August 17, 2024

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Good morning and good weekend. The Paris Olympics wrapped up six days ago, an eternity in the news world. But I find myself still thinking about NBC’s mega-success with eyeballs on Peacock, and what it signals about where things are headed in the live sports streaming land grab. My thoughts are below. As always, I welcome your replies. Have a great weekend—the last one before college football returns. (Go BC, USC, and Vandy! I’m a big believer in publicly disclosing our team biases.)

— Dan Roberts [[link removed]], FOS EIC

NBCU’s Peacock Shows Us Our Live Sports Streaming Future [[link removed]]

Comcast

The Paris Olympics ended last Sunday, but I’d bet NBCUniversal execs are still celebrating.

NBC had a blowout Olympics. Across 17 days of events, the network averaged 30.6 million viewers across all platforms, an eye-popping 82% spike [[link removed]] compared to the 2021 Tokyo Games. There’s an obvious asterisk: Tokyo was the COVID-19 Olympics. No fans were present, and, much like NBA games during the 2020 bubble (remember the cardboard cutouts?), that made for less exciting viewing. The timing of premier events also made it tough for U.S. viewers to catch events live. Paris was completely different: the lights, the energy, the storylines [[link removed]]. Snoop Dogg [[link removed]]. Mike Tirico [[link removed]]. Biles [[link removed]]. Lyles [[link removed]]. Of course it blew away Tokyo viewership.

But still. An 82% bump!

And then you drill down to Peacock. NBCUniversal says 4.1 million viewers per day streamed the action on NBCU’s apps (that includes Peacock and the NBC Sports app, but the lion’s share was Peacock) for a total of 23.5 billion minutes streamed, up 40% from all prior Summer and Winter Olympics combined.

The 4.1 million viewers in a day would be a Peacock record if not for the two exclusive NFL games that Peacock has aired—most notably the Chief-Dolphins wild-card game in January, which brought in 23 million viewers on Peacock. (It’s worth noting those numbers incorporate linear ratings from local markets.)

Now the NFL season is upon us, and Peacock again has one exclusive game. (Streamed and cable-televised NFL games are still shown over the air in local markets.) It’s not a playoff game; it’s a Week 1 matchup in São Paulo, Brazil, between the Packers and Eagles. But still: It’s on a Friday, it’s the NFL’s first game in South America, and it should rate better than the first Peacock-exclusive NFL game in December 2023 between the Bills and Chargers, which brought 7.2 million viewers to the app.

Before the Olympics, NBCU parent Comcast shared that it lost one million Peacock subscribers [[link removed]] in Q1. But after Peacock’s exclusive wild-card game in January, it saw a nearly 10% bump [[link removed]] in subs. Easy prediction: The next time NBCU shares Peacock sub numbers, it’ll be a new record, driven by the momentum of the Olympics and another exclusive NFL game. And then starting in 2025, Peacock will get 50 regular-season NBA games, which should be another big driver of subs. (As much of a driver as the NFL? Hmmmm.)

The Competition

But Peacock isn’t alone in this land grab. As everyone knows by now, Amazon has become the loudest voice in the room among sports streamers after it beat out TNT [[link removed]] for the “C” package in the NBA’s new 11-year, $77 billion set of broadcast rights. (TNT parent WBD is suing [[link removed]].) As part of its package, Amazon will have exclusive rights to the WNBA Finals [[link removed]] in 2028, 2032, and 2036. This will be the first time any major pro league’s finals series has been exclusive to a streamer—you won’t be able to watch them anywhere else. Expect a “Caitlin Clark effect” subscription spike.

There are many others in the crowded room of live sports streamers. ESPN+ had 24.8 million subs [[link removed]] as of May, which was its lowest total since 2022, but it’s making more from each of those subs than before: Disney this month reported $66 million in profit from ESPN+ [[link removed]] in its latest earnings.

Separately, Disney has entered a controversial union with Fox and WBD to roll out Venu, a pay TV app that the triumvirate wanted to launch this month [[link removed]] at a $42.99 monthly rate. Each of the three giants invested $400 million in Venu already [[link removed]]. But FuboTV, which also shows live sports TV channels, sued to stop Venu from launching—and a judge granted that injunction [[link removed]] Friday. Disney, Fox and WBD quickly issued a joint statement saying the decision would be appealed.

Oh, and Netflix is coming. For the first time, this season Netflix will have two NFL games, both on Christmas Day, and one more holiday game each year in 2025 and 2026. Given Netflix’s audience fire-hose, those games are sure to set a new streaming viewership record, because, say it with me: The NFL is still the biggest joint in TV town. And it isn’t close.

Contextualizing the Olympics Ratings All the Way Up

Olympics ratings fell for the past decade. The Paris Games reversed that trend, and dramatically. We won’t know the impact they had on Peacock subscriptions until Comcast’s third-quarter earnings report. But the event’s quantitative performance, as well as rave reviews for innovations like Gold Zone [[link removed]], bode well for Peacock’s future.

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Enter Into Kerri’s Athlete Archive

Front Office Sports and Upper Deck have joined forces to celebrate the nostalgia of sports, shining a spotlight on the childhood inspirations, career influences, and life milestones of the world’s most notable athletes.

In this episode of Athlete Archives [[link removed]], Kerri Walsh Jennings shares captivating stories about the key figures—both past and present—who have inspired her, her most memorable career moments, and her hopes for the next generation of athletes.

Check out [[link removed]] the full episode.

Hawk Tuah Girl’s First Pitch Is Just the Latest Viral Mets Gambit [[link removed]]

Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

The Mets hosted Haliey Welch, the Hawk Tuah Girl of viral social media fame, to throw out the ceremonial first pitch Thursday afternoon. The harmless stunt was triggering to some fans and pundits, including podcaster Mike Francesa [[link removed]] and radio host Sal Licata of New York’s WFAN [[link removed]].

But the Mets have been doing this all season, and if you ask New York’s president of business operations Scott Havens, the approach has achieved real success in “mobilizing the fan base.” In June, after Grimace, the giant purple McDonald’s mascot, threw out a first pitch, the Mets went on a winning streak and the team parlayed the pitch into a full-on campaign with McDonald’s [[link removed]].

More examples abound. The team has embraced infielder Jose Iglesias’s song “OMG” as an anthem. When 97-year-old veteran Seymour Weiner was honored at a game and went viral [[link removed]] for his name, the team didn’t shy away. It had Weiner promote Dollar Dog night [[link removed]]. Another breakout sensation has been Max Wiener, the “Rally Pimp.”

Havens, in a chat with me onstage at our FOS Huddle in the Hamptons on Aug. 2 (before Welch’s visit to Citi Field), told me: “By the way, this would never have happened in the Bronx. Never, ever have happened in the Bronx, because 27 world titles, ‘we’re the Yankees.’ … When things pop up that can be loosely correlated to a winning streak, Mets fans jump on this. … With the social media team that we’re investing in, we jumped on it very quickly. We most certainly didn’t start the fire, but we put gasoline on it.”

Watch our full conversation with Havens below, which also covered recent changes to the game, sports gambling, MLB’s lack of nationally famous star players [[link removed]], and whether the Mets will go for Juan Soto.

Good Week / Bad Week Billionaire Bankers, Books Back Down, Burbs Push Back on Browns

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Good week for:

Nike ⬆ Nike stock has risen 11% this week as hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman reinvested in the company [[link removed]], sparking turnaround hopes. Ackman’s track record and prior, successful investment in Nike suggest a rising confidence in the company and a potential ability to have a direct line to its management.

Nike’s weak second-quarter earnings spurred its worst one-day market performance [[link removed]] since becoming a public company in 1980. Wall Street speculation had grown for the possibility of an activist investor pushing to get more involved in Nike’s operations.

Flutter ⬆ The stock price of FanDuel’s parent company is up 9% for the week after Q2 sales and profit beat Wall Street’s expectations. The updated figures also raised its outlook for the rest of the year. CEO Peter Jackson added that FanDuel does not plan to match the surcharge that rival DraftKings announced earlier this month. Following FanDuel’s Tuesday announcement that it would not add the surcharge, DraftKings reversed its decision. [[link removed]]

Bad week for:

Browns ⬇ The team continues to get pushback [[link removed]] against its proposed $2.4 billion domed stadium. Edward Orcutt, mayor of Brook Park, a Cleveland suburb where the Browns want to construct the stadium, said he’s putting the team’s proposal on the back burner. A county spokesperson also pushed back against the Browns’ proposal: “Cuyahoga County supports keeping the Cleveland Browns where they belong, in downtown Cleveland.”

Cleveland mayor Justin Bibb has pitched his own plan [[link removed].] for $461 million in public funding toward stadium renovations. Jimmy and Dee Haslam, who own the Browns, reportedly want a 50-50 split.

Struggling MLB teams ⬇ The Chicago White Sox are slogging through one of the worst seasons in MLB history, leading them to slash season-ticket prices [[link removed]] for next year. The Miami Marlins, currently in a (yet another) rebuild, made major changes to their front office and coaching staff. [[link removed]]

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