Posted on 01/16/2024 2:28:26 AM PST by Red Badger
The NFL Playoffs are finally here, and the first weekend featured less-than-stellar matchups. What looked to be good games on paper turned, for the most part, into one-sided, boring affairs. There were great individual performances, such as Jordan Love of the Packers again disappointing Dallas Cowboys fans and a great storyline with Christian quarterback C.J. Stroud becoming the youngest quarterback to win a playoff game. However, for the most part, the action on the field was sloppy and uninspiring.
The premier matchup of the weekend was the high-scoring Miami Dolphins traveling to frigid Kansas City to take on the struggling Super Bowl Champion Chiefs. Even that game was a dud, but did anyone see it? Considerably fewer people saw that game than usual due to a unique arrangement between the NFL and the NBC-owned streaming service Peacock.
For the first time ever, the league showed a playoff game on streaming only, severely limiting who could actually watch the game from the frozen tundra of Kansas City. While the game was broadcast over the air in Kansas City and Miami, the rest of the country was left to either stream or go without.
Peacock backed the truck up to the NFL and shelled out a reported $110 million dollars for exclusive rights to the game, which could be a harbinger of things to come. It is widely speculated that the league and networks plan to transition the NFL into streaming only as broadcast television continues to die. When the current television deal is up, the league could look to streaming moving forward. That prospect isn’t sitting well with many fans, including some more well-known ones.
New York sports talk legend Mike Francesa let his feelings be known on X before the game. He wrote: “Not only is the NFL’s greedy Peacock adventure a disgrace, but the quality of the telecast is equally disgraceful. Fix the technology.” There appeared to be numerous technical issues with the stream, including reduced resolution and buffering, causing a choppy picture.
Another issue with streaming is the delay. When games are streamed, if fans are listening to the radio broadcasters as many do or even following along on X, the action on the stream is considerably delayed compared to the live feed. It sounds like a small issue, but considering the popularity of social media and fantasy sports, the delay is a definite annoyance.
The cost for Peacock isn’t what was keeping most fans from signing up and watching. Francesca was harsh in his criticism of the league from a financial perspective. He said: “The Peacock Playoff exclusive. Nothing short of a complete greedy disregard for their incredible fans. The NFL banked 110 million for the game, and fans be damned.” At least one Chief agreed: defensive end Charles Omenihu purchased 90 subscriptions for fans and commented on X, “Us playing on peacock ONLY is insane I won’t lie.”
Money aside, fans seemed most upset about the 2010s quality of the stream. One fan snarkily wrote on X: “Great job, @peacock. Broadcasting an NFL playoff game in Pixelvision was a stroke of genius. Maybe add a server or two before you try to hold fans hostage with your janky service.,” while another said, “Your streaming is AWFUL! Jerky, buffers and the color washes out.”
Perhaps the narrative would be slightly different if the game had been more competitive. The Chiefs froze out the Dolphins 26-7 in a game that didn’t seem that close. However, fans are going to demand a quality stream, especially if they have to pay, and this time, Peacock fumbled the ball and $110 million dollars.
Almost every third commercial on the game before that was a Peacock ad urging everyone to sign up to watch the game.
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Peacock? No thanks. I’m on limited BW here and Peacock has no Data Saver setting (that I’m aware of) and eats gigabits like popcorn...
If the NFL goes to 100% streaming, they will kill the Golden Goose. Fans won’t watch or buy their overpriced swag.
If NBC thought to make money on that one game, did they make more than the $110 MILLION they gave the NFL? I bet they didn’t.
Did they get millions of new subscribers to sign up for their crappy streaming service? I doubt it.
All in all it was a losing proposition all the way around for NBC, NFL and FAN.....................
If the NFL doesn’t want me to watch the games then I won’t. I’m not paying money to watch games AND see advertisements too.
And from what I’ve heard the video was terrible.................
The man on the radio said the game was the largest streaming event in internet history. I’m guessing it was also the smallest television audience of a play-off game since the 1950s.
I doubt the NFL will go 100% streaming, the NFL has an anti-trust exemption from Congress that could easily get revoked, if the NFL went 100% streaming, I think the public backlash would be huge and force the politicians to do something, that reason alone should keep the NFL from doing this.
Almost all of these streaming services are losing lots of money, NBC was overpaying for 1 game hoping to get a lot of new paying subscribers, I doubt it will work.
OTOH, I hope streaming services succeed, if they continue as they are. Cable and the satellite services are pricing themselves out of the market. (Remember that, streaming services !!!)
Also … I don’t think the NFL has an antitrust exemption from Congress. If they did, then the USFL would have had no legal basis to sue the NFL back in the 1980s.
For what it’s worth, the USFL actually won that lawsuit — but were awarded only $1 in damages because they couldn’t prove that the NFL’s monopoly harmed them in any way.
Mathematically it can't work past a certain point. Once they sign up all the fans that want to, there are no more to be signed up. It's a perfect example of the Law of Diminishing Returns.................
And to add to that, the new subscribers can cancel anytime.................
If the fans are so upset, why did a record number of them sign up for this game? I was hoping few would do so.
Of course it was a ‘record’, it was the first time..................
Here’s an article about the NFL’s anti-trust exemption.
It would be interesting to see the stats on how many that paid for the livestream show paid with EBT's. I KNOW that data would never be made public.
It is cheaper to get Peacock then it is too get ESPN.
It’s a shame people don’t get as worked up about the invasion at our southern border.
ESPN is Disney. They overcharge for everything....................
What’s the matter, NFL...
Missing all those Pfizer ad buys...?
That’s what happened to boxing. They used to show the big fights on regular TV. Then they went to pay per view. Now boxing is a shell of its former self. They make more money but I think they lose fans over the long haul.
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