Editor's Note: This short-form article was first published as part of Unofficial Partner's The Bundle Bulletin ( Edition #1), where Richard Gillis started to publish my and co-host Murray Barnett's notes including possible topics, random thoughts, and potential storylines that make up the latest podcast episode from The Bundle. The Bundle goes out monthly, so that will be the cadence of this new newsletter, too: sign up here. On a select basis, I will publish notes around one of the main storylines in the form of an "OFFTHEFIELDBUSINESS - Shorts": a sub-five-minute read, instead of the in-dept ..read more

Editor's Note: This short-form article has first been published on Twitter ( Short #1), where I started to play around with Twitter Blue's extended 4,000-character-post feature. For me, it still requires cutting some corners on the grammar and style, but it is fun and can be written off the top of my head without much or any research, and allows for at least some more context than the "hot-taky" 280-character tweets. With those limitations for "OFFTHEFIELDBUSINESS - Shorts" in mind, readers are getting a two-minute read, instead of the in-depth, super-long blog articles that have become the st ..read more

Editor's Note: This short-form article has first been published on Twitter ( Short #2), where I started to play around with Twitter Blue's extended 4,000-character-post feature. For me, it still requires cutting some corners on the grammar and style, but it is fun and can be written off the top of my head without much or any research, and allows for at least some more context than the "hot-taky" 280-character tweets. With those limitations for "OFFTHEFIELDBUSINESS - Shorts" in mind, readers are getting a two-minute read, instead of the in-depth, super-long blog articles that have become the st ..read more

Editor's Note: This short-form article has first been published on Twitter ( Short #1), where I started to play around with Twitter Blue's extended 4,000-character-post feature. For me, it still requires cutting some corners on the grammar and style, but it is fun and can be written off the top of my head without much or any research, and allows for at least some more context than the "hot-taky" 280-character tweets. With those limitations for "OFFTHEFIELDBUSINESS - Shorts" in mind, readers are getting a two-minute read, instead of the in-depth, super-long blog articles that have become the st ..read more

YouTube becoming the exclusive retailer of NFL Sunday Ticket follows the ️ playbook from other technology giants but might come from a position of ️ weakness rather than strength The News: Google/YouTube will pay the NFL between $2.0-2.5BN annually, reportedly including a variable component based on sign-ups, under a seven-year for the residential rights to retailing the NFL Sunday Ticket. The NFL retains commercial rights to broadcast games in bars, restaurants, and other commercial premises until further notice — which could push the package's annual value beyond $2.5BN in a best-case scenar ..read more

Content Distributor rather Rights Buyer: Apple is seeking exclusive distribution partnerships rather than rights buyouts. Editor's Note: Informed by Apple’s recent rights acquisition of distribution partnership with the North American top-flight soccer league and as further elaboration on my recent thoughts shared with John Wall Street (”Apple’s MLS Deal Shows It Wants To Distribute Rights, Not Buy Them”), this is a deep-dive into Apple’s (and Amazon’s) sports video strategy. If you have only five minutes, there is a link above. If you want to get into the nitty-gritty of the digital sports me ..read more

Making Sense of Apple’s Interest in Exclusive Live Sports Programming DTC subscription economics for OTT streaming services cannot compete with the outsized and stable returns of B2B or B2C subscription businesses. Neither subscription (Apple TV+) nor platform (Apple TV) revenues would come close to generating an economic return on the acquisition of the NFL Sunday Ticket. While depressed ARPUs and sky-high churn are insurmountable challenges for DTC subscription economics to extract sustainable value of new sign-ups, even the NFL’s premium product is unlikely to be able to materially drive m ..read more

Editor's Note: This article has first been published on ,LinkedIn — as just like many others, I wanted to comment on the reported untethering of Sinclair's regional sports networks from the traditional pay-TV bundle. Reached LinkedIn's character limit for comments quickly, ended up in a LinkedIn article covering: Bridge-financing Revenue Gap during Cable-to-Streaming Transition Over-Monetizing Niches with unprecedented Price Points for OTT Streaming Stand-alone Local OTTs Premium Add-Ons or Full Migration to National Streamers Conclusion: Additive/Cannbilazing Nature and MVPD as Key Stakeholde ..read more

OTT vs. Linear TV is no Either/Or - Decision anymore. Neither is Short- vs. Long-Form Content. Audience Fragmentation x Product-Market(Segment)-Fit: Audience fragmentation alone understates fundamental challenges for sports rights holders to not only reach, but successfully address, heterogeneous market segments and diverse consumption preferences. Need for Cross-Platform Distribution: Carriage deals between rights holders have created frenemies and a lack of competition among broadcasters/streamers; lessening the negative impact of audience fragmentation—it is a suboptimal solution for every ..read more

For the first time in its domestic market, an NFL game was broadcast exclusively on a digital-only platform on December 26, 2020. The San Francisco 49ers vs. Arizona Cardinals game drew a worldwide (!) average viewership* of 4.8M across Prime Video and Twitch (as well as NFL Mobile/Verizon Media; under a USD 500M per season deal limited to live local-market games and primetime national games—which the aforementioned game was despite its time slot in the early evening). The digital-native currency "viewers" (which Prime Video counts based on the lowest-possible hurdle of the consumer initiating ..read more