Thursday night’s preseason game between the San Francisco 49ers and Houston Texans is less notable for who’s playing than how fans can watch it.

The contest will be the first NFL game shown exclusively on a streaming network, Amazon Prime Video, which marks the league’s most definitive step into the future of media.

• Amazon holds exclusive rights to “Thursday Night Football” broadcasts for $1 billion per season until 2033.
• The company struck a deal with DirecTV to allow games to be played in bars and restaurants. The games will also be available on each team’s local broadcast.
• Veteran broadcasters Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit will call Amazon’s games.

Amazon offers a host of features to augment the games, including alternate broadcasts, unlimited DVR recording, and “X-Ray” technology providing on-screen information on players and teams.

Streaming Taking Over

In July, streaming services hit a long-anticipated milestone, surpassing cable in total TV consumption, per Nielsen’s data. Streaming accounted for 34.8% of all TV consumed, compared to 34.4% for cable. Broadcast television fell to 21.6%, with 9.2% from other sources.

Netflix had the largest share among streaming platforms, with 7.7% of all TV consumption, followed by YouTube (7.3%), Amazon (3%), and Disney+ (1.8%).

The NFL is looking for a streaming partner for its next rights agreement for NFL Sunday Ticket, for which it is seeking $2.5 billion annually.

Nvidia reported $6.7 billion in second-quarter revenue, which fell short of hitting its outlook of $8.1 billion. Despite it being a 3% increase from the same period last year, it still represents a 19% decline from Q1. 

In the company’s preliminary financial results released earlier this month, Nvidia attributed the shortfall to “lower sell-in of gaming products reflecting a reduction in channel partner sales.” 

The company’s gaming division posted revenue of $2.04 billion, falling 33% from the same period the year prior and 44% from Q1. In Q4FY2022, Nvidia reported record revenue for its gaming division at $3.42 billion, and in Q1, the division set another record of $3.62 billion, a 31% increase from the same period the year prior.

Nvidia released a number of gaming products during the quarter.

• It added 30 RTX On games and apps, including “Evil-Dead: The Game.”
• Nvidia introduced its fastest-ever laptops, including a 2-in-1 convertible gaming model.
• The company added 80 games to its GeForce NOW library including “Mass Effect Legendary Edition.”

Next for Nvidia

The company forecasts $5.9 billion in third-quarter revenue, plus or minus 2%, but expects gaming to continue its decline, partially due to channel partners’ inventory levels.

Nvidia returned $3.44 billion to shareholders in Q2 and plans to continue share repurchases throughout the fiscal year.

Southampton FC owner Sport Republic is purchasing a 70% stake in Turkish second-tier club Göztepe.

The remaining 30% of the club will stay with Mehmet Sepil and existing shareholders. 

Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but the announcement comes two months after the Turkish Süper Lig signed a media deal worth just under $370 million per season — a significant decline from the previous deal worth $500 million annually.

Sport Republic claims that the deal, which is the firm’s second soccer team investment, makes it the first foreign investor within the Turkish soccer industry. 

The firm’s ambition is to “build a portfolio of high-influence stakes in football clubs and other sporting assets across the world,” chairman Henrik Kraft stated.

• In January, the firm acquired an 80% stake in Southampton for a reported $118 million.
• Sport Republic was also reportedly in talks to buy French club Valenciennes and is reportedly targeting clubs in other leagues including those in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Portugal.

Club Community

Sport Republic follows in the footsteps of other owners with portfolios featuring multiple soccer teams across several countries. 

City Football Group is an owner of 10 teams globally — including Manchester City and New York City FC — and has one partner club. In June, RedBird Capital entered a $1.3 billion agreement to buy AC Milan. RedBird also owns Ligue 2’s Toulouse and has a stake in Fenway Sports Group, which owns Liverpool FC.

The NFL has once again proved it’s the most popular professional sports league in America — as long as we’re counting the preseason.

The league has already seen its exhibition games outperform MLB, NASCAR, and others in TV ratings in the U.S. — two weeks before the NFL’s regular season kicks off on Sept. 8. 

• Fox’s broadcast of Sunday’s game between the Baltimore Ravens and Arizona Cardinals averaged 3.22 million viewers. 
• The broadcast marked the week’s most-watched and highest-rated sporting event with a 2.0 household rating, according to Nielsen.
• In comparison, Fox’s “Field of Dreams” broadcast on Aug. 11 between MLB’s Cincinnati Reds and Chicago Cubs averaged 3.1 million viewers.
• USA Network’s broadcast of NASCAR’s Federated Auto Parts 400 from Richmond Raceway averaged 2.56 million viewers on Aug. 14. 

The 2022 NFL preseason, which has two games remaining for all teams, got off to a hot start.

NBC’s broadcast of the annual NFL Hall of Fame Game on Aug. 6 between Las Vegas and Jacksonville — which included a rain delay — drew 5.48 million viewers as the Raiders defeated the Jaguars 27-11 in Canton, Ohio. 

Valuable Asset 

On Monday, Forbes unveiled its list of the most valuable NFL teams in 2022 — and the Dallas Cowboys topped the list for a 16th consecutive year and became the first team to be valued at $8 billion.

The league’s 32 teams are now worth an average of $4.47 billion — a 28% increase year-over-year.