Good morning, all I hope your week is off to a great start.
As another collegiate and professional football season is upon us, we are reminded of the power of the NFL. For the second straight season, Amazon Prime will be streaming the NFL on Thursday nights. Its coverage begins in week 2, when the Eagles host the Vikings.
Amazon is in the second season of a $13 billion deal with the NFL that runs through 2033. At issue are the ratings for the season’s first year on Amazon. Nielsen, the ratings service to which the networks subscribe, reported that the games on Prime last season averaged 9.58 million viewers. Amazon claimed its first-party data service showed the average viewership was 11.3 million. That is a sizeable difference.
Amazon wants Nielsen to include its first-party numbers in the ratings and put a blitz on NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who, remember, is sensitive to that 13 billion smackers coming the league’s way.
Enter the other networks that cover the NFL: CBS, NBC, FOX and ESPN. They don’t want the Amazon generated data to be included in the ratings. They claim Nielsen’s partiality will be compromised, if it includes numbers from a service carrying the games. It would be, for example, like CBS saying to Nielsen, we have numbers we have tabulated that you should include in your ratings calculations.
Why are the other networks so sensitive you ask? Well there are numerous reasons, not the least of which the other networks are seeing their viewership numbers decline, as more people cut the cord and log on to streaming-only services. Amazon can also charge advertisers higher rates.
Guess who is going to win this argument? Bingo! The entity that ponied up the 13 billion. Beginning this season, Nielsen Media will include the Amazon “first-party” numbers in the ratings. The other networks are not happy, according to a story in the Boston Globe.
“Nielsen is about to sacrifice its most valuable attribute - impartiality,” Fox Sports Michael Mulvihill is quoted as saying in Chad Finn’s story (not linked, because it is behind a paywall). Nielsen insists its impartiality will remain intact. What else is it going to say?
And what will the other networks do, now that the new system will be employed? Absolutely nothing. The NFL is the ultimate ratings beast for these other networks too. They may bark, but when it comes to the legacy media’s relationship with the NFL, its bark is worse than its bite.
Girardi on Marquee
On Labor Day, the MLB Network ran the Chicago Cubs Marquee Regional Network feed of the Cubs-Giants game. To my surprise, providing the commentary along Cubs broadcaster Jon “Boog” Sciambi was Joe Girardi. No stranger to the broadcast booth, having worked network telecasts in between managerial stints, Girardi was informative, entertaining, and an easy listen, who meshed well with his partner.
All this led me to wonder what happened with the Yankees? A hero for the Yankees in their 1996 World Championship run, Girardi is the last man to manage that iconic franchise to the World Series championship (2009). He was dismissed after the 2017 season, when the Yankees lost the seventh game of the ALCS to the Astros. They have not advanced that far under his successor, Aaron Boone.
Purportedly, among the reasons the Yankees dismissed Girardi was because he always looked as if he was about to get a root canal, when he faced the media in his post game news conferences. There may be some merit to that, but Girardi sounded anything but stiff behind a microphone and left me wanting more, after the game had ended. Cubs fans are lucky to have him as part of the Marquee broadcast team. By the way, the contending Cubs are for real.
Jimmy Buffett
Jimmy Buffett passed away over the weekend and the world lost a great one. I once went to his Margaritaville establishment in Key West and had a blast. In 1998, Buffett sang “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” at Wrigley Field, during the seventh inning stretch, a tradition started by the late, great Cubs broadcaster Harry Caray. During the Cubs game on Labor Day, a packed Wrigley Field watched the video of that iconic moment. I don’t have the video of that memorable Buffett presentation, but here is the audio. Enjoy!
Thats is going to do it for this week’s newsletter. As always, thank you for your support. There will be no newsletter next week but I will be back Sept. 19 and may toss in a podcast or two in between. Be well.
SPORTSCASTER DAN