Before we get to last night, look at this. From September 6, 2021:
I
do not know if there is any update or news regarding the July, 2021,
story that Apple was in talks to acquire streaming rights to the "Sunday
Ticket. Previously posted. But this is the app:
I track the "streaming wars" here. Apple was said to be looking at bidding for the NFL Sunday Ticket.
And I've said for quite some time, it will be Amazon vs Apple before it's all over.
And now the NFL Sunday Ticket. From CNBC earlier today, "Amazon likely front-runner for multiyear NFL Sunday Ticket."
The NFL is expected to ask for $2 billion to $2.5 billion per year for the package and wants to wrap up discussions before the season ends in February.
“Sunday Ticket” has been owned by DirecTV for the past 27 years.
DirecTV, which AT&T spun out as a new company last month, renewed “Sunday Ticket” in 2014 for eight years. The current contract ends after the 2022-23 season.
Amazon has a serious interest in the multiyear package of out-of-market games.
Amazon in May agreed to pay about $1 billion per year to become the exclusive provider of Thursday Night Football games beginning next year. That deal made Amazon Prime Video the first-ever streaming service to own an exclusive NFL broadcast package.
NBCUniversal’s Peacock isn’t expected to be a serious competitor for the rights, a source said.
Apple is not having a good week.
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Last Night -- The Opener
Link here.
The NFL came into kickoff weekend looking for increased audiences over last season. After one game, the league is off to a strong start with the most-watched opener in six years.
Thursday night’s 31-29 victory by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers over the Dallas Cowboys averaged approximately 26 million viewers on NBC, Peacock and the NFL’s digital platforms according to preliminary data from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics.
It is a 20% increase over last year’s game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texas and the largest audience for an NFL opener since the Pittsburgh Steelers-New England Patriots game in 2015 averaged 27.4 million.
Of course, the 2020 season was played during the pandemic, with empty stadiums presenting a strange viewing dynamic, and many people’s viewing habits changing.
The average of 24.4 million viewers on NBC makes it television’s most-watched show since February’s Super Bowl on CBS. The audience peaked at 25.4 million between 9:45-10 p.m. ET.
Even though the league’s new television deal doesn’t officially kick in until 2023, some elements are taking effect this season, including Week 1 doubleheaders on both CBS and Fox. The featured 4:25 p.m. ET games will be Cleveland at Kansas City on CBS and Green Bay facing New Orleans in Jacksonville on Fox. The game was moved out of New Orleans due to Louisiana still recovering from Hurricane Ida.
The league has allowed doubleheaders on both CBS and Fox during the final week of the regular season. That means both networks will have 10 doubleheader weeks as the league expands to 17 games over 18 weeks for the first time.
Much more at the link.
Covid is so over.
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From Breitbart News
Transitory inflation:
Putting
food on the kitchen table has become much more expensive, squeezing
household budgets at a time when many families are already stressed by
the Delta variant surge hitting as kids go back to school.
Food prices rose a full percentage point in August, up from six-tenths
of a point in July, defying predictions that inflation would cool off,
data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed Friday.
Compared with a
year ago, food prices are up 12.7 percent, outpacing the overall
increase of 8.3 percent in the Producer Price Index.
On an annual basis, that is the highest level of food inflation in
records that go back to 2010. The monthly figure is the third-highest on
record, following May 2020’s pantry-raid that emptied many grocery
store shelves and February 2011.
