SBJ Unpacks: Prime Video keeps NFL Wild Card game

Tonight in Unpacks from the Super Bowl: Amazon is hanging onto Prime Video’s Wild Card streaming game, keeping it for seven years until the end of its media rights deal with the NFL, as Austin Karp reports in an SBJ exclusive.

Also tonight:

• Sports Media Podcast: NFL’s Hans Schroeder on viewership, streaming strategy
• Super Bowl LIX draws 16 new advertisers
• Ultra-premium remains an easy sell in the Big Easy
• Fox Sports: ‘Chiefs fatigue’ is ‘overplayed and overblown’

Listen to SBJ’s most popular podcast, Morning Buzzcast, where Joe Lemire digs into Fox Sports’ deployment of 149 cameras for the Super Bowl, the NFL planning its first regular-season game in Australia, the Heat trading Jimmy Butler to the Warriors and more.

The NFL’s streaming Wild Card game will be staying on Prime Video for another seven years, matching up with the end of Amazon’s current NFL media rights deal. The Wild Card deal, which was originally reported as a one-year pact this time last year, will run through the 2032 season (the NFL has an opt-out before then for each of its media deals). Amazon reportedly paid around $150 million to stream the game in 2024, but it is not known what the escalators are for the subsequent seven years. Peacock had the first streamed NFL Wild Card game in January 2024, paying around $110 million for that telecast.

Prime Video’s Wild Card debut, Ravens-Steelers on a Saturday night, averaged 22.1 million viewers (Baltimore ran out to a 21-0 halftime lead). While that was easily Prime Video’s best live audience mark on record (besting the 17.3 million for Packers-Lions during the 2024 regular season), the Wild Card stream was down from 23 million for Peacock’s Chiefs-Dolphins game in the same window a year earlier.

What else is out there now?

With this package not out on the market, attention on NFL media rights in the near term are likely focused on the NFL Draft. ESPN retains rights to this spring’s event, and a report over the summer noted that ESPN, Fox and YouTube TV had submitted multiyear bids for the Draft starting in 2026.

On this week’s SBJ Sports Media Podcast, NFL Media EVP & COO Hans Schroeder discussed interest around the property.

“ESPN has been at the core of that, and they’ve been a partner for a long, long time. But we also want to make sure we’re continuing to innovate there and grow it. And this will be the first time, really, we’ve ever taken the Draft to market,” he said. “And hearing the market reaction has been really awesome and incredible to see. There’s just so much more to do there over those three days, and maybe it’s more than three days in the future. How do we bring that to life? … Our vision is really reaffirmed by what we’ve heard back from the marketplace.”

This week’s Sports Media Podcast is all football, as SBJ’s Austin Karp and Mollie Cahillane bring on NFL Media EVP and COO Hans Schroeder to help get listeners ready for the Super Bowl. The co-hosts speak with Schroeder about the state of NFL media heading into the championship game, such as viewership and streaming.

These excerpts have been lightly edited for clarity. Click here for the full podcast.

On slightly lower viewership numbers: “We’re probably similar to many other businesses. Certainly, viewership is never a straight line, but we’re really focused about how we continue to grow engagement with our fans. ... But you still look across partners, and you see the growth, the continued great season that CBS had, again, where you see really some of the benefits of our new flexibility we have with how we create schedules and being able to ... put any game in any window. You see that really manifesting itself across the schedule. You saw a great year across [Amazon’s] ‘Thursday Night Football.’ NBC was up just to touch -- another great year on Sunday night. Fox was down just a tick. And then ESPN was a unique one. ESPN, obviously last year with the combination of writers and actors strikes, had simulcasted every game on ABC. We sort of knew going in this year, when they weren’t taking that approach, that there’d be some impact to that. But still, it was a great season across ‘Monday Night Football.’”

Can Eagles-Chiefs break last year’s Super Bowl viewership record? “Absolutely. There’s so much going into it. You have the storyline of the three-peat. You have the success of Kansas City. [Chiefs QB Patrick] Mahomes is about as iconic athlete as there is in the world. ... And then you have a Philly team with some really great storylines, with [RB] Saquon [Barkley] coming on. They were just here and fell just short two years ago. We’re expecting a great game, and we can beat that number. And overall, it’s going to be a great number regardless.”

On the guiding principle for the NFL’s approach to streaming: “It’s really simple when you get down to it. We want to be on the screens and on the platforms where our fans are spending their time. And increasingly, we’re very fortunate to have incredible partnerships across four broadcasters. And the reach and the breadth of broadcast is still unparalleled. But you see that continued growth of digital, and you see the continued consumption patterns, where fans are spending their time, particularly younger fans, and that’s where we want to be. And that’s a deliberate and focused approach that just is not over the last couple years. You can go back 15 years, when we carved rights out on mobile, and we started to distribute our games on mobile, seeing what the impact and what the presence in everybody’s life would be with their mobile phones and where younger people are consuming content.”

Super Bowl LIX arrives on Sunday, and with it comes a new round of brands looking to make an impression with ads during the game.

Fox saw a big demand for ad time during the game, to the point the network created a waitlist, and that includes first time advertisers. While last year’s game drew at least 12 new brands, this year at least 17 brands are set to make their Super Bowl debut.

New entrants include Häagen-Dazs, Totino’s Pizza Rolls, Ritz, Liquid Death and Coffee mate in the ever-popular food and beverage category.

Other first-timers in various categories include Angel Soft, Bosch, Cirkul, Duracell, Fetch, Hims & Hers Health, HexClad, Instacart, MSC Cruises, NerdWallet, Novartis and OpenAI.

A category that looks to be way down this year is auto. While BMW, Kia, Toyota and Volkswagen all ran ads during last year’s game, Super Bowl LIX is set to only see spots from one carmaker, Stellantis, to promote its Jeep and Ram brands.

The chart lists preliminary plans for national Super Bowl ad spots on Sunday during Fox’s airing of the game.

The elevated cost of hotels in New Orleans, a city with around 75% fewer rooms than Las Vegas last year, has depressed secondary Super Bowl ticket prices.

Still, as has been the case across the industry for the 12-18 months, ultra-premium ticket/hospitality offerings remain a relatively easy sell, reports SBJ’s Terry Lefton.

“Hotel rooms are extremely valuable, maybe more than I can remember,” said Deanna Forgione Carey, GM/NFL and SVP/commercial revenue for On Location, which will sell around 20,000 Super Bowl ticket/hospitality packages. “But our bread-and-butter is premium.”

On Location started with five different packages; now, it’s down to two. At the top end: $31,000 per gets you choice seats, along with the opportunity to be on the field for players tunnel entrances and after the game, to make confetti snow angels. Premium packages are pacing ahead of the 2023 Super Bowl (Vegas is considered too unusual to use as a comp).

“We completely credit the experience economy, its healthy, so we are also,” said Carey. “We’ve also better figured out corporate versus consumer, and they are very different needs. For so many years, we were using the same tactics for both.”

Other fast-growing inventory: longer packages, covering as many as four or five days. “Five years ago, we were all about game day, but clearly there’s demand for much more now,” she said.

Fox Sports is banking on the “Chiefs fatigue” narrative being “overplayed and overblown”, according to two high-level Fox executives.

This is the second time in three seasons that Fox has aired a Chiefs-Eagles Super Bowl. The first matchup was watched by 115 million people, making it the second-most-watched Super Bowl. Fox Sports President of Production Brad Zager said he hopes around 120 million people tune into this year’s edition of the game.

“[People] still want to watch the bad guy,” Mike Mulvihill, Fox Sports President of Insights and Analytics, said at the network’s media availability on Thursday afternoon. “I’m not too worried about the idea of Chiefs fatigue. ... There’s always some interest in seeing something that has never happened before.”

Viewership of this game is particularly important for Fox. The network averaged 18.4 million for all of its regular season games, a 3% decline from 2023. Blowout games and the Cowboys' struggles were the main factors behind the decline, Mulvihill said.

The Chiefs’ potential three-peat, the rematch between the two teams and Eagles RB Saquon Barkley’s record-breaking season are the key narratives entering the game. It will also be Tom Brady’s first Super Bowl as a broadcaster -- played in the city where he won his first championship as a player.

“Nobody’s turning out because the Chiefs are playing, because the Chiefs have something to do that nobody’s ever done before. And that’s what we dream of covering,” Zager said.

The game will also be broadcast on Tubi -- Fox’s free, ad-supported streaming service -- for the first time. Mulvihill said the network is committed to making large sporting events available to the mass public.

Brady and play-by-play announcer Kevin Burkhardt were not made available on Thursday, due to being in production meetings with the Eagles. Zager re-emphasized Brady’s long-term commitment to Fox, despite his ownership stake in the Raiders.

“It’s been over-detailed and [written too much about] in the media,” Zager said. “The truth is, it hasn’t impacted anything we’ve done this year.”

The former Patriots QB is part of a trio of former New England players who have joined Fox in recent years. Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman are a part of a refreshed studio crew that spans multiple generations. Jimmy Johnson and Terry Bradshaw are both older than 75 years and contrast with the younger Gronkowski, Edelman and Charissa Thompson.

“In some ways it’s easier to do the Super Bowl than it is to do regular Fox NFL Sunday,” Johnson joked. “We had a production meeting last night and Brady talked about how much time he’s put in.”

The network remains excited about Chiefs-Eagles despite some NFL fans' criticism of the matchup. Fox’s next Super Bowl will be in 2029.

“Anytime you’re a part of one of the biggest days in America, how can you be sad or upset?” broadcaster Curt Menefee said.

The Chiefs are on the brink of football immortality this weekend -- three consecutive Super Bowls has never occurred in NFL history.

They’ve done it despite a number of close games, an injury to WR Rashee Rice and, apparently, dismal working conditions.

The Super Bowl champions had the worst working conditions and environment throughout the 2024 seasons and offseason, according to the NFL Players Association. The Chiefs received an F grade for its ownership, locker room, nutrition and dietitian and training staff.

The team’s indoor facility didn’t have air conditioning last season and nutritional options were substandard. Star QB Patrick Mahomes complained about the lack of air conditioning to Donovan last year, according to The Athletic.

Ownership has worked to rectify those issues. The franchise spent $4M on the facilities last year, team President Mark Donovan said, and is aiming to spend another $5M this offseason. They added air conditioning, upgraded the cafeteria and plan to expand the team’s weight room, Donovan said.

“That cafeteria is way, way better,” Chiefs WR Juju Smith-Schuster, who played with the team in 2022 and re-signed in 2024. “They’re slowly taking care of the facility itself. We [now] have air conditioning in our practice field because it would get really hot.”

“Those are things that needed to get done,” assistant head coach Dave Toub said.

The Chiefs are also considering constructing a new training facility that could cost up to $450M, Donovan said. Arrowhead Stadium was expected to receive an $800M upgrade after the 2026 World Cup, but Donovan said that the franchise is also considering building an entirely new stadium.

Both Kansas and Missouri are competing for the rights to host the Chiefs. Arrowhead is currently set in Kansas City, Missouri, but voters in Jackson County, Mo., rejected an extension on an April 2024 ballot initiative that would have ensured the Chiefs remained in the county for at least the next 25 years.

“If we end up renovating, it’s more likely that we renovate our existing infrastructure,” Donovan said. “They’re tied together because if you build a new stadium in Kansas, you’re going to build a new facility.”

Upgrades and renovations obviously impact a franchise, but a number of Chiefs players said extra amenities and “bells and whistles” wouldn’t change their perspective of the team. Toub said the coaching and culture matters more to the players than a facilities appearance.

“It’s about how you go out and perform and not what your locker room looks like,” recently signed wide receiver Deandre Hopkins said.

The NFLPA is expected to release its most recent report card by the end of the month.

Keith Horcasitas never got inside Tulane Stadium for a Super Bowl, but he still made the most of it, parking cars for $5 a pop and marveling that fans would leave their keys with a 13- or 14-year-old kid just trying to earn a quick buck.

Tulane Stadium played host to the Super Bowl in 1970, 1972 and 1975. That’s when “Ms. Gertrude” would let young Horcasitas park cars on her property. He lived within walking distance of the on-campus stadium. It was money in the bank.

“It was just such a blast,” Horcasitas said. “I was such an entrepreneur. I split the money with the lady.”

Tulane Stadium’s path to hosting the Super Bowl began decades earlier when New Orleans officials, impressed by the goings-on in Pasadena with the Rose Bowl, proposed a college bowl of their own: The Sugar Bowl. Tulane Stadium could host it. Heck, New Orleans had been staging major sporting events since 1892, anyway, when “Gentleman Jim” Corbett knocked out John Sullivan at the old Olympic Club.

At the time of that first Sugar Bowl in 1935, Tulane Stadium was still a modest structure, seating only about 35,000, the same capacity as when it opened nine years earlier.

“The Sugar Bowl was successful and kept pushing for expansion,” said Mark Cave, senior historian for the Historic New Orleans Collection. “Expansion efforts were conducted in ’37 and in ’39, and then again in ’47, and eventually it brought the seating capacity to over 80,000. There weren’t many stadiums that were that big back then, so that was a big reason why we were able to attract that first Super Bowl.”

The Super Bowl did what the hometown Saints could not: Fill the stadium. The Saints had started playing in 1967, and their lowly performance didn’t take long to earn them the “Aints” nickname.

Those three Super Bowls, on the other hand, provided a wealth of fans and memories. Super Bowl IV saw the Chiefs roll to a 23-7 win over the Vikings and their famed Purple People Eater defense. NFL Films mic’d up Chiefs coach Hank Stram, who implored his offense to “Keep matriculating the ball down the field, boys.” Super Bowl VI, Dallas vs. Miami, staged a halftime tribute to Louis Armstrong, who had passed away the previous summer. It featured Ella Fitzgerald and local jazz legend Danny Barker, Cave said.

Alas, the beginning of the end for Tulane Stadium came with the arrival of the Superdome, which first played host to the Super Bowl in 1978, three years after opening. By 1980, Tulane Stadium was gone, the site used for student housing, parking and a rec center.

Horcasitas never got to see a Super Bowl at Tulane Stadium, although he did see plenty of Tulane and Sugar Bowl games there, including the memorable Tulane win over LSU in 1973. As for Saints games, the team was so bad he and friends would usually be allowed inside for free within a quarter or two. He recalls leaving one Saints game early, only to hear the roar of the crowd after he was outside. Nov. 8, 1970: The Saints’ Tom Dempsey had just booted a record 63-yard field goal to beat Detroit.

Horcasitas, now a social worker living in Baton Rouge, also remembers when the wrecking crews arrived. “That was sad,” he said. “My daddy was still alive and he really kind of mourned it.” Some folks gathered stadium scraps as mementos. “I went over there and I really wanted to get a piece of that concrete,” he said.

This time, however, he left with nothing but empty pockets.

• In this week’s SBJ Marketing newsletter, Terry Lefton covers Horizon Sports & Experiences' acquisition of sponsorship marketing and experiential agency Strategic, its most ambitious move yet.
• Joe Lemire details how Fox Sports’ innovations for Super Bowl LIX center on the “most important camera in a football game” in this week’s SBJ Tech newsletter.
• The blockbuster trade for the Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic came without warning, and once everyone dispelled doubts that Shams Charania’s social media had been hacked, ESPN kicked into high gear to cover the story, as SBJ’s Austin Karp details.
• MLB owners unanimously approved John Seidler as the Padres' controlling owner, reports SBJ’s Mike Mazzeo. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred does not expect the team to be sold or relocated, despite the family legal dispute over the Padres.
• Mazzeo also covers the Angels exercising their three-year lease extension at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, keeping the team at the ballpark through 2032.
• In some of the final major moves of Legends’ integration of ASM Global, Legends elevated Chad Estis to EVP and CRO, while Bill Rhoda has been named EVP/business development, a newly created role working across Legends and ASM Global, writes SBJ’s Bret McCormick.
• Monumental Sports & Entertainment made a deal with collectibles media and marketing service Cllct as Capitals LW Alex Ovechkin inches closer to breaking the NHL’s all-time goals record, notes SBJ’s Wes Sanderson.
• Major League Rugby signed a multiyear media rights agreement with ESPN, a deal that will see all MLR matches broadcast on ESPN+ with a handful also shown on ESPN2, writes SBJ’s Robert Irby.
• Raj Sports, the Bhathal family’s sports investment platform, is building a dual practice facility for the Portland Thorns and its WNBA expansion team, which begins play in 2026, reports McCormick.
• In tonight’s op-ed, lawyer Nick Saady of Pryor Cashman proposes that change will be the theme for sports in 2025, especially as it pertains to private equity’s involvement in the professional and amateur ranks.