MyBundle, a startup that provides SaaS tools to make streaming easier, has announced a new technology feature in anticipation of the new NFL season.

MyBundle’s new NFL Schedule, available to the nearly 13 million end users of its various telecom partners, is designed to help consumers find the big game and related content at a time when NFL rights are proliferated across nearly a dozen broadcast partners, from NBC to Netflix.

Also Read: MyBundle Strikes Deal for Free Roku Remotes

The feature is organized by team -- click on your favorite squad, and the widget will tell you what local broadcast affiliates, streaming services and pay TV platforms are carrying it. 

As fans of the Seattle Seahawks living in Southern California, here's what we like: If you're fan of a team and living or traveling out-of-market, this useful tool also lets you switch to "national" mode to find games that are being broadcast beyond the local affiliates. 

Try it out for yourself here. 

The final days of Paris Summer Olympics competition and Week 1 of the NFL preseason schedule top the live TV sports events airing this weekend.

Saturday’s Summer Olympics coverage on USA Network, E!, NBC, and CNBC conclude with the finals of several events on Saturday, including men’s basketball between the United States and France, women’s soccer, women’s water polo, and men’s platform diving. On Sunday, coverage includes the finals of women’s basketball, women’s volleyball, men’s water polo and women’s weightlifting.

NFL Network will televise three preseason games, including the Chicago Bears-Buffalo Bills, Las Vegas Raiders-Minnesota Vikings, and Kansas City Chiefs-Jacksonville Jaguars contests. On Sunday, the network will air the Denver Broncos-Indianapolis Colts and Dallas Cowboys-Los Angeles Rams games. 

On the golf links, CBS will air the final rounds of the PGA Wyndham Championship golf tournament. On the race track, USA on Sunday will televise the Cook Out 400 NASCAR Cup race. 

In baseball, Roku will stream the Los Angeles Angels-Washington Nationals game, and ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball game will feature the New York Mets and Seattle Mariners. 

In the octagon, ESPN on Saturday will televise a UFC Fight Night card featuring the Marcin Tybura-Serghei Spivac heavyweight rematch fight. Also on Saturday, ESPN will air the Luis Alberto Lopez-Angelo Leo featherweight title bout.

A Los Angeles federal judge overturned a shocking $4.7 billion antitrust verdict against the NFL Thursday, ruling that a misguided jury followed improper methodologies in determining the huge damages award. 

U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez, who oversaw the case, said the jury was led astray by plaintiffs lawyers and expert witnesses in rendering an award that could have been tripled under federal antitrust guidelines. 

Also read: Why the NFL Probably Won't Pay More Than a Dollar of That $4.7 Billion ‘Sunday Ticket’ Verdict

“Without the testimonies of Dr. [Daniel] Rascher and Dr. [John] Zona, no reasonable jury could have found class-wide injury or damages,” Gutierrez wrote at the end of his 16-page ruling.

Associated Press was at the Los Angeles courthouse Thursday and reported on this ruling. 

In June, a jury in the Los Angeles class-action trial agreed with the plaintiffs' argument that the NFL conspired with DirecTV to keep the price of its out-of-market games TV package, NFL Sunday Ticket, artificially high. 

The lawsuit covered 2.4 million consumers and 48,000 business over the span of the 2011 - 2022 seasons. 

As AP noted, the case, originally introduced in 2015, was dismissed in 2017 but already brought back to life once by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. 

Speaking on CNBC earlier this month, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell didn't seem particularly worried about how it would all turn out. 

Making his first extensive public comments since a jury ordered his league to pay billions of dollars in a class-action suit over the NFL Sunday Ticket out-of-market games package, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell expressed determination to appeal the verdict. 

“Well, we obviously disagree with the jury verdict and we are committed obviously to following the legal process,” Goodell told CNBC’s Squawk on the Street Thursday from the Sun Valley media executive retreat in Idaho. “It’s a long process. We’re aware of that, but we feel very strongly about our position, our policies, particularly on media, that we make our — our sport available to the broadest possible audience.”

Also read: NFL Loses Sunday Ticket Case, Ordered To Pay $4.7 Billion

The plaintiffs successfully argued in the California federal court that the NFL violated antitrust laws and kept TV access to its games priced artificially high by marketing its Sunday Ticket audience at a robust price point and making it available to only the finite base of DirecTV subscribers. 

Residential subscribers were awarded $4.7 million, with commercial customers getting $96 million. These damages could triple to over $15 billion based on federal antitrust law. 

In his CNBC discussion, Goodell dismissed Sunday Ticket as merely a “complementary product.” 

The mighty National Football League was sacked by a jury in California which ordered the league to pay $4.7 billion in damages in an antitrust lawsuit that claimed consumers were forced to overpay for the NFL Sunday Ticket out-of-market  television package.

The NFL said it plans to contest the decision.

The lawsuit was originally filed by a bar in San Francisco called the Mucky Duck and grew into a class-action suit. Damages can be tripled in antitrust suits.

Also Read: Roger Goodell Testifies in $21 Billion ‘Sunday Ticket’ Antitrust Trial: ‘We Have Been Clear Throughout That This Is a Premium Product’

The league was accused of keeping the price of Sunday Ticket high in order to keep the majority of fans watching games on broadcast and cable. The NFL has deals with its television partners that will pay it $110 billion over 11 years.

The ruling gives $4.6 billion to residential Sunday Ticket subscribers and $100 million to restaurants and bars.

Until this season, DirecTV had exclusive rights to distribute Sunday Ticket, paying $1.5 billion a year, and losing close to $1 billion on the package. 

This year, YouTube won the bidding for Sunday Ticket, agreeing to pay $2 billion a year, and made a deal with DirecTV to continue to distribute the package to commercial users.

“We are disappointed with the jury’s verdict today in the NFL Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit. We continue to believe that our media distribution strategy, which features all NFL games broadcast on free over-the-air television in the markets of the participating teams and national distribution of our most popular games, supplemented by many additional choices including RedZone, Sunday Ticket and NFL Plus, is by far the most fan-friendly distribution model in all of sports and entertainment,” the NFL said in a statement.

“We will certainly contest this decision as we believe that the class action claims in this case are baseless and without merit,” the league said.

After agreeing to pay the NFL a reported $150 million last month for the domestic TV rights to two Christmas Day regular-season games, Netflix now faces a tedious task: Lining of production and talent to actually stream the games. 

Netflix has reportedly reached out to media companies that already have established NFL broadcast infrastructure: Paramount Global’s CBS Sports, Disney’s ESPN and NBCUniversal.

Citing unnamed sources, CNBC said Netflix’s discussions with these companies hasn't gone into much depth yet, but Netflix’s options may be “somewhat limited.” 

For one, all of these prospective contractors are very busy with their own football production obligations. ESPN, for example, doesn't just have Monday Night Football, it also has a rather vast college football rights portfolio. 

Notably, Amazon was able to partner up with NBCU prior to its first season of Thursday Night Football in 2022. 

Amazon produces all of its pregame, halftime and postgame coverage under lead producer Mark Teitelman. But NBC Sports also oversees “extensive production work” and employs most of the crew.

For its part, Netflix faces a media business that’s a bit more wary of aiding a long-term competitor, CNBC’s insiders say. 

“There aren't that many players in the space who are capable of doing this at a level that you would want to trust when you’re launching as a new partner with a league as important as the NBA or the NFL,” said Shirin Malkani, co-chair of the sports industry group at law firm Perkins Coie, to CNBC.

There are third-party options, however, such as Endeavor Group Holdings’ IMG, which produces Apple’s Major League Soccer coverage. 

The Chicago Bears will take center stage for the first time on HBO's Hard Knocks documentary series this summer. 

The five-part Hard Knocks: Training Camp with The Chicago Bears series debuts August 6 and will follow the Bears during the team's training camp in preparation for the 2024 season. The appearance is the first for the Bears in the 19-season history of Hard Knocks, mostly due to the Bears' chairman George McCaskey's objection to having the team profiled on the show. 

The Bears have been busy during the offseason, drafting in USC quarterback Caleb Williams with the first pick of April's NFL Draft and trading for veteran former Los Angeles Chargers receiver Keenan Allen. 

"We are honored to feature such an iconic NFL franchise on Hard Knocks," said NFL Films senior director and supervising producer Shannon Furman in a statement. "The Chicago Bears have a talented roster, coaching staff, and front office all determined to match the expectations of a hungry fan base. We are thankful to the entire organization for opening their doors to us for what is sure to be an exciting training camp this summer."

Added Bears president and CEO Kevin Warren: Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Chicago Bears will provide our passionate fans across the world the ability to experience this unique and critical time in the history of our franchise."

Also: New HBO ‘Hard Knocks’ Series Will Follow N.Y. Giants Offseason Moves

Since its debut in 2001, Hard Knocks has documented training camps of the Baltimore Ravens (2001), Dallas Cowboys (2002, 2008, 2021), Kansas City Chiefs (2007), Cincinnati Bengals (2009, 2013), New York Jets (2010, 2023), Miami Dolphins (2012), Atlanta Falcons (2014), Houston Texans (2015), Los Angeles Rams (2016, 2020), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2017), Cleveland Browns (2018), Oakland Raiders (2019), Los Angeles Chargers (2020), and the Detroit Lions (2022).

Controlling 93 of the top 100 most watched U.S. TV programming events last year, the National Football League can command an audience of 12 million ESPN viewers just by convening a room full of college-age jocks in suits, sitting around with their families and girlfriends, nervously waiting for their name to be called, as last month’s NFL draft once again revealed. 

So when the most influential content source in all of technology, media and telecom announces the primetime games schedules for three media partners collectively paying it around $4.65 billion a season ... well, it kind of matters. 

Also read: Amazon Touts Vastly Improved 2024 'Thursday Night Football' Schedule Full of Divisional Rivalries, Fewer Turkeys

Below are the 2024 regular season game schedules for ABC/ESPN's Monday Night Football, NBC's Sunday Night Football and Amazon Prime Video's Thursday Night Football. Next TV, which is hopeful that its Seahawks can turn things around in 2024 after sunsetting venerable head coach Pete Carroll, added some notes on how we think each package shapes up as a TV viewing choice. 

Monday Night Football

Disney is paying the NFL an average of $2.7 billion a season for the rights to show the venerable Monday Night Football package on ESPN and ABC. 

It's not only the prestigious and priciest (by far) of the NFL's three primetime TV packages, it also has the most games (23), with five Monday night doubleheaders split across ESPN cable and ABC broadcast. 

Monday Night Football averaged 17.4 million viewers in 2023, up 30% from 2022. 

Our take on the 2024 MNF schedule: The opening night showdown between New York Jets and Aaron Rodgers, playing his first game in a year following achilles tendon surgery, and the Super Bowl runner-up San Francisco 49ers could draw 20 million or more viewers. 

Disney gets the old-world “America's Team,”  the Dallas Cowboys, twice. Like a lot of football fans, we don’t think the Cowboys have actually been relevant since Troy Aikman wore a helmet. But they remain the league’s biggest regular season TV draw. And our analysis here is based on audience potential.

MNF features the “new” America’s team, the Detroit Lions, two times, as well — including in a late season rematch of the 2023 NFC title game against the San Francisco 49ers. The Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs are on a couple of times, too, hosting the NFC South Division Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers in week 9.

But we don't see a single division rivalry game on the schedule until week 15, when the Chicago Bears and No. 1 draft pick Caleb Williams visit the Minnesota Vikings ... in a matchup that may not have playoff implications, with both teams breaking in new quarterbacks. 

Certainly, a lot of things will be learned about the teams from now and Sept. 9, when MNF hosts its first game. But based on what we know right now, there's just not enough on the schedule to get $2.7 billion dollars’ worth of excited about. 

Week 1 (Sept. 9, 2024): New York Jets at San Francisco 49ers (simulcast on ABC)
Week 2 (Sept. 16): Atlanta Falcons at Philadelphia Eagles
Week 3 (Sept. 23): Jacksonville Jaguars at Buffalo Bills (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN)
Washington Commanders at Cincinnati Bengals (8:15 p.m. ET, ABC)
Week 4 (Sept. 30): Tennessee Titans at Miami Dolphins (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN)
Seattle Seahawks at Detroit Lions (8:15 p.m. ET, ABC)
Week 5 (Oct. 7): New Orleans Saints at Kansas City Chiefs
Week 6 (Oct. 14): Buffalo Bills at New York Jets
Week 7 (Oct. 21): Baltimore Ravens at Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Los Angeles Chargers at Arizona Cardinals (9 p.m. ET, ESPN+)
Week 8 (Oct. 28): New York Giants at Pittsburgh Steelers
Week 9 (Nov. 4): Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Kansas City Chiefs
Week 10 (Nov. 11): Miami Dolphins at Los Angeles Rams
Week 11 (Nov. 18): Houston Texans at Dallas Cowboys
Week 12 (Nov. 25): Baltimore Ravens at Los Angeles Chargers
Week 13 (Dec. 2): Cleveland Browns at Denver Broncos
Week 14: (Dec. 9): Cincinnati Bengals at Dallas Cowboys
Week 15 (Dec. 16): Chicago Bears at Minnesota Vikings (8 p.m. ET, ABC)
Atlanta Falcons at Las Vegas Raiders (8:30 p.m. ET, ESPN)
Week 16 (Dec. 23): New Orleans Saints at Green Bay Packers
Week 17 (Dec. 30): Detroit Lions at San Francisco 49ers
Week 18 (Saturday, Jan. 4): Doubleheader TBA

Sunday Night Football

Comcast’s NBCUniversal unit is paying the league $950 million this season for a package of 18 regular season games. NBC is coming off a 2023 campaign that averaged 21.4 million viewers, up about 8% vs. 2022. 

Our take on the 2024 MNF schedule: NBC will feature the Cowboys three times, including in two history-laden matchups with the Pittsburgh Steelers and 49ers. The Chiefs and Lions will be on SNF twice, as well.

There aren’t many divisional rivalry games, but there are plenty of contests that feel like early conference playoff matchups, including the Los Angeles Rams playing the Lions in the Sept. 8 opener, the Buffalo Bills visiting the Baltimore Ravens on Sept. 29, and the L.A. Chargers at the Chiefs on Dec. 8. 

There also aren’t a ton of appearances from teams that didn't make the playoffs last year. And those that did make the cut are in interesting matchups, including the Seattle Seahawks (9-8 last year and barely missing the postseason) hosting the resurgent Green Bay Packers on Dec. 15. 

This seems to be a strong schedule for the licensing money NBCU is paying the NFL. 

Week 1 (Sept. 8, 2024): Los Angeles Rams at Detroit Lions
Week 2 (Sept. 15): Chicago Bears at Houston Texans
Week 3 (Sept. 22): Kansas City Chiefs at Atlanta Falcons
Week 4 (Sept. 29): Buffalo Bills at Baltimore Ravens
Week 5 (Oct. 6): Dallas Cowboys at Pittsburgh Steelers
Week 6 (Oct. 13): Cincinnati Bengals at New York Giants
Week 7 (Oct. 20): New York Jets at Pittsburgh Steelers
Week 8 (Oct. 27): Dallas Cowboys at San Francisco 49ers
Week 9 (Nov. 3): Jacksonville Jaguars at Philadelphia Eagles
Week 10 (Nov. 10): Detroit Lions at Houston Texans
Week 11 (Nov. 17): Indianapolis Colts at New York Jets
Week 12 (Nov. 24): Philadelphia Eagles at Los Angeles Rams
Week 13 (Dec. 1): San Francisco 49ers at Buffalo Bills
Week 14 (Dec. 8): Los Angeles Chargers at Kansas City Chiefs
Week 15 (Dec. 15): Green Bay Packers at Seattle Seahawks
Week 16 (Dec. 22): Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Dallas Cowboys
Week 17 (Dec. 29): Miami Dolphins at Cleveland Browns
Week 18: TBD

Thursday Night Football

Amazon is paying the NFL an average of $1 billion a season (also through 2033, like all NFL TV deals) for TNF. In the package’s inaugural campaign on Amazon Prime Video in 2022, it was a meme as to how many turkey games were featured matching teams with no postseason relevance. 

Things got better last season, with viewership increasing 24% year over year to 11.86 million streaming fans, on average. And this year, we think Amazon really scored, with 12 of its 16 games featuring divisional rivalry matchups. 

In fact, we think this is the most intriguing of the three primetime NFL game slates. 

Week 1 (preseason, Aug. 22): Indianapolis Colts at Cincinnati Bengals
Week 2 (Sept. 12): Buffalo Bills at Miami Dolphins
Week 3 (Sept. 19): New England Patriots at New York Jets
Week 4 (Sept. 26): Dallas Cowboys at New York Giants
Week 5 (Oct. 3): Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Atlanta Falcons
Week 6 (Oct. 10): San Francisco 49ers at Seattle Seahawks
Week 7 (Oct. 17): Denver Broncos at New Orleans Saints
Week 8 (Oct. 24): Minnesota Vikings at Los Angeles Rams
Week 9 (Oct. 31): Houston Texans at New York Jets
Week 10 (Nov. 7): Cincinnati Bengals at Baltimore Ravens
Week 11 (Nov. 14): Washington Commanders at Philadelphia Eagles
Week 12 (Nov. 21): Pittsburgh Steelers at Cleveland Browns
Week 13 (Black Friday, Nov. 29): Las Vegas Raiders at Kansas City Chiefs
Week 14 (Dec. 5): Green Bay Packers at Detroit Lions
Week 15 (Dec. 12): Los Angeles Rams at San Francisco 49ers
Week 16 (Dec. 19): Cleveland Browns at Cincinnati Bengals
Week 17 (Dec. 26): Seattle Seahawks at Chicago Bears

HBO will extend its Hard Knocks NFL documentary franchise into the offseason with the July 2 debut of Hard Knocks: Offseason with the New York Giants, the network said Wednesday at the Warner Bros. Discovery upfront presentation.

The series will follow the Giants organization as it prepares for its 100th season, HBO said. It will follow the team’s front-office moves from January to July, from the NFL Scouting Combine through free agency, the NFL draft and team minicamps.

Hard Knocks: Offseason joins Hard Knocks shows that follow NFL teams in preseason training camps and as well as during the season. “We are beyond thrilled that the New York Giants have opened their doors to the Hard Knocks cameras for the first time ever,” HBO Documentaries executive VP Nancy Abraham and Lisa Heller, and HBO Sports Documentaries VP Bentley Weiner said in a statement. “The NFL offseason is a fascinating period that we've always wanted to explore and we can't wait to show football fans everywhere what NFL Films has been capturing behind the scenes at the team's headquarters.”

In other Warner Bros. Discovery sports news announced at the upfront, TNT Sports said it will launch its new NASCAR package on June 28, 2025, with the Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart racing event. 

The announcement follows the creation of a new NASCAR In-Season Tournament that will run during TNT’s five summer races. The winner will receive a $1 million purse, said the network. 

Netflix has officially announced a three-year deal with the National Football League that will put live games on the streaming service for the first time, starting with two Christmas Day showdowns. 

Netflix has also secured “at least one holiday game’ in 2025 and 2026, according to the official announcement. 

This Christmas, Netflix will show the defending Super Bowl champions Kansas City Chiefs in an AFC showdown with the Pittsburgh Steelers, as well as the Baltimore Ravens playing the Houston Texans in another AFC matchup. 

The parties didn't, of course, reveal any specific on what kind of rights fees Netflix is paying. According to the The Wall Street Journal, Netflix is paying $75 million per game for the TV rights. Bloomberg, meanwhile, described the rights fee as under $150 million per contest. 

"I would characterize each game as roughly the size of one of our medium-sized original films,” said Spencer Wang, executive VP of finance, investor relations and corporate development, during a Wednesday morning interview at MoffettNathanson’s annual media conference.

It's also not clear as to how these games will be produced for live-streamed television and what on-air talent will call them. 

The agreement gives the NFL partnerships with the three biggest streaming companies, with the league already licensing its NFL Sunday Ticket property to Google/YouTube, as well as Thursday Night Football to Amazon. 

Also read: NFL Christmas Day Games on Netflix? It Looks Like It’s Happening

For its part, Netflix has already created several documentary-style programming franchises around the NFL: series Quarterback and Receiver. Last week, it drew its biggest ratings with the comedy roast of NFL future hall of fame quarterback Tom Brady. 

“Last year, we decided to take a big bet on live — tapping into massive fandoms across comedy, reality TV, sports and more,” said Bela Bajaria, Netflix chief content officer, in a statement. “There are no live annual events, sports or otherwise, that compare with the audiences NFL football attracts. We're so excited that the NFL's Christmas Day games will be only on Netflix.”

Added Hans Schroeder, NFL executive VP of media distribution: “The NFL on Christmas has become a tradition and to partner with Netflix, a service whose biggest day of the year is typically this holiday, is the perfect combination to grow this event globally for NFL fans.”

Puck News' serial sports-media scoop getter John Ourand reported that a "bevy of sources" has confirmed that Netflix is close to a deal with the NFL to stream multiple Christmas Day games on its platform. 

The story was first reported Wednesday by former NFL quarterback turned CBS Sports Network radio broadcaster Boomer Esiason, who suggested the reason the NFL pushed back its 2024 schedule announcement to May 15 was to accommodate the Netflix news. 

"Do not be surprised if the NFL and Netflix get in bed," Esiason said, "for nice little Christmas Day football games. I would not be surprised."

Neither the league or the streaming giant have confirmed this report. And it's unclear as to whether Netflix is negotiating for an exclusive window.. 

Notably, Netflix, which has nearly 270 million subscribers globally was able to generate around 6.2 million hours of viewing and 2 million account views on its global platform Sunday for the premiere of the The Roast of Tom Brady, which featured more than few retired NFL legends. 

The NFL, meanwhile, charged NBCUniversal $110 million to break off one post-season Wild Card game for a Peacock streaming exclusive back in January. 

The NFL is currently spreading its TV rights up between Fox, Paramount Global, NBCU, Amazon and Google.

It's not clear as to how Netflix would ramp up the infrastructure for a couple of one-off game presentations ... presuming that such a deal would be "one-off."

After the successful debut of sports documentary series Quarterback last July, Netflix has once again targeted the trio of Peyton Manning's Omaha Productions, NFL Films and Patrick Mahomes’s 2PM Productions for a new series focused on NFL wide receivers. 

As it turns out, the production companies followed five lauded pass catchers throughout the 2023 NFL season — Davante Adams, Justin Jefferson, George Kittle, Deebo Samuel and Amon-Ra St. Brown — for a new eight-part docuseries that will debut this coming summer. 

“The natural progression is from a pass to a catch, so we’re excited to dive into the Receiver world after the success of our Quarterback series,” said Gabe Spitzer, VP of nonfiction sports for Netflix. “NFL Films, Omaha Productions and 2PM Productions have delivered again in finding unique and dynamic athletes who will further highlight the drama of this sport on and off the field.” 

Quarterback followed NFL signal-callers Mahomes, Kirk Cousins and Marcus Mariota through the rigorous (and often painful) ups and downs of the 2022 NFL season, documenting their personal and family lives along with their training and practice grinds. 

On the audience scale of documentaries focused on American sports figures, Quarterback performed well, debuting to 21.4 million viewing hours and 3.3 million account views, with most of the viewing occurring in the U.S. and Canada, where Quarterback was a top 10 show on Netflix for three consecutive weeks. 

For Receiver, the same executive producer team is back: Manning and Jamie Horowitz for Omaha Productions; Ross Ketover, Pat Kelleher and Keith Cossrow for NFL Films; and Mahomes and Jacquelyn Dahl from 2PM Productions. 

Netflix's stable of sports docus now includes: Formula 1: Drive To Survive, Full Swing, NASCAR: Full Speed, Untold, Tour de France: Unchained, Under Pressure: The U.S. Women’s World Cup Team and Six Nations: Full Contact, among other nonfiction shows.

“We are excited to be working again with Netflix and NFL Films to give fans unprecedented access to what it’s like to play receiver at the highest level,” Manning said in a statement. “As we did with Quarterback, we look forward to telling the stories of five incredible receivers, each with their unique personality, skill set and motivation for what drives them to be the best.” 

Viewership of the Super Bowl keeps climbing, but the 49ers still can’t get an extra point.

The NFL said a league-commissioned custom survey by Nielsen determined that the Super Bowl on February 11 reached 210 million viewers across broadcast, streaming and digital properties. 

The 210 million is up 6% from the result of a similar study a year ago. It is also up 4% from the 202 million unique viewers Nielsen’s syndicated ratings service came up with. It's also an eye-popping two-thirds of the country.

The custom survey also determined that the average minute audience was about 143 million viewers, up from the 123.7 million reported by Nielsen on February 13 and 123.4 million reported by CBS on February 12. Nielsen rival iSpot calculated on February 12 that 126,6 million were watching.

“The Super Bowl is singular across the television and media landscape not only in its unparalleled viewership, but because it is largely watched in group settings," said Paul Ballew, chief data and analytics officer of the NFL. “With that in mind, additional measurement is needed in order to have a complete picture of the total viewership of this special event and the results of this custom survey with Nielsen illustrate the true magnitude of the Super Bowl."

Part of the custom survey involved looking at 5,267 households to determine the size of viewing groups and to determine if those groups are larger than Nielsen’s estimate. The survey was conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago.

Changes in the way out-of-home viewing is measured and added to total viewership have pushed the ratings of sports higher. For the Super Bowl, a lot of people seem to be watching in other people's homes.

“Nielsen understands the nuance of the Super Bowl, which historically has drawn the largest television audience of the year and includes unparalleled viewership from large groups of people, both in and out of homes," said Deirdre Thomas, chief product officer at Nielsen. “We are proud that the NFL partners with Nielsen to provide the best possible measurement of their programming, for the Super Bowl and throughout the season. Additionally, we're excited about the expansion of our National Out-Of-Home panel, which we announced earlier this month, because it will enhance our ability to provide the most complete picture of the audience, especially for major events like the Super Bowl.”

In the Super Bowl, the Kansas City Chiefs won in overtime after a blocked extra point enabled the Chiefs to tie the game in the fourth quarter.

Top NFL executives, including commissioner Roger Goodell and chief business officer Brian Rolapp, are reportedly furious about only finding out at the last minute about the new sports streaming joint venture being launched by The Walt Disney Co., Fox Corp. and Warner Bros. Discovery.

How mad are they? According to sports business news guru John Ourand, now with Puck, they had their lawyers look at the league's TV contracts with ESPN and Fox to see if there was any way they could stop the JV. (They haven't found any useful legal language yet that would let them do that.)

ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro is said to have briefed Goodell and Rolapp only hours before the new virtual MVPD service was announced to the public last week. The NFL executives are described by Ourand as feeling “blindsided” and “left in the dark.” 

Also read: Why ‘Re-Bundling Has To Happen’: Breaking Down the New ESPN, TNT Sports and Fox Sports Streaming JV

Disney, Fox and WBD on February 6 announced a plan to bundle their linear sports channels in a live-streamed service, with key details including price point and launch date still pending. 

The National Football League is being paid $110 billion through 2033 to license TV rights to live game action to Disney, Fox, NBCUniversal, Paramount Global and Amazon, among other media and tech companies.

However, the pro football league, which controls a huge portion of overall audience share, has transcended the status of mere programming partner. It was recently reported that the NFL has been discussing the purchase of an equity stake in ESPN, for example. 

NFL football continued to dominate TV viewing during the league’s divisional playoffs on Saturday and Sunday.

According to Inscape, the data unit of smart TV maker Vizio, the playoff games captured a 33.62% share of viewership during the weekend.

That’s an increase from last season, when the divisional playoff games generated a 27.48% share of viewing.

The NFL said that its divisional playoff games averaged 40 million viewers on traditional TV and digital — the highest number on record going back to 1988.

The Sunday Kansas City Chiefs-Buffalo Bills primetime game on CBS (with Taylor Swift in the building) averaged 50.4 million viewers, the most watched divisional or wild card game on record.

Saturday’s Green Bay Packers-San Francisco 49ers game averaged 37.5 million viewers, making it the most watched Saturday NFL playoff game.

The average over the four games on Saturday and Sunday was up 7% compared to a year ago and up 5% from the 2021-22 season, when the previous high was registered, according to Nielsen and first party.digital data.

Inscape said college basketball games grabbed the second-biggest share of viewing with 2.06%.

Postseason NFL Countdown on ESPN was the No.3 show over the weekend with a 1.62% share.

The big NFL weekend also gave ESPN’s SportsCenter a boost. SportsCenter over Saturday and Sunday had a 1.35% share, and jumped up to be the No. 4 show. The previous weekend, SportsCenter ranked No. 12 with a 0.67% share, according to Inscape.

Comcast said its exclusive presentation Saturday on subscription streaming service Peacock of the NFL Wild Card matchup featuring the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs beating the fleet-footed Miami Dolphins drew the biggest live-streaming audience in U.S. history.

Citing Nielsen data, Comcast said the game averaged 23 million viewers, reaching a total of 28 million watchers. The game drew a 6% bigger audience than last year's primetime AFC Wild Card contest, which had a "total average delivery" of 21.8 million viewers across NBC, Peacock, NBC Sports Digital and NFL Digital.

Comcast, the top U.S. ISP, also said the internet itself on Saturday experienced a high-water usage mark for a single day, with the game consuming 30% of the massive traffic. 

Comcast reported more than 30 million paid Peacock subscribers as of the end of September. Notably, however, the company didn't disclose how many new Peacock signups it netted Saturday. 

Comcast's NBCUniversal division paid the NFL $110 million to put the NFL playoff game exclusively on Peacock. And the media company drew notable blowback from pundits and fans, displeased that the widely anticipated game wasn't available on either free over-the-air broadcast or linear pay TV.

But Comcast, NBCU and Peacock ended up big winners, attracting record attention -- and usage -- for a SVOD platform that had, until recently, been only a bit player in the Streaming Wars. 

“From NBC Sports and Peacock to the Comcast team, our entire company worked seamlessly to plan for this game and executed flawlessly to deliver a streaming experience with the NFL on a scale that’s never been done before. It’s a very proud moment,” said Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts, in a statement.

Added NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell: “We couldn’t be prouder of our partnership with Peacock and are thrilled with the results of the first-ever exclusively live streamed NFL playoff game. To best serve our fans, we need to ensure games are available to them as their viewing habits change and this includes digital distribution as we continue to help shape the future of the sports and entertainment industry.”

The NFL is advanced talks with The Walt Disney Co. to buy an equity stake in ESPN, the New York Post reports. 

Citing unnamed sources, the paper’s Andrew Marchand writes that under an arrangement being considered by the league and the cable sports giant's parent company, ESPN would also take over operational control of NFL Media, which includes the NFL Network and NFL Red Zone.

Marchand said that while an NFL-ESPN alliance has been pitched before, this is the first time it's advanced to the point at which National Football League owners and the league Players Association have been informed about it. 

The NFL's collective bargaining agreement would require both owners and players to be involved in the deal.

Neither the league nor ESPN have commented yet. 

As several national sports media pubs reported last week, the NFL controlled all 10 of the most-watched programming events on television last year, and 93 of the top 100. 

So it makes sense that the league might look to cut out the middleman and reach its audience more directly.

ESPN and Disney, meanwhile, are grappling with an eroding pay TV ecosystem. The media company has plans to launch a direct-to-consumer version of ESPN next year. 

The Dynasty: New England Patriots debuts on Apple TV Plus February 16. From Imagine Documentaries and Matthew Hamachek, there are 10 episodes. The series is based on the 2020 book by Jeff Benedict.

Apple TV Plus said the project showcases “the rise of the most dominant sports dynasty of the 21st century.” It features interviews with former quarterback Tom Brady, coach Bill Belichick and owner Robert Kraft, along with a variety of other past Patriots, including Adam Vinatieri, Drew Bledsoe and Rob Gronkowski. 

Brady was with the Patriots from 2000 to 2019, then played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2020 to 2022. 

The Patriots are a grim 4-13 this season. Belichick was still the Patriots coach at deadline. 

Others sharing their thoughts on the Pats in the docuseries include Jon Bon Jovi, Rupert Murdoch and Roger Goodell. 

The Dynasty looks at the team’s 20-year “journey” to dynasty status, which includes a half dozen Super Bowls. 

Apple TV Plus shared a trailer. 

Produced by Imagine Documentaries, The Dynasty is executive produced by Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Sara Bernstein, Justin Wilkes, Benedict and Hamachek. Hamachek directs. 

Hamachek directed the 2020 Tiger Woods documentary Tiger. 

Coming off a year in which seven of the top 10 most watched shows were NFL postseason games, and the other three were NFL regular-season holiday matchups, you'd think the TV/video business would prioritize unfettered access to the veritable high holy event that is pro football's Wild Card Weekend. 

But some football fans will run up against solid blocking starting Saturday. 

In Cleveland, fans have rejoiced as former Super Bowl-winning quarterback Joe Flacco, who turns 38 next week, has come off the practice squad to lead the injury-riddled Browns into a Wild Card match-up against the Houston Texans Saturday. 

But if they get their channels via DirecTV, these Cleveland viewers are going to have to scramble (or audible, depending on your choice of dumb pun) in order to see the 4:30 p.m. ET game, with local NBC affiliate WKYC off DirecTV's grid because of a retrans dispute with station group Tegna. 

While Cleveland is the most specifically impacted market, the Tegna dispute will have plenty of collateral damage for fans in distant markets. For example, DirecTV-subscribing Dallas Cowboys faithful in the Texas enclaves of San Antonio, San Angelo and Abilene currently have their Fox affiliates blacked out on DirecTV, which will affect viewership of Saturday’s game against Green Bay. 

A DirecTV rep told us Tuesday there was no news to share about the blackout, which has been going on since late November. 

Meanwhile, subscription streaming platform Peacock, which holds a walled garden of around 30 million paid subscribers, as of NBCUniversal's end-of-September count, is about to present Saturday night’s Miami-Kansas City AFC matchup exclusively, with no simultaneous NBC network broadcast outside of the participating teams’ respective home TV markets. 

The NFL is collecting an additional $110 million from NBCU to give its SVOD the exclusive window. But not all NFL and fans are happy about the game being confined to the streaming service, which starts at $5.99 a month.

Accumulating an average live TV audience of 28.5 million viewers across NBC and Peacock in November, the 99th Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade ranked as the 23rd most watched TV show in the U.S. in 2023, according to Sports Business Journal, citing Nielsen data.

That was the only TV event ranked in the top 25 last year. The rest of the list was all NFL games, starting with the Super Bowl (114.3 million viewers, according to Nielsen). Seven of the top 10 highest rated shows were National Football League postseason games, per SBJ:

1. Super Bowl LVII: Chiefs-Eagles (114.3M)
2. AFC championship: Chiefs-Bengals (53.12M)
3. NFC championship: Eagles-49ers (47.5M)
4. NFC divisional: 49ers-Cowboys (45.65M)
5. NFL on Thanksgiving: Commanders-Cowboys (41.76M):
6. AFC divisional: Bengals-Bills (39.32M)
7. AFC divisional: Chiefs-Jaguars (34.3M)
8. NFL on Thanksgiving: Packers-Lions (33.7M)
9. NFC wild card: Giants-Vikings (33.21M)
10. NFL on Christmas Eve: Cowboys-Dolphins (31.52M)

Of the top 100 most watched shows last year, 92 of them were live NFL games. That usurped the previous all-time benchmark set in 2022, when 82 of the top 100 were NFL contests.

As Penske pub Sportico notes, the NFL continues to "swallow TV whole" more and more, occupying 75 of the top 100 slots in 2021 and 72 of them in 2020. 

President Joe Biden's State of the Union speech back on Feb. 7 ranked at No. 37. And the Academy Awards came in at No. 63, according to SBJ.

Those were the only two other non-pigskin events to rank in the top 100, with the other three events being college football games. 

Over the next decade, the NFL is guaranteed to receive $125.5 billion in TV rights money, a figure that could grow much higher if certain audience performance thresholds are met. (Forbes outlines that potential here.)

Somehow, that doesn't seem like enough money. 

The Paley Museum debuts the Super Bowl exhibit Beyond the Big Game Wednesday, January 17. It runs through March 3 at the museum in New York, and represents a partnership with the NFL and Pro Football Hall of Fame. 

The football fun starts January 17 with Kicking Off Super Bowl LVIII on CBS With The NFL Today, a behind-the-scenes look at CBS Sports’ upcoming broadcast of Super Bowl LVIII. That will feature CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus and on-air personalities Phil Simms, Bill Cowher, Boomer Esiason and Nate Burleson, with Tracy Wolfson, lead reporter for NFL on CBS, moderating. 

Beyond the Big Game will showcase memorable Super Bowl commercials from the past 50 years, including Mean Joe Greene and a young fan bonding over a Coca-Cola; Ridley Scott’s “1984” spot for Apple, Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny teaming up on Nike’s “Hare Jordan” commercial and Bud Bowl I from 1989, which saw stop-motion Budweiser bottles face off against their counterparts from Bud Light. 

The exhibit will feature the Vince Lombardi Trophy and all 57 team rings from each Super Bowl champ, as well as The Weeknd’s halftime show set from Super Bowl LV. There will also be rare artifacts on loan from the Pro Football Hall of Fame, including game balls and jerseys.

“For over 50 years the Super Bowl has served as one of the biggest and most exciting global celebrations and visitors to Beyond the Big Game will be treated to a thrilling Super Bowl showcase, featuring everything from iconic commercials to some of the game’s most memorable moments,” Maureen J. Reidy, president and CEO of the Paley Center for Media, said. “We’re honored to partner with the National Football League and the Pro Football Hall of Fame to present this unprecedented exhibit.”

Super Bowl LVIII happens Sunday, February 11 on CBS. 

The exhibit will also feature over 150 photos of iconic Super Bowl moments, screenings of memorable Super Bowl plays, halftime shows and championship games won by the New York Giants and Jets.

Football action, led by the College Football Playoff, dominates the schedule of live sports events on TV over the New Year’s holiday weekend.

ESPN on New Year’s Day will air the College Football Playoff semifinal games, including top-ranked Michigan facing No. 4 Alabama in the Rose Bowl and second-ranked Washington battling No. 3 Texas in the Sugar Bowl. Also on January 1, ESPN will televise the Fiesta Bowl between No. 23 Liberty and No. 8 Oregon. 

On Saturday, ESPN will televise the Cotton Bowl (No. 9 Missouri-No. 7 Ohio State), the Peach Bowl (No. 11 Ole Miss-No. 10 Penn State), and the Orange Bowl (No. 6 Georgia-No. 5 Florida State). 

Week 17 of the NFL schedule will feature a Saturday ABC and ESPN simulcast of the Dallas Cowboys-Detroit Lions game. On Sunday afternoon, CBS and Fox will televise regional NFL game coverage, while NBC’s Sunday Night Football matchup will feature the Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings. 

On the basketball court, top-ranked college basketball schools in action on Saturday include second-ranked Kansas against Wichita State on ESPN2 and third-ranked Houston against Pennsylvania on ESPN Plus. On Sunday, fourth-ranked Arizona faces Stanford. On the women’s side, Saturday’s schedule features top-ranked South Carolina meeting East Carolina on ESPN2, second-ranked UCLA playing sixth-ranked USC on the Pac12 Network, fourth-ranked Iowa meeting Minnesota on BTN, and fifth-ranked Texas battling No.10 Baylor on Fox. On Sunday, third-ranked NC State faces Virginia on ACCN. 

On the soccer field, USA Network, Peacock and NBC will combine to feature nine live Premier League games over the three-day holiday weekend.

A Christmas Day lineup of NBA and NFL games highlights a holiday weekend schedule of live TV sports events.  

Christmas Day will feature three NFL games, beginning with CBS and Nickelodeon’s simulcast of the Las Vegas Raiders-Kansas City Chiefs game, followed by Fox’s coverage of the New York Giants-Philadelphia Eagles contest and ABC’s primetime telecast of the Baltimore Ravens-San Francisco 49ers game.

On the basketball court, the NBA has five games scheduled for December 25, including Milwaukee-New York Knicks (ESPN), Golden State-Denver (ABC), Boston-Los Angeles Lakers (ABC), Philadelphia 76’ers-Miami Heat (ESPN), and Dallas-Phoenix (ESPN).

The NFL also has a doubleheader matchup on Saturday featuring the Cincinnati-Pittsburgh (NBC) and Buffalo-Los Angeles Chargers (Peacock) games. On Sunday, Fox and CBS will air regional NFL coverage, while NFL Network will air a primetime AFC conference matchup between the New England Patriots and Denver Broncos. 

College football continues its bowl season Saturday with seven games across ABC and ESPN, while NBC, Peacock, and USA Network will feature six Premier League soccer games. 

Also on Saturday, DAZN will distribute a pay-per-view boxing card featuring former heavyweight champions Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder in separate bouts. The afternoon fight card will retail at $39.99.

The NFL and NBCUniversal said the fourth quarter of Saturday’s Buffalo Bills-Los Angeles Chargers game streaming exclusively on Peacock will be commercial-free — a first for an NFL game.

The reduced ad load in the December 23 game — NBCU said it’s 40% lower than normal — is being made possible by presenting sponsors Capital One, Hyundai and Walmart.

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, there will be an acknowledgement that there will be no more commercials thanks to the three sponsors.

“We are proud to work with our partners at the NFL to present this first-of-its kind experience,” NBC Sports president Rick Cordella said. “NBC Sports’s best-in-class NFL production, Peacock’s fan-friendly viewer experience and this innovative advertising model will allow NFL fans an exciting new way to watch the game’s conclusion.”

Instead of commercials, the broadcast will feature content takeovers and game features that integrate relevant Football Night in America studio updates and analysis, brought to viewers by the sponsors.

A Walmart ad during the game produced by NBCU’s Creative Partnerships team will feature NBC Sports analysts Chris Simms and Devin McCourty relying on Walmart for last-minute gifts.

The game will also feature NBCU’s first shoppable moment during an NFL telecast, presented by Walmart. The moment will feature a QR code that takes viewers to Walmart’s holiday hub.

“The power of live sports is more prevalent than ever, and at NBCUniversal, we not only have the scale of our broadcast platform, but we now can reach an entirely new audience through Peacock,” Mark Marshall, chairman, global advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal, said. “With this one-of-a-kind sponsorship environment attached to our first-ever exclusive Peacock NFL game, we are able to connect an untapped set of consumers to our marketers, and we couldn’t be more grateful to our partners at the NFL for trusting us to creatively launch this groundbreaking format."

Viewership numbers for live football games continue to increase as the regular season winds down.

Fox’s December 3 late afternoon NFL window, mostly featuring the Philadelphia Eagles-San Francisco 49’ers game, led all live events for the week of November 27-December 3 with 27.9 million viewers, the fifth-largest audience of the NFL season,  according to Nielsen numbers published by SportsMedia Watch. NBC’s Sunday Night Football telecast featuring the Green Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs finished second for the week, averaging 23.56 million viewers.

CBS' Georgia Bulldogs-Alabama Crimson Tide SEC Championship game generated 17.51 million viewers – the second biggest audience for a college football game this year behind the November 25 Ohio State-Michigan game. Prime Video’s November 30 Thursday Night Football game between the Dallas Cowboys and Seattle Seahawks drew a record 15.25 million viewers for the streaming service.

TNT’s in-season tournament game between the Golden State Warriors and the Sacramento Kings was the most-watched non-football game this week, averaging 2 million viewers. The game was the most watched of the inaugural tournament, which averaged 1.35 million viewers across ESPN, TNT, and NBA TV, according to SportsMedia Watch.

The lineup of live sports events scheduled for the first weekend of December begins on the college football field with several conference championship games that will help determine the College Football Playoff lineup. 

Top-ranked Georgia will face No. 8 Alabama in the SEC Championship game on CBS, with second-ranked Michigan battling Iowa for the Big Ten title on Fox and fourth-ranked Florida State hosting Louisville in the ACC championship on ABC. Other games include No. 7 Texas battling Oklahoma State in the Big 12 Championship game on ABC. 

On Sunday, ESPN will air the College Football Playoff selection show, which will finalize the postseason matchups.

In Sunday NFL action, CBS and Fox will air regional games throughout the afternoon, followed by NBC’s Sunday Night Football game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Green Bay Packers. 

On the golf links, NBC and Golf Channel will provide weekend coverage of the PGA Hero World Challenge, while on the soccer field the USA women’s soccer team plays China in an international friendly matchup Sunday on TNT. 

In the octagon, ESPN will stream a UFC Fight Night card headlined by the Beneil Dariush-Arman Tsarukyan bout. In the squared ring, the Ryan Garcia-Oscar Duarte junior welterweight bout headlines a DAZN primetime boxing card.  

Viewers feasted on live sports programming during the Thanksgiving week, with pro and college football games generating huge viewership numbers.

NFL football games led the ratings onslaught, generating the three most-watched games of the year led by CBS's Thanksgiving day Washington Commanders-Dallas Cowboys game, which drew 41.76 million viewers, according to Nielsen ratings published by SportsMedia Watch. The telecast was the second most-watched NFL regular-season game on record behind only last Thanksgiving’s Giants-Cowboys game, which drew 42 million viewers.

Fox's November 23 Green Bay Packers-Detroit Lions game drew 33 million viewers, while NBC’s San Francisco 49’ers-Seattle Seahawks Thanksgiving evening game drew 24.78 million viewers.

CBS’s November 26 late Sunday afternoon NFL window – mostly featuring the Buffalo Bills-Philadelphia Eagles matchup -- drew 30.90 million viewers for fourth place on the chart. Also, the November 20 Philadelphia Eagles-Kansas City Chiefs Monday Night Football telecast averaged more than 29 million combined viewers across ESPN, ABC, ESPN2, ESPN Plus, and ESPN Deportes – the biggest Monday Night Football audience for the Walt Disney Company since 1996, according to ESPN. 

On the college football front, Fox’s November 25 Ohio State-Michigan game drew a season-high 19 million viewers and finished as the most-watched regular season college football game in 12 years. 

The biggest non-football audience was Fox’s Thanksgiving day college basketball game between Michigan State and Arizona, which drew 5.18 million viewers, the largest regular-season college football audience in 15 years, according to SportsMedia Watch. 

Fox’s November 5 slate of late-afternoon NFL telecasts set a new high mark for football telecasts this fall as the league continues to deliver big viewership numbers.

Fox's late Sunday NFL window, mostly featuring the Dallas Cowboys-Philadelphia Eagles game, averaged 27.13 million viewers, the most watched television event since Fox’s February Super Bowl LVII telecast, according to Nielsen TV numbers published by SportsMedia Watch. 

Also on Sunday, NBC’s Buffalo Bills-Cincinnati Bengals Sunday Night Football telecast came in second with 18.36 million viewers, followed by CBS’s early NFL window (14.53 million) and Fox’s early NFL window (11.45 million). 

CBS secured the top two most-watched college football games for the week, led by its November 4 LSU-Alabama telecast with 8.82 million, followed by the Missouri-Georgia game with 6.99 million. 

Three of Fox’s Arizona Diamondbacks-Texas Rangers World Series telecasts topped the list of non-football games for the week, led by the Game 5 series-clinching game won by the Rangers. Overall, the World Series finished as the least-watched Fall Classic ever, averaging 9.1 million viewers. 

The first weekend of November’s list of live TV sports events starts on the race track with the finals of the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship race, featuring drivers Sam Mayer, Justin Allgaier, John Hunter Nemecheck and Cole Custer, will air live Saturday night on USA Network. On Sunday, NBC gears up for the NASCAR Cup Series Championship, pitting Christopher Bell, Ryan Blaney, William Bryon, and Kyle Larson in the final race of the season.

On the college football field, the first week of the season’s college football playoff rankings has Ohio State in the top slot going into their Saturday game with Rutgers on CBS. No. 2Georgia faces Missouri on CBS, while third-ranked Michigan battles Purdue on NBC. Fourth-ranked Florida State plays Pittsburgh on ESPN, and No. 5 Washington takes on USC on ABC.

The rest of the top 10-ranked teams in action include No. 6 Oregon-California (Pac-12), No. 7 Texas-Kansas State (Fox), No. 9 Oklahoma-Oklahoma State (ABC), and No 10. Ole Miss-Texas A&M (ESPN).

Weekend nine of the NFL season starts Sunday morning in Germany with the Miami Dolphins-Kansas City Chiefs game on NFL Network. CBS and Fox will offer Sunday afternoon games, while NBC’s Sunday Night Football telecast will feature the Buffalo Bills against the Cincinnati Bengals. 

Streaming viewership fell for the second-straight month in September as football season gave broadcast a big boost, according to Nielsen’s monthly summary.

Netflix viewing was down 5%. Paramount Plus and Peacock showed similar declines.

In contrast, broadcast gained viewing for the second consecutive month. Volume was up 13%, raising over-the-air TV’s share of total viewing to 23%, up from 20.4% in August.

Nielsen said broadcast posted increases of more than 30% in the 18-49 and 25-54 demographics, which are still important to advertisers.

Sports viewing on broadcast rose 360% with the NFL and college football seasons in full swing. 

Cable saw a 25.5% increase in September, but overall cable viewing fell 1.1% from August and cable’s share of total viewing fell to 29.8% from 30.2%.

Streaming viewing was down 1.7% from August and streaming share fell to 37.5% from 38.3%. 

Netflix viewing fell despite the streamer having the top three title in streaming, with Suits, Virgin River and One Piece.

Some streaming services posted gains in September. Amazon Prime Video was up 7.5%, thanks to Thursday Night Football. Tubi was up 4.3% and The Roku Channel was up 1.4%.

YouTube remained the top streamer with a 9% share, down from 9.1% in August. Netflix’s share was 7.8%, compared to 8.2%, followed by Prime Video at 3.6%, up from 3.4%; Hulu at 3.6%, unchanged; Disney Plus at 1.9%, off from 2%; Tubi at 1.3%, unchanged; Max at 1.2%, down from 1.3%; Roku Channel at 1.1%, unchanged; Peacock at 1.1%, down from 1.2%; Paramount Plus at 1%, down from 1.1%; and Pluto TV at 0.8%, off from 0.9%.

Total TV usage was flat compared to a year ago, Nielsen said.

Linear streaming via multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) or virtual MVPD apps represented 5.7% of total television usage in September, the highest total so far this year. Nielsen counts streaming of linear network programming within the broadcast or cable categories and not as part of streaming viewership.

NBC’s October 1 New York Jets-Kansas City Chiefs Sunday Night Football  game led the National Football League’s continuing dominance of the sports ratings charts last week.

The game, in which the Jets lost to the Chiefs 23-20 with pop star Taylor Swift in attendance, drew 24.83 million viewers, the largest audience for Sunday Night Football this season, according to Nielsen ratings published by SportsMedia Watch. NBC's Sunday Night Football telecasts are averaging more than 23 million viewers through the first four weeks, up 8% over last year's numbers, according to Sports Business Journal. 

Overall, NFL telecasts represented seven of the top 10 most-watched live sports telecasts for the week. 

On the college football front, Fox’s Colorado Buffaloes-USC Trojans game drew 7.24 million viewers, the eighth-largest audience for a college football game this season, according to Nielsen. 

Outside of football, NBC’s October 1 NASCAR Cup Series race from Talladega drew 2.50 million to top all non-football events. 

Each week, Next TV writers Daniel Frankel and David Bloom take a break from the long, slow, merciful fade into oblivion by screaming into the void -- and at each other -- over SMS. Do not gently go into that good night, sisters and brothers. 

Daniel Frankel: So I’m rewatching season 2 of HBO’s just-canceled Winning Time … and after seeing episode 3, “The Chosen One,” I went down a internet research rabbit hole which included not only Larry Bird’s austere rural Indiana youth, but also the origins of Bob Seger’s “No Man's Land,” which is played in a poignant scene in episode 3. While engaging in this little fetishistic exercise, I noticed I’m hardly alone — there was an emotional outpouring in the media-on-media world last week, with lots of middle-aged guys like me who make their living typing into boxes lamenting the fate of this show. Slate’s Aaron Bady was probably the most sober out of any of us, noting the declining second-season ratings and the fact that — as we pro-hoops fanboys may have missed — season two was narratively rushed and clumsy. I get numbers are numbers, and scripted television is enormously expensive to produce. But given the fact that Warner Bros. Discovery pays billions to the NBA in licensing, and it just launched a subscription sports tier for Max which includes the NBA, might it have done a little more to save this show?

David Bloom: It is so adorable seeing a cynical, hard-bitten old journalist like you going Full Stan Mode about a canceled TV show, a good one, no doubt, but also a gone one. If only there were more like you, maybe the show would have survived. Actually, if only there were more journalists period. Speaking of which, I’m wondering what the broadcast journalism business will look like soon enough. Warner Bros. Discovery not only canceled one of its few interesting new shows lately, it’s now said it will start streaming much of CNN’s live feed, plus some originals, on Max. That suggests some new work for journalism types, but perhaps also the first step to a streaming future for CNN that might be much smaller in staffing and ambition, given how things have gone previously with this regime. Similarly, the journalists at ABC News are said to be freaking out about the prospect of King Bob spinning out the linear operations at Disney to someone like Nexstar or private equity. I’m guessing some of the very high-priced on-air talent at ABC, and their support staff, would be among the first to go if/when that happens. Maybe they can all get bit parts in a new series from the Winning Time executives set in a 1990s 24-hour TV newsroom called CNNing Time. Unless Zaz orders the use of AI versions of all his newscasters and then de-ages them for the show. 

Daniel: Like the ball, the audience data doesn’t lie — but everything seems reactionary and a bit ego-driven with this WBD group. I could be proven wrong in three years, when this roll-up of live sports, news, along with Superman, Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter reboots and prequels draw audiences regularly exceeding 10 million viewers. As for news, our New York friend Alan Wolk came up with a statistic the other day suggesting that 68% of millennials and Gen-Zs seek out local news via streaming. I live with a couple of young dudes from the Gen-Z cohort. I don’t think they’ve ever watched local news in their lives — unless there was some immediate fantasy football or sports-betting informational need to be solved. In the traditional sense, I'm not even sure they even know what news is. An interesting story developed here in L.A. last week — Lincoln Riley, the USC football coach, suspended a young fast-rising Orange County Register reporter for what seemed like really petty reasons. The Register, L.A. Times and the rest of the “traditional” sports media climbed all over Riley and the administration (they eventually caved), but all the fanboys jumped on the journalists — the kid should have been suspended because he broke clearly stated “rules,” they said. And this was the kicker expressed on Twitter over and over again — “Who cares about the news media, anyway?” What is it exactly that these young TikTok-crazed arsonists want to watch? Don't say another Superman or Lord of the Rings.

David: If you can adapt Lord of the Rings for TikTok, you might be onto something. I think the more interesting thing is the way younger people access news. There’s lots of evidence suggesting that they do that through personalities on sites like TikTok and Twitch who talk about the news, sometimes for hours at a time. You see this most with the Ben Shapiros of the hard right, but it’s on both sides of the partisan divide, and into a lot of other sectors as well. That doesn’t bode well for any of the big, old, mass news organizations for the long term. In the shorter term, they’re just trying to hold onto the aging/dying audiences they have. Michael Wolff, the controversial Fox/Murdoch/Trump chronicler who has a new Murdoch book coming out, said he doesn’t think Fox News exists after Rupert dies. (The Ankler just published an excerpt.) And Rupert just stepped back half a step at Fox, leaving Lachlan in charge, for now. The math isn’t good in the long run. Lachlan is outnumbered by his more liberal siblings on the family trust who conceivably would push for a big change post-Rupert. It’s going to be fascinating to watch. 

Daniel: At 92, who knows what imperatives are driving Rupert to step back, but I suspect that far-right ideology drives this man and that he wouldn’t cede control without feeling secure that Lachlan will finish — or at least sustain — what he started. 

David: I’d consider Rupe more a mainstream media mogul, conservative but hardly far right. He’s no Thiel, Adelson or Koch. Mostly, he’s dedicated to (and very good at) making lots of money and wielding power to ensure he keeps doing that. But he is also a media Dr. Frankenstein in terms of the populist, anti-democratic cultural monster now raging across the land, unleashed and amplified by his most lucrative creation. Lachlan, meanwhile, prefers life in Australia, hardly center stage for one dedicated to herding Fox News into the future. At most, Rupert’s half-step back suggests he wants his other adult children to understand Lachlan should keep sailing full speed straight ahead. All that ignores far bigger trends darkening the future of Fox and News Corp. They’re OLD media, with the exception of Tubi and perhaps the Wall Street Journal. The Disney sale stripped off just about anything with a whiff of where media is heading. What’s left has declining, aging audiences, albeit still quite valuable ones. What’s the future of Fox and News Corp. once Rupe finally really leaves us? How long before the kids sell out? I’d put the over-under on a sale to private equity, or Elon Musk, at two years after Rupert’s memorial service.

Daniel: Rupert Murdoch is a “mainstream media mogul” and is “hardly far right?” Bro, what have you been smoking all summer on the beaches of the lower Northern Atlantic? This is a guy who just paid nearly $800 million to a voting machine maker because his network made numerous bullshit claims that the company rigged a presidential election in favor of the opposition party. This is a guy who gave land, materials and labor to Roger Ailes, a well-established Nixon-era ideologue, and said, “Build this for me.” Rupert isn’t a player. He designed the goddamned game. Sure, capitalism is important to him, but I think you're kidding yourself if you believe that ideology isn’t central to his motivation. 

David: Maybe get your head out of that Bob Seger deep dive for a minute and read the Michael Wolff excerpt I sent you. Like I said, Dr. Frankenstein’s monster has been unleashed, and there’s nothing the doctor can do about it now. It’s left Fox News in a precarious spot with its own, fracturing audience, which once it dominated. And there are plenty of credible reports about Murdoch's distaste for Trump and Trump’s politics, and the golden cage Fox is in (see also, texts and emails uncovered in the Dominion case that feature the harsh opinions from Tucker Carlson and other Fox stars about Trump and the Fox audience insistence that he didn’t lose). Just because you built and started the roller coaster doesn’t mean you’re enjoying the ride now that you’re stuck on it. And one need only spend time around the truly far right (see also, Alex Jones, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert and other avatars of that extreme wing of the GOP) to understand that’s not Murdoch’s people, just his marks. 

Daniel: Speaking of Murdoch’s marks, me and the compulsive-sport-betting 17-year-old shortstop just watched a pretty good game on Fox just now between the Seahawks and Panthers (I made sure Reece didn't have a wager on it). Reminded me of an interesting survey we published last week suggesting that half of some NFL fan bases are pirating games. That Next TV story got picked up by Yahoo, and there were more than 400 comments, mainly from readers justifying piracy because they believe access to the NFL has gotten way too expensive. I kind of feel like they have a point … to a degree. Sure, you can see Sunday afternoon games free over-the-air on CBS, NBC and Fox. But we published a study in June suggesting it would set an avid NFL fan back $170 to see all of the NFL’s games each week. The latest study noted that 46% of NFL fans root for a team that's not in their market, so they need to pay at least some subscription money to follow their team. 

David: Fox, by the way, isn’t the only media company clinging to the NFL for audience relevance and revenue this strike-cursed fall, but it’s probably the most dependent given its narrowly configured operations. All the networks depend  on these expensive rights to prop up their linear lineups these days, which makes sense given the NFL’s enduring appeal. But are we reaching the limit on what the NFL can extract from its fans and distributors? Sunday Ticket will cost you around $400 this season (depending on various deals), while NFL Plus, the league’s own streaming service, is another $8 a month for half a year or more. Also, you have to pay for ESPN and Amazon Prime, as well as the broadcast networks, to see most everything. Actually attending a game is, of course, increasingly what you do using your corporate expense account, not your own checkbook, given the cost. When do fans, especially younger fans who don’t have the bankroll or patience to watch four-hour games, turn elsewhere? And I ask this as a longtime fan and former player who this fall already has watched in person two USC games and his nephew in a high school game on Cape Cod, and dozens of pro and college games on TV. Something’s gotta give at some point, besides my spouse’s patience. 

The live sports lineup for the penultimate weekend in September starts on the college football field with every Top 10 team in action on Saturday. 

Top-ranked Georgia will host UAB on ESPN2, second-ranked Michigan battles Rutgers on Big Ten Network, third-ranked Texas travels to Baylor on ABC, fourth-ranked Florida State takes on Clemson on ABC, and fifth-ranked USC travels to Arizona State on Fox. 

Colorado coach Deion Sanders will lead his 19th-ranked Buffaloes into Oregon to take on the 10th-ranked Ducks on ABC. The rest of the schedule featuring top-ranked teams include No. 6 Ohio State-No. 9 Notre Dame (NBC), No. 7 Penn State-Iowa (CBS) and No. 8 Washington-California (ESPN).

On the basketball court, the second round of the WNBA playoffs begins Sunday with the Connecticut Sun-New York Liberty contest on ESPN and the Dallas Wings–Las Vegas Aces games on ESPN2.

Week three of the NFL season continues on Sunday afternoon with regional action on CBS and Fox. NBC’s Sunday Night Football telecast features an AFC matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Las Vegas Raiders. 

On the racetrack, USA Network on Saturday will air the Andy’s Frozen Custard 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race, while on Sunday, ESPN will televise the Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix race, and USA Network will air the NASCAR Cup AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 contest. 

In the boxing ring, ESPN Plus on Saturday will feature a WBO heavyweight interim title fight between champion Zhilei Zhang and Joe Joyce, while DAZN offers a main event bout between junior welterweights Richardson Hitchins and Jose Zepaeda. 

On the soccer field, Peacock, USA and NBC will combine to offer 10 English Premier League games throughout the weekend, while Apple TV and FS1 televise two Sunday MLS contests.

On the baseball diamond, ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball telecast will air from Los Angeles as the Dodgers play their National League rivals, the San Francisco Giants.

 Week two of the National Football League season continued to tackle the top slots on the live sports ratings chart, but Deion Sanders’s Colorado Buffaloes made a strong bid to break pro football’s viewership stranglehold. 

CBS’s September 17 late afternoon block of NFL games — which included the Dallas Cowboys-New York Jets game — was the most-watched live sports event for the week of September 11-17, averaging 25.78 million viewers, according to Nielsen numbers published by SportsMedia Watch. NBC’s Miami-New England Sunday Night Football telecast pulled into second place with 17.86 million viewers, followed by Fox and CBS’s Sunday afternoon early window NFL game telecasts, which averaged 16.59 million and 16.51 million viewers, respectively. 

Pulling into fifth place was Prime Video’s Minnesota Vikings-Philadelphia Eagles Thursday Night Football telecast, which drew 15.05 million viewers, making it the most watched NFL game on the streaming service, according to company officials. 

Placing among the top 10 most-watched events for the week was ESPN’s September 16 college football game featuring Deion Sanders’ Colorado Buffaloes against the Colorado State Rams, which drew 9.3 million viewers to finish as ESPN’s most watched late primetime game on record and its fifth most-watched college football game ever, according to the network. 

Fox’s September 14 regional baseball coverage was the most-watched non-football telecast of the week, averaging 1.68 million viewers. 

This weekend’s list of live sports events starts on the pro football field as the NFL enters its second weekend of action. 

NBC’s Sunday Night Football telecast will feature an AFC East matchup between the Miami Dolphins and the New England Patriots, while CBS and Fox will offer Sunday afternoon regional game action.  

Week 3 of the college football schedule begins with top-ranked Georgia facing South Carolina on CBS, second-ranked Michigan taking on Bowling Green on Big Ten Network, third-ranked Florida State playing Boston College on ABC and fourth-ranked Texas battling Wyoming on Longhorn Network.

Other top-ranked teams in action include No. 6 Ohio State-Western Kentucky (Fox), No. 7 Penn State-Illinois (Fox), No. 8 Washington-Michigan State (Peacock), No. 9 Notre Dame-Central Michigan (Peacock), and No. 10 Alabama-South Florida (ABC). 

The WNBA playoffs continue on Sunday with a pair of first-round games, including game two of the Connecticut Sun-Minnesota Lynx (on ESPN) and the Dallas Wings-Atlanta Dream (ABC) series. On the soccer field, USA, Peacock and NBC will team to offer nine live Premier League games.

On the racetrack, USA Network on Saturday will air the NASCAR Cup Bristol Night Race, while on Sunday, ESPN will televise the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix. Also Sunday, NBC will televise the IMSA Battle of the Bricks race.               

The Biden-Harris campaign has placed its first ad in an NFL game. The spot, ”Got to Work,“ will air during the NFL season opener Thursday night (September 7) between the reigning Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs and the Detroit Lions.

The ad argues that the president has “defied the odds” to “avoid economic catastrophe” while at the same time “lowering costs, bringing back manufacturing, and creating good-paying jobs for the American people.”

The spot is part of a 16-week, $25 million, flight that will run on broadcast — the Chiefs-Lions game is on NBC — in Phoenix, Atlanta, Detroit, Las Vegas, North Carolina, Philadelphia, and Milwaukee, and on cable on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC.

A new Wall Street Journal poll suggests the campaign, which highlights Biden policy wins, could be important given that a third of voters have said the drumbeat of allegations against son Hunter Biden makes them less likely to vote for the president, and more than half said they thought he was too old to run for a second term. The president will be 81 in November 2023.

ESPN will livestream regular season Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) football and major New Year’s Bowl games into U.S. cinemas as part of an exclusive live-streaming partnership with Theater Sports Network and MetaMedia, a global entertainment platform that delivers movies and live events to cinemas.

The agreement covers the New Year’s Six Bowl games including the Peach Bowl, Cotton Bowl Classic, Fiesta Bowl, Orange Bowl, the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Sugar Bowl, the Semifinal at the Rose Bowl and the College Football National Championship Game. In all, it includes about 75 games during the upcoming football season.

“We feel there's a real opportunity to bring sports fans together in locations that have the best audio video, where they can watch their favorite players on a massive scale and screen, and do so in a family environment.” says Jason Brenek, CEO of MetaMedia. “The only options right now are to sit on the couch in your underwear, go to the sports event live or to a sports bar. And we think the theater experience provides a much better experience at a much more affordable price.”

Scott Daw, COO of Theater Sports Network, added, “Movie theaters are the next great frontier for live sporting events, and we are elated with this unprecedented agreement with ESPN. These events will replicate the feel of a football stadium experience as fans gather and fill theaters to watch the games on the big screen. As we move forward, we hope to add games from additional college football conferences as well as other live sporting events." 

Following the permanent closure of over 2,000 North American theater screens due to the pandemic, the push to stream live sports could represent a cultural shift in the role of cinemas.

“At MetaMedia, our whole business model is built around expanding the programming that theaters can access and expanding their audiences,” Brenek said. “Movie theaters are operating at under 10% average capacity ... There’s thousands of things that can be done now to utilize these amazing spaces.”

Before it found itself in the immersive live-or-death struggle the pandemic required, AMC announced ambitious live-sports plans in 2019. It had hopes to implement sports broadcasting as a regular component of their screenings, but these plans were quickly crippled by the theatrical closures.

“It's just really clear that consumers want to gather together and experience things outside of the home,” Brenek says. “When the pandemic hit, we pivoted to drive in theaters across the U.S. We delivered concerts from Metallica and Bon Jovi and then expanded into UFC fights, wrestling, boxing, and ultimately e-sports competitions in theaters. So this was being tested in a big way by us.”

The ACC, which just today voted to acquire Stanford, Cal and SMU, has long trailed the Big Ten and SEC in revenue, although recent moves to expand earning sources saw the league climb to nearly $617 million in total revenue last season. With more teams and more games to stream, the timing of this deal could potentially help the league boost their numbers even further.

MetaMedia plans to specifically target the markets where schools are based, or in cities where alumni groups are located.

“For Florida State, we’re going to be playing a lot of theaters around Tallahassee,” Brenek explained. “For games like Notre Dame, we’re going to be hitting a lot of bigger markets because their fanbase is much more spread out. It’s really about delivering the right events to the right audience and making sure people enjoy it.”

Brenek also mentioned the possibility of partnering with local car dealerships and other businesses in order to host tailgates prior to theatrical screenings.

“It's about creating a social environment. Consumers should start thinking about their local theaters as something more than just playing movies,” urged Brenek. “Whether it be live sports, or things like the Taylor Swift concert, we’re really going to start educating consumers that they can look to their theaters for other types of programming.”

The cost of attendance to watch the games will be determined by participating local theaters. For a schedule of games in specific areas, fans can visit theatersportsnetwork.com.

Preseason National Football League games dominated the list of most watched live sports events during the last full week of August.

Three games from the final week of the NFL preseason landed among the top 10 most-viewed events during the week of August 21-27, including Fox’s  August 27 Houston Texans-New Orleans Saints game, which averaged 4.22 million to lead all sports events, according to Nielsen numbers published by SportsMedia Watch. CBS’s August 25 Detroit Lions- Carolina Panthers telecast finished third with 3.43 million viewers, and ESPN’s August 21 Baltimore Ravens-Washington Commanders game pulled in 2.87 million viewers to place seventh. 

NBC’s Navy-Notre Dame college football telecast from Dublin, Ireland, drew 3.56 million viewers to finish second for the week. NBC’s NASCAR Cup Series race from Daytona drew the fourth and fifth spots on the chart.

ABC’s August 27 coverage of the Little League Baseball World Series Championship game drew 2.94 million viewers to finish fifth for the week. The game, won by El Segundo, California, over Curacao, was the most-watched on ESPN platforms since 2015. Overall, ESPN’s 38-game slate averaged more than 1 million viewers, up 22 percent from last year, according to ESPN. 

 Altice USA said it renewed its distribution agreement with NFL Media.

NFL Network will continue to be available to Altice’s Optimum Select and Optimum Premier subscribers. NFL RedZone will be available in Optimum’s Sports Package and Sports Plus Package offers.

“Optimum is thrilled to have reached an agreement to continue bringing NFL Network and NFL RedZone to Optimum TV lineups through the signing of a new multi-year agreement," Optimum chief growth officer Leroy Williams said. “Optimum customers love sports and the NFL, and we’re excited to bring them more sports programming that they know and love throughout the entirety of the NFL season.”

Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. 

With the cost of sports programming rising, many sports networks have seen their total subscriber numbers drop as distributors try to hold down costs to slow cord-cutting.

NFL Network is in 51.1 million homes, according to Sports Business Journal, down 5 million since last season and 30% below its peak of 72.5 million homes in 2013.

“We are excited to extend our partnership with Optimum," said Hans Schroeder, executive VP of media distribution for the NFL. “Fans with Optimum TV will continue have the ability to watch NFL Network’s award-winning coverage of America’s most popular sport as well as access to our wildly popular NFL RedZone.“

CBS Sports and Nickelodeon said they will present an alternative telecast for Super Bowl LVIII on Nickelodeon that will feature guest reporters, virtual filters and on-field graphics — including green slime — familiar to viewers of the kids’ network. 

The traditional version of the game will be seen on CBS and Paramount Plus.

CBS and Nickelodeon, both part of Paramount Global, will also slime it up when the Las Vegas Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs play on Christmas Day. 

“This will be a historic Super Bowl in Las Vegas, and we’re thrilled to partner with the NFL to bring the game to the whole family with the first-ever alternate telecast of the Super Bowl,” Paramount president and CEO Bob Bakish said. “In year one of our new long-term deal with the NFL, we continue to maximize our expanded distribution rights and further unlock the value of the League through the demonstrated power of our multiplatform portfolio across CBS, Paramount Plus and Nickelodeon.”

CBS and Nickelodeon, have previously produced Nickelodeon versions of NFL games, including NFL Wild Card Weekend last season. 

“We’re thrilled to partner with CBS Sports and Nickelodeon to present the first alternate telecast of the Super Bowl,” said Hans Schroeder, NFL executive VP of media distribution. “Our previous telecasts on Nickelodeon have been huge hits and created a new and different way to experience an NFL game. We’re excited to bring that creativity to Super Bowl LVIII and give our fans another way to enjoy one of the world’s most popular sporting events.”

Nickelodeon’s Super Bowl telecast will also be distributed internationally in the U.K., Australia and New Zealand on a delayed basis, with further details to be announced soon.

The Nickelodeon Super Bowl telecast and Nickelodeon Nickmas game are produced by CBS Sports in association with Nickelodeon Productions. Sean McManus and Harold Bryant serve as executive producers of The NFL on CBS, and CBS Sports’s Shawn Robbins is coordinating producer of the games. Production for Nickelodeon is overseen by Ashley Kaplan, executive vice president, Nickelodeon & Awesomeness Unscripted & Digital Franchise Studio; Paul J. Medford, VP of unscripted current series; and Luke Wahl, VP of unscripted creative.

The New York Jets will be the subject of the upcoming season of HBO’s Hard Knocks NFL training camp series launching August 8.

The five-episode series, narrated by Liev Schreiber, will follow the Jets and newly acquired, four-time MVP quarterback Aaron Rodgers, throughout preseason training camp as they prepare for the upcoming season, HBO said. 

The Jets were previously profiled on Hard Knocks in 2010 when the team advanced to the AFC Championship Game. 

“NFL Films has a long and storied relationship with the Jets, from the early days of the AFL and Joe Namath’s ‘No. 1’ salute after Super Bowl III, to The Sack Exchange, and the team’s first appearance on Hard Knocks in the midst of back-to-back AFC Championship Game appearances,” NFL Films executive producer Patrick Kelleher said in a statement. “The 2010 Jets changed the profile and the success of Hard Knocks forever. That Jets team made football fun for fans, and now we are excited for a new partnership with the iconic organization and HBO to create another chapter in both NFL and television history filled with great personalities and a roster striving to reach new heights of success.” 

Other NFL teams profiled on Hard Knocks have included the Baltimore Ravens (2001), Dallas Cowboys (2002, 2008, 2021), Kansas City Chiefs (2007), Cincinnati Bengals (2009, 2023), Miami Dolphins (2012), Atlanta Falcons (2014), Houston Texans (2015), Los Angeles Rams (2016, 2020), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2017), Cleveland Browns (2018), Oakland Raiders (2019), Los Angeles Chargers (2020), and Detroit Lions (2022). 

The NFL has embarked on an aggressive campaign to shift its TV viewing audience into streaming. 

But currently, seven media and tech companies control OTT rights to NFL regular-season and playoff games, and there is simply no cheap solution for avid fans to be able to catch all or most of the games anymore. 

A new analysis from London-based research company Omdia found that the cheapest bundle of streaming services needed to catch at least 95% of NFL games this upcoming season comes with a total consumer price of around $170 a month.

According to Omdia, to stream most NFL games, U.S. football fans would have to pay $449 for full-season access to the a la carte version of NFL Sunday Ticket, $139 annually for Amazon Prime and $10 a month for the standalone version of ESPN Plus. 

NFL Sunday Ticket, which was just licensed away from DirecTV by YouTube at a price of around $2 billion a season, would provide access to all Sunday-afternoon out-of-market games. But it would not account for in-market games licensed to CBS, FOX and NBC. (Note: Football lovers might want to consider an over-the-air antenna here, which would take them up to nearly 100% of games.)

Also, ESPN+ won't deliver Monday night games presented only on ABC and not ESPN, and Peacock just locked up exclusive rights to a late-season and post-season Wild Card matchup. Fans would need to tack on an additional $4.99 for Peacock Premium to streaming those games. 

Tacking on a sports-inclusive virtual pay TV service like YouTube TV or Fubo, meanwhile, would drive the price well beyond the $200-a-month range. 

As Omdia notes, this is a meaningful consumer price issue, with 90% of U.S. sports fans (i.e. most of us) engaging on some level with the NFL. 

Consider that 20 years ago, in 2003, the average price of a DirecTV subscription was around $64. That would deliver a fan access to most TV rights holders, which were mainly the four major broadcast companies at the time. 

If a fan was on the avid side, DirecTV would license NFL Sunday Ticket to them at a price of around $50 a month. So, U.S. consumers could catch 100% of NFL games for around $114 a month. 

Looking at it another way, the ~$170 minimum OTT price outlined by Omdia is 49.1% more expensive than that $114 price from 20 years ago, but inflation over this two-decade span is around 53.35%. 

So the consumer pricing hasn't dramatically increased, but the distribution complexity certainly has. 

NFL Hall of Famer, film star and civil rights activist Jim Brown has died at the age of 87, according to his family. 

Brown is arguably considered the greatest running back in the history of the NFL, having won the league’s rushing title eight of the nine years he played in the league during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Brown won the NFL MVP award in 1965 and led the Cleveland Browns to an NFL title in 1964. He was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 1971.

Brown was also a staunch supporter of the Civil Rights movement and worked to create economic development in poor neighborhoods during the 1960s and early 1970s.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a Tweet Friday that Brown was “one of the most dominant players to ever step on any athletic field” as well as a cultural figure who helped promote change.

“During his nine-year NFL career, which coincided with the civil rights movement here at home, he became a forerunner and role model for athletes being involved in social initiatives outside their sport. He inspired fellow athletes to make a difference, especially in the communities in which they lived,” Goodell added in the tweet. 

Brown retired from the NFL in 1965 at the age of 30 to become an actor, appearing in more than 30 movies including The Dirty Dozen, Three The Hard Way, Any Given Sunday, Mars Attacks! and I’m Gonna Git You Sucker. He also appeared in such TV shows as The A-Team, Knight Rider, and T.J. Hooker. 

Not even the NFL’s highly consumed postseason is safe anymore from encroachment by subscription streaming. 

On Monday, NBCUniversal announced Peacock will host the NFL’s very first exclusively live-streamed playoff game, with the second of two AFC Wild Card games licensed by NBCU on January 13 presented in primetime only on the subscription streaming platform. 

According to the Wall Street Journal, the announcement came after NBCU signed a $110 million deal with the NFL to secure the live streaming rights to just one postseason game. 

That 8 p.m. ET Saturday game will actually be one of three AFC Wild Card games presented by NBCU that weekend, with the media company simulcasting on NBC and Peacock a 4:30 p.m. afternoon game on Saturday, January 13, while also showing a third AFC Wild Card contest on Sunday, January 14.

The other two Wild Card games on linear broadcast are part of an 11-year deal NBCU signed with the NFL two years ago. 

Notably, the addition of the streaming exclusive also makes Jan. 13-14 the first time one media company has ever shown three NFL playoff games on a single weekend. 

Earlier, NBCU announced that it's also putting a December 23 regular season game between two serious AFC 2022 postseason contenders, the Los Angeles Chargers and Buffalo Bills, exclusively on Peacock. 

The NFL was undoubtedly pleased with the youth-demo performance of Amazon Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football exclusive live streams last fall. The aggregate TNF audience was down more than 40% from the previous year’s levels (partly due to a bummer game schedule), but Amazon delivered more younger viewers than the league had seen in about a decade. 

“Expanding the digital distribution of NFL content while maintaining wide reach for our games continues to be a key priority for the league, and bringing the excitement of an NFL playoff game exclusively to Peacock’s streaming platform is the next step in that strategy,” Hans Schroeder, NFL executive VP and chief operating officer of NFL Media, said.

As for NBCU, it finally has paid-user traction for Peacock, and there is probably no better signup draw than live sports. NBC, after all, regularly generates the biggest audience in broadcast TV primetime with the NFL’s Sunday Night Football package. 

“As Peacock continues to grow, nothing says ‘must-have’ programming more than live NFL games,” Kelly Campbell, president of Peacock and direct-to-consumer for NBCUniversal, said.

Amazon announced that during Thanksgiving Day weekend it will stream the National Football League game on Black Friday for free, without requiring viewers to sign up for Amazon Prime Video. 

The game — on one of the year’s busiest shopping days — is expected to kick off at 3 p.m. ET on November 24.

“We’re excited to expand our relationship with the NFL and build a new holiday tradition for our customers with the first Black Friday NFL game,” Jay Marine, VP of Prime Video and global head of sports, said. “We’re so very proud of our Thursday Night Football production and all the teams in front of and behind the camera. As families look to spend time together over the holiday weekend, we are excited to provide an opportunity for everyone to enjoy this new day of NFL action.”

Last season was the first with the national Thursday Night Football package streaming exclusively on Amazon Prime. (Games continue to be broadcast in the competing teams’ home markets.)

Also Read: Streaming Off a Cliff: ‘Thursday Night Football’ Audience Dropped a Whopping 41% For the Season on Amazon

Amazon’s TNF announcing team of Al Michaels, Kirk Herbstreit, and Kaylee Hartung will cover the on-field action.

There will also be a pregame show hosted by Charissa Thompson with Tony Gonzalez, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Richard Sherman, Andrew Whitworth, Taylor Rooks and Michael Smith.  ■

Netflix continued its play on the sports documentary field by partnering with the National Football League on a new docuseries that follows such star quarterbacks as Patrick Mahomes throughout last season’s action.

The series, Quarterback, will debut this summer and take a look at the events of last season through the eyes of such NFL quarterbacks as Mahomes of the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, Kirk Cousins of the Minnesota Vikings and Marcus Mariota of the Atlanta Falcons, Netflix said.

The series follows all three quarterbacks from the beginning of the 2022 season to its conclusion, from team discussions and events on and off the field to looks into their family lives.

Quarterback is the first collaboration between Netflix and the NFL, and extends the streaming service’s reach into the sports-documentary genre. Its other sports documentary series include the auto racing series Formula 1: Drive to Survive, the tennis series Break Point and the golf series Full Swing.  

“We aim to give our members unprecedented access to the biggest athletes in the world, telling stories that you can’t see anywhere else,” Netflix VP of unscripted and documentary series Brandon Riegg said in a statement. “And it doesn’t get any bigger than going inside the huddle with NFL quarterbacks, who hold perhaps the most important and difficult position in sports. We can’t wait to share their stories with our members around the world.” 

Quarterback is produced by NFL Films, Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions and Mahomes’ 2PM Productions. 

“I’m excited for fans to get an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at an unforgettable season for the entire Chiefs organization and for my family,” Mahomes said. “From welcoming home a new baby in the middle of the season to welcoming the Lombardi trophy back to Kansas City, our crew was there for it all. This new Netflix series will show the time, preparation and balance that it takes to be an NFL quarterback and perform on the biggest stage.”

Added Manning: “Playing quarterback in the NFL is a unique experience that has some pretty incredible ups and downs. Thanks to this collaboration with our partners at NFL Films, 2PM Productions and Netflix, fans will be given a unique and intimate look at what life is like as a starting QB.” ■

Viewing of the Super Bowl edged up 0.5% to 36.7 million households from 36.5 million households a year ago, according to early figures from Samba TV, one of a number of measurement companies likely to weigh in on the big game.

The halftime show featuring Rihanna and sponsored by Apple Music was down slightly, viewed by 28.5 million households, off 0.7% compared to 28.7 million a year ago. 

“Super Bowl 57 had a number of historic firsts that combined to make this year’s big game the most watched since 2020 with more than one in four American households tuning in,“ Samba TV founder and CEO Ashwin Navin said. “More than thirty-six and a half million homes watched the Chief’s come from behind victory over the Eagles, surpassing last year’s viewership by nearly half a percent.

“As we are seeing with almost all of linear television today, while the price of advertising continues to increase — in the case of the Super Bowl by nearly 10% per ad since last year alone — audience reach is not keeping up as this year’s slight year-over-year viewership increase demonstrates,” Navin said.

“Rihanna’s star power has only continued to grow since her last tour and album release more than half a decade ago,” he added. “Apple Music’s visually stunning halftime show drew in an impressive 28 and a half million viewers, falling just short of last year's star-studded show featuring the biggest names in rap music history including Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, 50 Cent and Mary J. Blige. Overall, the halftime show drew in about a quarter of a percent fewer viewers than last year.”

Chiefs fans pushed Kansas City to become the highest over-indexing market in the U.S., surpassing the national average by 20%. Hometown Eagles fans followed closely behind, with Philadelphia over-indexing the national average by 15%.

Samba TV analyzes audiences based on its U.S. TV panel, which pulls viewing data from about 25 million connected TVs, measuring both linear TV consumption as well as streaming. Samba TV said its panel is 80 times larger than Nielsen’s, allowing for far more granular analysis matched to the U.S. Census. ■

Super Bowl LVII takes place Sunday, February 12, at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. Fox airs the game. The Kansas City Chiefs take on the Philadelphia Eagles and kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m. ET. 

Rihanna is the headliner for the halftime show. 

Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen call the game for Fox. Joe Buck and Troy Aikman were the Fox football guys, having hosted six Super Bowls, but the pair moved on to ESPN in 2022, to work on Monday Night Football. ESPN and ABC have the Super Bowl in 2027.

Burkhardt told NextTV.com about his preparation for the big game: “I know this won’t be like every other game, but I’m just preparing like I do every game. When I got promoted this year, I said I was going to keep doing what I’m doing and keep the same prep routine because that’s what got me here. If I did something completely ridiculous for the Super Bowl I’d be an idiot.”

Rihanna has not been onstage for close to four years, and it’s been seven years since her last album, Anti, as she has focused on her successful beauty and fashion lines, as well as motherhood. Speaking with Nate Burleson on CBS Mornings, she said, “It was so scary because it was kind of unexpected to come back from zero to the Super Bowl.”

Apple Music sponsors the halftime show, succeeding Pepsi in the role. Jay-Z’s Roc Nation is the Super Bowl’s “live music entertainment strategist.” Rihanna is managed by Roc Nation. She had turned down an invite to play the Super Bowl in 2019. 

Her next album, R9, has been long awaited, and no release date has been announced. 

One Super Bowl commercial that's getting some buzz features Natasha Lyonne, star of Peacock drama Poker Face. Her character Charlie helps solve crimes by always knowing when someone is lying. She displays this unique skill when discussing other Super Bowl ads running February 12. 

Besides Fox, the game is on FoxSports.com and the Fox Sports app. 

For those who don’t go for football, the Puppy Bowl happens February 12 as well. A longtime Animal Planet property, Puppy Bowl XIX will simulcast on Animal Planet, Discovery, Discovery Plus, HBO Max and TBS for the first time. The event will feature 122 puppies, 67 shelters and rescues across 34 states. 

Human talent includes Bleacher Report host Taylor Rooks, sports commentator Steve Levy, Egypt Sherrod and Mike Jackson (Married to Real Estate), Faruq Tauheed (Battlebots), Zak Bagans (Ghost Adventures) and Alex Guarnaschelli (Supermarket Stakeout,) along with talent from Discovery Channel’s Street Outlaws franchise and New Line Cinema’s film Shazam! Fury of the Gods. 

Dan Schachner returns as referee. 

The pre-game is on at 1 p.m. ET and the game starts at 2. ■ 

Fox Sports’ telecast of Super Bowl LVII telecast Sunday will feature the familiar voices of its lead National Football League announcing team of Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen, but for the announcers themselves the game marks their first time on the NFL’s biggest stage.

After taking over Fox’s lead NFL announcing team at the beginning of the season — replacing Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, who left for ESPN — Burkhardt and Olsen will deliver the play-by-play action for Fox’s Philadelphia Eagles-Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl telecast. Burkhart becomes the first play-by-play announcer other than Buck or Pat Summerall to call a Super Bowl for Fox since the network first acquired NFL television rights in 1994.

The significance of the opportunity is not lost on Burkhardt. A former reporter and substitute play-by-play announcer for New York Mets games on regional sports network SNY, he joined Fox Sports in 2013 to call the NFL and host Major League Baseball studio coverage. Burkhardt said he’s grateful for the opportunities that Fox Sports and its CEO and executive producer, Eric Shanks, have provided him over the years leading up to the Super Bowl LVII gig. (Shanks will be profiled in February’s B+C Multichannel News magazine as our 2023 Sports Executive of the Year.) 

Also: Tom Brady Announces NFL Retirement. When Will Legend Suit Up For Fox Sports?

“It’s amazing … the whole experience is going to be so unbelievable,” he said. “I owe a ton to [Shanks] — he’s taken multiple chances on me,” he said. “I was doing TV for the Mets and he brought me on as a baseball studio guy, and then right away as a NFL play-by-play guy as the [number] two crew with [former Fox Sports announcer] John Lynch,” he said. “Then this year Joe and Troy leave and we had the A (team) to fill. Just because I was on the B crew didn’t mean I was automatically going to get the gig, but [Shanks] pretty much said ‘you’re our guy.’ To entrust me with that responsibility is a big deal.”

Despite the high-profile nature of the Super Bowl, Burkhardt says he’s not doing things much differently to prepare for the Super Bowl than he does preparing to announce a regular-season matchup. “I know this won’t be like every other game, but I’m just preparing like I do every game,” he said. “When I got promoted this year, I said I was going to keep doing what I’m doing and keep the same prep routine because that’s what got me here. If I did something completely ridiculous for the Super Bowl I’d be an idiot.”

Burkhardt, who began his career calling high-school football games at a Northern New Jersey radio station in the late 1990s, says once the Super Bowl action starts, he’ll call it as he has every football game throughout his career.  

“The beauty for me is once the ball kicks off, it’s no different than any high school game I did,” he said. “I know how to do the game, so I think I’m just going to focus on that.” 

Fox Sports will deploy more than 94 cameras and 29 field-level microphones during its Super Bowl LVII telecast as it looks to provide in-depth coverage of the event. “We’re trying to do some things to get fans closer to the game, whether it’s with audio or new cameras,” Shanks said. “We usually end up doing some really interesting things from a graphics perspective or data perspective. But we'll be putting our second-to-none talent out front, from Kevin and Greg to our pre- and post-game talent. We always remember to put the game first.” ■  

Forget the Chiefs and the Eagles: Fox expects to be a big winner on Super Bowl Sunday.

During Fox’s quarterly earnings call with analysts Wednesday, Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch said the company expects to rake in $600 million in ad revenue on Super Sunday alone.

He said Fox will record records for both total Super Bowl LVII revenue as well as a record-setting price per commercial, although achieving that was a bit harrowing because of crypto companies that had committed to buy spots dropped out of the game.

Also: Sports Helps Fox Report Profit in Second Quarter

Last year, NBCUniversal said the Super Bowl brought in $519 million.

While others in the industry remain concerned about a weak ad market, Murdoch said even without including the Super Bowl, Fox’s ad revenue in the current quarter is up.

“There’s a lot of talk about the ad market being soft. We’re not seeing that,” he said. He called the market “fluid,” and said ad money was coming in later than usual.

Also: Ad Market Has ‘Bottomed Out,’ NBCU CEO Jeff Shell Says

“At the end of the day, we’re still hitting our goals and achieving our revenue targets. It’s just coming in late,” he said. “Being in news and sports sets us apart in the advertising marketplace.”

Fox’s streaming platform Tubi saw a 25% increase in revenue in the quarter, and bigger gains in terms of monthly users and engagement, which he said bodes well for continued revenue growth.

Murdoch also saw promising signs at Fox’s local-station business, with many important categories increasing their spending.

He said automotive was pacing up 30%, health was also up 30%, pharmaceuticals were up 45% and travel up 60%. That’s offset by a lack of crypto spending from last year, but “all the key categories are behaving in a very strong way.” ■