NFL lightens up on blackout rules

[Rudi]

Team owners have passed a resolution that starting this season will allow for local broadcasts of NFL games even when as few as 85% of tickets are sold. Under the new rule, each team has more flexibility to establish its own seat-sales benchmark as long as it is 85% or higher. To discourage teams from setting easy benchmarks, teams will be forced to share more of the revenue when they exceed it.

SOURCE: SBNation

This is awesome for a Bengals fan :dance3:

 

[Derrville]

Do blackouts really happen?

 

[EmpireWF]

Do blackouts really happen?

Yes, but in Cincinnati or some shit.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Do blackouts really happen?

Don't be cocky because you were a ten year old front runner when Aikman & Emmitt were winning Super Bowls.

Anyway, I have been critical of the NFL and their dangerous flirtation with overexposure over the last couple of years, but the league has made two great moves recently.

One, Sunday Ticket, which was flirting with the absurdity of a $500 price tag, has been rolled back to 2001 prices ($199). Looking back, i'm embarrassed I shelled out the $419 or whatever it was last season for a product that probably isn't even worth half, considering it only airs 17 days out of the year. The MLB, NBA, and NHL packages give you games every day for half the price. The NFL has already priced the average Joe out of stadiums, it's good to see them throw the middle class fan a bone here.

Two, the looser black out restrictions are great news. Not showing the games in Jacksonville, and Cincy, and TB, and SD, is probably not the best way to create fans and entice people to buy tickets. Let people watch the damn games.

 

[ZoneBlitz]

I have been critical of the NFL and their dangerous flirtation with overexposure over the last couple of years.

followed by...

i'm embarrassed I shelled out the $419 or whatever it was last season for a product that probably isn't even worth half, considering it only airs 17 days out of the year. The MLB, NBA, and NHL packages give you games every day

:facepalm:

 

[Maynard]

lol...wouldnt overexposure include a reduced cost on sunday ticket

 

[PP]

Personally I think black out restrictions are stupid. Were they set up as a way to punish fans for not buying over-priced tickets?

 

[Maynard]

its just a cheap way for owners to make their money. back in the 80/90ies, Art Modell would call browns games blackouts. they would sell 70000 tickets and it would still be a blackout

cheap fucking bastard

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

lol...wouldnt overexposure include a reduced cost on sunday ticket

No, overexposure is slowly moving towards running games every day of the week, and television partners like ESPN who have a billion hours of programming dedicated to your league, even during the offseason.

Reducing the cost of Sunday Ticket, which airs games during the traditional Sunday afternoon time slot, makes your product more accessable to hardcore fans.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

followed by...



:facepalm:

Those packages are for hardcore fans.

And if you want to argue overexposure, check the regular season ratings of the leagues that run every day compared to the NFL, who up until recently was a two day per week sport. The NFL is dangerously walking the line with their slow expansion on TV, and should look at those leagues as the guide.

 

[Aso]

I'm pretty sure during the Raiders almost decade long streak of losing seasons they had frequent blackouts. I don't live in that area but I heard about it quite a lot.

 

[Leftwich]

lol...wouldnt overexposure include a reduced cost on sunday ticket

This post is so retarded.

It's just common fucking sense to lower the cost.

 

[Tengo Juego]

I got an ad in the mail today that said Sunday ticket is included with DirectTV. Does that apply to new customers only? Or existing, as well?

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

I got an ad in the mail today that said Sunday ticket is included with DirectTV. Does that apply to new customers only? Or existing, as well?

new

 

[Hasselbeck]

I re-joined DirecTV and they gave it to me for free .. I was only a cancelled subscriber for 4 months. :smug:

That said, this is a great thing for the league. Blackouts are stupid and W2B pretty much nailed the reasons why.

 

[BigBucs]

Do blackouts really happen?

Yea, for the fanbases who dont settle for mediocrity season after season.

 

[ZoneBlitz]

No, overexposure is slowly moving towards running games every day of the week, and television partners like ESPN who have a billion hours of programming dedicated to your league, even during the offseason.

And if you want to argue overexposure, check the regular season ratings of the leagues that run every day compared to the NFL, who up until recently was a two day per week sport. The NFL is dangerously walking the line with their slow expansion on TV, and should look at those leagues as the guide.

So the NFL was insanely popular 2 days a week...and now 3 days a week is suddenly dangerous?

Yawn.

3 days a week is still far from 7 days a week.

Let me know when interest in NFL at least gives hints that it will start declining anytime soon before what you say can be taken seriously.

 

[ZoneBlitz]

I have been critical of the NFL and their dangerous flirtation with overexposure over the last couple of years.

Well then you have been proven to be completely wrong for years, seeing how the NFL interest has been at an all-time high.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

So the NFL was insanely popular 2 days a week...and now 3 days a week is suddenly dangerous?

Yawn.

3 days a week is still far from 7 days a week.

Let me know when interest in NFL at least gives hints that it will start declining anytime soon before what you say can be taken seriously.

Well then you have been proven to be completely wrong for years, seeing how the NFL interest has been at an all-time high.

Nothing is immune to overexposure, and once you achieve it, you can't go back and undo it. There is a breaking point. I'm not sure what it is, but the NFL is not afraid to flirt with it, apparently.

And the NFL is not as far from seven days a week as you think. There will be weeks with 4 days of NFL football this season. There will be games played on Sun, Mon, Wed, Thurs, and Sat this year. There will be games played essentially every 2.5 days. You don't see the slow trend of more & more football each season? You don't think the league will try to add a 4th full time day to the NFL Network schedule (Wed) at some point? They will never go seven, because the union will never allow Tuesday, but I would bet on four, and I would bet on Fri & Sat games becoming more common once high school & college games end in November.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Another thing to consider, is with the increase of non Sunday aftrenoon games, the league has to make sure that those national games are quality matchups. This dilutes the Sunday afternoon schedule, which is the bread and butter and the biggest TV contracts, because now they need to take three of the top games away for NBC, ESPN, and Thursday.

The last thing I would want to do is kill Sunday afternoon, or give the perception that those are the "B" games. And that's exactly the path the NFL is taking.