thanks to football. The Cowboys-Ravens contest led Fox to a 2.8 in viewers 18-49, per the Nielsen overnights, and a 16 share. In a distant second was ABC at 0.9/5. 

Fox had Cowboys versus Ravens across its prime. 

ABC had two hours of The Bachelorette at 1.2 and 1.1, same as last week, and Big Sky down 29% for a 0.5.

CBS got a 0.6/3 and NBC a 0.5/3. CBS had NCIS down 22% to 0.7 and FBI off 25% to 0.6, then FBI: Most Wanted down 17% to 0.5.

On NBC it was The Voice at a flat 0.7 and the two-hour Transplant finale at a level 0.4. 

Univision scored a 0.4/2 and Telemundo a 0.3/2. Univision had Vencer El Desamor and Imperio de Mentiras at 0.4, Vencer down a tenth and Imperio up a tenth. Dulce Ambicion got a flat 0.3. 

On Telemundo it was El Domo del Dinero at 0.2 and Todo Por Mi Hija at 0.4, the pair flat. Falsa Identidad went up 50% to a 0.3.

The CW scored a 0.1/0, with Swamp Thing and Tell Me a Story both at a level 0.1. 

Sports fans will have plenty to watch this weekend as the World Series marches on, the UFC offers a major pay-per-view event and the Big Ten returns to the football field.

After splitting the first two games, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Tampa Bay Rays each look to take control of the 2020 World Series this weekend beginning with game three Friday night followed by game four Saturday night and game five on Sunday--all airing live on Fox broadcasting. The Dodgers are looking to win their first World Series since 1988, while the Rays are looking to take home the series trophy for the first time in franchise history. 

Also on tap this weekend is the UFC 254 mixed martial arts pay-per-view event from Abu Dhabi featuring a Khabib Nurmagomedov-Justin Gaethje lightweight championship main event. ESPN Plus will distribute the fight card to subscribers of the streaming service in a rare 2 p.m. (ET) start time.

The Big Ten Conference will kick off its 2020 season on Friday with Wisconsin facing Illinois on the Big Ten Network. Other big nationally televised Big Ten weekend matchups include Saturday’s Ohio State-Nebraska game on Fox. The 14-team conference last month decided to launch a conference-only football schedule after initially announcing in August that it would not play this season due to coronavirus concerns. 

The NFL has switched NBC’s Oct. 25 Sunday Night Football telecast to the Seattle Seahawks-Arizona Cardinals game from its originally scheduled Tampa Bay Buccaneers-Las Vegas Raiders contest after the Raiders placed several players on its COVID-19/reserve list. The league said the move was made to ensure a game would be played on Sunday night even though the Raiders-Buccaneers game is still scheduled to be played Sunday afternoon, according to ESPN.com.

For a list of live, televised sports events this weekend, click here.

HBO next month will premiere a new documentary series from Michael Strahan focusing on a successful football program in Baltimore.

The four-part series, The Cost of Winning, debuts Nov. 10 and tells the story of the St. Frances Academy Panthers football program in Baltimore, which despite being located in the heart of a neighborhood rife with gun violence and grinding socioeconomic challenges, became a source of pride and searing controversy, said the network. The series highlights the team’s expulsion from their private school league for being “too good” -- a turn of events that raised questions of racial bias, said HBO.

Strahan, an NFL Hall of Famer and Good Morning America co-host, along with Constance Schwartz-Morini, serve as executive producers of the series. “We are excited to bring the inspiring story of Baltimore’s St. Frances Academy to life on HBO, and to showcase the adversity and challenges the Panthers endured to save their program,” said Strahan and Schwartz-Morini in a statement. 

Seven Bucks Companies, the film and TV production entity headed by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and his ex-wife Dany Garcia, and RedBird Capital, the private equity company led by former Goldman Sachs partner Gerry Cardinale, have agreed to buy troubled sports league the XFL in a deal valued at about $15 million.

The XFL filed for bankruptcy protection in April, shortly after it canceled its season due to the coronavirus pandemic. At the time, the league reported assets of between $10 million and $50 million. 

The bid came on the day the bankruptcy court was scheduled to begin an auction for the XFL assets. In light of the bid, that auction will not take place.

The XFL, created by World Wrestling Entertainment chairman and CEO Vince McMahon, has struggled to eke out a niche as an alternative to the NFL. While the earlier version of the XFL crashed and burned after one season in 2001 amid low ratings and a string of bad luck, the latest iteration was supposed to be a more serious, fast-paced, fan-centric and family-friendly football league. In June 2018 McMahon hired former NFL and NCAA executive Oliver Luck as commissioner and CEO of the league, and tapped sports business consultant Jeffrey Pollack as president and chief operating officer.

Pollack was in charge of the auction process. In a press release he was pleased with the outcome.

“We are grateful for today’s outcome,” Pollack said. “This is a Hollywood ending to our sale process and it is an exciting new chapter for the league. Dwayne, Dany and Gerry are a dream team ownership group and the XFL is in the best possible hands going forward.”

Johnson and Garcia, a former Merrill Lynch exec, formed Seven Bucks Companies in 2012, which has mainly produced films and television properties for Johnson. This will be the company’s first foray into live sports. 

The deal is expected to close quickly. Seven Bucks said in a press release that the bankruptcy court will hold a hearing to approve the transaction on Aug.7, and with a favorable ruling the deal could close on or shortly after Aug. 21.

“For Dwayne, Gerry and myself, this property represents an incredible opportunity. It is the confluence of great passion, tradition and possibility” Garcia said in a press release. “Sports and entertainment are the foundations of the businesses I have built. Melding our expertise combined with our commitment to deliver exciting and inspiring unique content, has us all focused on developing the XFL brand into a multi-media experience that our athletes, partners and fans will proudly embrace and love.”

Johnson, a former professional wrestler, parlayed his fame into a career as an actor and entrepreneur. In addition to starring in blockbuster films like Jumanji and TV shows like HBO series Ballers, he is CEO of Seven Bucks Cos.

“The acquisition of the XFL with my talented partners, Dany Garcia and Gerry Cardinale, is an investment for me that’s rooted deeply in two things - my passion for the game and my desire to always take care of the fans,” Johnson said in a press release. “With pride and gratitude for all that I’ve built with my own two hands, I plan to apply these callouses to the XFL, and look forward to creating something special for the players, fans, and everyone involved for the love of football.”

Cardinale and RedBird have been involved in several sports deals -- it was part of the team that purchased YES Network last year and last month purchased an 85% interest in French soccer club Toulouse. Also in July, RedBird formed a special purpose acquisition corporation -- RedBall Acquisition Corp. -- with Oakland A’s executive Billy Beane to raise $500 million to invest in sports properties. 

“It is a privilege to partner with Dany and Dwayne on the acquisition of the XFL,” Cardinale said in the press release. “Their track record in building dynamic businesses speaks for itself, and their vision and passion for developing the XFL as a world class sports and entertainment property will enable a new future for this organization. As their partner in acquiring and relaunching the XFL, RedBird will bring its own track record and experience in building world class companies in sports and live entertainment to help realize their vision.” 

HBO Sports on Aug. 11 will launch the 15th season of its Emmy-winning documentary series Hard Knocks following the training camps of the Los Angeles Chargers and Los Angeles Rams, said network executives.

The five-episode series for the first time will focus on two teams, said the network. “The Hard Knocks franchise continues to excel as the preeminent sports reality series,” Peter Nelson, EVP, HBO Sports said in a statement. “Our partnership with NFL Films, which dates back to 1977, consistently produces groundbreaking television programming. We are grateful to the Chargers and Rams organizations to be able to present the 2020 training camp experience.”

ESPN+ will return its football-themed series Peyton’s Places for a second season in November, the network said Wednesday. 

The series, hosted by iconic NFL quarterback Peyton Manning, is scheduled to return with 15 episodes beginning Thanksgiving weekend and running through Super Bowl Sunday, said officials.

The series follows Manning as he explores football’s history and cultural impact through conversations with players, coaches and other key figures, according to the sports streaming service.

“Peyton is the perfect guide to bring fans close to the places and people that helped make the NFL what it is today,” said ESPN executive VP, content Connor Schell. “Season one of Peyton’s Places was a fun, fantastic trip through football and we’re excited to bring the second chapter to ESPN+ with Peyton and NFL Films.”

Super Bowl LIV on Fox scored 102 million viewers on traditional television and streaming services Sunday night, the 10th most-watched Super Bowl in history, according to Nielsen. The audience tally includes viewers tuning into Fox broadcasting and Fox Deportes’ live broadcasts, as well as Fox, NFL and Verizon's live digital streaming offerings, said Fox Sports and Nielsen.

The game, in which the Kansas City Chiefs scored three fourth quarter touchdowns in a come-from-behind 31-20 win over the San Francisco 49’ers, topped the 100 million viewers generated by CBS’ telecast of the New England Patriots-Los Angeles Rams Super Bowl LIII contest last year.

Fox’s coverage of the Pepsi Super Bowl LIV Halftime Show, which featured performances from Jennifer Lopez and Shakira, averaged 103 million viewers, said Fox Sports and Nielsen -- up 4% over last year’s halftime performance featuring Maroon 5. 

WWE chair Vince McMahon will take another shot at scoring on the professional football field with the 2020 relaunch of the XFL pro football league. 

McMahon said Thursday (Jan. 25) during an afternoon press conference that he will look to reshape the XFL -- which ran for one season in 2001 in a joint venture with NBC -- into a new, reimagined format that will be "fan-friendly" and exciting. 

McMahon said the XFL will look to secure traditional network as well as digital distribution, but has yet to secure any deals.

McMahon said the league will listen to experts to help put the best product out on the field.

“We want to give fans more of that they want to see and less of what they don’t want to see,” he said.

McMahon said the eight-team league will be fully-owned by his company Alpha Entertainment and will play from late January into the spring, but would not reveal the cities in which the league will look to field teams.

The league will also feature no crossover talent from McMahon’s WWE franchise.

MCN Flashback: Vince McMahon: WWE's Ringmaster

He added that XFL games will be likely be condensed to two hours -- much quicker than the current three-hour average National Football League games – including the possible elimination of the traditional halftime period.

McMahon also said that the NFL's woes over declining ratings and political controversies did not factor into his decision to relaunch the league. He added that players with crimminal records will not be allowed into the league, and that players will most likely be required to stand during the national anthem.

"It will have nothing to do with politics and social issues ... we want really good football," McMahon said "That’s what we’re going to deliver."

Nickelodeon has tapped Carolina Panthers’ quarterback Cam Newton for a new series set to debut later this year.

The 20-episode series with a working title of I Wanna Be features the Super Bowl-bound Newton as he takes real kids on the ride of their lives to help make their dreams come true, said network officials. The series will be executive produced by Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz of Magical Elves.

“Time in the spotlight has made me realize the importance of creating positive messages to inspire the next generation,” said Newton in a statement. “I’m very passionate about mentoring young people, and this show will be the perfect opportunity to help talented kids get the chance to pursue their dreams.”

Ed Sabol, who as cofounder of NFL Films is credited with transforming sports in TV and film, died today at his home in Scottsdale, Ariz, the NFL announced. He was 98.

Sabol launched NFL Films as Blair Motion Pictures in 1962 with his son Steve, following a "passion to preserve football history," as he put it at the beginning of a video the NFL posted today entitled "Ed Sabol's Last Film." In his pursuit to capture history being made on the field, Sabol was the force behind putting mics on coaches, referees and players, capturing the personalities driving the game in real time. On the post-production side, he added popular music soundtracks to game footage, elevating plays to mythic proportions. From all the footage also came the blooper reel. Before the ascendancy of ESPN, many believe that NFL Films was the marketing gambit that helped push pro football to the top of the American sports mountain.

Before NFL Films, Sabol was a salesman, and in 1962 he sold the NFL on himself as a filmmaker. He spent $3,000 of his own money and secured the rights to film the NFL championship game between the New York Giants and Green Bay Packers. With a Bell & Howell 16-mm camera and no more experience than shooting high school football games, Sabol got the title game on film and launched the career in which he would change the way football and other sports are presented.

Two years later, Blair Motion Pictures became NFL Films. In 1967 came the iconic film that set the standard for how the NFL's story would be told, They Call it Pro Football. Since 1979, NFL Films has won 107 Emmys for Cinematography, Writing, Editing, Sound, Sports Series & Specials and a Lifetime Achievement Award (for then company president Steve Sabol in 2003), according to its website. Its first came in 1979 for Road To The Super Bowl.

The elder Sabol, an alumnus of Ohio State University, was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2011. He helmed NFL Films until 1985, when he turned it over to his son Steve, who passed away in 2012.

An online video service targeting the 105 historically black colleges and universities, overseen by former BET executive Curtis Symonds, is set to launch today (Sept. 15) with hopes of eventually becoming a linear cable channel.

After several starts and stops, the ad-supported website at HBCUX.com will launch with 10 individual channels — five for free and five sold for a collective $3.99 per month — featuring sports, entertainment and original programming by and for HBCU schools, HBCUX president Symonds said.

HBCUX unofficially launched this past Saturday with an exclusive telecast of the first annual Bahamas HBCUX Classic football game between Central State and Texas Southern.

It targets current and former HBCU students — and hopes to draw a wider multicultural audience curious about HBCU schools.

“The whole premise of the channel is to educate people on what historically black colleges are all about,” Symonds said. “People don’t understand the history, legacies and stories of these universities, and until you really hear and see it, you don’t have a great appreciation for it.”

Among the five free channels offered by HBCUX, according to Symonds, will be one dedicated to HBCU sports programming, simulcasting HBCU games streamed by ESPN3; a radio channel with content from as many as 60 HBCU radio stations; and a channel featuring blogs from various HBCU student writers.

The premium channels, which cost a combined $3.99 a month, will feature the network’s own live-game telecasts of HBCU sports programming; a channel featuring original content from both the network and HBCU schools; a channel which will focus on students doing great things within their schools and communities; and channels for pay-per-view programming and original movies.

Symonds said he sees network as eventually moving from its online roots to become a full-fledged linear cable channel at some point.

“The long-term goal is to build this into a linear network, but first we have to create a demand for the channel,” he said. “Our target audience is on their computers, iPhones and tablets, so if I can push the demand through digital then it should eventually fold into a demand for a linear product.”