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Is This About To Become Yet Another Black Friday TV Tradition?
The NFL has partnered with Amazon for the first ever NFL game on Black Friday. Why didn't this ever happen before? I suppose part of the logic might be that people were out at the malls on one of the busiest shopping days of the year. But online purchasing has changed all that.
Or maybe it's simply that they can do it and know if they show it, you will watch. (It's apparently free on Amazon, even if you don't subscribe to Prime.)
Whatever the reason for this TV first, The Athletic speculates it won't be the last time this unofficial American holiday will be just another excuse to show yet another football game. As if it's already not on enough!
"The storyline for the purposes of this column is whether the NFL, staging a game on Black Friday for the first time ever, is going to establish yet another day on the sports calendar that belongs to them.
History suggests they will."
At this point, it's threatening to become like the nightly news - on every day of the week. (Well, ironically, except when there's a football overrun!)
Is the NFL about to own Black Friday too? Dolphins-Jets is likely just the start
- Lorne
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Re: Is This About To Become Yet Another Black Friday TV Tradition?
Here's a previous article from The Athletic that discussed the situation.
Why College Football Playoff expansion means battle with NFL for TV time is building
From the article:
If you wonder why the NFL’s new Black Friday game will kick off at 3 p.m. instead of at night, it goes back to the Sports Broadcasting Act, which bans pro football after 6 p.m. in the fall. Still, that game will go up against college Black Friday rivalry games like Iowa-Nebraska.
“We have really come to appreciate and enjoy Black Friday,” Iowa athletic director Gary Barta said. “The NFL coming in, I can’t control that. We can’t control that. So if it happens, we’ll just have to find room for everybody.”
But the encroachment goes both ways. The Sports Broadcasting Act window ends in mid-December, which means college football will move into NFL territory with CFP expansion.
Last edited by Lorne (November 24, 2023 9:19 am)
- Hansa
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Re: Is This About To Become Yet Another Black Friday TV Tradition?
Broadcasting pro football is banned after 6 pm in the fall? Why is that? It's surprising that the "land of the free" has regulations on football of all things that the Canadian House of Commons would never contemplate. (Can you imagine the CRTC telling broadcasters when they can show hockey?)
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Re: Is This About To Become Yet Another Black Friday TV Tradition?
The wikipedia article on the act doesn't specifically mention 6 pm, but I think this is what The Athletic article refers to - it's in order to protect high school (and college) football attendance! (I assume it's 6 pm Fridays to midnight Saturdays - which also explains why the NFL plays on Sundays rather than Saturdays, generally).
The act withdrew antitrust immunity for any pro football telecast if a high school or college football game is being played within 75 miles (120 km) of the broadcasting station on Friday and Saturdays from the 2nd Friday in September until the 2nd Saturday in December. This provision, intended to protect high school and college football attendance, has the effect of barring national broadcasts of NFL games on those days, since virtually all of the country is within 75 miles of at least one high school game on every Friday night in September and October.
Last edited by Hansa (November 24, 2023 10:19 am)
- Radiowiz
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Re: Is This About To Become Yet Another Black Friday TV Tradition?
Cable is dinosaur.
People are still willing to pay for it though.
OTA is very much a dinosaur, but somehow it still survives.
RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person.
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.
- Lorne
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Re: Is This About To Become Yet Another Black Friday TV Tradition?
Hansa wrote:
The wikipedia article on the act doesn't specifically mention 6 pm, but I think this is what The Athletic article refers to - it's in order to protect high school (and college) football attendance! (I assume it's 6 pm Fridays to midnight Saturdays - which also explains why the NFL plays on Sundays rather than Saturdays, generally).
The act withdrew antitrust immunity for any pro football telecast if a high school or college football game is being played within 75 miles (120 km) of the broadcasting station on Friday and Saturdays from the 2nd Friday in September until the 2nd Saturday in December. This provision, intended to protect high school and college football attendance, has the effect of barring national broadcasts of NFL games on those days, since virtually all of the country is within 75 miles of at least one high school game on every Friday night in September and October.
That's right, and thanks for finding that. The article I posted was coming at the situation from a different angle, but I was having trouble finding something that properly explained what I knew in general terms to be the situation -- that there is a law that effectively has meant that the NFL doesn't schedule games on Friday nights or Saturdays during most of the fall to protect college and high school football games.
- betaylored
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Re: Is This About To Become Yet Another Black Friday TV Tradition?
We get afternoon hockey on television too, win/win.
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Re: Is This About To Become Yet Another Black Friday TV Tradition?
Looks like there was method to Amazon's multi-million-dollar rights-buying madness.
"[Amazon] sold plenty of ads, and armed with reams of shopping, searching, and viewing data on its subscribers, it was able to serve up to three different versions of commercials to different audiences, depending on viewer profiles."
And even the big guys here are giving pause.
"Last week, at the annual Primetime Sports and Entertainment Conference in downtown Toronto, a trio of executives from Rogers Sportsnet, Bell Media’s TSN, and CBC were asked what they thought was the biggest development in sports media they’re preparing to confront. Right off the top, Rob Corte, the vice-president of Sportsnet and NHL Production, said, “the big global companies … the Amazons, the Googles … it’s going to be a significant challenge for us.”
Canadian sports broadcasters brace as Amazon’s NFL shopapalooza hints at a global future
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