Will Tom Brady actually bring viewers to Fox? Sports Media Mailbag, Part 1

Can have men like Tom Brady to facilitate football broadcast really make a difference with regards to ratings? Is there really an audience out there that will go, “Yeah you know, let’s watch that game because such and such is Commenting on it?” Isn’t every fan hardwired to prefer their home broadcaster anyway? Well am I completely wrong on this? — Kris A.

It’s a good question, Kris, and that’s perhaps discussed often within the industry due to the astronomical pay that is paid to the NFL analysts who work on the choice broadcasts for their respective networks. To reiterate, the fundamental reason that you people watch is because of the game obviously if I and you were commentating on it you would probably be about the same.

But how the actual game is portrayed and how the viewer perceives broadcasting of the game is very important to leagues and broadcasting networks since they want you to make them crave for more. With leagues specifically, they want people in the booth who they believe represent their product — and leagues have some input on hires, even if the networks won’t admit it, for broadcast jobs.

Now for Brady specifically: It is for certain that his first regular-season game is going to attract the curiosity seekers and Fox and the NFL ensured that his first game will have huge viewership as it is pitting Dallas Cowboys against Cleveland Browns in the exclusive national Sunday afternoon window in the Week 1. There will be no CBS competition kicking off at the same time, 4:The hearings may be viewed live at C-SPAN and will begin at 25 p. m. ET. That game is one that I believe more people (perhaps an additional 500,000 to one million) will want to see how Brady performs.

Fox asked its partners at the NFL to load up the early season with games that can draw huge audiences because it didn’t have the success it expected in the 4:25 p. m. ET window last year, and subsequently, the southbound beginning after the holiday continued. Thus, Fox will also broadcast the Week 3 Baltimore Ravens at the Cowboys, Week 6 Detroit Lions at the Cowboys and in the Week 7, the Super Bowl champions Kansas City Chiefs against the San Francisco 49ers. These games will all pull good numbers, and there will be certain amount of people tuning in to see and hear Brady.

Last, NFL is a national game; thus, I believe that homer broadcasts for that league should not be provided. Yes home market fans are most interested but it is a special sport people of the country (and across the world) watch. The league stands to gain something when the announcers are neutral. Also, all those, who, work backstage (producers, directors, videomakers and graphic editors, etc. ) cooperate with the broadcasters, and you build a workflow during the particular season and during the years. If they met the local broadcasters as individuals weekly, as the excerpt suggests it would be a very difficult process and, I believe, unprofitable for the product.

Can the broadcasting rights for future World Cups and Euros be taken away from Fox? But as if that was not enough, they destroyed Gus Johnson’s career by placing him in that chaotic environment a decade ago. Do we have hope of Tom Brady presenting analysis of the 2026 World Cup? — John F.

Fox has commercial rights of the 2026 World Cup while three years ago signed a deal for the 2028 Euros. They also only confirmed themselves as hosts of the women’s Euros in the same year few days ago. This means if you wish to have a different rightsholder, it will not happen until the next decade.

After observing so many games TSN’s broadcast of Copa América and Euros, the Presentation and the philosophy of the show in Canada is far better than Fox. I have probably tried to get this for Fox soccer a million times, they have a soccer philosophy and it is not going to change (U. S. -centered soccer, no controversy within the host country, etc. ) Yes, I think so, especially in their coverage of big women’s soccer tournaments, which I have noted they have enhanced. Fox executives will consider the viewer ship of the Euros and Copa América this month as evidence that people are embracing Fox’s coverage and they have a good narrative when it comes to viewer ship. Whether the numbers would be the identical to NBC or to ABC regarding the teams that are participating? Of course.

Gotta disagree on Gus. He is Fox’s primary college football play-by-play man. Career for the guy is good. Although you cannot see Brady as the chief analyst of the 2026 FIFA World Cup- many people cannot see someone other than Landon Donovan given Fox executives are intrigued with him at the moment -, I am sure that Brady will be involved in the broadcast if he is still in it- perhaps hosting a taped feature or a question and answer session. It was too big to be listed on the Fox Corp balance sheet for it not to be employed somewhere for an American World Cup.

What is the possibility of reducing the amount of commercials that are shown in a streaming game marginally in order to attract more fans to viewership? Can you ever think about there being such a football game where there are PPV of having commercials only after a quarter or after a particular team has scored? — Gerry S.

Yes, it can be done – the usage of ad-free tiers on streaming services has already been witnessed, therefore the idea itself is quite feasible. That is why, considering how much the streaming services have invested in the rights for various sports, the only revenue streams that would allow to cover the costs are subscriptions and ads (obviously). I do not believe that this would be sufficient to encourage consumers to flock in this carrier’s door, at a higher price to sign up. This is perhaps more doable when we are well into the year 2030 and definitely for other sports than football. The development of advertising into the second source of income is expected to contribute to the direct-to-consumer plans’ break-even.

Can someone do me a big favor and please, persuade ESPN and Apple TV and any other network out there that continues to mic up the players while they are out there on the field attempting to play baseball? It is already bad enough that they even do this, they also have the audacity to ask the most stupid questions. — Mach D.

I am actually in the minority on this because it doesn’t get to me that much, but it appears to really irk baseball fans. It’s good for philosophy, because access brings us closer to games – I like this stuff. I do concur with you that conducting such interviews is never a definable moment of theater seeing or getting of great insight; yet all the same it would be worth doing a hundred of these seeing that out of the hundred you would get four to five momentous times. Still, I believe you are in the clear majority here once more.

I really do not know how networks can go on locking TV rights to sports leagues especially when the price is doubling and tripling within a few years. Is there a possibility that in the next decade, they will cease to avail packages other than NFL rights? — Bruce W.

The pay-TV research firm MoffettNathanson recently put out a report of Q1 2024 which has been recorded as the worst for ever distributors in pay-TV subscriber losses. Thus, the question is, what is the floor for all of this, and most importantly, for the category of traditionally linear video? As for the fact that marquee sporting events are transitioning to streaming platforms?

That is the reality: NFL and other channel broadcasters are funded by these networks. The sport enveloped 97 of the 100 largest TV programs of broadcast in the U. S. in the year 2023. This is quite self-explanatory, NBA is receiving a colossal rights hike and the emergence will soon become official. UFC will also get an increase, of course. As we head down the road, I think the big question is this: How do live sports rights apply in the business map for entities majoring in streaming? If those companies determines that they require sports in order to keep subscriptions going, I expect more inflation of the major sports rights. Whether this is wise, let alone smart, business in the current era, especially for those who have sunk billions into the illusion that streaming was going to be the savior that it is, is another story altogether.

Some fans’ main gripe is with national announcers when their team is on a national network especially ESPN. Why can’t the national networks select announcers from the two rivaling teams to present the game? Everyone would get much better announcers who’ll inform us about the teams and we would get to listen to some different calls of the games. — Bradley M.

Contractually, this isn’t possible, and nets want to stage their own shows, BATION notes. You will indeed get many complaints claiming that there are many home announcers who are not near to being neutral.

Women's College World Series

The last year’s Women’s College World Series finals that was played between Oklahoma and Texas marked record views for a title series. _(Photo by Brian Bahr / Getty Images)_

To a large extent, as the viewer interest in women’s sports has increased, leagues and networks have discovered these are potential coffers for fresh income. In your opinion does the Wnba , women’s college basketball, college softball and the like have enough pull/draw to assist in bringing people back to the classic way of consuming Linear TV. — Jesse K.

The industry needs no miracle pill when it comes to the issue of people tuning in to linear television. We do not live in that world anymore that provides such privilege to men and distinguishable standards for genders. Now within the linear world that still exists I see enormous growth in every property that you mentioned above and attractiveness of the places like CBS, ABC, ESPN, FS1, Big Ten Network, etc. The numbers do not lie.

By watching the women’s college basketball title game that was South Carolina’s victory over Iowa, 18 people were witnessed. Nine million viewers and hit its peak at twenty-four. 1 million viewers. Yes, Caitlin Clark was the engine behind it but the whole tournament was up: games Clark didn’t even play in (UConn’s win over USC in the Elite Eight was watched by 6,7 million people. ). The Women’s College World Series championship finals this year of Oklahoma and Texas was the most watched title series ever averaging two million viewers. Oh, that’s fantastic to see where that has grown in the last 10+ years I have been writing that women’s sports is an undervalued viewership play. Plenty of growth left.

Can you make a match of Pat McAfee Vs Alexi Lalas in the next WrestleMania? Yes , the self acclaimed god of American soccer, Alexi Lalas . Yes, American soccer is a joke and will not succeed, ever but Lalas needs to disappear and I name Pat McAfee to do so. — Adam A.

Couple of things. First, mankind still as yet has several steps to climbing up the mountain and achieving the ultimate goal of the game; thus, do not entirely give up on U. S soccer. Any country the size of a continent with 340 million people and a drifting economy always has shot at being a force to reckon in any sporting activity. But Copa América was dread for the U. S. and there’s no paltry to sugarcoat that.

McAfee is one of the examples of the wrestling rings switch from the babyface to the heel announcer in WWE. It is rather clear that Lalas enjoys being a professional broadcast heel. The way for you to easily sell this would be to get McAfee to become the big babyface for this match. McAfee could disrupt the Fox’s Copa América final broadcast are evidence of this capability; the virus even threatened to demolish the Fox set. Lalas defends Fox. It’s on.

The problem, however, is that Fox channel just has WWE for a limited period as WWE’s ‘Friday Night SmackDown’ will be shifting to USA Network in October. Not a chance the WWE is going to waste any build within a story line on a partner who did not re-sign with them. This match will not occur.

Alexi Lalas och Stu Holden – själfsäkra, extroversiva och sällan nöjda med att vara ‘okay. ’

While the SEC releases kickoff times for early games quite far in advance, can we get other networks to go the same way? This has helped me plan in my own mind what Saturdays in college are going to look like to me during my football fix. — Paul G.

Now one of the problems here is contractual, there are conferences that basically share college football game inventory across networks. So take Big Ten football, for example: If I am not mistaken, the media partners cannot advertise anything more than 12 days ahead due to the decentralization of the total package. This way, the fans are surely grateful for having the times released early for the planning before the start of the games; It is the bonus of the new conference rights agreement between the Southeastern Conference and ESPN, which provides the windows for all the games after the third week of the season. That’s why ESPN and the SEC could do this.