An amusing read.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/troy-aikman-tony-romo-nfl-espn-fox-amazon-cbs-nbc-11646654957

max headroom wrote:
> An amusing read.
>
> https://www.wsj.com/articles/troy-aikman-tony-romo-nfl-espn-fox-amazon-cbs-nbc-11646654957
>
>

Sounds interesting but there's a paywall.

--Robin

In news:j8r02nFgm2sU1@mid.individual.net, Robin Miller
<robin.miller@invalid.invalid> typed:

> max headroom wrote:
>> An amusing read.

>> https://www.wsj.com/articles/troy-aikman-tony-romo-nfl-espn-fox-amazon-cbs-nbc-11646654957

> Sounds interesting but there's a paywall.

> --Robin

I haven't figured out why the WSJ paywall sometimes pops up and other times it
doesn't.

Try it again today. If the paywall is still there, I risk the wrath of the
copyright gods and post the text.

max headroom wrote:
> In news:j8r02nFgm2sU1@mid.individual.net, Robin Miller
> <robin.miller@invalid.invalid> typed:
>
>> max headroom wrote:
>>> An amusing read.
>
>>> https://www.wsj.com/articles/troy-aikman-tony-romo-nfl-espn-fox-amazon-cbs-nbc-11646654957
>
>> Sounds interesting but there's a paywall.
>
>> --Robin
>
> I haven't figured out why the WSJ paywall sometimes pops up and other times it
> doesn't.
>
> Try it again today. If the paywall is still there, I risk the wrath of the
> copyright gods and post the text.
>
>

Sorry, I was able to access some other content but not this story.

--Robin

Troy Aikman, Tony Romo and the NFL's Million-Dollar-a-Game Announcer Club
Fueled by big ratings and fresh competition, the NFL's signature voices are ready
to cash in
By Jason Gay
Updated March 7, 2022 7:57 am ET

My friends, it appears we all made a tactical blunder with our lives.

We did not become NFL television analysts.

Why do I say this? Because we are amid the greatest financial windfall in history
for people who can travel to one football game per week and say "Hmmmm.ooooooh. I
am not sure that was a catch."

(OK, the job is a little more complicated than that. But still!)

The revolution began a couple of seasons ago, when Gridiron Nostradamus Tony Romo
got a reported $17 million a year to sit next to Jim Nantz in a CBS booth and
predict the Titans are prrrrobbbbbbably going to hand the football off to Derrick
Henry.

Now it's the report-via the New York Post's Andrew Marchand, who's dominated the
beat-that Romo's Cowboys predecessor, Troy Aikman, is girding to bolt Fox Sports
for archrival ESPN, where his salary will reside comfortably in Romo-ville.

Holy wazoo! That's a million bucks per regular season game! A quarter million a
quarter! If an NFL game is truly 11 minutes of action-as the Journal famously
reported-that's close to $100,000 per minute of actual football.

(Buckle up your helmet: Sports columnist does math.)

Now look: I'm having a little fun here. I'm not saying Aikman and Romo aren't
gifted, admired commentators. They are gifted and admired. Romo gave a sleepy
profession a shot of adrenaline with his enthusiasm and knack for seeing
interesting football things happen before they happen. It's the most fuss any
analyst has kicked up since the late, great John Madden.

Aikman, meanwhile, is a pillar of NFL professionalism; A three-time Super Bowl
winner and Hall of Famer who gives ESPN's unsteady football package an immediate
dose of gravitas.

Now there's talk that Aikman's colleague in the Fox booth, Joe Buck, might find a
way to make the leap and join him. ESPN's "Monday Night Football" might finally
get back some of its mustard-jacket swagger, and stop getting upstaged by
sweater-wearing Mannings in their basements.

It's a historic opportunity, a springtime free-for-all for sports gabbers. If your
agent isn't trying to play one media company against the next, what are you even
paying them for?

The timing couldn't be better. These football voices are benefiting because A)
they're very good and B) increased competition and C) the fact that the NFL exists
in a totally different financial stratosphere, because of its position as the
country's most essential entertainment obsession.

Football rules the roost. The snooziest Lions Thanksgiving game you've ever slept
through delivers a television rating that would make baseball, basketball or
hockey dance naked in the street. It's why network contracts have soared into the
billions and former NFL quarterbacks like Aikman and Romo are still getting paid
like they're.NFL quarterbacks.

It's also why there are new media sharks in the sea, like Amazon, the digital
octopus that overnights your Tolkien and toothpaste and is getting deeper into the
NFL, grabbing "Thursday Night Football" for the upcoming 2022 season.

I don't know if you know this from reading a financial newspaper, but: Amazon has
a lot of money. It also wants to keep adding subscribers to its Prime product. So
it's surely going to spend some moola as it builds its new NFL product.

The biggest buzz: Amazon will court Al Michaels, the play-by-play legend who just
finished his contract with NBC, where he commandeered "Sunday Night Football."

Nothing gives a sports broadcast some class like the velvet voice of Al Michaels.
The man shook Roone Arledge's hand! He's hosted some of the most indelible moments
in sports history, from Lake Placid to Malcolm Butler's interception. He just did
a Super Bowl, and Amazon has hired Michaels's steady-handed "Sunday Night"
producer, Fred Gaudelli.

Now Jeff Bezos may fly down in his cowboy hat from suborbital space with the
world's biggest checkbook?

Do you believe in miracles? Yes!

This party may just be getting started. Other digital streamers are hovering.
Front Office Sports reported that Apple is considering buying NFL Sunday Ticket,
the suite of programming that allows Giants fans in Boise to balefully sob while
their childhood team fumbles again in the red zone. Netflix says they're not
interested in live sports, but who knows. Maybe Google starts getting Googly.
It's a fresh river of cash, chasing after the last piece of American entertainment
monoculture-watching a big football game and yelling about it.

The funny part about all of this: These announcer switcheroos might not make much
of a difference with audiences. In the NFL, the match up-Who is playing Whom-is
the main attraction. Put the Cowboys and Packers into prime time, and you're going
to have a ratings hit, even if the game is called by two baby penguins.

BABY PENGUIN 1: Did you see that?

BABY PENGUIN 2: Look, I'm a baby penguin. I have no idea what is going on.

Still, landing the big names-humans, not baby penguins-helps a network in other
ways. It creates stability. It buoys morale. It shows a network is serious, and
impresses the NFL, which wants its partners to help it buff and grow "The Shield."

The football broadcasting market is so bonkers that the game's top college
analyst, Kirk Herbstreit, will join the growing Amazon team and expand his r�sum�
to NFL Sundays, the NBC Sports football czar Peter King reported Monday.

It might be a weird fit, but I don't blame Kirk. I'm thinking about throwing in my
r�sum�, too.

I am not saying I will be good. I'll be horrible, I'm sure. But I'll be cheaper.
I'll do a full NFL season for.$4 million.

Maybe you and I can split it. Two million each, flip a coin to figure out who has
to do the 17th game.

Let me know. Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

Write to Jason Gay at Jason.Gay@wsj.com

Copyright �2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Appeared in the March 8, 2022, print edition as 'Troy Aikman, Tony Romo and
Football's Million-Dollar-a-Game Announcer Club.'

On Thursday, March 10, 2022 at 8:56:33 AM UTC-8, max headroom wrote:
> Troy Aikman, Tony Romo and the NFL's Million-Dollar-a-Game Announcer Club
> Fueled by big ratings and fresh competition, the NFL's signature voices are ready
> to cash in
> By Jason Gay
> Updated March 7, 2022 7:57 am ET
>
> My friends, it appears we all made a tactical blunder with our lives.
>
> We did not become NFL television analysts.
>
> Why do I say this? Because we are amid the greatest financial windfall in history
> for people who can travel to one football game per week and say "Hmmmm.ooooooh. I
> am not sure that was a catch."
>
> (OK, the job is a little more complicated than that. But still!)
>
> The revolution began a couple of seasons ago, when Gridiron Nostradamus Tony Romo
> got a reported $17 million a year to sit next to Jim Nantz in a CBS booth and
> predict the Titans are prrrrobbbbbbably going to hand the football off to Derrick
> Henry.
>
> Now it's the report-via the New York Post's Andrew Marchand, who's dominated the
> beat-that Romo's Cowboys predecessor, Troy Aikman, is girding to bolt Fox Sports
> for archrival ESPN, where his salary will reside comfortably in Romo-ville.
>
> Holy wazoo! That's a million bucks per regular season game! A quarter million a
> quarter! If an NFL game is truly 11 minutes of action-as the Journal famously
> reported-that's close to $100,000 per minute of actual football.
>
> (Buckle up your helmet: Sports columnist does math.)
>
> Now look: I'm having a little fun here. I'm not saying Aikman and Romo aren't
> gifted, admired commentators. They are gifted and admired. Romo gave a sleepy
> profession a shot of adrenaline with his enthusiasm and knack for seeing
> interesting football things happen before they happen. It's the most fuss any
> analyst has kicked up since the late, great John Madden.
>
> Aikman, meanwhile, is a pillar of NFL professionalism; A three-time Super Bowl
> winner and Hall of Famer who gives ESPN's unsteady football package an immediate
> dose of gravitas.
>
> Now there's talk that Aikman's colleague in the Fox booth, Joe Buck, might find a
> way to make the leap and join him. ESPN's "Monday Night Football" might finally
> get back some of its mustard-jacket swagger, and stop getting upstaged by
> sweater-wearing Mannings in their basements.
>
> It's a historic opportunity, a springtime free-for-all for sports gabbers.. If your
> agent isn't trying to play one media company against the next, what are you even
> paying them for?
>
> The timing couldn't be better. These football voices are benefiting because A)
> they're very good and B) increased competition and C) the fact that the NFL exists
> in a totally different financial stratosphere, because of its position as the
> country's most essential entertainment obsession.
>
> Football rules the roost. The snooziest Lions Thanksgiving game you've ever slept
> through delivers a television rating that would make baseball, basketball or
> hockey dance naked in the street. It's why network contracts have soared into the
> billions and former NFL quarterbacks like Aikman and Romo are still getting paid
> like they're.NFL quarterbacks.
>
> It's also why there are new media sharks in the sea, like Amazon, the digital
> octopus that overnights your Tolkien and toothpaste and is getting deeper into the
> NFL, grabbing "Thursday Night Football" for the upcoming 2022 season.
>
> I don't know if you know this from reading a financial newspaper, but: Amazon has
> a lot of money. It also wants to keep adding subscribers to its Prime product. So
> it's surely going to spend some moola as it builds its new NFL product.
>
> The biggest buzz: Amazon will court Al Michaels, the play-by-play legend who just
> finished his contract with NBC, where he commandeered "Sunday Night Football."
>
> Nothing gives a sports broadcast some class like the velvet voice of Al Michaels.
> The man shook Roone Arledge's hand! He's hosted some of the most indelible moments
> in sports history, from Lake Placid to Malcolm Butler's interception. He just did
> a Super Bowl, and Amazon has hired Michaels's steady-handed "Sunday Night"
> producer, Fred Gaudelli.
>
> Now Jeff Bezos may fly down in his cowboy hat from suborbital space with the
> world's biggest checkbook?
>
> Do you believe in miracles? Yes!
>
> This party may just be getting started. Other digital streamers are hovering.
> Front Office Sports reported that Apple is considering buying NFL Sunday Ticket,
> the suite of programming that allows Giants fans in Boise to balefully sob while
> their childhood team fumbles again in the red zone. Netflix says they're not
> interested in live sports, but who knows. Maybe Google starts getting Googly.
> It's a fresh river of cash, chasing after the last piece of American entertainment
> monoculture-watching a big football game and yelling about it.
>
> The funny part about all of this: These announcer switcheroos might not make much
> of a difference with audiences. In the NFL, the match up-Who is playing Whom-is
> the main attraction. Put the Cowboys and Packers into prime time, and you're going
> to have a ratings hit, even if the game is called by two baby penguins.
>
> BABY PENGUIN 1: Did you see that?
>
> BABY PENGUIN 2: Look, I'm a baby penguin. I have no idea what is going on..
>
> Still, landing the big names-humans, not baby penguins-helps a network in other
> ways. It creates stability. It buoys morale. It shows a network is serious, and
> impresses the NFL, which wants its partners to help it buff and grow "The Shield."
>
> The football broadcasting market is so bonkers that the game's top college
> analyst, Kirk Herbstreit, will join the growing Amazon team and expand his résumé
> to NFL Sundays, the NBC Sports football czar Peter King reported Monday.
>
> It might be a weird fit, but I don't blame Kirk. I'm thinking about throwing in my
> résumé, too.
>
> I am not saying I will be good. I'll be horrible, I'm sure. But I'll be cheaper.
> I'll do a full NFL season for.$4 million.
>
> Maybe you and I can split it. Two million each, flip a coin to figure out who has
> to do the 17th game.
>
> Let me know. Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!
>
> Write to Jason Gay at Jaso...@wsj.com
>
> Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
> 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
> Appeared in the March 8, 2022, print edition as 'Troy Aikman, Tony Romo and
> Football's Million-Dollar-a-Game Announcer Club.'

Thanks for sharing. Aikman isn't terrible, but no way he's worth that amount of money as an analyst. Romo is much better imo. Haven't heard much of Herbstreit on college games, I like him on the pregame show College GameDay.

As much as I love Al Michaels, I think he's gone downhill the last few years. Collinsworth (who also used to be much better imo) was trying to explain why the Chargers went for two after scoring with 4 minutes left against the Raiders and Al just refused to even listen to it. I'm really curious to see who replaces him on SNF if he does indeed go to Amazon.

Michael

max headroom wrote:
> Troy Aikman, Tony Romo and the NFL's Million-Dollar-a-Game Announcer Club
> Fueled by big ratings and fresh competition, the NFL's signature voices are ready
> to cash in
> By Jason Gay
> Updated March 7, 2022 7:57 am ET
>
> My friends, it appears we all made a tactical blunder with our lives.
>
> We did not become NFL television analysts.

Thanks for posting! I wanted to comment that I don't like the beginning
of the trend to move some games to streaming services, as I don't
subscribe to any other than Netflix, which is not in that market.
However, I assume that all the games will continue to be available on
the unauthorized streaming websites.

--Robin

On Thursday, March 10, 2022 at 12:28:13 PM UTC-8, Robin Miller wrote:
> max headroom wrote:
> > Troy Aikman, Tony Romo and the NFL's Million-Dollar-a-Game Announcer Club
> > Fueled by big ratings and fresh competition, the NFL's signature voices are ready
> > to cash in
> > By Jason Gay
> > Updated March 7, 2022 7:57 am ET
> >
> > My friends, it appears we all made a tactical blunder with our lives.
> >
> > We did not become NFL television analysts.
> Thanks for posting! I wanted to comment that I don't like the beginning
> of the trend to move some games to streaming services, as I don't
> subscribe to any other than Netflix, which is not in that market.
> However, I assume that all the games will continue to be available on
> the unauthorized streaming websites.
>
> --Robin

I cut the cord - or, I guess, whatever you call getting rid of satellite TV - several years ago when the price reached over $100/month and I wasn't even subscribed to any premium channels. I already needed high speed Internet for my job, so it made sense to replace DirecTV with streaming services. We have Netflix, Amazon Prime (got it for the free shipping, the video and music streaming is a bonus), Hulu, Disney+ for the kids (though they also have all the Marvel and Star Wars stuff), and Peacock and pay a total of less than $50 a month (Prime and Disney+ are annual subscriptions which lower the cost a bit). Pretty much anything I want to see other than the live sports is available on one of those services, or one of the free ad-supported streaming services like Crackle and IMdBTV, and obviously I use the unauthorized sites for the Chargers games.

Michael