00:00The NFL, football in general, dominates the top of television ratings charts.
00:09Every year when you see a list of the top 100 most watched programs annually,
00:14more than 80% of them are football games.
00:19The biggest audiences we have for broadcast TV are football games.
00:25Of course, the Super Bowl leads the way, but the two championship games are close.
00:30Games on holidays are always among the top 10 programs watched during the course of a year.
00:38And early season games, like the actual kickoff game this year on a Wednesday night, is always highly rated.
00:46We get football on Sundays. We get football on Sunday nights. We get football on Sunday mornings.
00:51We get Monday night football. We get Wednesdays this year on two different occasions.
00:56We get Thursday nights every week. We get Fridays. We get Saturdays, especially later in the season.
01:03We've got holiday triple headers on Thanksgiving and Christmas.
01:07We have holiday Eve games on Thanksgiving Eve and on Christmas Eve.
01:12We have day after Thanksgiving football on Black Friday and day after Christmas football on a Saturday.
01:20We have nine international games, a record number this year, with six of them starting on Sunday morning at 9
01:27.30 a.m.
01:28Games are on Netflix, Amazon, Peacock, YouTube, in addition to all of the over-air networks.
01:35The estimated price average nationwide, if you want to watch every single NFL game in 2026, is $1,650.
01:48The NFL is extending later in the season, with the 17th game added a few years back, over 18 weeks.
01:56And the likelihood that this will be an 18-game regular season schedule played over 20 weeks.
02:04That means starting at some point, I would guess, in the next three to five years.
02:09The football season will start one week earlier on Labor Day and will extend to President's Day weekend.
02:16Some years even beyond that.
02:21Is there a tipping point?
02:24A point in which the NFL goes too far?
02:29They provide too much product for too much expense, and the pendulum starts to swing back, and people start to
02:38watch less of it, consume less of it, go to games less often.
02:45301-230-0980.
02:48This particular schedule put out by the NFL, I mean, includes new opportunities.
02:55The Thanksgiving Eve game is brand new.
02:59The Australia game, giving us a Wednesday and Thursday night game at the beginning of the season, before we get
03:06to the Sunday slate, is new.
03:08Although we've had Friday night games from Brazil a few times here recently.
03:15The expansion's coming, there's no doubt.
03:20My point of view, and this is very subjective, I can't see a day in which I say enough is
03:29enough.
03:30I don't get to the end of the season and say, I'm done with this.
03:34I'm tired of it.
03:36You know, I'm at a different point in my life.
03:38I don't have young kids anymore.
03:41That's a busier situation.
03:44For me, I'm looking forward to 18 games.
03:48I'm looking forward to, by the way, less football in the preseason, and that would knock the preseason down to
03:53two games.
03:54I actually think the NFL has the best product, but also has the worst product, which is preseason football.
04:01It is a total waste of my time, preseason football.
04:05I think it's one of the worst products that any of the major sports offer up.
04:10But in terms of the regular season, it just fits.
04:15It fits like the perfect glove.
04:19It hits you right when you get back to normalizing your routine, getting back to work, kids getting back to
04:27school, weather starting to change, a beautiful time of the year, fall, especially in a lot of areas in the
04:33country,
04:34blending into holiday season and winter, where you are indoors more than you are in other portions of the year.
04:43The competition during the football season is minimal.
04:47It used to be playoff baseball in the World Series.
04:50That gets masked.
04:53I like watching playoff baseball, but people can do both.
04:56The scheduled nature of it fits into that time of year and with most lifestyles.
05:07It has become background noise for people who don't even love football.
05:12It certainly has been aided in terms of its growth and the crazy numbers by legalized sports betting and fantasy
05:22football.
05:23That was happening even before it was legalized, but it's even bigger now.
05:28For me, and I'm sure Malcolm Gladwell and others would say you're wrong, but there is no tipping point for
05:37this product.
05:38I mean, where was the tipping point for Coke and McDonald's?
05:42Disney, maybe Disney.
05:44I'd put this on par with certain products which have never, from a consumer standpoint in our country, have never
05:52really waned.
05:55I guess if it went year-round, that would be a problem.
05:58But as long as it stays in that September through February portion of the calendar, I can't get enough of
06:05it.
06:05That's my opinion.
06:07What's yours?
06:08301-230-0980.
06:11Let's go to our guy, our guy, Pauly, in the 757.
06:15Pauly, go.
06:17Big guy, how you doing?
06:19Hail to the W.
06:20Yep.
06:22I kind of agree with you and disagree in the same breath because I can't get enough of it in
06:29that field.
06:30But when you think about it and see the schedule, the game that gets me is the holiday evening.
06:39I mean, that's kind of like a busy, busy time.
06:43The day, the night before the holiday.
06:46Either you get things situated with family or whatever or come to Christmas, you know, getting gifts or whatever.
06:53Or you're in a drunken stupor.
06:58Well, I mean, yes.
07:00I think the Christmas Eve thing is actually more intrusive for a lot of people than Christmas Day, actually.
07:11Thanksgiving Day, that's built into our DNA, football and Thanksgiving.
07:17But Thanksgiving Eve is brand new.
07:20And that's kind of a family night, a party night for young people.
07:24It'll be interesting to see what kind of numbers it does.
07:27My guess is they'll kill it.
07:30Yeah, I mean, maybe.
07:32Or maybe because you're, I mean, I don't know how to do the ratings and stuff now.
07:35But like you said, Thanksgiving Eve is usually, it is a party night.
07:39Yeah.
07:40A lot of your families in town, people are back home and things and stuff.
07:43So, I don't know what the attention, like you said, is new.
07:46So, I don't know what the attention is going to be.
07:48But I'm just saying, just looking at it and thinking about it.
07:51But, you know, once Christmas Eve comes and Thanksgiving Eve gets here, you know, I'll be excited about the games
07:59and what's coming on.
08:00Especially if our team is playing, which we're not playing the holidays because of the year.
08:04Yeah.
08:05Which I'm kind of disappointed about.
08:06I love the holiday day games.
08:09So, yeah, man.
08:10But, like I said, I agree and I disagree.
08:13When you're just looking at it, you're like, man, why they got these holiday Eve games?
08:18That's crazy.
08:19But when it gets here, like you said, you'll be excited about it, man.
08:22So, I think.
08:23Yeah, I mean, you know, my wife always asks this time of year.
08:27So, are they playing on Thanksgiving or Christmas?
08:30And I was able to tell her no.
08:31But other teams are.
08:33Now, it still changes my day and my, you know, nobody cares.
08:40But my work related to this show and the podcast around this team.
08:46But there's still football on.
08:48And I promise you, the people in my house, my sons will want it on even on Christmas Eve.
08:53But, yes.
08:54It is on that day, especially if you've got young kids on Christmas Eve and you celebrate Christmas.
09:00That's a tough spot for, especially if your team is playing.
09:06301-230-0980.
09:09301-230-0980.
09:11Is the NFL at a tipping point?
09:14Is it close to being overly saturated?
09:19Too much product?
09:21Anthony in D.C., go ahead.
09:24Uh, damn it.
09:27Anthony, you're on.
09:30Can you hear me?
09:31Can you hear me?
09:31I got you.
09:32I got you.
09:33Oh, okay.
09:34Sorry about that.
09:34Sorry about that.
09:35That's all right.
09:35So, let me say one thing off subject real quick.
09:41The Cavaliers in Detroit make it so hard on themselves offensively.
09:46Of course.
09:47Because they don't move the damn ball.
09:49It's just ridiculous.
09:50Yeah.
09:50But the subject at hand, the tipping point is going to be when they, as they continually fragment the viewing
10:02segments of the nation.
10:05So, I'm not paying for Netflix.
10:08I'm not paying for Peacock.
10:11I'm not paying for Yahoo.
10:13I mean, not Yahoo, but for YouTube.
10:16I pay enough for streaming as it is.
10:19I'm not going to continue to add on just to watch football.
10:23And I think at some point, a lot of the public will be hit with the same reality.
10:30I mean, before you know it, if you're trying to get all the games available, you're looking at potentially $250,
10:40$300 a month.
10:41Oh, no, no, no, no.
10:42Much more than that.
10:43To support that.
10:44Oh, a month, a month, a month.
10:45I pulled something up right before this segment.
10:48$1,650 is the average price to watch every single game in 2026.
10:55Right.
10:55And who's going to really want to do that?
11:00Well, people are doing it, clearly.
11:02Well, they're doing it now, but as prices increase, because it's going to be a while, if prices ever come
11:09down, it's going to be a while before they come down.
11:13So, the prices are going to steadily increase, and people are going to have to make hard decisions.
11:19So, that's where I see the tip of point being.
11:23Yeah, I'm looking just like on the holidays.
11:26So, on Thanksgiving, it's – oh, actually, this is not updated.
11:33Yeah.
11:34Thanks, Anthony, as always.
11:35Stay there.
11:36Tony, Kevin, if you're on hold, we've got to take a quick break.
11:38We'll come back and take a few more calls on this.
11:41Kevin Sheehan, show the Team 980 and theteam980.com.
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