BIG BUSINESS - FOOTBALL
By Duncan
This morning, I woke reflecting on the Thanksgiving football game between the Green Bay Packers and the Miami Dolphins, which, by the way, Green Bay won 30-17. I live in Indianapolis; my team is the Indianapolis Colts. My thoughts turned to football because of the money—specifically, da-big-money. So, I did a little research.
After coming home late on Thanksgiving Day, I feared I would miss the big game that started at 8:00 PM on NBC. My sister-in-law had invited us for Thanksgiving dinner, so we drove over the river and through the woods to my wife’s sister’s home in Kentucky.
You know the drill: I go to someone's home on Thanksgiving, far away, with people I don’t know. At this family gathering, everyone enjoys a meal and engages in pleasant, non-confrontational, nonpolitical conversation. Or at least that was the expectation.
I decided to embrace a polite demeanor. This is the year for restraint, allowing my flamboyant personality to take a backseat. I kept brushing my sideburns over my ears so I wouldn’t look like a homeless person. I haven’t had a haircut in many moons. I don’t know these people, and they don’t know me. I should have gotten a haircut.
I sat quietly in the living room on their leather couch, mostly to myself. I sipped my scotch from a small orange juice glass with yellow daisies printed on the side of the glass. (They didn’t have a tumbler; I brought my hooch, The Famous Grouse.)
I made the mistake of petting their seven-year-old chocolate-colored English Springer Spaniel, who, for some reason, chose to sit beside me on the couch and couldn't take its eyes off me. It was a little disconcerting as animals can tell if you're bat shit crazy. And I wasn’t sure what he was thinking. You tell me.
I was watching their 65” Roko TV, which was playing reruns of “All In The Family.”
No, I didn’t ask, “Where’s football?” It’s not my home, television, or relatives, so I don’t feel it’s my place to ask questions like that. I want to be polite. As the day went on, I learned they didn’t have an outside antenna or subscribe to a streaming service—just an internet connection. Roko has complete control of what they watch. I have an opinion, but I will keep it to myself.
Their home was situated between Lexington, Kentucky, and Cincinnati, Ohio. Because of the hills and valleys where their home is located, it’s unlikely they could pick up a good over-the-air (OTA) television signal, even with a good antenna. Louisville was also too far away. Obviously, one can only assume they have not embraced the world of streaming services.
Okay, I hear you saying, “Hey, Duncan, there is more to life than football!
“On Thanksgiving?”
Okay, but given the option between watching old re-runs of All In The Family or Football, what would you do if you had a choice? Like the networks, I’m trying to think, what will get the most ears and eyeballs? Come on, you know the answer to this question.
Here is the problem with that kind of thinking: If you’re a major network and want programs that will bring as many people as possible to watch your network, tell me, what program will do that? And just what kind of programming is that? Yes, Football! Football was among the top 100 most-viewed TV programs in 2023. See the graph below.
The next big problem is money; as a television network, you have got to have a sack full of cash to pay the NFL for the rights to broadcast the games. And who is the NFL? The 32 teams that belong to the NFL get a cut of the Billions (with a Capital B), which means that networks pay the NFL for the rights to broadcast the NFL games.
So, what about football. As I sat in my easy chair at home, watching the game. I started thinking. What do I know? The average number of people that watch a regular season NFL game is between sixteen (16) million and eighteen (18) million. I’m not counting the Holiday Games or the Super Bowl—just the regular season games.
On average, you will see 100 (30-second) ads in an NFL game. Now, what are our choices? We can watch Thursday night football, Sunday during the day football, Sunday night football, and Monday night football.
So, what does advertising cost on each of the four networks?
Thursday night: $579,521 (1 - 30 second ad.) $579,521 / 18 M = $31.00 per person.
Sunday day $696,345 (1 - 30 second ad.) $696,345 / 18 M = $26.00 per person.
Sunday night $882,000. (1 - 30 second ad.) $882,000 / 18 M = $20.41 per person.
Monday night. $637,718. (1- 30 second ad.) $637,718 / 18 M = $28.23 per person.
So what do all these numbers mean?
Instead of going to a game and spending (on average) $377.00 for a seat, parking, and a $9.00 beer, I get to sit at home while an advertiser pays for my seat. You and I have advertisers buying our seats for about $25.00 to get our attention. And our attention (18 million of us) is worth about forty-two (42) million dollars per game. Don’t you just love America?
The average NFL game generates revenue (income) of about $42 million per game, but the networks have expenses. They have to buy the rights to broadcast the game from the NFL. And if I did the math correctly, it’s about twenty (20) million a game paid to the NFL. Again, the Indianapolis Colts get a taste of the twenty (20) Million because the Colts and every other team in the NFL are shareholders.
I couldn’t leave out the personalities that anchor the NFL games. Some you may know, some you might not. Below is a list of the Big Money sitting in front of the cameras.
Tom Brady - $37 Million a year. FOX
Jim Rome - $30 Million a year (Radio only)
Tony Romo - $18 Million a year. CBS
Troy Aikman - $18 Million a year. ESPN
Kirk Herbstreit - $18 Million a year (College)
Michael Strahan $17 million a year. FOX pregame show
Al Michaels - $15 Million a year. PRIME
Joe Buck - $15 Million a year. ESPN
Chris Collinsworth - $12.5 Million a year. NBC
Stephen A Smith - $12 Million a year. ESPN
Jim Nantz, $10.5 Million a year. CBS
Mike Tirico - $10.5 Million a game. NBC
Jimmy Johnson - $ 4 Million a year - FOX pregame show
Howie Long - $ 4 Million a year - FOX pregame show
Terry Bradshaw - $ 2 Million a year - FOX pregame show
Well, if you're still with me at this point, the NFL is a money juggernaut. The networks are willing to up the ante every year to get control of the rights to broadcast the games. I need help understanding bidding billions of dollars to broadcast football.
But, as they say, “There is just something about football.”
