STREAMING SERVICES OPENING DOOR FOR NFL COMPETITORS
By: Braedyn Wozniak, RP Show Intern
The Amazon Prime Thursday Night Football deal may have given opportunity to rival football leagues, according to AutoZone Liberty Bowl Executive Director Steve Ehrhart.
Ehrhart, who has a long history in football operations in the USFL, XFL, CFL and NCAA ranks, believes the CFL and USFL had chances to excel in the U.S. market until the NFL snagged all of the television contracts.
“When CBS wasn’t doing the telecast of the NFL, that was a great opportunity to have a competitor league that would be just as good and would be able to have good television exposure,” Ehrhart said from Memphis on the Rod Pedersen Show.
Eventually, CBS and their affiliates signed a new deal with the NFL, which led to the NFL dominating American television.
But with the recent Amazon Prime contract for the NFL’s Thursday Night Football, Ehrhart sees an opportunity for the CFL, as well as the reincarnated XFL and the recently-recreated USFL.
“There’s a market here in the United States for more than just the NFL. You saw it last year with the XFL coming back again this spring, and the new reincarnation of the USFL,” he said.
“Can a spring league survive in the United States? I don’t know. But certainly, the Canadian League has got great history and great tradition. So maybe there is a way of doing some kind of combination here in the future.”
The NFL has been the focal point of the football world since the 2000’s, signing record TV contracts with other broadcast companies ESPN, NBC, FOX and recently Amazon Prime.
“The NFL was smart, because they tied up all the distributors of linear television,” said Ehrhart. “Now with streamers coming on board … hopefully if the Apple’s and the Amazon’s get involved, maybe we could help grow the Canadian League into a North American League, because I thought it was a great plan (in the 1990’s).”
A window seems to be opening. According to Bloomberg.com, “Pay-TV subscribers in the U.S. have fallen to 85-million from a peak of almost 105-million a decade ago.”
In short, the cable providers that broadcast the games are losing viewership because people are switching to streaming for their television.
This is the first time in decades there is market space for football broadcasts. The biggest challenge for the CFL to expand in the streaming market is their six-year contract with TSN that runs through 2025.
The deal makes it difficult for the league to expand to streaming services and take advantage of this opportunity.
In the United States, the demand for another football is certainly present. College football plays at the same time as the NFL and is a multi-billion-dollar market. Having a spring league in a country that can’t watch enough football seems feasible, but still won’t be easy.
“It takes a lot of cash. It’s a start-up situation and you have to have staying power,” said Ehrhart.
The CFL learned the hard way in the early 90’s, when they introduced 7 American-based teams in 1993 and failing to keep them after 1995.
Ehrhart was the General Manager for the Memphis Mad dogs, one of the CFL’s 1995 U.S. expansion teams. He had been pushing for the CFL’s American expansion since 1987.
“It’s sad that it didn’t work. We had Damon Allen down here playing quarterback for us with the Mad Dogs, and it was a really fun year,” he said. “Unfortunately, the money caught up with us when the television dried up in the U.S.”
Ehrhart’s other opportunity to rival the NFL came as the Executive Director of the USFL in the 1980’s. The spring football league played three seasons from 1983-85, but ultimately failed to compete.
“Going back to the USFL days in the early 80’s, we were doing terrific,” said Ehrhart. “We were actually out-rating baseball and going head-to-head against big baseball games. Our ratings were terrific.”
Ehrhart said their downfall came when Donald Trump, the owner of the USFL’s New Jersey Generals, pushed the league into a lawsuit against the NFL in an attempt to forge a merger or take over the football market.
Had they not, the USFL may have grown and been a true competitor. Instead, it’s demise led to the NFL monopolizing the market.
The path for rival football leagues has been difficult in recent years. The original XFL, led by WWF (now WWE) wrestling CEO Vince McMahon, struggled to gain traction after its inception in 2001, folding after just one season.
McMahon partnered with NBC, who just lost their rights to broadcast the NFL. Prior to creating the XFL, he wanted to purchase the CFL and grow it in the U.S.A.
The re-branded XFL, led by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, has partnered with the NFL as affiliate league.
The discussion of rival football leagues in the past were due to the fact TV broadcast rights weren’t controlled by the NFL. There was market availability, and companies weren’t willing to pay over a billion-dollars for a single prime-time game each week.
Now that is the norm for NFL broadcasting companies, as it is the most-viewed live sport in North America.
“Football just fits on television beautifully,” said Ehrhart. “There’s always going to be a television appetite. But then you’ve got to work the local folks and get some enthusiasm in the city.”
With dozens of streaming services available and only Amazon Prime partnering with the NFL so far, this is a chance for the other leagues to lock in contracts before the NFL is able to and own a share of the television market.
(The Rod Pedersen Show airs live daily at 12 pm ET on Game+ TV across Canada and the USA, and on WQEE 99.1 FM Metro Atlanta. Call your cable provider to subscribe. You can also watch on YouTube Live or listen 24/7 at RodPedersen.com/ListenLive)
