Article lays out new mentality in tv sports http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1043967779201326304,00.html?mod=todays_us_pageone_hs
Thanks, cjschlos. As you can see, we've developed a new Non-Soccer Business subforum for this sort of stuff. Just added a few minutes ago.
Yeah I have a question: why do a non-soccer issue on a soccer forum? I think that either the NFL or NBC may have a forum for this. Also, there's nothing MLS can learn from Arena football because they are different animals. NBC hasn't televised a soccer game since the 1986 world cup and I doubt MLS or ESPN/ABC will learn anything to apply to MLS coverage by watching a mini-football game being played in an arena. What's to be learned? Better yet, what's the point?
To repeat myself: This is Business and Media. We look at how other sports run their business on the non-soccer business board. Any questions?
ED Fajardo this is relevant to MLS becuase the article is about the changing landscape for televised sports, the AFL deal represents a brand new type of contract, NBC has the exclusive rights to AFL now for the life of the league, payment to AFL does not kick in until after NBC has covered its production costs and then after a base payment the two entities split revenue. As the networks look for cheaper sports programming it may help MLS which does not cost hundreds of millions of dollars to televise as some of the big 4 sports do. All of this impacts the environment in which MLS must opperate, for the better or worse is an interesting question.
Guys, your comparing apples and oranges. MLS is now practically giving away the rights fees for the regular season to ABC/ESPN as it is. In fact, the league had to buy the rights to the world cup and package it with the regular season in order to get the networks to bite for the next few seasons. So what's to be learned from the deal NBC has with the the AFL, particulary when MLS already pays for the production costs? So it's a freebee to the networks. Besides, the reason NBC went with it is because its FOOTBALL, you dopes. Think NBC would have done this with any other sport? Think the other networks are slapping their heads and yelling "DOH" because of this "deal? Now go away and be happy that I seem to be the only person besides Andy Meade (who also told you guys to go away) that has even bothered to reply to your gibberish.