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NFL - UK Broadcasting Thread
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ukdude7
16-01-2015
Uh-oh, Individual 2015 Wembley tickets go on sale on Monday. We know what that means: Sky Sports Coverage, on the second biggest NFL day of the year will go into full NFLuk infomercial mode, hard selling the games, getting people who want to see their name on screen to tweet in pointless questions about the 2015 games. Think they have less time to sell these before Goodell's State of the League pre Super Bowl address where he likes to say they have 'sold out'. Hopefully we'll see some live playoff football scattered amongst it.

It often makes me wonder about the relationship between NFLuk and Sky. It's always seemed very close, more so than any other broadcaster and sports administration I can remember in the UK. Does anyone know how much Sky pays for the rights? (if anything much at all?) It was interesting on the NFLuk/Sky Sports podcast the other week when retelling a story from the studio that Neil recalled Jeff, on wanting to talk about the blown call in the Lions v Cowboys game, asked him 'can we go off on the officials?'. In other words are we allowed to be properly critical which I thought was odd because I couldn't imagine Gary Neville, Stuart Barnes or Nassar Hussein needing to ask a similar thing. To me it was a strange mindset to have on broadcasting a sport? To me it just proved how the NFL is showcased on British TV, very similar to how it is in the US (eg Michaels and Collinsworth's embarrassing ode to the Mueller report/Goodell last Saturday night) where the broadcasters are very much in bed with the NFL.
walterwhite
16-01-2015
Originally Posted by ukdude7:
“Uh-oh, Individual 2015 Wembley tickets go on sale on Monday. We know what that means: Sky Sports Coverage, on the second biggest NFL day of the year will go into full NFLuk infomercial mode, hard selling the games, getting people who want to see their name on screen to tweet in pointless questions about the 2015 games. Think they have less time to sell these before Goodell's State of the League pre Super Bowl address where he likes to say they have 'sold out'. Hopefully we'll see some live playoff football scattered amongst it.

It often makes me wonder about the relationship between NFLuk and Sky. It's always seemed very close, more so than any other broadcaster and sports administration I can remember in the UK. Does anyone know how much Sky pays for the rights? (if anything much at all?) It was interesting on the NFLuk/Sky Sports podcast the other week when retelling a story from the studio that Neil recalled Jeff, on wanting to talk about the blown call in the Lions v Cowboys game, asked him 'can we go off on the officials?'. In other words are we allowed to be properly critical which I thought was odd because I couldn't imagine Gary Neville, Stuart Barnes or Nassar Hussein needing to ask a similar thing. To me it was a strange mindset to have on broadcasting a sport? To me it just proved how the NFL is showcased on British TV, very similar to how it is in the US (eg Michaels and Collinsworth's embarrassing ode to the Mueller report/Goodell last Saturday night) where the broadcasters are very much in bed with the NFL.”

I think you're reading a bit too much into it personally.
hendero
16-01-2015
Originally Posted by ukdude7:
“Uh-oh, Individual 2015 Wembley tickets go on sale on Monday. We know what that means: Sky Sports Coverage, on the second biggest NFL day of the year will go into full NFLuk infomercial mode, hard selling the games, getting people who want to see their name on screen to tweet in pointless questions about the 2015 games. Think they have less time to sell these before Goodell's State of the League pre Super Bowl address where he likes to say they have 'sold out'. Hopefully we'll see some live playoff football scattered amongst it.

It often makes me wonder about the relationship between NFLuk and Sky. It's always seemed very close, more so than any other broadcaster and sports administration I can remember in the UK. Does anyone know how much Sky pays for the rights? (if anything much at all?) It was interesting on the NFLuk/Sky Sports podcast the other week when retelling a story from the studio that Neil recalled Jeff, on wanting to talk about the blown call in the Lions v Cowboys game, asked him 'can we go off on the officials?'. In other words are we allowed to be properly critical which I thought was odd because I couldn't imagine Gary Neville, Stuart Barnes or Nassar Hussein needing to ask a similar thing. To me it was a strange mindset to have on broadcasting a sport? To me it just proved how the NFL is showcased on British TV, very similar to how it is in the US (eg Michaels and Collinsworth's embarrassing ode to the Mueller report/Goodell last Saturday night) where the broadcasters are very much in bed with the NFL.”

Neil works for Sky and the NFL is one of his clients. I suppose Sky benefits from the London games doing well because it in theory generates interest in the sport and in turn more viewers. And Sky would probably be very keen on a team based in the UK one day, if that ever does actually happen, and a regularly sold-out Wembley makes that more likely. Having said that, it is a bit odd (and more than a little annoying) that a broadcaster goes to the lengths they do to promote a live event, as opposed to their coverage of it.

I'm not overly fussed, because despite the weakness of the Sky studio team (with a couple of exceptions) I think we get generally very good coverage in the UK. Five live games every week, every playoff game, the Red Zone, and decent weekly highlight shows on three channels. Add in the three Wembley games, and it's pretty good for what will always be something of a minority sport in the UK, even if the London Werewolves are more than just a figment of someone's imagination one day.
Staffs Steve
16-01-2015
Commentary Teams for Conference Championship Games

20:05 Sunday - Green Bay @ Seattle FOX - Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, Erin Andrews, Chris Myers.
23:40 Sunday - Indianapolis @ New England CBS - Jim Nantz, Phil Simms, Tracy Wolfson.
Alex2606
18-01-2015
The NFL and CBS have announced the Thursday Night Football package will continue next season with the NFL having an option for a further year after

Quote:
“
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

1/18/15



CBS AND NFL NETWORK TO EACH TELEVISE 8 GAMES



NEW YORK – The National Football League will continue its partnership with CBS to produce and televise Thursday Night Football for the 2015 season, it was announced today by NFL Commissioner ROGER GOODELL and LESLIE MOONVES, president and CEO of CBS Corp., and SEAN McMANUS, Chairman, CBS Sports.

CBS will broadcast the first eight Thursday Night Football games which also will be simulcast on NFL Network. NFL Network will also exclusively televise eight games in the run-up to the playoffs. The mix of games will include 14 on Thursday nights and two late-season games on Saturday.

The full slate of 16 regular-season games will be produced by CBS with its lead broadcasters and production team on all Thursday night games. The pregame, halftime and postgame shows will continue to feature NFL Network and CBS Sports hosts and analysts.

The agreement is for the 2015 season with an additional year at the NFL’s option.”

hendero
19-01-2015
Originally Posted by ukdude7:
“Uh-oh, Individual 2015 Wembley tickets go on sale on Monday. We know what that means: Sky Sports Coverage, on the second biggest NFL day of the year will go into full NFLuk infomercial mode, hard selling the games, getting people who want to see their name on screen to tweet in pointless questions about the 2015 games. Think they have less time to sell these before Goodell's State of the League pre Super Bowl address where he likes to say they have 'sold out'. Hopefully we'll see some live playoff football scattered amongst it.
”

Most accurate prediction on the broadcasting forum all year. Late on during last night's Seattle-Green Bay game we had them reading out tweets like, "When will the fan rally at Trafalgar Square take place?" Because I'm quite sure whoever sent that in was planning on booking his train tickets for October at that very moment. Such a very good use of Sky's time, it wasn't as though it was one of the most memorable playoff games of the past few years or anything.

I'm close to hoping that BT Sport or Eurosport one day get the rights to NFL, so long as they show the same number of games. Eurosport would be great, they would have no UK studio coverage and just run ads during breaks in play, which would be a significant upgrade over the Sky crew.
malcy30
19-01-2015
Originally Posted by hendero:
“Most accurate prediction on the broadcasting forum all year. Late on during last night's Seattle-Green Bay game we had them reading out tweets like, "When will the fan rally at Trafalgar Square take place?" Because I'm quite sure whoever sent that in was planning on booking his train tickets for October at that very moment. Such a very good use of Sky's time, it wasn't as though it was one of the most memorable playoff games of the past few years or anything.

I'm close to hoping that BT Sport or Eurosport one day get the rights to NFL, so long as they show the same number of games. Eurosport would be great, they would have no UK studio coverage and just run ads during breaks in play, which would be a significant upgrade over the Sky crew.”

I can't see NFL ever going to Eurosport as it would only be British Eurosport buying as the NFL is on other channels in most of Europe, so there would be no sharing of costs with the other versions of Eurosport. They only got MNF when no one else in the UK wanted it so was probably free or very low cost. Sky though have now added to their coverage.

I guess at the moment NFLUK are very happy with all the plugs they get in the Sky coverage hence why there are so many. They are not going to rock the boat and take a risk moving to BT. At the moment BT's focus at least for the early Sunday game is their European football so not sure if they would want to allocate one of their channel slots to NFL instead. The overnight games must get minimal viewers so are probably thrown in for virtually nothing along with the two Sunday games.
woosiep
22-01-2015
The US networks really seem to be actively cross promoting games on other networks, very overtly mentioning the games with logos on screen etc. The ESPN/CBS tie up is especially chummy.

Might be the final year I bother with Gamepass - now redzone is on Sky and there seems no chance of gamepass ever having the playoffs live - over £100 now seems steep - although I still love the direct US network feed - the ads for Dairy Queen, Applebees and the like are a bit of a saddos treat I have to admit.

Oh and glad to see NBC have the superbowl - enjoy Al and Cris more then any other of the current presenters (except Gruden natch)
Ads
22-01-2015
Originally Posted by woosiep:
“The US networks really seem to be actively cross promoting games on other networks, very overtly mentioning the games with logos on screen etc. The ESPN/CBS tie up is especially chummy.”

I suspect its contractual that they have to promote other NFL broadcasts.
hdtvfan20
22-01-2015
Originally Posted by woosiep:
“The US networks really seem to be actively cross promoting games on other networks, very overtly mentioning the games with logos on screen etc. The ESPN/CBS tie up is especially chummy.

Might be the final year I bother with Gamepass - now redzone is on Sky and there seems no chance of gamepass ever having the playoffs live - over £100 now seems steep - although I still love the direct US network feed - the ads for Dairy Queen, Applebees and the like are a bit of a saddos treat I have to admit.

Oh and glad to see NBC have the superbowl - enjoy Al and Cris more then any other of the current presenters (except Gruden natch)”

Yes your right about the cross network, ESPN does cross promote on ABC and of course because of cable companies there is also insert ads for football games from nfl network. I'm also glad tha nbc has the bowl this year then fox coverage
Jack1
22-01-2015
Originally Posted by Ads:
“I suspect its contractual that they have to promote other NFL broadcasts.”

They certainly aren't doing it out of the goodness of their own hearts.
Staffs Steve
22-01-2015
Originally Posted by Alex2606:
“The kickoff times for the first two Wembley games have been announced, both early

4th Oct - Jets/Dolphins - 2:30pm
25th Oct - Bills/Jags - 1:30pm

Detroit/KC is still to be announced”

Detroit @ Kansas is also 2:30pm kick off.

http://www.nfluk.com/news/internatio...d-16244337b62f
Bosox
22-01-2015
Great news, I can finally get behind this London game stuff now it's in its own slot. Still don't want a franchise though.
Jack1
22-01-2015
Originally Posted by Bosox:
“Great news, I can finally get behind this London game stuff now it's in its own slot. Still don't want a franchise though.”

Why not?
Bosox
22-01-2015
Because I have my own team that I already support and I think the idea of just plonking a team in London when the country as a whole has little interest in the sport is a depressing money grabbing enterprise. There are numerous places in the US which would be far more deserving candidates for NFL teams.
Jack1
23-01-2015
Originally Posted by Bosox:
“Because I have my own team that I already support and I think the idea of just plonking a team in London when the country as a whole has little interest in the sport is a depressing money grabbing enterprise. There are numerous places in the US which would be far more deserving candidates for NFL teams.”

What makes an area deserving?

If you haven't already realised there's only one thing the NFL cares about
ukdude7
23-01-2015
Originally Posted by Bosox:
“Because I have my own team that I already support and I think the idea of just plonking a team in London when the country as a whole has little interest in the sport is a depressing money grabbing enterprise. There are numerous places in the US which would be far more deserving candidates for NFL teams.”

I agree, the NFL should keep it's teams in America. Set up a new world league or something separate if you want to exploit other markets and do it with more gusto than the early 90's. There are enough players out of the sport that could make it worth it e.g. Tebow, Leinart, Vince Young, Brian Banks, Michael Sam etc. It'd be more desirable than Canadian or Arena Football.

Didn't the Monarchs pull in full houses at Wembley in their first year? The only thing is that the growth in interest in the game is different this time than the 80's. Back then people were into American Football as a sport. This time it's really just the NFL.

The idea of a franchise over here is absurd given the rules that will have to be put into the schedules every year to make it viable. It'd unbalance the league. They would never host a Thursday Night game for example, always play it on the road.
hendero
23-01-2015
Originally Posted by ukdude7:
“I agree, the NFL should keep it's teams in America. Set up a new world league or something separate if you want to exploit other markets and do it with more gusto than the early 90's. There are enough players out of the sport that could make it worth it e.g. Tebow, Leinart, Vince Young, Brian Banks, Michael Sam etc. It'd be more desirable than Canadian or Arena Football.

Didn't the Monarchs pull in full houses at Wembley in their first year? The only thing is that the growth in interest in the game is different this time than the 80's. Back then people were into American Football as a sport. This time it's really just the NFL.

The idea of a franchise over here is absurd given the rules that will have to be put into the schedules every year to make it viable. It'd unbalance the league. They would never host a Thursday Night game for example, always play it on the road.”

They tried the World League/NFL Europe, but compared to the level of play in the proper NFL there was no comparison, and interest dwindled. I don't think the league has yet figured out how a London team would actually work (which division would it join, what would that mean for the other teams in that division, what happens at playoff time), but I wouldn't be opposed to a London team. If it was part of a four team Europe division (along with say Munich, Amsterdam and somewhere else) I think it almost might be viable. And if it meant my NFL team (the Packers) played in Europe every once in a while, that would great.
Gray77
23-01-2015
I'll be honest, I've found the whole 'Wembley plug' business on Sky to be totally predictable over the last few weeks. I'm a Green Bay fan so watched our game with Dallas and the NFC Title game live but I watched every other play off game on a 30 minute delay so I could FF through the Sky plugs.

It's embarrassing at times. There have been times in really crucial moments of games that they've gone back to the studio, completely ignored what has just happened and answered some idiot's tweet about one of the Wembley games.

Sky have stopped actually analysing the pro's and cons of Wembley games and effectively become cheerleaders for it with no real analysis. Even the American guests who come on are totally 100% behind it, almost as if someone has told them what the party line is. I can't imagine most Americans give it much thought, yet every one of them who appears on Sky suddenly thinks it's the best thing to happen to the sport since Joe Namath decided that sideburns might be a good idea.

PS - A London franchise. I don't think Americans understand the difference between people going to the Wembley games and actually going to them to follow a London team. Barring the z-list celebrities and the hangers on who Sky love to show at the games who know nothing about the sport everyone else there is at those games because they are fans of the NFL, and as a result already follow a team. The vast majority of them will not change teams because there is also a team in London. Unfortunately that will be lost on the NFL because they will likely sell-out 8 home games at Wembley because the demand is there to watch games. But the majority of those who go to games will go to them to watch a game (or to see their own team if they are the road team) and not because they've fallen in love with the London franchise.
Bosox
23-01-2015
Originally Posted by Jack1:
“What makes an area deserving?

If you haven't already realised there's only one thing the NFL cares about ”

Deserving in my mind is about a community where there is more than 5% interested in the sport. We have a passionate fanbase here but there aren't many of us. The percentage of the general UK population that knows anything about the NFL is (whatever numbers NFLUK make up) vanishingly small. There will be more people watching the Super Bowl for Katy Perry than for Richard Sherman and Julian Edelman.

I realise the NFL (like all these sports) only cares about money but you asked why I didn't want a franchise here. I don't care about the NFL making money.
Gray77
23-01-2015
Originally Posted by Bosox:
“Deserving in my mind is about a community where there is more than 5% interested in the sport. We have a passionate fanbase here but there aren't many of us. The percentage of the general UK population that knows anything about the NFL is (whatever numbers NFLUK make up) vanishingly small. There will be more people watching the Super Bowl for Katy Perry than for Richard Sherman and Julian Edelman.

I realise the NFL (like all these sports) only cares about money but you asked why I didn't want a franchise here. I don't care about the NFL making money.”

I generally agree with this. The thought that London should be higher on the list of future NFL cities than the likes of Los Angeles, San Antonio, Portland etc is ridiculous. American Football is not a big sport here, regardless of what people may say. Yes, 80,000 can turn up at Wembley 3 times a season, but they are in the main the same people. No more than about 120,000 must make up 99% of the people who go to those 3 games, and those people are passionate enough to probably want to go to 8 games a season if London got a team. But they wouldn't be London fans, they'd be NFL fans lucky enough to have a team on their doorstep.

And look at the TV ratings. C4 got about 300,000 (IIRC) for the Detroit v Atlanta game slap bang in the middle of a Sunday afternoon on free television. That is appalling for a sport that is telling everyone it needs to have a UK presence because of 'overwhelming popularity'. It is not overwhelmingly popular, it just has a very loyal and vocal hardcore of fans and has a marketing department and media partner (Sky) that is very good at ramming home a message at every given moment.

There are cities in the US that don't have a team where probably more people sit down to watch an NFL game on TV than the entire population of the UK do. But because they don't have the NFL turning up to play games in their local stadium they are ignored. You could play these 3 Wembley games in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Berlin, Los Angeles, Mexico City or San Antonio and they'd all sell out. And those cities and countries all have as many if not more NFL fans than we do. But, London is chosen. Why? Money.
hendero
23-01-2015
Originally Posted by Bosox:
“Deserving in my mind is about a community where there is more than 5% interested in the sport. We have a passionate fanbase here but there aren't many of us. The percentage of the general UK population that knows anything about the NFL is (whatever numbers NFLUK make up) vanishingly small. There will be more people watching the Super Bowl for Katy Perry than for Richard Sherman and Julian Edelman.

I realise the NFL (like all these sports) only cares about money but you asked why I didn't want a franchise here. I don't care about the NFL making money.”

Seems to me the NFL's main concern is can they fill Wembley eight times a season and can they solve the logistical/travel issues. If they can fill it three times for three usually not particularly appealing games at the moment, it doesn't seem like a stretch to conclude they would fill it eight times for a London home game. I'd probably make London my "second" team, and would root for them against anyone but Green Bay.

Clearly they like the concept of the Sunday afternoon UK/morning in the US kick-off times. Not sure what they would do about Monday and Thursday nights, either not have the London team play then, or perhaps have London hosting a Thanksgiving game and play on a Monday which is a public holiday in the US (e.g. Labor Day), so they get decent US viewing figures (which they wouldn't otherwise get for a Monday night game played here). It feels like something the league is going to try at some point in the next 10 - 20 years.

And I'm not sure people here are really going to stay up until 1 a.m. or whenever half time of the super bowl starts just to watch 15 minutes of Katy Perry, as opposed to they're staying up for the game.
ukdude7
23-01-2015
Originally Posted by Gray77:
“
PS - A London franchise. I don't think Americans understand the difference between people going to the Wembley games and actually going to them to follow a London team. Barring the z-list celebrities and the hangers on who Sky love to show at the games who know nothing about the sport everyone else there is at those games because they are fans of the NFL, and as a result already follow a team. The vast majority of them will not change teams because there is also a team in London. Unfortunately that will be lost on the NFL because they will likely sell-out 8 home games at Wembley because the demand is there to watch games. But the majority of those who go to games will go to them to watch a game (or to see their own team if they are the road team) and not because they've fallen in love with the London franchise.”

So true, the Brits will by tickets to anything, no matter what the cost or their real interest. I'm sure that was one of the major reasons Michael Jackson decided to have his comeback residency at the London O2 rather than anywhere else in the world. You could change the most and get the most interest.
If you take TV viewing figures over the last 4/5 years there hasn't been any significant increase, in fact the Super Bowl has declined (though probably due to moving from BB1 , to BBC2 to Channel 4). Amuses me when they talk about 600,000 fans attending the Regent Street event yet when they held one outside Wembley for the Jags game, about 5,000 turned up. Maybe just a few of those 600,000 were bemused shoppers.
Ads
23-01-2015
LA will get a franchise before London does. I think London could probably support a franchise but Wembley is too big a stadium for it, the new Spurs ground, or the Emirates would make more sense.
Gray77
23-01-2015
Originally Posted by Ads:
“LA will get a franchise before London does. I think London could probably support a franchise but Wembley is too big a stadium for it, the new Spurs ground, or the Emirates would make more sense.”

That will never happen. If they can fill 80,000 (and they can) why would they prefer to fill 50-60,000 in stadiums with less hospitality areas, less VIP areas and less aura to Wembley? Plus, those clubs you mention will never allow their pitch to be destroyed 8 times a year during the football season. It's a complete non-starter.
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