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IN THIS ISSUE:

• 🏈 NFL Sunday Ticket streaming services get power rankings

• ⚾ Local baseball streaming hits the Big Apple soon

• 🥊 Are Jake Paul fans too tech savvy to pay-per-view?

The Main Event: The NFL Sunday Ticket power rankings

The battle for the rights to be the exclusive home of NFL Sunday Ticket is heating up, and the winner will be a streaming service. Which services are really contenders and which ones are long shots? It’s time for Power Rankings.

Power Rankings are a great way to know which teams are up, which teams are down, and which fans need to find paper bags before heading to the game.

This week I am going to compare each streaming service's chances of winning the NFL Sunday Ticket rights starting in 2023 to an NFL team's chances of winning the Super Bowl.

ESPN+ = 18. Las Vegas Raiders ($100 bet wins $4,000 on BetMGM)

Just like the newly located Raiders, ESPN has had glory years in that past where they’d “just win, baby”. But now they find themselves relocated and facing competition that has much more resources than they do.

ESPN+ also isn’t a natural fit for how the NFL wants to do Sunday Ticket. Reportedly, the NFL also doesn’t want it added to an existing subscription service, so this could be in the ESPN app but not on ESPN Plus as a value add.

Google = 10. San Francisco 49ers ($100 bet wins $1,400 on BetMGM)

Google is a surprise bidder for Sunday Ticket rights, but like their Bay Area neighbors the 49ers, you can’t count them out yet. Both teams are far from the favorites, but they have quality at key positions that could allow them to win it all.

Google has the money to equal the top two, but they have the greatest reach of any streaming service. They would make NFL Sunday Ticket available on YouTube, which has well over 2 billion monthly active users. That’s exposure to rival broadcast networks.

This bid could have been leaked to spark a bidding war. Still while I wouldn’t expect a bet on Google to cash in, they are a serious threat to steal the trophy from the top teams.

Amazon = 2. Kansas City Chiefs ($100 bet wins $900 on BetMGM)

Amazon seems to have everything advantage in getting a deal for Sunday Ticket, but somehow they find themselves trailing behind. Similar to the Chiefs, Amazon has already won before, scoring a major deal for exclusive rights to Thursday Night Football.

Additionally, Amazon already has experience with sports production, so they could handle a partnership with the league on the NFL Network and NFL Redzone if that becomes necessary. They even have a commitment to sports, already offering packages from MLB, NBA and more.

If Amazon, or Kansas City, manages to win it all, it won’t really be an upset.

Apple = 1. Buffalo Bills ($100 bet wins $600 on BetMGM)

Just a few years ago, having Apple or the Bills as the odds on favorite would get laughs from the crowd. Now Apple has exploded onto the streaming sports scene, making big headlines with their deals with MLB and MLS.

Still, the last time the Bills were in the Super Bowl was 1993, and making a deal with MLS isn’t the same as making a deal with the NFL. Apple may make that work in their favor, as the NFL prefers to spread network deals around instead of being too closely tied to one channel.

And with the NFL, money talks loudest and Apple has by far the most money.

The Fast Break:

🏈 No Thursday Night Football at bars or restaurants?

The shift to streaming sports has created unexpected problems before, but here’s a new one. Will bars and restaurants have a legal option to show Thursday Night Football now that games are exclusive to Amazon Prime?

Sue Gleiter of Penn Live has a story about the confusing situation bars and restaurants face with streaming TNF. The short explanation:

• Bars and restaurants have to pay more to show sports because they’re considered “public performances”

• TV Networks, cable and satellite have established offerings for these businesses

• Amazon has not announced a plan for bars and restaurants

Bars and restaurants can’t just throw up a bunch of Fire TV streaming sticks and hope for the best either. Streaming services have been cracking down on restaurants using personal accounts for public display.

There’s one other problem with streaming sports for your local wings-and-beer place. It’s really hard getting a streaming video on tons of TVs and keeping them all synced up. Buffering is bad enough when you have friends over. It will get much worse with a bar packed with angry football fans.

⚾LIVE FROM NEW YORK…IT’S STREAMING BASEBALL

New York City will have not one but two new local sports streaming services coming soon, as both the YES Network and MSG Network plan to launch in-network streaming options.

There are very few details so far, but the Yankees’ YES Network streaming service is expected to mimic NESN 360 according to network president Randy Levine. MSG Network CEO Andrea Greenberg is focused on keeping cable companies happy while also reaching new customers.

The main challenge now is explaining all of these options to fans, who have been confused and upset about the exclusive Friday Night Yankees broadcasts on Amazon Prime. Maybe they could encourage fans to sign up for a Streaming Sports Newsletter?

🥊 Jake Paul loses another boxing opponent

YouTube influencer and boxer Jake Paul has canceled his August 6 pay-per-view event after his opponent, Hasim Rahman Jr, could not make the contracted weight.

Rahman was already a late substitute opponent after Tommy Fury failed to travel from the U.K. to the U.S. for a fight. Paul took to social media (of course) to explain the situation and apologize.

Is the weight issue the only reason this was canceled? UFC President Dana White weighed in with a theory that ticket sales were probably bad enough that they canceled the event. On the Boxing with Chris Mannix podcast, Mannix and guest Keith Idec noted that Paul events have done well with tickets but poorly on pay-per-view sales because his tech savvy fans know how to steal streams.

Watch. Learn. Stream.

I Watched:

• Orioles baseball, even if I’m stuck with clips and highlights

• LIV golf, which has been more compelling than most PGA events

• The Danny Garcia vs Jose Benavidez Jr event on Showtime. Some great boxing that night, but also terrible refereeing and criminal judging.

I Learned:

About the passing of Bill Russell, which made me sad. A great athlete and by all accounts a great man.

Also, the Everton football club celebrated a lifelong fan who had been delivering supplies by car to Ukrainian refugees in Poland. When Everton played a friendly match against a team from Kyiv, they subbed in Paul Stratton for a penalty kick. What a moment!

I’ll Be Streaming: 

• Orioles Magic.

• The CITI Open Tennis tournament. I only wish I could be there in person with friends this year.

• My favorite music down by the lake. It’s that time of year.

Gratitude

Thank you for reading this week’s Streaming Sports Newsletter. How are you liking the new Monday morning schedule? Hit reply and let me know.

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