On the evening of January 30, 61 million people in the USA had a severely increased heart rate. In the game for Super Bowl participation, the Cincinnati Bengals caught up from an 18-point deficit and in overtime they actually overtook the Kansas City Chiefs into the finals. 61 million viewers at the peak, 48 million on average: The television station CBS could be very satisfied with that, but above all the football league NFL.
TV deals for $110 billion
Football is and will always be king in the US media. Among the 100 most-watched programs last year were 75 football broadcasts. Number one is and remains the Super Bowl, and last year the NFL was able to take in fantastic sums from the new contracts with the television networks: $110 billion for eleven years.
New: the Amazon platform. It will soon be broadcasting the Thursday games. Amazon pays about a billion dollars a year for the 17 Thursdays. The fact that the NFL chose Amazon could cost viewers, says Ben Fischer from "SportsBusinessJournal". But: "They may accept a short-term drop in reach and prices for advertising in order to bring Amazon into the mix in the long term and build Amazon into a competitor that will one day fight TV stations for full broadcasting rights."
Six million for a commercial
The whole thing is refinanced primarily through advertising. The 30-second spot on popular Sunday football costs around $800,000. The Super Bowl now costs $6 million for 30 seconds. In view of the enormous number of viewers, many large companies want to be present.
The next generation of viewers doesn't miss the NFL either: "Touchdown for the San Francisco 49ers!" And tons of green slime pours out of four cannons over the field, virtually of course – to be seen on the children's channel Nickelodeon. Real football, edited to be understandable and full of cool picture ideas. In mid-January, 1.3 million people wanted to see it.
That's not much in comparison. But the NFL now wants to bind the kids to itself, says journalist Fischer. "The very idea of watching something at 1am because that's when it's happening, rather than watching it on YouTube whenever you want, that's really weird for a 13-year-old today." So these habits don't come naturally, and that's a really big strategic concern for the NFL.
German market targeted
And the NFL has another market firmly in its sights: Germany. "We will go to Munich this season – 2022 -" announced NFL boss Roger Goodell on Wednesday. Frankfurt is also on the train. Two games in Munich, two in Frankfurt – over the next four years. The NFL is looking forward to it. The German market is still small – if only because of the time difference. But he's growing.
The NFL has repeatedly been declared dead: the head injuries and their long-term effects, the sexual assaults in some teams, the way critical athletes like Colin Kaepernick are treated. But now, in the wake of the pandemic, the hunger for football seems greater than ever. This time the Super Bowl could again attract more than 100 million viewers and break all records, if only because of the half-time show with Eminem, Mary J. Blige, Snoop Dog and others.
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