OT - One NFL playoff game will be exclusively online
Peacock has announced that it will be the exclusive home of one NFL playoff game next January.
https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2023/05/peacock-stream-nfl-playoff-game-exclusively-wild-card/
Just wondered what everyone's opinion is on this.
Personally, I think this is really stupid. They're basically screwing anyone who doesn't have a Peacock subscription, and I wonder how many people will subscribe just to watch one playoff game. Once again the fans take it on the chin so the NFL can make a few extra bucks.
My hypocrisy knows no bounds
Ok everyone, take a deep breath and step away from the ledge.
First off, every single streaming service known to man has some sort of free trial so if you have Peacock, congrats - you'll see the game and if you don't, get the free trial, cancel it, and you'll see the game. Peacock's is one week. And if, God forbid, they dont run that promo for the playoff game you'll be forced to pay a whole $4.99 for a month's worth of service that you can cancel anytime.
The streaming services do this as a way of "forcing" people to sample their services for a limited time hoping you'll either like it and stay or forget you signed up and stay. But either way anyone shut out of this game has a TV or internet from 1995 or is painfully naive in the methods in which consumers can gig the system, when necessary, to see what they want to see.
You can't give in or the terrorists win.
Isn't this naive? Yes things are fine at first when investment money is pumping in (whether from corporate or from venture capital). However, it doesn't take long for the growth stage to end and the value stage to begin, when squeezing revenue out of consumers and cutting costs become the priorities. Free trials, promo codes, account sharing, etc. don't last forever.
It doesnt have to "last forever". It has to last approximately 4 hours or so on the day of the game.
I find it more than a bit ironic that me, MgrowOld, owner of a new replacement hip this past Tuesday, wearer of both hearing aids & glasses, is the one not losing his shit over a playoff game being moved to a streaming service and off network TV. Because I'll bet other than a handful of other old guys, I've watched more NFL games than all of you. On CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, ESPN, TNT, Prime and now this year, Peacock.
So my lawn? Go ahead and play on it kids - i dont mind at all.
FWIW this is the first game I can remember watching in its entirety. Over 50 years ago - NFL Championship game 1967, the "Ice Bowl" and i was 8 years old.
Peacock has Parks and Rec, Top Chef, and Bumper in Berlin. Oh, and my kids love the new How to Train Your Dragon cartoons. You could easily get your $4.99 worth in a couple of sittings.
We all need to chill out about being able to watch every game for free as if it's an inalienable right. It wasn't that long ago when you got to watch one game on TV a year, and for the rest, you had to listen to the radio broadcast, and watch other football games, hoping to see a highlight during the halftime show.
And going backwards sucks so I'm gonna stomp my feet about it!
It's the principal of the thing. That's an awful lot of fucking around to watch one football game.
If it's not the Super Bowl, or a Conference Championship - I won't bother signing up for Peacock.
And, if it is one of the above - I'll go to a local spot and watch it there.
To me, it's not the cost - it's the principle.
Bars and restaurants have to pay commercial rates for streaming services like Peacock and those costs can be very steep. Unfortunately some places will pass those costs along to customers, either through upfront cover charges or indirectly by raising prices on food and drinks.
Go to a local spot, buy one drink for each quarter at $5 each. $5 tip. $25 to watch the game at a local spot, or just pay $5 to get the month subscription. Hmm.
Many here (myself included) are going to REALLY mad when 1 or 2 Michigan football games each year are exclusive to Peacock starting in 2024!
Starts this season with 8 B1G games on Peacock
Good to know. Virtual lock one of our early-season non-conference games will be on Peacock then. NBC isn't paying the B1G billions not to put their premier brands on the streaming service they're trying to grow.
Hate.
I think this is dumb - one of the best parts of the NFL is how much of it is on free tv. Good that the local markets will get it tho. I guess this isn't that much worse than putting it on ESPN, but it is worse because ESPN is much more common and also way less glitchy than the peacock app
I think I would have cared about this ten years ago. But I would have had cable then, so probably not. I haven't been tempted to get a package for Amazon or the NFL Network or even ESPN for regular season games, so I'm used to not having every window available now.
The trend is to dilute the playoffs in sports. The NFL added a seventh team in each conference - so far they haven't had any 7-2 upsets, but it will happen soon enough - the 6-3 games are usually competitive. I think playoff bloat hurts professional sports. Cheapens the regular season and adds more randomness to the playoffs.
These streaming bundles are starting to bloat exactly like cable, with the same prices. I suppose at some point the broadcast networks will end and all this will matter, but for now, it doesn't feel like an issue.
This was sort of inevitable - people acted like cord cutting was going to be some freeing event for consumers but the same couple of media companies that control the inventory (and in NBC's case, a lot of people's internet access) are going to get their money one way or another.
I assume Peacock is going to struggle streaming this game live - basically every one struggles with huge traffic to some degree (Amazon's Thursday games tend to be the best but that makes some sense since they have AWS powering it all) and the Peacock app is already sorta choppy. I watched part of Wrestlemania on it this past year and the experience wasn't great.
We can only hope the viewing numbers are so abysmal that the networks get a clear and resounding ‘fuck off’ with this bizarre and desperate campaign to further carve up and complicate viewing options. This is turning back into cable, except with 9 different stupid subscriptions to manage. So, so, so much easier to sail the high seas than to play this game.
Every change in the NFL broadcast package --- and there have been many --- in recent years has been negative for those interested in watching an array of games:
- This move.
- Peacock also has one regular season game per year, starting in 2023.
- The Thursday night package moving from over-to-air to Amazon. Need to buy a streaming service for that.
- Increased number of games on NFLN - which folks need a cable subscription for that.
- ESPN+ has an annual regular season game. Yet another streaming service.
- Beginning in 2023, Monday Night Football games are flexible. As much as CFB fans (rightfully) complain about the 6-day holds for college football games --- at least we know the game will be on Saturday. In the NFL, games will now be able to change dates!
- The NFL used to never schedule on Christmas Eve evening. It used to be the one evening of the year (outside the days bookending the MLB ASG game) where you could guarantee it being sports-free. Now they put games there every time there's an opportunity.
- Christmas Day will again be a triple-header this year. The NFL had sporadically scheduled on Christmas before, but now they seem intent on having games the entire day if/when possible. Unfriendly for the NFL fan who wants to watch games but also (GASP!!!!) celebrate Christmas.
I have a nice tv, good surround sound, and now they want me to watch the game in crappy ass streaming quality? Fuck that, streaming sports sucks. The nfl is shooting their long term success for some short sided payday imo, but they don’t give a shit.
It'll make so many more fans of all the free ways to stream games live. I've been doing it for 10 years. This will backfire heavily
Yup. Sportsurge and others have nearly every college and pro game. Just be sure to get your shots and wear a condom. Some of the streaming services are pretty nasty.
This post will make me think so much more of all of the ways that I cannot understand about saying what you did.
If fans don't come together to boycott this, this will just be the beginning of a slope that will go down hill fast for fans.
PUKE!
As a consumer you are far easier to track, surveil, behaviorally modify, delimit, and coerce through the internet (tv's don't have logins, cookies, histories, user-pofiles, credit-card numbers entered in)
These businessmen aren't millionaires and billionaires consulting with million and billion dollar agencies and sigining million and billion dollar contracts with investment groups because they all "love the game".
It's a pivot to capture more market/user data, if you've been paying attention, the thing called "Silicon Valley" in it's entirety is an industry of surveillance and user-generated data (or do you think the founders/owners/investors of Instagram e.g. just "love photos!")
Any chance to further capture their market via surveillance tools providing rich user-data, they will gladly take.
Yep.
I'm in the "measuring the effectiveness of Marketing" industry ----- I originally got in the field because marketing attribution does provide fascinating and interesting questions to answer.
But more and more I want to get out, because "predatory monetization" has become endemic. Everything needs to be monetized. Everything. And a lot of people don't care how. Some of the "great ideas" I've heard colleagues spout on these fronts --- to me, their ideas are horrifying.
--------
I realize, that in making this post, I've added some further data points to someone's already existent data set.
To Silicon Valley, I'm not a person. To Roger Goodell, I'm not a Detroit Lions fan. To the B1G commissioner, I'm not a Penn State fan. I'm simply a wallet.
I don't know why the NFL plays these stupid games with limiting the games they televise. If you are a Lions fan who lives out of state, the only way you can watch their games is with Sunday Ticket. No thanks - the SOLs (or any other team for that matter) just aren't worth it to most people.
That's one of the great things about CFB....every game is on TV. If you are a Michigan fan living in California you can still watch every game. Even if you are a Navy or Univ. of Cincinnati fan you can watch every game on TV. I don't know why the NFL doesn't adapt that model.
It's 2023, times are different now. In the future, they will be different again. Some years ago I paid a crap ton of money for cable, but could not get the Big Ten Network in Colorado. Thanks to threads on this board, I found "ways" to stream them. Once I learned that trick I cut the cable.
I do miss having the Rockies games, but with the collapse of the RSNs I should be able to stream them soon. I also miss the Nuggets games, but their RSN, Altitude Sports, is in a long running battle with Comcast, Dish, and Direct TV so they are not on anyway.
On Saturdays when Michigan is on the BIG Network or ESPN I watch on my computer or go to a bar. When they were in the CFP after the 2021 season, I got a free trial of Sling TV.
I'll probably get Peacock this fall just to watch more BIG games. ESPN has indicated they will be going to a streaming model in the future, I'll probably give that a try. I think cable missed out on not offering ala-carte.
I realize I’m getting old in various situations. Sometimes I recognize I need to change. Sometimes I recognize I don’t want to change and I don’t mind getting older. Every once in a while, like now, I recognize how completely disregarded I am by something I have been loyal to for years. The NFL is more interested in making money short term than keeping longtime loyal fans. It sucks. I personally think there’s more to life than generating revenue. I also know my experience and my feelings mean nothing. I probably won’t watch the streaming games and I’ll generally watch less NFL as a result. Oh well.
AKA one nfl game will be illegally streamed by everyone without a peacock account. No one is buying Peacock for this