Happy New Year!

A reminder I wrote three essays before the holidays:

1. Revisiting PARQOR’s Predictions for 2022
2. Insights from PARQOR's Four Trends for Q4 2022, and 
3. Key trends I’m considering for Q1 2023.

I also offered five predictions for 2023 in this month’s opinion essay for The Information “2023 Will Be Another Difficult Year for Traditional Media”.

Some housekeeping for the next two weeks:

1. I will publish PARQOR's three to four trends for Q1 2023 either Friday or next Monday.
2. I will be traveling the latter half of the week of January 9th, and plan on mailing on Monday and Wednesday. If something notable happens in the news cycle on Thursday/Friday, I will publish a short essay then.

I intentionally did not offer a prediction for sports streaming in 2023 among my five predictions for 2023. As I wrote back in August, I have learned not to focus too much on sports streaming primarily because “streaming has made sports distribution deals highly technical and somewhat convoluted”.

But then, the day after I posted the essay and wrote you all to wish you a Happy Holidays and Happy New Year, YouTube announced that it had reached a deal for the NFL’s Sunday Ticket:

Starting next season, NFL Sunday Ticket will be available on two of YouTube's growing subscription businesses as an add-on package on YouTube TV and standalone a-la-carte on YouTube Primetime Channels.

Consisting of all out-of-market Sunday regular-season NFL games (based on viewer's location) broadcast on FOX and CBS, NFL Sunday Ticket allows fans in the United States the ability to follow all their favorite teams and players no matter where they live. Updated NFL Sunday Ticket product features and functionality will be announced ahead of the 2023 NFL season.

This is a “seismic deal”, as former ESPN and NBA executive John Kosner told The New York Times’ Ben Mullin, because it signifies that “the three major sleeping giants have all woken up” (He’s referring to Apple, Amazon and Google, all of whom bid for Sunday Ticket). It is a seven-year deal rumored to be be worth as much as $2.5 billion annually, including payments from YouTube and separate agreements to license the package to businesses including bars and restaurants.

I think YouTube winning this deal is seismic for an additional reason, one reflected in the mention of YouTube Shorts in separate media interviews with Dhruv Prasad, senior vp media strategy and strategic investments for the NFL, and Neal Mohan, YouTube’s chief product officer. 

Key Takeaway

YouTube's deal with the NFL has changed the future of sports distribution only six months after Amazon Prime Video Thursday Night Football debuted alternate streams.  

Total words: 1,400

Total time reading: 6 minutes