Brian Stelter here! Sorry about all the technical gremlins yesterday. It's 10:50pm ET, and here is the latest on the NFL, Amazon, Marvel, Alexi McCammond, "ET," the NYT, and much more...
The only game in town
Media executives will remember this day a decade from now. Because this was the day the NFL inked new broadcast, cable and streaming contracts that will run until 2033.
The former THR editor Matthew Belloni called it "truly the last hurrah for linear TV." The league "secured a combined average increase of 75% to 80% in fees from its media partners," the WSJ's Joe Flint and Andrew Beaton reported, citing a source.
The huge $$$ increases accepted by the networks are a testament to the NFL's incredible staying power. It's the only game in town, or at least the best game – the surest bet to bring in big viewership – in an age when broadcast TV needs live sports and news more than ever. So Fox and CBS will keep their Sunday games, and NBC will keep "Sunday Night Football," and ESPN will keep "Monday Night Football," and ABC will be added to the Super Bowl rotation, and all of the networks will have more streaming options...
Amazon's deal
The NFL's biggest streaming commitment is with Amazon. "For the first time, the league — TV's most valuable product and biggest ratings driver — is making a package of its games exclusive to digital," Frank Pallotta wrote for CNN Business.
Amazon Prime Video will have exclusive rights to "Thursday Night Football" -- and Amazon will start to produce its own broadcasts. It's pretty clear that the league is "excited about the innovation and creativity Amazon may bring to a football broadcast," NFL.com columnist Judy Battista tweeted...
"We all wanted the flexibility"
Now back to the broadcast networks and ESPN. "In exchange for the exorbitant rights, the networks will get the chance to broadcast games in new venues," Variety's Brian Steinberg wrote. "NBC will be able to simulcast 'Sunday Night Football' on its streaming-video hub, Peacock, for example, and that service will over the life of the new contract get to air some games exclusively." Fox will be able to "stream certain games on its Tubi service and align NFL games with its Fox Bet gaming business," and ViacomCBS will be able to stream games on Paramount+.
"While the accords run 11 years, there is a window after year seven for the NFL to end the agreements and renegotiate," the WSJ's story noted. "In addition, the networks will be able to seek more games for their digital platforms during the deals." Commissioner Roger Goodell said "we all wanted the flexibility to manage a changing media landscape..."
What will the media world look like in 2033?
Frank Pallotta writes: "The duration and the price tag are the two things that stand out the most. All together these deals are worth more than $100 billion to the NFL – an eye-popping sum. And the very-long-term agreements show how much security these networks and the NFL wanted as everything evolves in the media biz. Who knows what entities will want to buy up NFL rights, or what TV will even look like, in the 2030s?"
>> Jay Rosenstein, a former VP of programming at CBS Sports, commented to Frank that "none of the people who made the deal will likely be around when it ends..."
Notes and quotes
-- CNBC's story has all the $$$ figures...
-- Amazon "is betting that the addition of exclusive NFL games will drive people to sample its original content," per the WSJ...
-- Edmund Lee observed that Amazon's deal "will give Amazon more leverage if/when it ever has to renegotiate Prime app distribution on Roku/Apple/Samsung/etc..."
-- The streaming tie-ups are important, but "legacy media companies remain the predominant home of the NFL," WaPo's Ben Strauss noted. "The league has always prided itself on reaching the most fans, and the best way to do that continues to be broadcast TV..."
-- SBG's Eric Fisher noted: "ESPN says they are interested in obtaining Sunday Ticket rights and have had exploratory talks about it with the league. Many have seen ESPN+ as a potential landing spot for that package..."
-- Another note from Brian Steinberg: "Disney is considering a Super Bowl 'mega-cast' that could create different broadcasts of the gridiron classic tailored to specific types of audiences..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Speaking with Stephen Colbert on Thursday's "Late Show," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he is unfazed by Mitch McConnell's "blustery threat" about the filibuster... (Twitter)
-- "A bipartisan group of senators is looking to bring the Supreme Court to television, aiming to have the high court reach a new technological frontier after nearly a year of hearing arguments via teleconference" due to the pandemic... (CNN)
-- Congrats to Nischelle Turner, a longtime friend and CNN contributor: On Thursday Turner became the "first Black woman to host 'Entertainment Tonight,'" joining Kevin Frazier on the broadcast, which "marks the first time the show has been anchored entirely by people of color... (NYT)
-- New "Game of Thrones" directions: "HBO is developing a trio of ideas for new projects set within George R.R. Martin's fictional world..." (Deadline)
The latest from Atlanta
From the AJC's lead story Thursday night: Investigators said "they aren't ready to release the names of the four women killed at two Atlanta spas during the deadly shooting spree that rattled two metro communities." The four victims from Cherokee County were identified on Wednesday. Reporters are pursuing leads about the victims and trying to fill in the missing pieces.
>> Lloyd Grove and Diana Falzone of The Daily Beast said the massacres "expose a glaring media blindspot: Anti-Asian racism..."
>> Margaret Sullivan's latest column: The shootings "show why the media should be wary of initial police statements..."
Empowering AAPI journalists
In a statement on Thursday evening, the Broadcast Advisory Council of the Asian American Journalists Association urged newsrooms to "empower their Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) journalists by recognizing both the unique value they bring to the coverage of the Atlanta shootings and the invisible labor they regularly take on, especially in newsrooms where they are severely underrepresented." Read this...
FRIDAY PLANNER
President Biden and VP Kamala Harris will visit Georgia...
The first round of the NCAA tournament will tip off at 12:15pm ET...
The first episode of "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier" will debut on Disney+...
AMC Theaters says 98% of its US locations will be open as of Friday...
ON THIS WEEK'S RELIABLE PODCAST...
How climate change coverage is changing
Three leading journalists on the climate crisis beat -- Emily Atkin, Emily Holden and John Sutter -- joined me for this week's "Reliable Sources" podcast. And we really got into it, as you'll hear. We didn't time it this way, but youth activists are holding a Fridays for Future strike in major global cities on Friday. So tune into our conversation via Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, or TuneIn...
-- Mark Hertsgaard's new piece for CJR: "How well does the media cover the climate movement?"
-- CNN announced an expansion of its climate team on Thursday, with five new open positions... Bill Weir tweeted out the details and job descriptions...
Alexi McCammond out at Teen Vogue
Kerry Flynn writes: "Alexi McCammond was supposed to start her new job as EIC of Teen Vogue next Wednesday. But McCammond and Condé Nast announced they parted ways on Thursday – prompting a huge array of reactions – everything from 'this is nuts' to 'this is necessary' to 'this was inevitable.' The short of it is that McCammond's hiring sparked backlash over anti-Asian tweets she posted a decade ago. She apologized for the tweets when they resurfaced in 2019, and she apologized again for them -- twice -- earlier this month. Condé Nast stood by her, at first, even as the call for speaking out against anti-Asian violence and hate grew louder. But that changed."
Flynn adds: "McCammond's appointment continued to draw backlash inside and outside of Condé. It's fair to say she had lost the confidence of the newsroom prior to virtually entering it. Some advertisers even paused campaigns, according to the NYT's Katie Robertson..."
What Condé is saying
Condé Nast was aware of McCammond's racist tweets prior to her hiring, Stan Duncan, the company's chief people officer, said in his email to staff Thursday. Her tweets were apparently discussed in the interview process. But the concerns weren't just around the racist tweets. Robertson reported Condé "did not know about the homophobic tweets or a photo, also from 2011, that was recently published by a right-wing website showing her in Native American costume at a Halloween party."
Where is Anna Wintour?
Flynn writes: "This was undoubtedly a failure of Condé Nast management. Anna Wintour celebrated McCammond's hiring two weeks ago, saying, 'Alexi has the powerful curiosity and confidence that embodies the best of our next generation of leaders.' But as Allegra Frank wrote in Slate earlier this week, 'I worried over the fact that McCammond has spent her career working as a reporter, not an editor. She's had no management experience to speak of, and yet she was now being dropped into the top job... I worried about a young Black woman essentially being set up to fail.'"
>> Wintour admitted in June that Vogue made mistakes that were "hurtful or intolerant" to Black creators and that she was "listening." She hired chief diversity and inclusion officer Yashica Olden. And Wintour replaced Bon Appétit’s top editor Adam Rapoport with Dawn Davis, who is a woman of color. But what happened with McCammond? Author Steven Thrasher's theory: "Wintour seems to have thought she could be cute and that she'd hire a Black woman next — but not any of the excellent Black women editors whose politics & experience [Teen Vogue's] readers and staff deserved."
What now?
Flynn adds: "Two unanswered Q's: Where will McCammond work next? She wrote in her departure note, 'There are so many stories left to be told, and I hope to have the opportunity to re-join the ranks of tireless journalists who are shining light on these issues every single day.' And who will be the next EIC of Teen Vogue?"
Notably, McCammond's former employer, Axios, came to her defense on Thursday, as did many of her friends and colleagues throughout the news business. Jim VandeHei tweeted, "You will always be part of the Axios family. Alexi admitted her mistakes, repented (years ago and again of late) and showed during her four years with us she was a strong woman with a big heart. She was a great colleague who often stood up for others. Sad outcome." And Jonathan Swan tweeted, "I've worked with Alexi for four years. I know her well and can say this unequivocally: The idea she is racist is absurd. Where the hell are we as an industry if we cannot accept a person's sincere and repeated apologies for tweets when they were a teenager?"
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- The NYPost's new editorial about McCammond: "No sin is ever forgiven in the brave new woke world..." (NYPost)
-- Piers Morgan to CNN's Julia Horowitz: "There is a lot of interest in securing my services..." (CNN)
-- The US is on pace to hit Biden's goal of 100 million vaccine doses in his first 100 days on Friday, which is day 58... (CNN)
-- Joanna Stern is out with a new column of "tools and tips" for booking a Covid-19 vaccine, "plus help from Apple, Facebook and Google..." (WSJ)
-- There are signs of normalcy all around: Apple stores "are again allowing customers to try on AirPods before buying them," Marc Gurman reports... (Bloomberg)
Headlines lacking context are being exploited by anti-vaccine activists
Oliver Darcy writes: "News orgs are at risk of 'creating false connections and misinformation' when they write headlines suggesting a link between vaccinations and death or other health issues, a study from Advance Democracy said. The findings, which were provided to me, show that some headlines — while factual — have been spread online and 'weaponized' by anti-vax groups. Three articles from local news sites gained more than 800,000 interactions on Facebook, the study found. The study cited articles published by NBC News, Reuters, and Fox. One headline from NBC read, for instance, '78-year-old woman dies at California vaccination site after being inoculated.' It was later updated to note there was no sign of a link between the vaccine and death. An NBC spox told me there are no plans to publish such stories moving forward..."
>> Dr. Jonathan Reiner, who called such headlines "irresponsible," pointed out: "When you administer that many vaccinations other events will also happen to patients by sheer chance. Very likely people have gotten into car accidents the same day, or have fallen off their bicycle, or even have had a heart attack the same day as a vaccine by pure chance..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Meet Ron Klain, the old newspaper columnist! (Politico)
-- Jen Psaki said on MSNBC Thursday night that "anyone who wants to make it harder to vote" maybe should "take a close look at whether they have bad ideas and people just don't want to support them..." (MSNBC)
-- Wednesday's newsletter lead was about coverage of voting rights, but it was rendered very hard to read due to a glitch. If you want to check it out, here's the cleaned-up version... (CNN)
-- What the Fox base is reading and hearing: "Biden calls his second-in-command 'President Harris' in latest flub" is the lead on FoxNews.com right now... (Fox)
-- Glad to see this: The First Amendment slab from the Newseum in DC is heading to the National Constitution Center in Philly... (Inquirer)
-- "Clubhouse as a strategic PR vehicle for companies is happening," Sara Fischer observes: Mark Zuckerberg used the app to talk about FB ecommerce on Thursday... (AdWeek)
NYT defends reporter from OAN harassment
Oliver Darcy writes: "The NYT came to reporter Rachel Abrams' defense on Thursday after OAN launched a campaign encouraging harassment against her. Abrams, who is apparently working on a story about the small right-wing channel, had sent messages to people at the outlet – a perfectly normal way of seeking out sources. OAN aired a story throughout the day Thursday saying NYT was looking for 'damaging information about OAN.' The segment ended by showing Abrams' email and phone number while telling viewers to 'reach out' and 'stand up to intimidation by the left.' An NYT spox told me in response, 'Journalists should be allowed to do their jobs without harassment. Our reporter will not be intimidated and will continue to follow the facts where they lead.' Amen to that..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
By Oliver Darcy:
-- Twitter says it is "reviewing" its rules for world leaders and is seeking input from the public... (Engadget)
-- "Executives at Instagram are planning to build a version of the popular photo-sharing app that can be used by children under the age of 13," Ryan Mac and Craig Silverman scooped Thursday... (BuzzFeed)
-- Gilad Edelman writes about Google's recent announcement about third-party cookies, arguing that the "demise of surveillance capitalism has been greatly exaggerated..." (Wired)
-- Newsmax TV has hired Jason Miller and Andrew Giuliani as contributors... (AP)
-- "Russia's disinformation campaign will keep rolling, as long as Republicans are gullible enough," David Ignatius writes... (WaPo)
FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
By Kerry Flynn:
-- The BBC is relocating more departments outside of London: Tim Davie told staff that "these plans will get us closer to audiences, create jobs and investment, and develop and nurture new talent..." (BBC)
-- But the change has drawn concerns. BBC tech correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones said his team is moving to Glasgow: "It's a great city, but many of us [are] not at the stage in life where we can uproot our families..." (Twitter)
-- Axios, in partnership with Noticias Telemundo, is launching Axios Latino, a newsletter next week covering the US Latino community... (Twitter)
-- "A group of climate journalists are launching The Uproot Project to support environmental journalists of color," Hanaa' Tameez writes... (Nieman Lab)
NYT abandons its cooking Facebook Group
Kerry Flynn writes: "Earlier this week The Times told the 77,000+ members of its Facebook Group called NYT Cooking Community that it would no longer be the group's official administrators. Rumors swirled if there was some spark for the move, or if it was general concern over brand image. An NYT rep told me 'we felt it should be run by people who are an engaged and informed part of the community.' Sam Sifton expanded on the reasoning to Ben Smith, explaining that the group wasn't 'going to march people toward NYT Cooking' and they were essentially paying people to work for Facebook instead of NYT. This is 'a chapter in the shift toward a biz that revolves around converting subs,' Smith tweeted."
>> Nieman Lab has a full rundown on what's gone down in the group, with some interesting insight from its members...
FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX
-- Gerry Smith's latest: "Facing post-Trump slowdown, New York Times eyes $100 billion games market..." (Bloomberg)
-- "Ten women who are suing the Walt Disney Company for what they have called 'rampant gender pay discrimination' have added a claim involving pay secrecy, a topic that is becoming a larger part of the national conversation about workplace equality..." (NYT)
-- Sinclair "is preparing to rebrand its regional Fox Sports networks in the U.S. under the banner of Bally Sports," Sahil Patel reports... (WSJ)
-- Rick Ellis of All Your Screens was inspired by the "how has the pandemic changed your TV habits?" prompt in this newsletter the other day, and he wrote about it: "TV Criticism In The Age Of COVID-19..." (All Your Screens)
NAACP vs. Fox News
Brian Lowry writes: "The NAACP is employing an interesting tactic in trying to hit Fox in its pocketbook by connecting Fox News to the broadcast network and urging the NFL not to continue doing business with the latter. Fox was, indeed, still part of the flurry of deals the league announced on Thursday, but that's an uncomfortable linkage for the broadcast part of the company, one they have generally sought to downplay and avoid..."
This new show proves that Marvel's 'WandaVision' wasn't a blip
Brian Lowry writes: "Marvel only made one episode of 'The Falcon and the Winter Soldier' available for reviewers, but the muscular premiere reflects a similar strategy to the more risk-taking "WandaVision" -- namely, taking an underdeveloped relationship from the movies and giving it space to breathe (for six hours or so) on Disney+. While more conventional, this show also appears to be in no hurry to disgorge its secrets, counting on fans to stick around for the full ride..."
Elsewhere in streaming...
Brian Lowry adds: "Apple TV+ has adapted a French concept with 'Calls,' which takes the abundance of TV back to its seemingly inevitable endpoint: radio drama. In this case, it's a macabre sci-fi story told through a series of creepy phone calls, with only the most minimal graphics to illustrate what's on screen. In that, it owes a debt to Orson Welles' 'War of the Worlds' broadcast, relying on what the imagination can conjure as opposed to special effects..."
Why Hollywood is a cauldron of race issues at the moment
Lisa Respers France writes: "If it seems like there are more apologies from celebs these days when it comes to matters of race, it's because there are. Despite complaints about 'cancel culture' and racist insistence that people who talk about these important issues are 'playing the race card,' Hollywood can't seem to get away from conversations about race and diversity. And while hopefully those discussions can lead to progress, lately they have led to controversy for some. White guilt, apologies and why Hollywood is a cauldron of race issues at the moment is the topic of this week's Pop Life Chronicles..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART SEVEN
By Lisa Respers France:
-- Speaking of race issues, here's what Sheryl Underwood had to say about her tense discussion with Sharon Osbourne on "The Talk..."
-- Olivia Munn and other celebs were championing #StopAsianHate well before the Atlanta shootings...
-- Reality star Mama June Shannon says she almost spent a million dollars on her addiction...
SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST...
Pet of the day
Better a day late than never! Teresa submitted this photo on St. Patrick's Day: "Brady the Yorkie is eagerly awaiting the arrival of Reliable Sources in my inbox because he loves it when I read it out loud to him..."
Thank you for reading! Send us your feedback and tips anytime. See you tomorrow...
Share this newsletter:
|
You are receiving this message because you subscribed to CNN's Reliable Sources newsletter.
® © 2021 Cable News Network, Inc.
A WarnerMedia Company. All Rights Reserved.
Our mailing address is:
Cable News Network, Inc.
Attention: Privacy Policy Coordinator
One CNN Center, 13 North
Atlanta, GA 30303
unsubscribe from this list