Huddle up, NFL, so we can call your media plays

The National Football League has a lot on its plate right now, including figuring out how to resolve its labor dispute in time for the opening of training camps at the end of next month.

But that distraction isn't slowing the league down when it comes to figuring out ways to make more money. It is out there shopping around a new package of primetime Thursday night games for the first half of the season, which could bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in new rights fees. Potential bidders include Comcast, parent of the cable sports channel Versus, and the league's own NFL Network, which already has a Thursday package for the second half of the season. Disney's ESPN, home of "Monday Night Football," will also sniff around.

The NFL doesn't need our advice, but we're going to offer it anyway. Be selective when choosing a cable network.There may be networks out there that cater to young men who have the money to spend on your product, but remember your brand and don't put it on a channel that has other programming that could tarnish it. Also, steer clear of networks that don't have any sort of history of televising professional sports. The NFL doesn't need to be anybody's lab rat. I realize the same things were said about Fox when it landed the NFL, but Fox parent News Corp. was no stranger to professional sports around the globe, just in the United States.

There is an automatic assumption that the buyer will be a cable network. While the odds are it will, is it out of the realm of possibility that a broadcaster wouldn't at least kick the tires? After all, eight games of football is a lot of ratings points and a pretty big promotional platform. Disney's ABC could certainly use the ratings.

Given how the broadcast networks all like to boast about the money that is now rolling in from cable and satellite distributors in so-called retransmission consent fees, perhaps it's time to invest that money in more big-event programming. The NFL should at least make visits to the broadcasters and not just figure that one of them wouldn't bite on Thursday games.

After the NFL locks in a new TV partner, it should try to strengthen its relationship with Univision, the nation's leading Spanish-language broadcaster whose ratings among key demographics often rival the big English-language channels.

Already the official Spanish-language radio broadcaster for the NFL and a partner with the NFL on a website, the league should simulcast a game every week on Univision's television network. The NFL has made a big push to grow its Hispanic audience, and crafting a package of games for Univision to telecast in Spanish would be a big boost. Last fall, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league was committed to connecting with its "passionate and growing Latino fan base."

Such an arrangement would require some cooperation from its current TV partners, perhaps in the form of providing more commercial inventory in their games or a chance to sell spots on Univision during its simulcasts. If Goodell wants it to happen, it can happen.

-- Joe Flint

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NFL going forward with plans for another TV package

The National Football League is going ahead with plans to introduce a new Thursday night package of prime-time games that could start as early as the 2012 season.

Such a move had been expected, but as part of the league's push to extend the regular season of football games from 16 games to 18 games. That idea met with such resistance from NFL players that the league and its owners have tabled it for now.

The new eight-game package would be for the first half of the season. The NFL's own cable channel -- the NFL Network -- already has an eight-game schedule for the second half of the season. Besides the NFL Network, other potential bidders could include Comcast, which owns the sports channel Versus, or Turner Broadcasting, which owns TNT and other channels that could carry games. News of the NFL's renewed interest in landing a new television partner was first reported by Sports Business Journal.

While the NFL is coming off a tremendous season in terms of television ratings, adding another package risks overexposing the sport and devaluing its own brand.

For the NFL, the motivation of a new package is money. Currently, the league gets over $4.5 billion in annual rights fees from Fox, NBC, CBS, ESPN, DirecTV and the NFL Network. Another prime-time deal could be worth north of $500 million.

However, the current rights holders will likely want some sort of concession from the league for their next contracts. The addition of more evening contests has the potential to dilute the value of the other deals. Whoever acquires the new package will want big games, which means the incumbents would lose some marquee matches.

The odds that the NFL will lower its rights fees to Fox, CBS and the others are about as good as the Washington Redskins making the Super Bowl next season. There are other ways the league can compensate the veteran rights holders including allowing the networks to increase the commercial loads in the games. In other words, not only will your cable bill go up if there is a new package, but you'll watch more commercials on the other networks with games.

-- Joe Flint

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Photo: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Credit: Nam Y. Huh / Associated Press.

Networks try to be optimistic on NFL situation

What, me worry?

That seems to be the attitude of the TV networks that count on the National Football League for ratings when the topic of labor strife comes up.

At presentations to advertisers and the media this week, Fox, NBC and ESPN all were trying to act optimistic when it comes to the NFL. Although there is still no deal between the owners and players on a new collective-bargaining agreement, the expectation was that come September there will be a kickoff.

"Optimistic" was how NBC Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt described the mood of the network with regard to the NFL. Of all the networks, NBC has perhaps the most at stake. Its Sunday-night package of games is one of the ratings-challenged network's few bright spots and also serves as a platform for promoting the rest of its shows.

To be sure, it is in the best interest of the networks to put on a brave face in front of advertisers. That is why none were talking with any detail about what programming would be substituted for football.

When the network brass were off the stage and away from media buyers, their tone darkened just a little. One sports chief of a football-carrying network who spoke anonymously because he, like the other network sports chiefs, was wary of publicly expressing anything less than blue-sky optimism, said the first few weeks of the season could be delayed. Once the players go a while without paychecks, the executive added, he expects a quick resolution.

-- Joe Flint

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No NFL means big holes to fill for networks

It is a long way from a lockout in March to no games in September, but the networks that carry NFL football might want to start making alternate plans just to be safe.

Last week, talks between the players and owners ended without a new deal on how the two sides should share the almost $10 billion in revenue the league gets, primarily from television deals. The other dividing point is whether the season should be extended from 16 regular-season games to 18 games.

The last time there was an impasse between players and the NFL that led to a work stoppage, the league played three games with replacement players. That was in 1987. A repeat of that, though, seems unlikely.

NBC and ESPN have the most to lose if the season is either delayed or scrapped. NBC's "Sunday Night Football" is its highest-rated programming and serves as a platform for the network to promote the rest of its schedule. Given NBC's ratings this season, it may not seem as if it is working, but without it the network would really struggle to hype itself on its own air.

Disney's ESPN coverage of the NFL gave it huge ratings last year and makes the cable channel's $4 per-subscriber, per-month fee a little easier for its distribution partners to swallow.

Neither of the networks have announced plans for life without football. ESPN has said it has alternate plans in place but won't disclose anything about their strategy. NBC will probably look to movies or reality shows to fill the football void.

CBS and Fox have it easier since they carry games in the afternoon as opposed to prime time. Fox, which owns Fuel, an extreme-sports cable network, may try to use some of its programming to substitute for football. CBS might sell the time to a distributor of less high-profile sports programming. In other words, don't be too shocked if you find yourself watching bull riding.

Although the networks have tried to minimize the pain they will feel if football goes away, make no mistake -- they will be hurting. Whatever programming is substituted for football will get much smaller ratings and that means advertisers will pay less for commercials. As per their deals, the networks are supposed to continue to pay for football even if there are no games although the league will make good on that down the road. There has been a court ruling calling into question the deal so the networks may ultimately be off the hook on paying for games they won't get.

One thing is for sure, neither CBS nor Fox plan on giving that time back to their affiliates to program while the NFL owners and players try to resolve their differences.

-- Joe Flint

Photo: Green Bay and Pittsburgh in last month's Super Bowl. Credit: Rob Carr / Getty Images.

For the record: This post was clarified to note that the NFL will cover the networks on any rights fees paid for games that don't get played.

Disney CFO responds to questions about NFL labor dispute, ESPN

As the National Football League and the players union continue contract talks, Walt Disney Co. Chief Financial Officer Jay Rasulo was pressed Tuesday to answer questions about how a potential strike or lockout would impact sports juggernaut ESPN.

Rasulo expressed confidence that Disney's lucrative sports network, which has the rights to "Monday Night Football,"  could weather the loss of games, telling the audience at Credit Suisse's Global Media and Communications Convergence Conference that "we're not that concerned." 

ESPN has plenty of athletic events to substitute in place of the NFL games, Rasulo said, adding that automakers and other advertisers would continue to gravitate to the network because of its audience.

"If advertisers want to reach the demographic that the NFL is reaching, especially in an economy that is on its way back, ... it's going to be sports, and these sports are going to be carried by ESPN," Rasulo said.

ESPN does have a strong menu, but the NFL is its main course, and last season it generated incredibly strong ratings for the network. Without the games, it is unlikely ESPN would be able to maintain the ratings average it achieved in 2010, and that could lead to lower advertising revenues.

Rasulo said ESPN would continue to pay its fees to the league even if there are no games, adding that it's not clear yet "what happens to those fees if there is a lockout." A federal judge in Minnesota ruled earlier this month that the NFL acted in bad faith when it renegotiated its television deals.

The judge in that case has ordered a hearing to decide if monetary damages can be sought from the league or whether to grant the wishes of the players union to issue an injunction preventing the league from using its television money if there is are no games to televise.

"We certainly hope, for the sake of our fans, that [a work stoppage] doesn't happen in the first place, but if it does, [that] it doesn't last a long time," Rasulo said.

The NFL has not lost games to a work stoppage in nearly a quarter of a century. By agreeing to continue with mediation, the players union and the league are signaling that neither is ready to shut down the season. 

-- Dawn C. Chmielewski

Photo: Jay Rasulo. Credit: Michel Euler / Associated Press

Packers take title as Super Bowl sets new audience record

It was another record audience for the Super Bowl as 111 million tuned in to Fox to watch the Green Bay Packers trip up the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-25 and take home the Lombardi trophy, according to Nielsen.

That number makes the 2011 NFL championship game the most watched event in U.S. history. It shattered last year's record audience of a 106.5 million for the battle between the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints. The Saints win had broken the almost 30-year-old mark for an audience held by the last episode of the legendary CBS war comedy "MASH."

For Fox, a network that will mark the 25th anniversary of the launch of its first show ever later this fall, it now owns a record for most watched TV night in the history of television.

The big Super Bowl number caps a huge year for the NFL, which saw ratings growth on all its networks. However, a dark cloud is on the horizon as the league still does not have a new labor deal with the players and the old one expires next month. Besides trying to refigure the revenue split between the league and players, the league also wants to extend the season to 18 games. The players, concerned about injuries, are against adding two more games to the season.

Of the 111 million viewers that watched the game, 26.8 million stuck around through the post-game to check out Fox's special episode of "Glee." That number may be a record for the show, but the drop off of viewers from the game and post-game programming is fairly dramatic. "Glee," a series set in high school with lots of musical numbers, was seen as something of a risky choice for Fox to air after the Super Bowl because its biggest appeal is with females and kids.

"Glee" was not helped by how late the game ran. Last year, CBS was able to start the premiere episode of its reality show "Undercover Boss" at 10:13 p.m. on the East Coast and get an audience of almost 40 million. "Glee" did not start until 10:39 p.m. Fox generally runs a longer post-game show than the other networks.

The numbers for "Glee," while down from "Undercover Boss," were bigger than what NBC scored in 2009 when it went with an episode of "The Office" after its coverage of the Pittsburgh Steelers' last-minute win over the Arizona Cardinals.

Fox's pregame coverage featured Fox News personality Bill O'Reilly interviewing President Obama. The interveiw ran fifteen minutes and started at 4:45 p.m. The half-hour of 4:30 - 5 p.m. averaged 17.3 million viewers.

The game may have set a new mark, but the day was not glitch free. First, about 400 fans ended up not getting seats at the game even though they had tickets because the sections they were supposed to sit in were declared unsafe. While big refunds were offered and hasty accommodations made, it was a big blunder. Then Christina Aguilera botched the lyrics to the national anthem and the halftime show had technical issues as well.

On the field though, the fans got their money's worth. While Green Bay jumped out to a 21-3 lead in the second quarter, the Steelers fought back and made a game of it.

-- Joe Flint

For the record: This post was updated to include the audience for Bill O'Reilly's interview with President Obama.

Photo: Packers Jordy Nelson, left, and Aaron Rogers celebrate their victory. Credit: Pierre Ducharme.

NFL has made Super Bowl Sunday into a holiday, is a three-day weekend the next step?

Forget the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving or New Year's Day. Super Bowl Sunday has replaced them all as America’s No. 1 holiday. It has become so big that the National Football League is considering giving the game its own three-day weekend.

That’s no joke. One scenario making the rounds at the league is that if the NFL gets the green light from the players to expand its regular season from 16 to 18 games, President’s Day weekend will probably become the permanent home of the Super Bowl.

“It’s going to be unbelievable,” predicted NBC Universal Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol, whose network pays $660 million a year to carry the NFL’s  Sunday night football package. “ I think that’s a pretty attractive idea,” echoed Sean McManus, president of CBS Sports, which shells out $650 million annually for its package of games.

Of course, the players are against expanding the schedule but if the owners are united on this then it seems likely.

At a time when most television properties are struggling in the face of massive audience fragmentation, the NFL is seeing incredible growth. Ratings were up on all five broadcast and cable networks that carry games, and this season’s Super Bowl match between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers in Dallas this Sunday is expected to top  the viewership record set by last year’s Colts – Saints battle, which drew 106.5 million people and became the most-watched TV event in the United States ever, breaking the almost 30-year-old record held by the series finale of “M*A*S*H.”

It’d be easy to chalk this up solely to the love of the game, but over the last few years the popularity for the NFL in general and the Super Bowl in particular have entered another stratosphere that seemingly defies logic.  The last five games have all topped more than 90 million viewers. Until 2005, only five of the previous 39 Super Bowls had surpassed that mark.

So how has the NFL turned the Super Bowl into a de facto national holiday?

Savvy marketing for starters.  Over the last decade, the NFL and its TV partners have undertaken several initiatives – some noisy and others subtle – designed not only to boost the league’s fan base, but its stature in the country as well. These moves have included aggressively  promoting the NFL to women, creating more big events beyond the Super Bowl and not being shy about making the watching of a football game seem like a patriotic act.

“It has been one of the most profoundly effective media and public relations events that has ever been built in the United States,” said Daniel T. Durbin, an associate professor at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism,  of the NFL’s marketing prowess.

The man in charge of making sure football remains entrenched both with viewers and in America’s conscience is a Kenyan native schooled in the United Kingdom who used to hawk tobacco and alcohol.  Mark Waller, who joined the NFL in 2006 to help promote the game abroad before rising to become the league’s first chief marketing officer, calls football “America’s last great campfire.”

“Imagine you were above the United States on a Sunday, you’d see these incredible glows of stadiums," Waller said.

Borrowing a page from the producers of the Olympics, the NFL and its TV partners have also become aggressive about discussing more than just X’s and O’s and talking about life and challenges off the field for the players and coaches and in some cases, even the cities. Last year’s Super Bowl coverage focused as much on the city of New Orleans and its struggles post-Katrina as it did on the Saints making their first-ever appearance in the big game.

The idea of hyping itself used to be foreign to the NFL and looked down upon as tacky and pushy. 

“They’ve come a long way,” says Sara Levinson, who as president of NFL Properties from 1994 to 2000, oversaw marketing for the league. She recalled that while some were eager to see the NFL become more aggressive promoters, many of the league's old guard were reluctant to think of the league as a “brand,” believing nothing promoted the NFL “better than watching a game.”

It helps to have team owners that recognize that the league is more powerful than any individual team.
“They have an appreciation for the need to grow, strengthen and elevate the NFL brand as much as their own individual teams,” said Mark Shapiro, the chief executive of Dick Clark Productions and a former executive vice president of ESPN who still has close ties to the NFL. “I really think that’s what separates it from other leagues.”

For more on how the NFL has turned the Super Bowl into America's de facto national holiday, please see our story in Friday's Los Angeles Times.

-- Joe Flint

 Photo: Dallas gets ready for the big day. Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-US Presswire.

Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers should be ratings gold for Fox

Anyone who thinks that a Super Bowl featuring the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers won't deliver the numbers that the New York Jets and Chicago Bears would because they are from larger markets is sadly mistaken.

Although it's true that the Jets and Bears hail from bigger cities, the Packers and Steelers have huge followings, and both have been on national television far more than just about every other team in the league over the last five years. Fox, which has this year's game, has nothing to worry about.

The Super Bowl is not like Major League Baseball or the National Basketball Assn. finals. Fans come regardless of who is playing. The game has become America's unofficial holiday.

Last year's battle between the small-market New Orleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts on CBS drew more than 106 million viewers. The year before that, the match-up between the Arizona Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers on NBC had 98.7 million viewers. That audience topped the New York Giants' stunning upset over the New England Patriots in the 2008 game on Fox, and both those teams are from big cities.

The last five Super Bowls have all had audiences north of 90 million. The Steelers and Packers are institutions with lots of big-name players. Fox won't have to do a lot of promoting to get people pumped for the Feb. 6 showdown. 

Indeed, NBC Sports chief Dick Ebersol woke up a little envious of Fox.

"This is going to be a monster," Ebersol said in an interview, noting that both the Packers and Steelers are "iconic brands."

"I would give my eye teeth to be [Fox Sports Chairman] David Hill this morning," Ebersol cracked.

-- Joe Flint

Photo: Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger keeps his eye on the ball in the Jan. 23, 2011, game. Credit: Doug Kapustin / MCT

 

Tuesday night football delivers for NBC and may give NFL something to think about

Could Tuesday become the new Monday?

Thanks to a blizzard, the National Football League got a look at how a game would do on Tuesday night, and the numbers were pretty impressive. Almost 24 million people tuned in to NBC and saw the Minnesota Vikings upset the Philadelphia Eagles. That's the biggest audience any network has gotten on a Tuesday this season.

The game, which was originally scheduled for Sunday night, was moved because of the snowstorm that struck the East Coast.

While the numbers were huge, keep in mind that the competition was pretty light. CBS had its "Kennedy Center Honors" special and just about everyone else was in rerun mode, as is usually the case during the week between Christmas and New Years.

So why talk about this at all? Because if the NFL gets its wish and expands the regular season to 18 games, it will likely create a new TV package, and with that could come a new night of games. After all, what's the point of making a season longer if you can't extract more TV dollars?

Although NFL players are generally against expanding the season for the obvious health reasons and the current TV rights holders are probably in no rush to see their bill for football go up, the league is pretty determined to push this through. It's not a matter of if, but when.

The obvious scenario for the NFL is to expand its Thursday package, which is carried by its own NFL Network, from half a season to all season.

But that's taking money from one of its pockets and putting it in another. While more games might add value to the NFL Network, a new rights-holder is new money.

As for bringing a new night into the mix, the NFL wants to show the dominance of its product, and one way to do that is to be on as many nights as possible. Saturday seems obvious, but there is a conflict with college football, even though it's likely both could survive on that day. 

There is a downside, though. By adding games and expanding to another night, the league risks over-saturating the market with games and diluting its strength. It's always better to have more demand than supply.

-- Joe Flint

 Photo: Vikings quarterback Joe Webb on the move. Credit: Tim Shaffer / Reuters

 

 

 

 

Even with 'Despicable Me,' NBC Universal third-quarter profit falls [Updated]

Despite strong performance from its movie studio and theme parks, NBC Universal's third-quarter operating profit tumbled 15%. The lower earnings were largely due to an unfavorable compairson to the year-earlier period and higher spending on programming to try to jump-start the limping peacock TV network's prime-time schedule. 

[For the record at 8:31 a.m.: An earlier version of this post stated NBC Universal's third-quarter profit drop was largely due to substantially higher spending on programming. It was largely due to an unfavorable comparison to the year-earlier period. Higher programming costs also contributed to the figures.]

But the investment in new programming has not paid off. NBC's big bets for the new fall season, including "The Event" and "Outlaw," have failed to win huge audiences.  Instead, NBC's broadcasts of NFL football have kept the network in the ratings game.

The media company, owned by industrial giant General Electric Co., on Friday reported operating profit of $625 million for the period ended Sept. 30. That compared with $732 million for the year-earlier period. Revenue for NBC Universal was flat at $4.06 billion.

In a conference call with analysts, General Electric Chief Financial Officer Keith Sherin said NBC Universal had tough comparisons with the third quarter of 2009, which included a gain from the company's sale of its stake in the A&E Networks.  "The operating performance was better than reported," Sherin said.

The standout division for the third quarter was the Los Angeles-based film studio, Universal Pictures, and theme parks. The movie "Despicable Me" was a box-office bonanza, and attendance at the Universal Studios theme parks was up by double-digits, with crowds swarming to the openings of the new Harry Potter and King Kong attractions.

NBC Universal's cable TV division performed well. Bravo had its best quarter ever, GE said, and financial news network CNBC's profit was up 5%.  Advertising to local TV stations was also strong.

GE is in the process of turning over its controlling interest in NBC Universal to Philadelphia cable giant Comcast Corp. Sherin said the company was cooperating with federal regulators scrutinizing the proposed joint venture and was hopeful that the deal would close by the end of the year. After the merger, Comcast will own 51% and GE will retain 49% of NBC Universal.

Overall, GE saw its profit for the third quarter plummet 18% to $2.06 billion. Revenue of $35.9 billion was down 5% compared with the year-earlier period, short of analysts' expectations.

-- Meg James