A Gamble on Gambling

In May, the United States Supreme Court struck down a law prohibiting sports gambling. The decision, likely influenced by the emergence of daily fantasy sites such as FanDuel and DraftKings, has a chance to change the landscape of sports as we know it.

While that may sound hyperbolic, legal sports gambling, when implemented correctly, can drastically increase profits for leagues and teams. Whether or not sports organizations will be receptive to potential changes is yet to be seen.

Broadcasting companies and networks covering the NFL will also be heavily impacted by the court’s decision, effectively changing the way they cover NFL games. For years, gambling has been taboo in the broadcasting industry. Aside from outliers like Chris Berman, Scott van Pelt, and Al Michaels, networks have traditionally shied away from covering game lines.

Even though legalization is still slowly progressing on a state-by-state basis, networks receptiveness to covering gambling now will dividends in the long run. Avoiding the subject now risks losing out to other networks later.

Fox has jumped right into the conversation, launching a daily gambling show “Lock It In“.  Featuring a former Jimmy Kimmel Live writer and producer Sal Iacono, Fox seems to be at the forefront of NFL gambling coverage. Iacono has long been a proponent of coverage, hosting a gambling segment on ESPN for two seasons and appearing on Bill Simmons’ “Guess the Lines” podcast for a decade.

Other networks who broadcast America’s game have been less receptive to accepting legalized gambling. The aforementioned ESPN has taken a conservative stance on the issue, offering little to no coverage outside of Scott Van Pelt’s “Bad Beats“. The worldwide leader has gone as far as publishing two fairly negative articles regarding gambling in the past few weeks.

CBS has also opted to avoid the topic in NFL broadcasts, with NBC slightly more receptive. It will be interesting to see how each respective network approaches the topic going forward as gambling creeps into the world of football.

Statement of Silence

The 2017 NFL season was wrought with controversy, none more prominent than the “anthem protests”. I use quotation marks because while, yes players did protest during the national anthem, players protested police brutality and social inequality, not the anthem itself.

Regardless of their intent, several players around the league caused a season-long debate over their decision to kneel during the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner”. President Trump attacked the league and players alike on Twitter, saying that players who refuse to stand should be barred from playing and should “leave the country“.

The league failed to address the President’s comments properly, resulting in a season-long back and forth regarding the matter. Many correlated the “anthem protests” with a steep decline in NFL ratings, citing alleged protests of the league.

With strong ratings to start the 2018 season, it appears as though the effects of the protests were overstated. Regardless, NFL broadcasters are wary of reintroducing political discourse into America’s game, opting to let play on the field to speak for itself.

ESPN has taken the most extreme measures to avoid discourse in the 2018 season, opting to not broadcast the anthem at all. While I do not believe that ignoring the issue altogether is the best way to handle the matter, the decision makes sense from a business perspective. With across the board rating increases, ESPN is smart to avoid anything that might risk losing viewers.

With the President again attacking the NFL and its partners after ESPN’s decision, it will be interesting to see how the league and its viewers respond.

ESPN Positions Itself for Future with NFL

For years ESPN has been the go-to news source for everything sports. However, with the emergence of niche blogs and outlets from other major conglomerates (such as Bleacher Report from Turner), ESPN is no longer the dominant monopoly it once was.

While the worldwide leader in sports has not been a prominent broadcasting body when it comes to the NFL in recent years, Monday Night Football remains one of its most valuable properties. With the expiration of football rights across all networks approaching, ESPN will have to decide whether or not, and to what extent, it wants to remain in business with America’s game.

Athlon Sports

With the 2018 season upon us, ESPN has been taking measures to position itself for a re-up with the NFL. In the offseason, the network lost long-time on-air personality Jon Gruden, who signed a 10-year $100 million contract with the Oakland Raiders. ESPN called on former Dallas Cowboys tight end Jason Witten to replace Gruden in the booth. The worldwide leader also added former player Booger McFarland to man sideline reporting duties.

It has yet to be seen whether or not changes will aid falling ratings, but an in increase football ratings across all networks to start the season should help ESPN’s relationship with the NFL as the end of their contract approaches.

Regardless, ESPN has taken a number of steps to improve their relationship with the NFL. The departure of Jon Gruden, an outspoken figure at the network, and staying away from politics across their programming should help their odds.

For now, the worldwide leader will look to build upon increased ratings and an exciting slate of games going forward.

Change on the Horizon

Since 2006, the NFL has seen a period of stability when it comes to broadcasting rights. Four different networks, along with DirectTV and Verizon, have paid over $55 million since 2014 for the rights to broadcast America’s game. However, in 2022, the league’s contract with existing partners will end.

The expiration of the league’s contract will likely result in the largest rights bid in the history of sports broadcasting. With television ratings declining across the board, football remains the one property that has retained value in recent years. While the league could re-up with their existing partners, there is a good chance the NFL could make a decision that could revolutionize sports broadcasting.

Since extending their contracts in 2013, the league has experimented with other non-traditional outlets such as Twitter, Amazon, and Yahoo to broadcast games. The NFL also has expanded their digital presence, offering to stream games on their mobile app to fans with cable subscriptions. Their partner DirectTV also offers their Sunday Ticket package to college students without a cable package.

While there’s no guarantee the NFL will shy away from networks, a number of large companies without a history of broadcasting sports will most likely make strong pushes to acquire rights. Media giants like Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, and Google are expected to make bids. 

The NFL could also decide to create an over the top subscription model to broadcast games. While it would be an extreme precedent, it would make sense given the direction of the entertainment industry as a whole.

In all likelihood, a number of networks will most likely retain the rights to broadcast America’s game. However, the expiration of the league’s contract presents an opportunity for the league to propel itself into the future.

Awful Announcing: An Analysis

Sports media remains an incredibly intriguing industry, especially in a time of great change. While I may have a slight bias, considering my career aspirations as a football video producer, I adamantly believe that the media should be closely followed. This belief is part of the reason why I chose NFL broadcasting as a focus for this blog.

All things considered, not many outlets prioritize coverage of sports media. While big stories often garner coverage from websites such as Sports Illustrated and ESPN, a lot of the coverage regarding sports media falls comes from blogs and smaller niche websites.

One of the most prominent sports media outlets is Awful Announcing. Started in the mid-2000s, the blog started as a side project for Brian Powell. Within a few years, Bloguin Media Group acquired the site from Powell. With Powell maintaining a role within the blog, the site has seen success in recent years.

According to the site, the blog “focuses mainly on the perils and follies of the Sports Media, but also critiques and reviews those within the Sports World”.

Awful Announcing features a wide range of coverage related to the sports media industry. From ratings to announcing blunders, most content on the site comes from timely events related to sports coverage. Pieces are generally short and involve a brief opinion on the matter at hand.

The site also sorts content by network, interestingly enough. Awful Announcing’s approach differs from most sites that tend to sort content by sport. This method separates the blog from other sites that cover the same content.

Awful Announcing’s decision to generally stray away from opinion also makes it more appealing as a blog. The sports media market is niche enough that the site need not do more than report the news.

As a whole, Awful Announcing is a successful, well-run sports blog that serves an important purpose in the media marketplace.

NFL Sees Ratings Increase

Despite what our president might want, the NFL has had a phenomenal start to their season with regards to broadcasting. After seeing a nearly 10 percent decline in television ratings during the 2017 season, networks are reporting an across the board increase in viewership to start the current season.

While other programming on networks has seen a drastic decrease in ratings, Fox has reported a nearly 70 percent increase in fall ratings. This increase can be largely attributed to FOX’s recently acquired Thursday Night Football.

Last week’s thrilling Rams-Vikings game saw an impressive 10.7 rating, up 8% from a comparable game last season. The network’s ratings have seen a continued increase over the 2018 season.

Sunday Night Football has also seen an impressive increase in viewership. Last night’s Texans-Cowboys game marked the fourth straight week of a double-digit rating increase. The matchup also saw a 17 percent increase in viewers from Week 5 of the 2017 season.

While the cause of this across the board increase cannot be attributed to one cause, experts point to an increase in offensive output as a key factor. Exciting young quarterbacks and increasingly strict rules protecting offensive players have resulted in unprecedented levels of scoring this season. The downturn in political protest and the lack of media coverage regarding it could also play a role.

Regardless, America’s game remains the strongest product in a weakening broadcast market.

NFL Weighs Shift in Broadcasting Philosophy

For as long as America’s game has been broadcasted, fans have had to seek out the NFL’s product. A limited amount of networks hold rights to broadcast games, requiring fans to have cable subscriptions to watch their teams play.

In an increasingly wireless world, the NFL is generally behind the times in a number of ways. While the league signed a deal with Verison to stream games through the NFL app, football has not been accessible to cord cutters. Aside from a costly NFL Sunday Ticket subscription, the league has never offered a digital outlet to watch games to a wide audience.

This offseason, the league weighed new approaches to presenting America’s game.

The NFL now offers its mobile streaming to any user with a cable subscription, not just Verizon users.

“With digital and the shift in consumption in the market place, we want to make sure fans have access to as much of our content as possible, especially the live games,” said Kevin LaForce, the NFL’s senior vice president for media strategy and business development, in an NFL press release.

While the service is not available to fans without cable subscriptions, the decision marks a step in the right direction for the league. The NFL has already placed an emphasis on digital content, signing deals with gaming service Twitch and media giants Amazon and Yahoo to stream games online in recent years. Between all offerings, digital services have seen a 65% increase in viewers since 2017.

This growth is quite shocking considering the general decline in broadcast ratings during the 2017 season. Given this increase, it will be interesting to see how the NFL approaches digital broadcasting going forward. With the league’s contracts with networks approach their expirations, the NFL has an opportunity to offer an over the top service, separate from networks.

The success of their digital outlets, owned and not owned, will most likely influence how the league decides to broadcast games for years to come.

Forward Progress

Last Thursday, Amazon made history.

The company, new to the world of NFL broadcasting, named Andrea Kremer and Hannah Storm as their play-by-play and color commentators for their Thursday Night Football broadcasts during the 2018 season.

Kremer and Storm will be the first duo of female announcers to ever call an NFL game.

Kremer, a reporter for NFL Network, and Storm, a long-time ESPN anchor, will broadcast all 11 games on Amazon Prime’s stream of the games in the company’s second year of its partnership with the NFL. The retail and media behemoth signed a reported $50 million deal with the league last year and averaged 1.7 million viewers per week.

The move comes just months after MLS’s first all-female broadcast of a D.C. United-New England Revolution game. Both moves show the growing equality in the sports broadcasting and specifically the NFL broadcasting landscape.

While there is still a ways to go to close the gender gap in the sport, Amazon’s decision is a big step in the right direction. It will be interesting to see how other networks and media outlets respond to this progress.

Amazon’s decision also supports their aims to creep into the sports broadcasting world. With network NFL rights ending in a few years, it will be intriguing to see how the company approaches future decisions, as they potentially try to position themselves for a bid for expanded, or even full, rights.

Bonus Coverage Blunder

The Carolina Panthers were down 31-30 with six seconds remaining against the New York Giants this afternoon. Graham Gano lined up for a 63-yard field goal as the play clocked ticked down. With one second left on the play clock, the nine-year veteran nailed the second longest kick in National Football League history to win the game.

USA TODAY

The problem? No one outside of the Carolinas was watching.

Due to a caveat in the NFL broadcasting contract, FOX, the network televising the game, switched to pre-game coverage of the Minnesota Vikings and Philadelphia Eagles outside of the Carolina market.

The caveat, dubbed “bonus coverage” sounds fool-proof at face value. If a televised game ends early or has an outcome already determined, networks may switch to another game that is taking place, as long as it falls under their jurisdiction (National Football Conference games on FOX and American Football League games on CBS).

However, the clause has a key limitation. Bonus coverage, unlike original coverage, cannot be shown after 4:20 ET for 1 p.m. games. This prevents fans from watching coverage of typically suspenseful games.

In today’s instance, FOX switched away from the Panthers-Giants game the play before Gano’s game-winning kick on all networks showing the game outside of the Carolinas.

This decision and the NFL’s policy led to obvious frustration on social media, with fans criticizing the NFL for prioritizing advertising over the game itself.

Whether or not the NFL instituted the policy out of greed or not, one of the most suspenseful finishes of the season not being televised should result in a change in the NFL’s policy.

Sounds of the Game

Close your eyes.

Imagine yourself at the Super Bowl, fourth down and 8, from the 34-yard line. What do you hear?

For Wendel Stevens, producer for NBC’s Sunday Night Football, creating this dream is his reality. Stevens’ job is to make sure that your living room sounds like you’re sitting at midfield.

“I don’t want people to hear the mix — I want them to hear the game,” Stevens said in an interview with Sports Video Group. In order to create the immersive experience that a great sound mix creates, Stevens and other NFL sound mixers must consider a number of factors during a game, including the crowd, player audio, and announcers.

While different sound mixers have different techniques, Stevens prefers to let quiet moments be quiet and loud moments be loud. “A viewer can get fatigued listening if the level is too even throughout the game,” he told Sports Video Group.

Mixers must consider a number of other factors when producing a game. Seemingly insignificant elements such as humidity can make the sound of a game seem drastically different on air.

Different networks also have different philosophies on the sound of their product. For instance, NBC’s iconic theme music will be prioritized more than music on other networks.

With all these factors considered, mixers still have to deal with the unpredictable nature of the game. A misstep as seemingly insignificant as crowd noise that isn’t quite loud enough after a big play can completely remove viewers from the drama of a game.

Even though mixers like Stevens will never gain the acclaim of announcers or media personalities, without them America’s game would not be the same.