On Wed, Nov 17, 2010 at 2:58 AM, PGage <[email protected]> wrote: > On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 3:48 AM, Adam Bowie <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 11:13 AM, Kevin M. <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> > On Mon, Nov 15, 2010 at 9:41 AM, Adam Bowie <[email protected]> >> > wrote: >> >> NFL is popular in a minority sort of a way. >> >> There's a significant following, and obviously Wembley is selling out >> (just) each year for the International Series. There's always vague >> talk of a European franchise, but the sport has a lot of close >> competitors. (SNIP) >> >> The biggest problem with most US sport in the UK is simply the time >> it's played. Because it's largely timed for evening TV audiences, the >> Sunday afternoon games aside, most matches take place when Europeans >> and Brits are asleep. (SNIP) >> >> What I will say is that the NFL is active in promoting the sport. I'm >> not sure how much they actually get for all those TV fees, but the NFL >> is active in getting their product on screens. Sky Sports which is the >> UK premier sports brand covers the best games for UK audiences to >> watch, even if better matchups are the Sunday and Monday night games. > > I have a colleague who was a visiting professor here from the UK last year, > and I have a few conversations with him about the NFL that raised some > similar issues. I am interested in what Adam thinks about this: > > 1. He (and, it seems Adam) was under the impression that the Sunday Night > and Monday Night Football games were the glamor match-ups of the week, and > only diehards (even in the US) watch the Sunday games. My perception is that > while the Sunday Night games are usually good match-ups (and NBC has > negotiated a pretty good deal to make this happen even more often) in any > given week the best match-up is often on Sunday afternoon (or morning, for > me). Are there really a lot of Americans who only watch SNF and MNF, but > pretty much ignore the main games on Sunday? That would seem really odd to > me if true. If I lived in England and liked the NFL, I think I would be > happy to watch at least the early games at what, 6:00 pm? The late games > would then start about 9:15, which is not that much later than when MNF used > to start on the east coast for most of its history. If I only missed the SNF > and MNF games each week I would still be in pretty good shape. > > 2. I don't know what the potential is for the NFL to grow beyond a niche > sport in the UK, but I do know that the NFL dearly wants it too, and > continues to nurture fantasies of some kind of European and Latin American > Conferences ( I have seen mock up schedules for a time when current NFL > teams in the southwest and west coast travel to Mexico City and a few other > Latin locations regularly during the regular season. I suspect if they > thought it would pay off with a Euro Conference, the NFL might even be > willing to waste one of its very precious Super Bowls on a cold rainy London > Night the first week in some February in 5 years or so (even if it meant a > game start time at 1:00pm and 10:00 am in the US). I am not sure why they > have such a hard-on for this though - I don't see it adding much value for > US fans, and I am not sure the NFL would ever catch on in Europe the way it > has here. Maybe they see it as a first step towards an Indian and Chinese > Conference. >
In answer to your two points: 1. I take your point, and you know what, when I do watch live NFL (more weekends than not), I'm very happy with a 6pm and 9.15pm game. And since the vast majority of games take place at that time, we can be sure of a good match-up. Indeed Sky used to give us a choice of two games in each time period. But that's now stopped - I assume so that I can be sold an online package that gives me access to any games. I suppose that I was thinking of the deal that I know NBC has to pick games later in the season. But I am perfectly happy with the options I have. Of course Sunday evenings is also prime drama time. ITV has just finished showing Downton Abbey (it'll be on Masterpiece at some point) to massive acclaim and garnered enormous ratings - 10m+ viewers watching (remember - we're a much smaller country!). But I can watch NFL on catch up - the commercial breaks soon add up, when I fast forward through them! 2. You're certainly right that the NFL will never be the sport it is in the US. The UK - and indeed Europe - already has a national game, with well over a hundred years of history. It's watched by hundreds of thousands of people a week in person, and millions more on TV. It simply can't be usurped. The English Premier League is probably the pre-eminent football league export in the world too. I suspect that the real reason is that the NBA really has taken hold in some territories around the world and they look jealously on that. A global traveller is far likelier to see a Lakers vest than a Cowboys shirt if they go on their travels. The NFL wants more of that action. And like any business they want to expand. There's probably not much more they can do in North America - unless a recent Freakonomics podcast about shirt sponsors is anything to go by. So Europe and Latin America are on the table. Adam -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
