The 2022 season was the primary yr of Amazon‘s 11-year cope with the NFL, one which Jay Marine, Global Head of Sports at Prime Video, mentioned left the e-commerce large “extremely excited” however was additionally simply the beginning of an funding for the “long term.”

Amazon is paying the NFL roughly $1 billion per season for the rights to “Thursday Night Football.” In the primary yr of its broadcast, which was out there to most viewers solely by means of streaming, it averaged roughly 11 million viewers, based on Amazon. In the earlier yr, when “Thursday Night Football” was not solely out there on Prime Video but additionally the league’s NFL Network, broadcasts averaged about 15 million viewers, based on Nielsen information.

Marine mentioned Amazon felt it was a “great first year” for its broadcast, noting that these 11 million common viewers had been youthful and had larger revenue ranges in comparison with different NFL broadcasts.

Amazon expects to develop that viewers in yr two, as not solely extra NFL followers acknowledge that Amazon is the unique “Thursday Night Football” broadcaster, but additionally as extra customers generally transfer in the direction of streaming. “You can debate that rate of change, but you can’t debate the macro trajectory,” Marine mentioned.

On prime of that, the chance across the new Black Friday game that Amazon will completely stream – the primary time the NFL will play a recreation on the day after Thanksgiving, traditionally an enormous day for NFL rankings – is “perfect” for the ecommerce large, Marine mentioned.

“I think it’s a testament to the NFL’s trust in us to help launch a new NFL holiday and tradition,” he mentioned.

— Ian Thomas

ESPN and its mother or father firm Disney have been in discussions with potential strategic companions, ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro mentioned Tuesday.

Pitaro mentioned Tuesday he and Disney CEO Bob Iger had began the discussions with potential companions in mild of accelerated twine chopping from the normal cable TV bundle. 

Last week, CNBC reported ESPN had talks with skilled sports activities leagues together with MLB, NFL and NBA. Pitaro would not touch upon potential companions and discussions. 

“I will emphasize the fact we believe there are parties out there that can help us on the content side,” Pitaro mentioned. He famous potential companions might come from the tech, advertising, content material and distribution sides of the enterprise. 

Earlier in July, Iger said on CNBC that the corporate is serious about promoting an fairness stake in ESPN, and is searching for a strategic accomplice. The admission got here after Iger famous the corporate was rethinking its conventional cable-TV channel portfolio and could be open to promoting the networks or exploring different choices.

-Lillian Rizzo

There have been loads of headlines about Disney CEO Bob Iger‘s seek for strategic companions for ESPN, however Aryeh Bourkoff, Chairman & CEO of funding banking agency LionTree, says one side of the story many haven’t centered on sufficient is simply how uncommon this sort of enterprise pivot is within the current historical past of the markets.

After ESPN chairman James Pitaro mentioned conversations were ongoing with potential partners, and early, on the subject of migrating its flagship channels to direct-to-consumer (DTC) platforms, Bourkoff mentioned we are actually in a world had been corporations like Amazon and Disney and different components of ecosystem have to come back collectively within the shift to a DTC mannequin, and media gamers and tech gamers are each opponents and companions, and the leagues which ESPN has been rumored to be in talks with, are potential companions which have been a part of the associated fee construction of ESPN.

“There is a way to bring it all together that preserves the cash flow model during these transitions, and to do it as pubic company in front of shareholders is virtually unheard of,” Bourkoff mentioned. Whether Reed Hastings with DVD to streaming or Amazon from books to Prime, and now ESPN from linear to DTC, there have been few parallels, Bourkoff mentioned.

And within the present regulatory surroundings, what used to work — M&A — is not an possibility. “You need to do it with partnerships,” he mentioned. “Partnerships are the new M&A with leagues or private equity or rights holders. Otherwise, there will be too much pressure.”

—Eric Rosenbaum

Athletes, sports activities executives, homeowners, buyers and different sports activities and leisure leaders are arriving now in Los Angeles for the beginning of the Game Plan sports activities enterprise convention.

There ought to be loads of dialogue round the way forward for sports activities and the challenges that lie forward, whether or not that is the combination of know-how, reaching followers or creating new income streams – and the place all three intersect.

— Ian Thomas

Somewhat extra context forward of Game Plan’s first session:

The migration from linear TV to streaming has positioned huge strain on the monetary energy of legacy media corporations, Disney as a lot as any media large. Its marquee cable asset, ESPN, has suffered for years as Americans lower the twine. In a recent interview with CNBC’s David Faber, Disney CEO Bob Iger mentioned the linear TV business has degraded over the previous yr greater than he anticipated. “If anything, the disruption of that business has happened to a greater extent than even I was aware,” he mentioned.

Iger advised Faber of potential ESPN deal-making, “We’re going to be open minded about looking for strategic partners that could either help us with distribution or content. I’m not going to get too detailed about it, but we’re bullish about sports as a media property.”

Shortly after that, CNBC media reporter Alex Sherman reported that the MLB, NFL and NBA were in discussions with ESPN and Disney to take minority stakes. The NBA mentioned it’s all the time serious about discussions about “the future of its partnership” with ESPN. (Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery have unique negotiating rights with the NBA till subsequent yr.) The NFL has been serious about extending its possession of NFL-related media in a wide range of methods.

One of the important thing executives in these discussions, ESPN chairman James Pitaro, is up first at Game Plan and all eyes and ears can be on his feedback about the way forward for the sports activities community.

—Eric Rosenbaum