Latest news with #AustinKarp
NBC Sports
3 days ago
- Business
- NBC Sports
Report: New NFL-ESPN deal for NFL draft runs through 2030
The Wednesday morning announcement that the draft will continue to be televised by ESPN didn't include any information about the duration of the deal. According to Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal, it's a five-year deal. This means the contract runs through 2030 — which coincides with the expiration of the current broadcast deals, if/when (when) the NFL pulls the plug on all packages. Per the report, the deal is non-exclusive. Which allows the NFL to sell rights to televise the draft to other networks. It's still not clear what will happen with the NFL Network coverage of the draft, now that ESPN will be running NFL Network. On one hand, it makes no business sense to duplicate production efforts. On the other hand, ESPN/ABC already have multiple productions for the draft. To the extent that the league and the four-letter network have concerns about the potential ESPN-ification of NFL Network, the best move would be to preserve the existing NFLN broadcast of the draft. Even if it would be cheaper to fold them together and streamline the process.
NBC Sports
5 days ago
- Sport
- NBC Sports
6.9 million watched Chargers-Lions Hall of Fame game
Football is back. And while the numbers are yet to hit regular-season form, a large throng tuned in for a glorified scrimmage involving second- and third-stringers. Via Austin Karp of Sports Business Daily, the Chargers-Lions Hall of Fame game on NBC generated 6.9 million viewers on average for the broadcast. It's the biggest audience for the Hall of Fame game since the 2021 matchup between the Steelers and Cowboys, which averaged 7.31 million. Last year, Bears-Texans on ABC averaged 4.93 million. Of the total number, 691,000 watched on Peacock and NBC Digital. It's the biggest NBC preseason streaming audience ever. Several more preseason games will be nationally televised over the next three weeks. In four weeks and three days, the season gets started with Cowboys-Eagles in Philadelphia. On NBC and Peacock. The number will be much higher than 6.9 million for that one.
NBC Sports
07-03-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
NFL Network sees highest Scouting Combine viewership since 2017
As offseason NFL tentpoles go, the Scouting Combine remains the smallest. In 2025, it was bigger than it's been in years. Via Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal, NFL Network had its highest four-day Combine viewership since 2017. The average for Saturday's quarterback/receiver/running back workouts hit 484,000. That's the best the league-owned channel has generated. ABC, however, has done better in the years the workouts were simulcast on the broadcast network. That last happened in 2022. The fact that any NFL-branded content comes in under 500,000 viewers shows it's nowhere close to real NFL football games. But the workouts aren't real football. And only the hardest of the hardcore fans tune in. Still, 484,000 is a lot better than what the usual reruns would generate during an otherwise slow offseason weekend. Tomorrow's slate, for example, features the Minneapolis Miracle game at 11:00 a.m. ET, the 2024 Week 9 game between the Jets and Texans, the 2024 Week 14 game between the Falcons and Vikings, and the 2019 Bucs-Seahawks game.
NBC Sports
09-02-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
NFL Honors draws lowest audience ever
NFL games gather a live audience like nothing else. But not everything carrying The Shield on the show thrives in today's world of ever-fracturing audiences. For instance, Thursday night's NFL Honors on Fox and NFL Network generated the smallest audience in the history of the annual awards show, which first was televised in prime time in 2012. Via Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal, 2.3 million tuned in on average. That's a 20-percent drop from last year. It's also 11 percent lower than the previous low-water mark set in February 2021. The CBS and NBC evening programming outperformed the show. ABC did not. Also falling short was a TNT/truTV broadcast of Mavericks-Celtics, which had 1.81 million viewers. The biggest audience for NFL Honors happened in 2015 on NBC, with 4.669 million average viewers. That's more than twice the amount of the 2025 viewership.
NBC Sports
07-02-2025
- Business
- NBC Sports
Report: Prime Video will continue to televise playoff game for balance of current rights deal
It started as a one-year thing. And it will now continue. Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal reports that Prime Video will continue to televise a Wild Card game for the balance of its current broadcast deal. While reported a seven-year commitment, the NFL has an early out under all current media deals, at the conclusion of the 2029 season. It's currently believed that the league will exercise that right. Amazon reportedly paid $150 million for the 2024 playoff game. The cost of the future postseason games isn't yet known. The Steelers-Ravens Saturday night game last month attracted 22.1 million viewers, down from the 23 million for the Dolphins-Chiefs Wild Card game on Peacock a year earlier. Prime Video's performance in the first three years of the Thursday night package proves that the shift to streaming has happened, and that others (like Netflix) will be at the table the next time the NFL sells its various TV packages. And with more suitors than selections of games to sell, the numbers will continue to go up and up and up — as they always have.
