NFL

NFL on CBS games will be available on the streaming service beginning Sunday, Dec. 4. CBS All Access subscribers will be able to stream all NFL on CBS games, including Thursday Night Football on CBS, as well as pregame and halftime coverage live on CBS All Access platforms

The NFL on Monday dismissed speculation that it is considering reducing its commitment to Thursday Night Football in the wake of disappointing ratings this season. In a statement, the league said, “we are fully committed to Thursday Night Football and any reports to the contrary are unfounded.” The NFL was responding to a story in Pro Football Talk that suggested there were discussions to cut the package after the 2017 season, which is when current deals with CBS and NBC are set to expire.

With mounting criticism of the quality of every-week Thursday football, scattered suggestions have emerged in recent weeks that the NFL could pull the plug on the experiment. Those suggestions are stronger than that; per a source with knowledge of the situation, the league will be considering the possibility of ending, or at least limiting, Thursday Night Football.

Of the prevailing theories about why NFL viewing has dropped, the most popular has been that the presidential election had stolen eyeballs that would otherwise be fixed on the game. Increased viewership for cable news networks at times that games were on supported that idea. The silver lining was an expectation that ratings would bounce back after the election. Week 10 was the first test of that theory — and the results were promising.

It will be a nine-part, limited series exclusively made for the Google Daydream virtual reality headset by NFL Films. The series will cover “life in and around the NFL — from players, to coaches, to executives, to cheerleaders, to the fans themselves — detailing how each prepares for game day,” according to a press release. The first episode will be Thanksgiving Day on YouTube, with the VR version dropping at an unspecified date before year’s end.

Everyone’s got a theory on why the long-dominant football league has seen a precipitous decline in viewership this fall. The truth is, it’s no single thing. It’s a combination.

Many theories are offered to explain declining ratings, but the answer might be simple: The product isn’t good any more.

Sports franchise executives will discuss challenges and successes in producing major live events.

The country will choose a new president on Nov. 8, and no one is more eager for that day than the TV executives who do business with the NFL. Whether Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump occupy the White House won’t make a difference as to who makes it to the Super Bowl. But it will go a long way to explaining whether the NFL ratings downturn this season is a temporary blip or a game-changer in the TV business.

A defensive struggle between two NFC West playoff teams that went to overtime Sunday and ended with a rare tie produced an 11.6 overnight rating for NBC. Sure, the overnight number was a marked uptick over the record-low 9.0 overnight wrought by last week’s Sunday Night game between the Indianapolis Colts and Houston Texans. But it was notably 15% lower than the comparable week-seven Sunday Night matchup in 2015 featuring the eventual Super Bowl runner-up Carolina Panthers and Philadelphia Eagles.

Viewership of the NFL, a stalwart of television viewing and revenue, is off 15% this season. There are many theories as to why, but I would trace it to the Trump phenomenon. Whether you like him or not, the man is leading a revolution — primarily of white working class males — against “the establishment,” of which the NFL is an entertainment cornerstone. With its $20 parking and $10 beers, seat licenses and high prices for bad seats, the NFL long ago left its original blue collar backers far behind.

Game viewing is down nearly 15% per person this fall, with some demographics showing steeper declines than others. What’s behind it? A range of things, from ho-hum games to the election.

Football, America’s biggest primetime powerhouse, has been thrust into a crisis this fall, with dwindling ratings sparking questions over whether it can remain a gold mine for television in an age when more Americans are abandoning traditional TV.

TV networks are giving away more commercial time this NFL season than a year ago to make up for one of the worst ratings declines in a decade, a rare sign of weakness for the biggest draw on television.

That number was smaller than Yahoo’s live stream of a Thursday game last season. and it’s way smaller than the 48.1 million who watched it on live TV. Last Thursday’s game was the first of 10 that the platform will stream this season.

In the debut of an NFL plan to live stream Thursday Night Football on Twitter, the video feed had a slight delay. Fans’ complaints were posted on Twitter in real time.

Twitter’s Jack Dorsey has a lot riding on his bet that live streaming events — especially the NFL’s Thursday Night Football, to which it won rights — will kickstart a necessary turnaround. The Wall Street Journal reports that ad packages for all 10 games run $1 million-$8 million with two commercials per game and additional sponsorship of clips, but some ad buyers are hesitant to commit. Twitter hopes that by bringing its app to TV screens via Apple TV, those anxieties will abate. WSJ subscribers can read the full story here.

The cost of buying commercial spots in live NFL broadcasts is pricier than it has ever been, and yet available in-game inventory all but flew off the shelves in the run-up to the 2016-17 season. According to national TV buyers, the going rates for ad units in this season’s NFL games are at an all-time high, despite the fact that last year’s prices were already up in the stratosphere. 

Hyundai’s reign as the NFL’s only automotive sponsor ended Wednesday when Ford announced a three-year deal as the official truck of the NFL. Hyundai’s four-year deal began last year when the Korean brand replaced General Motors, which had sponsored the NFL since 2001.

For CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus, half of an NFL Thursday Night Football package is better than no package at all. “Would we have liked the whole package?” McManus said Tuesday at the network’s media briefing ahead of the NFL season. “I guess we would have.” CBS is getting the first five night games, starting Sept. 15. NBC takes the franchise over starting Nov. 17.

The Peacock is making the case to advertisers that it should get a premium over what CBS is charging for its own Thursday-night package of NFL games, according to people familiar with the situation. NBC feels its request is justified because its Thursday games air much closer to the holiday season, when the need for various sponsors to get their promotional messages out on TV becomes more intense.

Neal Ardman’s independent WIYC Montgomery, Ala. (DMA 122), will air three pre-season NFL Jacksonville  Jaguars contests live in HD. Aug. 11 — 6:30 p.m. CT at New York Jets Aug […]

The Wall Street Journal reports that NFL, Walt Disney and Comcast’s NBCUniversal are among television content owners that are resisting deals with Facebook for its video features, concerned about ceding control to the social-networking giant and undermining the value of their programming. Journal subscribers can read the full story here.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers kick off their preseason slate on Thursday night at 7 p.m. against the Philadelphia Eagles in a game that will be broadcast live locally on Media […]

Dish Network announced today that it has reached a multi-year carriage agreement for NFL Network and RedZone. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Dish remains in a protracted broadcast retrans impasse with Tribune Media that has blacked out 42 network affiliates in 33 markets for close to a month.

The National Football League on Tuesday revealed that it signed a multiyear extension with Snapchat that will make the NFL the first sports league with a Snapchat Discover channel. NFL Media will handle programming including news, hot topics, photos and videos specifically produced for the mobile app.

After paying $10 million to live stream 10 of the NFL’s Thursday night games next season, Twitter has been busy trying to sell ad packages around the content. it has already sold 60% of those packages, which are priced at $2 million-$8 million and include in-game ads, pre-roll ads and Periscope streams. It has a $50 million goal at the end of the rainbow.

NFL Network and NFL RedZone have been dropped from Dish’s lineup. The contact between the NFL and the satellite television provider expired at 7 p.m. ET Thursday, at which time Dish customers were no longer able to access the league’s channels.

The CBS O&O will air three preseason games plus a weekly half-hour show featuring Rams Head Coach Jeff Fisher and KCBS Sports Director Jim Hill.

More NFL clips are coming to YouTube. The National Football League and YouTube announced Thursday a multiyear renewal of their partnership. The NFL will post three of the most memorable games for each of the 32 franchises to its official YouTube channel prior to the start of the 2016-17 season.

Instead, it’s giving its Twitter deal top priority, and the three London games won’t be streamed, the league said, noting that hasn’t ruled out live streaming London games in the future. Last year’s London games were streamed by Yahoo.

The 30-year-old recipient of this year’sTVNewsCheck‘s Women in Technology Woman to Watch honor heads a team that is building a new content management system to support all of the NFL’s web and mobile products. She is also leading a redesign of the league’s eight-year-old website. “We’re focused on … how do we optimize moving audiences to the right experience,” she says. “Right now, that’s often mobile.” The award will be presented at the NAB Show in Las Vegas, on Tues., April 19, in Room N227 of the Convention Center.