The NFL's webcast of Sunday's Bills-Jaguars game from London "was a success for Yahoo and the league" as an experiment, but "looked at in a different way, the audience for the NFL-Yahoo venture does not look stupendous," according to Richard Sandomir of the N.Y. TIMES. The live stream "commanded a substantial global audience of 15.2 million unique users." Yahoo Senior VP/Product & Engineering Adam Cahan said of that figure, "It exceeded all our expectations." However, Sandomir notes after a mathematical conversion "that Yahoo disputes, the 15.2 million unique users turns into the television equivalent of 2.36 million average viewers, about 1.6 million" in the U.S. By whatever method the digital audience is measured for the Bills-Jaguars game, Yahoo "appears happy." Cahan: "We showcased the Internet experience, with its true reach, with a highly capable, continuous broadcast." Sandomir reports Yahoo "wants to carry more NFL games digitally to go with its webcasts of concerts that it shows through a deal with Live Nation." But Yahoo "cannot count on more games," as it "has no contract beyond Sunday’s game and will have to compete with its digital rivals for future games, whether on an annual basis or for a package over several years" (N.Y. TIMES, 10/27). NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell today said the league was "really thrilled" with how the game turned out. He said, "It was a great experience for our fans. We reached new fans through this platform. It gave us a tremendous amount of learnings so we can really formulate our media strategy and how we want to continue to reach the broadest number of fans, and reach them with an engagement that we may not be able to offer on other platforms." Goodell: "The most important thing was technically delivering it, and Yahoo did a terrific job of that. We were proud to partner with them, and they did a terrific job. We look forward to doing more with them” ("Mike & Mike," ESPN Radio, 10/27).
NET LOSS? In N.Y., Claire Atkinson notes Yahoo paid $20M to stream Sunday's contest, and sources "have questioned whether" the company would "make a profit off the game." A Barclays equity research report late yesterday suggested that Yahoo took a $14M loss on the game, "not including the costs" estimated at $1M for webcasting the event (N.Y. POST, 10/27).
FUZZY MATH: THE MMQB’s Peter King notes Yahoo had Sunday’s game “start on autoplay” when anyone clicked on the website’s homepage, “resulting in a ‘stream,’ whether the visitor had any intention of watching the game or not.” He writes that lands “somewhere between disingenuous and outright misleading by Yahoo and the NFL.” King: “I still believe it was a success, but I do think the NFL and Yahoo should have leveled with consumers regarding the real numbers of how many people watched the game” (MMQB.SI.com, 10/27).
MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE: ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported while the 9:30am ET start times for game played in London result in an afternoon start locally, they also result in the NFL "broadcasting its product during a primetime window in Asia.” Games that start on the east coast at 1:00pm or 4:00pm "are on in the middle of the night in Asia." While the focus of Bills-Jaguars "has been obviously on the streaming,” there was “equal focus among league officials to reach Asia in primetime because it has limited broadcast agreements there." Schefter: "It wants to grow the popularity in Asia.” ESPN’s Wendi Nix jokingly said, “Wait, a decision was made about money. This is unheard of” (“NFL Insiders,” ESPN, 10/26).
MONDAY NIGHT RATING: ESPN earned a 9.0 overnight rating for the Cardinals’ 26-18 win over the Ravens on “MNF,” up 3% from an 8.7 overnight for Texans-Steelers in Week 7 last year and down from a 9.5 for Vikings-Giants in ’13. Cardinals-Ravens earned a 31.2 local rating in Baltimore (12.5 on ESPN, 18.7 on WBAL-NBC) and a 26.0 in Phoenix (12.9 on ESPN, 13.2 on KNXV-ABC). The game peaked with a 10.5 overnight between 9:45-10:00pm ET. The game also drew 534,000 unique viewers on WatchESPN, up 69% from the comparable game last year (Josh Carpenter, Staff Writer).
