What is Digg?45 Comments
- buttsakk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15@spyyder
actually, NASCAR is one big advertisement... god i hate nascar! - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -17/+24thats why you people should watch real football (soccer). NFL is a 1 hour game streched over 4 hours! NFL games are one big advertisement. Fans spend hundreds and thousands of dollars and waste hours of their time only to know one thing. Who won? Here is a suggestion sports.yahoo.com, you can know outcome of game, and save 4 hrs of your life every week.
/just a thought - neofactor, on 10/12/2007, -4/+10No digg...
You should not point to a site that requires a log-in... unless you provide the username and pass. At least point them to bugmenot. - junkfood, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9Just in case that link goes away...
NFL calls signals for Internet play
Web rights deal likely to pass $300 million
By Eric Benderoff
Tribune staff reporter
Published March 29, 2006
The nation's most popular sports league wants to see how much money its powerful brand is worth in cyberspace.
Already the pacesetter in generating huge dollars for broadcast rights to its games on television, the National Football League is in negotiations for what could be the largest contract ever awarded for exclusive Internet and digital content.
The league's Internet rights agreement expires in May, and a new deal likely will be worth hundreds of millions of dollars more than the five-year, $300 million accord the league signed with several partners in 2001.
The NFL is considering the new deal "a clean slate," said Brian McCarthy, an NFL spokesman. "We are talking to a number of companies."
Those include technology giants Apple Computer Inc., Google Inc., Microsoft Corp., Sony Corp., Yahoo Inc.and possibly others not considered media players in 2001.
"It's wide open," McCarthy said. "We haven't made any decisions yet."
The NFL also could take some elements of its online content in-house, he added.
The mad scramble for the league's online rights is the latest example of the growing power of the Internet and the potential bonanza for providers of programming like the NFL. The auction for the online rights also is one of the biggest financial tests yet as to just how valuable content will become on the Web.
That leaves viewers as the biggest beneficiaries. With content straddling two worlds--TV and Internet--viewers have more choices than ever at their fingertips.
The expiring Internet contract comes at an opportune time for the NFL. Nearly 70 percent of U.S. Internet users access the Web with a high-speed connection, according to a March study by Nielsen/NetRatings. Those broadband rates encouraged CBS to offer live Internet streams for the NCAA men's basketball tournament this month. More than 5 million people watched the games online for free.
The NFL's current Internet contract is largely with CBS Corp.'s CBS SportsLine.com, which manages the NFL.com site, and, to a lesser degree, Time Warner's AOL unit. A SportsLine spokesman would say only that the NFL negotiations are at a tender stage. An AOL spokesman would not comment on the talks, or even say if the company was bidding on the new contract.
When it was announced in 2001, the NFL deal was the richest Internet sports deal in history. It flattened the NFL's first Internet deal, a three-year contract with ESPN valued at only $10 million.
The league's NFL.com site, when combined with the affiliated sites of teams such as the Chicago Bears, is consistently in the top five of all sports sites, according to data from ComScore Networks.
During the season, usage of NFL Internet properties escalates significantly. In September, for example, as the 2005 season kicked off, the NFL site and affiliated team sites collectively ranked second, behind ESPN.com and ahead of heavyweights Yahoo, AOL and Fox Sports.
McCarthy said the NFL is looking at other options to manage its site and is considering selling certain rights to rebroadcast games.
One model could be a similar deal CBS announced with Apple days before the NCAA men's tournament launched. Apple, through its iTunes site, is selling commercial-free, condensed versions of the games the day after they are broadcast on TV.
McCarthy said there "could be something with Apple" to resell games on iTunes after they are played. Likewise, Google is selling National Basketball League games on its site shortly after they are played.
Apple would not comment about the NFL talks. A Google spokesman said the company is "continually exploring opportunities to expand our partnerships in the video arena, but we have nothing to announce."
McCarthy, however, cautioned that the NFL is very conscious of not alienating its TV broadcast partners, so any talks about reselling games are likely to be sensitive.
Television partners include ESPN, CBS, NBC and Fox, who, under new agreements reached over the last 6 months, collectively will pay the NFL about $4 billion a season.
"The cornerstone of the NFL's philosophy is free, over-the-air TV broadcasts," McCarthy said. "That helps to generate the massive TV deals."
Also, satellite provider DirecTV pays $700 million annually for its exclusive Sunday package of games.
Hence, it is unlikely the NFL will follow the NCAA and Major League Baseball by offering its games as live video streams.
Jonathan Taplin, a former Merrill Lynch executive and now a professor at the University of Southern California, thinks that is a big mistake.
"Why not put the games online?" he asked. The popularity "would be through the roof. They could sell NFL product and gear. They can offer it worldwide on NFL.com, so if you're in Singapore, you can watch a live game.
"The biggest opportunity is for the NFL to collect a tremendous amount of data and charge for subscriptions and advertising," he added. "The advertising on interactive platforms, where the advertiser knows who is watching, is much more powerful than on TV."
Other issues on the table include highlight packages and original video content, the deep statistics and data the NFL collects each game and fantasy football rights, McCarthy said.
The fantasy aspect is intriguing, said Jeff Marshall, senior vice president and managing director for Chicago digital media agency Starcom IP. It is "possibly an angle that hasn't been fully ferreted out yet," he said.
"Once you get past TV sports advertising, fantasy sports is one of the highest-generating revenue aspects of sports," Marshall said.
According to a survey released in March by the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, more than $3 billion is spent annually by players in fantasy leagues. Those figures don't include revenue generated by advertisers trying to attract those players. - junkfood, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5This link is working for now: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0603290237mar29,1,6686669.story?coll=chi-business-hed
- thedove, on 10/12/2007, -5/+10sweet! whatever it takes....we need nfl games on the net. looking forward to this one actually happening!
- SubZ3r0, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6yea im tired of bein robbed 180$ for NFL Sunday Ticket!
- Maceyhw, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Bad title, it says right in the quoted section that the old deal was for $300 Million and that a new deal will likely be for a lot more.
- MattH, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3fox is working on entering the online distribution market within the next month .And all you Apple fanboys stop wetting your pants becuse Rupert Murdock has no luv for Apple .
- Jeepxj206, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Nah.. we just think football, baseball and basketball is better than hockey. aka hockey is boring.
- roscoe2041, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4thymes--take a look at this, buddy. Plus, Sirius has soccer games covered too (at least EPL)...
Question: Which televised sporting event has more viewers, the World Cup Final or the Super Bowl?
Answer: Not even close - the World Cup. The Super Bowl draws primarily from the US, with a TV audience of 50 to 100 million. The World Cup draws from the entire globe and an audience in the hundreds of millions. Thinking the Super Bowl is the most widely viewed sporting event is a wonderful example of national chauvinism.
Footnote: we checked the FIFA World Cup site and they report that the viewership for the 2002 World Cup exceeded 1 billion.
Source (with other source links to Forbes, etc): http://www.answerbag.com/q_view.php/32295 - ijwelch, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Where I live the nations' most popular sport is ***** fighting. Unfortunately you made the classic mistake of assuming your country is the only one in the world. Typical.
- cgilmour, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3The new contract isn't for broadcasting games over the net -- it's just for taking over nfl.com. In fact, here's a quote from the article: "Hence, it is unlikely the NFL will follow the NCAA and Major League Baseball by offering its games as live video streams."
- the-rip, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3well diargasm, im gonna sit back in my LT jersey and forget you said that.
tennis?? not so fast there, tough guy - MoFoKeR, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3yea some people are blind to the fact that soccer is worldwide and played anywhere easily not to diss the nfl i watch it sometimes but my texans blow chunks ha
- MoFoKeR, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2finally someone who read the article and didnt just read the headline saying "nfl" and went nuts and started just typing to comment
- s0ny, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5Little known sport? What the hell are you talking about? The NFL is one of the largest businesses in the world when you look at the numbers. 4 BILLION dollars paid annually by the major stations just to air the games on their networks, DirecTV pays 700 Million for exclusive rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket, and now they will most likely get 300 Million for an online deal, not to mention the price Sirius pays in order to have exclusive rights to their audio, the NFL is netting 5-6 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR IN REVENUE, just from media contracts!!!!!
If you then take into account the 3 Billion spent by fantasy leagues, which the NFL gets a part of, the Ticket sales to actual games, and merchandise, and then take into account how much revenue is generated from the freakin SuperBowl, the #1 event every year in television, your likely to be in the 8-12 Billion dollars a year.
How much does your soccer ***** make? Considering Ive only seen like 2 games broadcast here in the US, and both were on the Hispanic channels, Id call soccer the little known sport except to you wankers. - MicroBerto, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Personally, I think that's a deal worth taking. We're just starting to see the beginning of TV on the net (the illegal type has been going on for quite some time -- the legal types have just started to figure it out). Within the next 5 years, it's going to explode.
I'd say this is an investment that someone is going to rake in huge gains in the long term, but definitely be hurting in the short term. If I owned a big internet company, I'd do it. - ComputerGuru, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2DRM????
It's called a contract... ALL contracts are like that..... - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3The NFL is larger than every other American sport combined. Take the NBA, NCAA, NHL and MLB and you still aren't competing with the NFL.
- diggnationdevon, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Good, I like all of my content on the internet, screw NFL on the tv!
- chriskzoo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4It figures that digg nerds would not like American Football. The NFL gets $4 BILLION a year from its TV partners. And don't get me started on soccer. I lived in South America for a while an completely understand why people love the sport, but when it comes down to it, soccer is the most popular sport in the world for one reason only - it takes nothing to play it. You can kick a rock around if you want to.
- RaistlinMajere, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I love the NFL, and college football, it's far more complex than soccer. A very physical and violent game. It's replaced baseball as the most popular sport in the USA. And you should at least recognize it as such.
It's not all that popular worldwide, but the NFL is creating new leagues (like NFL Europe) to help spread the game to other countries. The game played in Mexico City last season was very popular there, the stadium was completely packed.
I know there are a lot of NFL fans out there, c'mon people, we need to stand up to these frogs and pansies who are putting down our game! (kidding) - RaistlinMajere, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Article displayed just fine for me, with no registration.
- ajb2015, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4yeah, because you are being forced to buy it.
- MattH, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I heard this this info from an industry insider I know
- farlane, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I just hope that whoever buys it puts at least the audio online for free. I will listen to ads, watch commercials, just show me the game!
- deadsenator, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The eneffell is a great sport, but greed is doing it's part in ruining it. Soccer is a great sport, too, but it simply does not get the billing in the US that it deserves. NFL Europe is a feeble attempt to spread American football to that continent. Germany is where it does best and where most of the teams flourish. This is because American soldiers shared football with the Germans back in WWII and it left it's mark. It's largely a practice league though, and elsewhere it cannot compete at the same level as soccer. They are very different sports and more people around the world can identify with soccer.
As far as watching games on the computer is concerned, I would rather watch it on my big screen teevee than the smaller computer screen. I spend way too much time in front of the computer anyways! Perhaps the next day to show a highlight or a botched play, that'd be fine, but I don't think I'll watch much of it on the computer. I certainly would not pay for it and am wondering how littered with advertisements it will be.
I pay for the DirecTV ticket and enjoy being able to watch almost any game I want. Even if I Tivo other games, I'll rarely watch them during the week. I can't tie myself to the teevee more than that! I'll watch on Sunday and be done with it.
Too much peecee, too much teevee...I gotta go ride my bike...wait, I think I have a videogame for that! - dynamit, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2@s0ny
Not very surprising that you can get that kind of financial numbers from a sport like american football. After all roughly 46 % of broadcast time is commercials. The real numbers however speak for them self . This is from wikipedia.:
The World Cup is the most widely-viewed and followed sporting event in the world, exceeding even the Olympic Games. The cumulative audience of the World Cup 2002 event — summing over all matches — is estimated to be 28.8 billion. 1.1 billion individuals have watched the final match of this tournament. The draw, which decided the distribution of teams into groups, has been watched by 300 million viewers. - maubstezuma, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm just hoping they don't charge so damn much for streaming audio next season - $35 to listen to the 2005 schedule, whereas Major League Baseball is charging $15 for their entire season (162 games + playoffs).
- dekkerd, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5Simple enough. Media center +ORB = NFL streamed anywhere you are, via the net. Go Steelers!
- VivaNiagara, on 02/05/2009, -0/+0Keep up with the Ravens on http://www.BaltimoreRavens-On-Youtube.info/
- dmac35, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I think that more and more of the television networks are moving more stuff to the internet. I found it very appealing to be able to watch one NCAA Basketball tournament game on TV and one on the internet. If the NFL charges for their online brodcasts I think the service will fail but, in a time where more networks are moving to internet broadcasts I feel that this would be a step in the right direction for sports and may end up triggering a sting of leagues and sports to join in the internet broadcasting market.
- Godric, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Some people want to sell *****, others want to buy it from them. Welcome to the real world.
- netbenzo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I just found this FREE All Sports, All Teams Discussions Forum website. It has EVERYTHING.
http://www.playpost.com/forum - mofomojo, on 10/12/2007, -13/+12@ spyyder
Agreed; NFL is a waste of time. Of course, most of digg's browsers are American, so "shh-" before you get dugg down too far.
In fact, most sports are useless over competitive ***** fests anyways. Well, that's my opinion of jocks and sports, anyways. Transforming a mere kid's game into a super-competitive, seemingly life and death, event. Seriously, just a game people.
This is one of the reasons I dropped out of gym class in high school; too much competition, not enough fun. If we only played Capture the Flag and had Water Balloon fights more often. I swear, there would be no overweight kids at our school. This super-competition in games never works out for me.
I don't know, I just don't like playing with jerks, that's all. - bloodmoney, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Do I have to? Real football sucks too
- generalleoff, on 10/12/2007, -6/+4The No Fun League can go to hell. We need new sports leagues that arn't steeped in controversy and *****.
- scotty1024, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1I just hope Apple doesn't put up one penny that isn't paid for by the folks that actually want to download NFL football.
Aren't these NFL contracts just another form of DRM? - thymes, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2The NFL is Little known? You sure you aren't thinking of soccer?
Sirius radio has all the games, I think that's the better way to go than listening to it online. - diargasm, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1Football is a crap sport. I laugh at people who think "they" won because their favorite team won a game. Or whoever wears an athlete's jersey and is over the age of 16. Om my gosh, he's my hero!!!!
Tennis is where it's at. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1What you just did is called copyright infringement and you just made Digg.com libel.
- hiro, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1Wow that's a lot of money for a little known sport. There must be an awful lot of Americans who watch this 'cos the rest of the world doesn't give a monkey's. Why do they call it American Football anyway, from what I gather they use their hands?
- NYRangers4evr, on 10/12/2007, -7/+0oh my *****!!! this is ***** horrible. Hockey isn't gettin one American dollar because Americans think that Hockey's is a ***** Canadian sport. TOTAL *****!
- NYRangers4evr, on 10/12/2007, -8/+1P.S. ***** FOOTBALL, actually lemme doggie-style the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders in the ASSES!!! ***** ey!
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