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.
Even if the Lions are in it, I won't watch.
Fuck Goodell.
Even if?
The Lions have not played in the playoffs since 2016.
This is for sure how it would roll out. Lions are now a lock.
Remember back in the day the blackout games.
My roommate freshman year (1995) was from Cincinnati and he swears that every game was on TV. He couldn't understand why I had to listen to the Lions game. I wonder if the Lions would've built a larger Ford Field if the blackout rule did not exist.
Does anyone remember when Art Van or one of the other retailers would buy the last few thousand tickets to games that were close to a sellout and donate them to charity?
I do. Don’t live in Michigan anymore, but this move is bullshit. Hope nobody tunes in no matter who is playing.
I still remember listening in high school on my alarm clock radio to Brett Favre finding Sterling Sharpe down the sideline.
Cruel fandom.
This sort of thing can never grow a fan base.
The NFL got to where it is (was, really), by access. Everyone had access, so new fans (people who don't consume the product enough to pay for it) could easily watch and become the fans that would pay money for it (buying merch, tickets, etc).
From my understanding, the teams' markets will still have this game on local stations, so it's not completely exclusive, but this is a move that feels more like desperation to make quick money instead of building something for the long run.
Right, the home markets still get this on "over the air" TV. As much as I hate streaming services broadcasting sporting events, I have to give the NFL credit that they put games in local markets available for everyone to watch. Another league should take notice of this *cough* MLB *cough*.
Conversely, if you didn't live in market you were screwed unless you went with satellite.
It's been 10+ years since I have watched the Lions regularly because I don't live in Michigan. Now I'm not even sure the long broken habit is worth the $350.
As an old person who often yells at clouds, this sucks.
You say that like it is a bad thing.
Why is a playoff game being decided by kids playing Madden?
It will be over the air in local markets. That's all I really care about should that be relevant
But say the Lions were in that game. WDIV will air the game but what if you live in Saginaw or Traverse City or Marquette or any other TV market? The rest of the state, not to mention any Lions fan in the rest of the country, are getting f#@ked.
I am not sure about that. The Detroit Lions Television network lists the following cities for their home for preseason and other coverages. I would assume this would be the same list used for telecast of the streaming service playoff game *if* the Lions were to appear in it:
- Detroit
- Grand Rapids/Battle Creek/Kalamazoo
- Flint & Tri-Cities
- Toledo
- Lansing & Jackson
- Alpena
- Cadillac, Traverse City and Sault St Marie
- Escanaba, Marquette and Houghton
If I am not mistaken that covers ever TV market area in MI plus Toledo. I guess the NFL could put a different spin on what the Lions "market" is versus what the team does since that list is for preseason games which I doubt the NFL cares too much about but I am pretty confident if you get TV channels from MI you will be able to watch the game over the air.
You are 100% correct though that it is real crappy for fans that do not live in MI or Toledo though. NFL greed at its finest.
Preseason games are different though as they are locally produced. National TV deals are not involved. But with a playoff game being produced by an NBC subsidiary, I'm guessing only NBC stations will be allowed to carry the game. And I'm also guessing it will only be made available to the affiliates in the teams' home market.
If the Lions are your home TV market, I think you're okay. Saginaw, Traverse City and Benton Harbor may be okay...even Toledo. But Marquette may be considered Packer country.
Funny enough, parts of Benton Harbor ZIP and BH proper are in the Kalamazoo market and other parts are South Bend (Bears). Years ago, we lived with a Benton Harbor ZIP address for a while. When the cable got hooked up, the guy gave us the Kalamazoo market stations by mistake, despite the fact that we were a few blocks into the South Bend market area, so I watched Lions and Tigers on Fox 17 for a few years. Then Comcast realized their mistake and switched us to South Bend. That was a sad day for my kids and I. Not only did we lose the Lions, we also got much more emphasis on Norte Dame, the Bears, Cubs and White Sox.
I live in Kzoo and cannot stand how many people think it is an extension of Chicago. Benton Harbor / St. Joe are probably different since you are closer to Chicago than Detroit at that point but all of the Chicago sports fans I know that are native Kalamazoo people drive me crazy.
This is only tangentially related, but I live in Belleville and I do not get the Detroit Fox broadcast; I get the Toledo Fox broadcast even though I am much closer to the Detroit broadcast source. The quality that comes in is awful, so I have regularly had to back-alley stream the Michigan games the last couple years (though I think now I can use Amazon Prime to do it).
There's only been one instance of a playoff game that was not aired on an over-the-air network. That was the January 2015 playoff game between Arizona and Carolina. It was an ESPN exclusive.
(other playoff games since then have been on ESPN, but they have also simulcast nationally on ABC. The aforementioned January 2015 game was ESPN only).
It aired over-the-air in the Charlotte and Phoenix markets. But did NOT air over-the-air in the Raleigh-Durham, Greensboro, Tucson and Yuma markets.
I'd guess it would be the same way for this game. Primary TV markets would still get it over-the-air. Secondary TV markets woul not.
If they Lions end up being in that game.... I hope one of you guys are willing to facetime me for 3.5 hours
i aint paying for no peacock
Then you ain't gettin' no peacock, know what I'm talkin' about?
Lions will have a first round bye so it won't matter
The Lions will go 34-0, winning their games by so much that each will count for two victories. Then they'll get a bye into the Super Bowl, and be staked to a 49-0 lead. The other team will then score 25 safeties and win 50-49. Oh, to be a Loins fan...
Comcast is going to get their money somehow. Going after the cord cutters another way now.
sucks when you can't easily change channels back and forth during commercials. streaming service sporting events are dumb.
This is dumb on so many levels. Our country is just full of people making dumb decisions every day.
You were just wondering how people feel about having to pay more money to watch the same game that didn’t cost them more money last year, really?
It's a business decision, but I have no idea if it will pay off for anyone involved.
I suspect that there are a lot of people -- I fall into this category -- that are not going to be willing to sign up for yet another subscription service just to watch one game. I thought I read that NBC was paying $110 million for this, that's a lot of new subscribers needed to cover the cost. The NFL may take a minor hit to average viewer numbers, but the product and main distribution channels should remain strong.
Correct. People can complain about it on a message board all they want, just wasting their time. This is the world we live in. I have heard this could happen to Michigan games as well. Complaining won't change a thing, unfortunately.
But not watching certainly will. And if you can’t see the playoff game, some fans will just lose interest or never gain interest. At one point in time boxing was a very popular sport in this country. In the 80s it moved toward fights being only on pay per view and the sport declined quickly in popularity, to the point most can’t even name the heavyweight champion anymore. Football should be careful.
I figure in 2034 all playoff games will be exclusively in our minds over Neuralink so this is no big deal to me.
Well as a UM and B1G fan you may want to get a subscription to Peacock since games will be on it this year.
https://www.collegefootballpoll.com/news/b1g-football-in-2023--schedules-broadcast-rights-and-more/
Peacock is the only true benefit to Xfinity these days.
Would we really be surprised if this trend continues? I could definitely see a RedZone/League Pass equivalent for college football, most likely at the conference level. From an economics perspective, FOX, NBC, and others are gonna try their hardest to squeeze way more out of us diehards than we currently pay to them. The days of watching sports being a cheap hobby may be numbered unfortunately.
It will be interesting to see how many games are on this for Michigan. I have never missed a snap of football for Michigan in the last 42 years. However, as I stated having kids 10 years ago I often watch on DVR. This used to be unacceptable and is now very acceptable. I can see missing games going the same route as they start on streaming. At first it is okay because it is UNLV, then you don’t care if you miss MSU and PSU, then you stop checking mgoblog, soon you just don’t care because you have found other things. It’s a slippery slope of short term gains, but a long term loser.
Screw that. Radio is free and unlike the Lions, Michigan's announcers are pretty good.
So the No Fan League is at it again. It's amazing how many businesses these days are losing track of their customers. Loyalty will only go so far until people realize there are other things to do on a nice Fall Sunday afternoon. Or, in this case for the playoffs, winter sports to participate in. I'm finding more and more people who have moved away from the NFL and no longer watch, mainly due to things like this.
I believe the following events should never be exclusively on cable/streaming:
March Madness Elite Eight through Championship Game
CFB NY6 and CFP
MLB World Series
NBA Conference Finals and Finals
Stanley Cup Conference Finals and Finals
NFL Playoffs (The entire playoffs)
The Lions better get a first round bye or else we know which network will have the game.
I'm waiting for a lawsuit forcing games of teams that have a public stake to be broadcast over the air. With pro teams, public funds paid for your stadium so you're required to make your games available to the people who paid for your stadium. Or with college games, you're a public university that takes public funds so you need to make your games available to the people who finance you. The taxpayers are never recognized as stakeholders in these situations, but the teams wouldn't exist without us.
I found an interesting article from 11 years ago. It said that in 2010 the Giants and Jets broke ground on a new stadium. Meanwhile Giants Stadium was demolished while taxpayers still carried $110 million in debt. Similar things happened in Seattle, Philly, Indy, Houston, KC, Memphis and Pittsburgh.
This obviously is bigger than one NFL playoff game, since they are still showing it in the local marrkets.
I love it but will never happen. I'd rather keep "owners" from moving teams but also vibe with this.
I'd be curious to see that work on the college level. Would FOX have to put B1G games on those extra digital OTA channels we now have?
Side note (grumpy man tangent): What boggles my mind is that the NFL voluntarily "gave up" their "non-profit" status almost 10 years ago. What about the NFL and billionaire owners scream non-profit?
Except in the case of Michigan, there are zero tax payer funds used for the athletic department. I suspect most D1 programs could say the same. Even if the AD loses money, they could easily say that is filled by donations.
For pro sports, I suspect there are contractual terms that negate this. Plus, in many towns the taxpayers have done quite well economically because of the stadiums. Certainly true in DC and Detroit.
I think we get it but I won't watch it anyway on principle cuz' F them. Don't give a s@&% goes both ways. Let the airing of grievances begin.
My wife bought the entry-level Peacock subscription so she could watch Notre Dame almost lose to Toledo in 2021. I don't know if a premium subscription would make it better, but our streaming broadcast had two deliberately awful features:
1) When there were stoppages of play, the screen went blank and popped up a note saying something like, "We will be right back in a few minutes." I mean, if I already paid for this and you don't need to breakaway to show a commercial, why even pause the game? Why not, you know, change possessions and keep going? Or, if you need to pause for radio commercials, how about leaving a camera on the field, showing whatever thing the band is doing to keep the ticket buyers entertained?
2) There was an issue with fast forward / rewind that I don't remember precisely. I believe that whenever you start a normal Peacock show, they make you watch 90 seconds of commercials, then let you watch the rest without breaks. Same frontload of commercials for football broadcast, except whenever you used either FF or REW, they made you watch an additional 30 seconds of commercial.
The TV broadcast, with its need to insert commercials for revenue has so many things wrong with it. I am disappointed that streamers aren't taking advantage of their new medium to try and offer a product that is better in at least some aspects.
I assume your wife is an ND fan/alum, but I really hope I'm wrong and she got the subscription just because she wanted to witness ND lose to Toledo in real time.
She has an undergrad from ND and a grad degree from Michigan. Alas, we can't choose who we fall in love with!
I didn't watch any of the games that were on Amazon, this past season. I have Amazon, but I had zero desire to give it any credibility. I definitely will not watch a game that requires a Peacock subscription.
So Peacock gets 8 B1G football games and 47 B1G basketball games a year.
Let's say they want to make a splash and air UM. So week 3 they get Bowling Green at UM. Will you watch?