00:00One of the reasons why we wanted to talk to you was kind of the evolution that we've seen,
00:03not just of NFL, but really of sports media overall. I mean, we always talk about, you know,
00:08of course, the NFL, the Super Bowl being one of the biggest broadcasting events of the year. But
00:14the NFL draft has actually become must watch TV for a lot of folks as well. How much further do
00:19you think the NFL can facilitate and more importantly, tether people to their ecosystem,
00:25even beyond just the big games? Oh, good afternoon. It's good to be with you. Yeah,
00:31look, NFL drafts become a national holiday. You know, we've been doing this. I was fortunate to
00:37be there in 1980 when when my boss at the time, Chet Simmons, suggested Pete Rosell that we
00:43televised the first draft. And and Pete laughed at it, thought it was a silly idea, but gave us
00:49permission to do it. And now the event has become, as I said, a national holiday. So I think
00:54the sky's the limit on on what it can do. There have been a couple of evolutions of it. It
00:59used
00:59to be done Tuesday afternoon in the basement of the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City. And then we
01:04moved it to Rockefeller Center and we moved it to the weekend. Then then they had the brilliant idea
01:10to move it to prime time and then ultimately take it on the road. So I think I think the
01:16future is
01:16pretty bright for it to continue to grow. And I think it's just a wonderful event and a great
01:21celebration of young men's achievement. Where do you see the NFL's media ambitions going?
01:29Obviously, traditionally, it was always the partnerships, at least when I was a kid with
01:32the major broadcast networks. And then, of course, you got all the cable companies involved after
01:36that and now the streaming services. But of course, you know, your former title, the NFL has its own
01:42network. Do you think it will continue to maintain partnerships with third parties from the media
01:48side? Oh, I think it's a it's a mutually beneficial relationship. And, you know, if you're talking in
01:54the next, you know, 10 to 20 years, I think that's going to continue. It's hard to sort of
01:59forecast what the future of media will be like beyond that. But it's a it's a mutual
02:04symbiotic beneficial relationship. Networks need this content. It's the live content is still the only
02:11water cooler content available. It's still what gathers large audiences. The media landscape is going to
02:17continue to fragment. And I think sports will continue to actually benefit from that because
02:21of the live nature of the event. Steve, I do want to get your thoughts on what Romain mentioned in
02:26the intro. And that is news from earlier this month that the U.S. Justice Department has opened an
02:31antitrust probe into the NFL, basically taking a look at its broadcast deals with media companies,
02:38whether or not that has driven up the costs for consumers. We'd just love to hear your thoughts here.
02:44Yeah, I'm really not familiar with what the Department of Justice wants to do. I know that
02:49the NFL has from from Pete Roselle's days want to be broadly distributed. It's probably the only
02:57sport that I'm aware of that's on over the air television and every market of every game. So
03:01I can see I think they're going to continue to to to service that element. And it's a very important
03:08one for them to be broadly distributed and widely available. So not knowing any of the facts,
03:14I shouldn't comment much further than that. But I know that the principles of how the commissioner
03:20and the team owners and operate would be to sustain that and to make sure that it's widely available.
03:26And I think that that's that is the case. And that's what we'll find out.
03:30Fair enough. And I do want to talk a little bit about, you know, your current relationship with the
03:35NFL, you know, from where you sit at Genius Sports. Talk to us about, you know, the relationship that
03:40you've developed there and where you see that going in the future. Well, you know, data to me
03:45makes the game even more enjoyable and reaches it yet. Yet makes it a more engaging concept viewer
03:53experience. So what you see the NFL doing and what Genius Sports is going to do is going to make
03:59it
03:59just a more compelling situation where you will be able to watch multiple games, get different data
04:06fees, watch it on your phone, watch it while you're on at your kid's soccer game. I think that the
04:14portability and the and the data integration will make the experience even stickier. And, you know,
04:22much like the Red Zone channel lifted all boats in the afternoon programming of the NFL
04:28actually increased when we launched that product maybe 15 years ago. I think you'll see further
04:35engagement with data and and gaming will make it even a more beneficial experience for the consumer.
04:41Is that driven more engagement? I don't mean just actual eyeballs watching the games,
04:46but actual more engagement with the NFL and the ancillary properties.
04:50That's what we find. What we found, and I think the best example is the Red Zone, which probably,
04:55you know, is one of the more innovative concepts is that people became a multiple screen operation.
05:03They were not only watching their own game, they were watching all the other games that were going
05:07on and were able to then, you know, navigate to those games as they wanted to be. And that's
05:12that was an unintended consequence. Right. Frankly, we didn't actually anticipate that happening or I
05:17didn't anticipate that. Maybe there were smarter people that saw it coming. But the fact of the matter
05:22is, is that one plus one, it was a perfect example of equaling three. And I see that with data.
05:28I see
05:29that with with some of our BetVision products that that will continue to grow.
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