The 2022 NFL Week 1 Roundup | NFL+ and Minus
Streaming Without a Paddle
Leave it to the NFL to monetize FREE. And push even Jiminy Cricket into shedding soggy tears into his befallen crumpled blue felt top hat. Right on cue and timed perfectly to coincide with the omnipresent inflationary price tags fluttering in the red-hot 2022 breeze, our friends at the NFL (National Finance League) have inevitably tripped into the streaming wars in the only way they know how to of late: indelicately AND impolitely. Not that the League can be blamed. With traditional linear broadcast rights sewn up with much ballyhoo amounting to $113B over the next decade (up a staggering 100% from prior agreements) this past Spring, it wasn’t long before the NFL read the room. Yick, TV? Soooooo yesterday, as NFL accountants and particularly Team Owners, incongruously swim happily in the green ribbons of incoming rights payments from the Big 3 networks. Nope, the NFL has courageously come to find religion; that mobile devices are ground zero for its next revolution in a world of ever-dwindling cable subscribers. Surely the home of the Tok and the Gram has room for the NFL. And that’s where the NFL’s tin-eared introduction of its eponymous streaming service last month served as an ill-fitting vehicle to get its tenterhooks firmly affixed to your financial life. The whole spectacle of it really does get you thinking…that maybe Jiminy Cricket wasn’t so wrong.
Really it was only a matter of time before the NFL’s carnival barker pierced decorum. Basketball has it’s League Pass for up to $250 annually, the MLB has offered up its well-received $130 MLB.TV service seemingly forever and a day while the NHL if working to feverishly rework its contracts with Regional Sports Networks (RSNs) wresting control of out-of-market games for its much-rumored upcoming product launch. Everyone’s in the pool and the NFL felt that while it plunged in last, its wake needed to be substantive and attention-getting. Two words: Nailed IT. But for all the wrong reasons which we’ll get into in a pinch. But first it’s important to underline that for all the bells and whistles screeching forth from League marketing machines, glaringly absent and absolutely NOT available are in-market local games. Nope, those rights live exclusively with those pesky RSNs and traditional broadcast networks like EPSN and Fox which fork over plenty of money to own such linear and streaming rights. The NFL studied the market closely and turned the paradigm on its head by caking its NFL+ service around access to in-market, local games. If you want out-of-market games from 2000 miles away, you’re out of luck. At least when it comes to NFL+.
Required to stream RSN and linear broadcast network in-market local games is, naturally, a cable subscription. With cable subscriptions in an uncontrolled descent amid an explosion of content options including Netflix, HBO Max, Paramount+, Peacock, Hulu and countless others, the NFL needed a way to needle around and through the cable bundle without running afoul of the broadcast networks funding the entire enterprise. And so, NFL stuffed its fledgling service with access to all out-of-market pre-season matchups (gee boring games that nobody watches in the dog day of Summer, thanks) and complemented them with in-market and nationally televised in-season games (mmm OK) and all post-season games (getting warmer). OH yah, one last thing. You can only stream to a phone or tablet. Don’t even try screencasting or mirroring to a TV because it won’t work (just plain rude). And frame rate is limited to just 30 frames-per-second, half of what your get on TV. An analog look in an HD world (sigh). BUT You do get access to radio simulcasts for ALL in-season games. Yep, radio simulcasts from an app. Groundbreaking! Anyways, this slim pickings package will set you back $5/month or $30 annually. Pony up for NFL+ Premium and treat yourself to unlimited game replays , condensed game replays and Coaches films — all blessedly ad-free. All this commotion will set you back $10 monthly or $80 for a yearly pass. While all these trappings add up to one overwhelmingly underwhelming dog’s breakfast of an offering masquerading as must-see-TV, perhaps the greatest gut punch is that the entirely of this service was FREE just last year. Yahoo/Verizon famously streamed all these identical offerings to mobile devices on any network for the hefty price of a royal goose egg. Gratis since 2017. That corporate-sponsored $400M deal quietly expired last year which left the NFL a convenient runway to bring its own product line in-house — rebranded — and wrapped in the false patina of worth and peddled to the general public as an offense against tomorrow. Meeting the youthful consumer where they consume is the mantra being bandied about in press materials. That may be true in the abstract, but in the finer details live the concrete makings of an age-old old bait-and-switch. You be the judge.
Maybe it’s not surprising in the end. The cost of everything in life continues to escalate unrelentingly. So too, putting on the big NFL show. Fresh off soaking the linear broadcast networks for the only product on their air drawing eyeballs nowadays, the NFL is looking to squeeze every penny from its ecosystem machinery. This includes the hotly anticipated Sunday Ticket package (featuring all-access to streaming and televised out-of-market NFL games) which it purported to moving from DirecTV to Apple for $1B after this Season’s conclusion. NFL+ is just another manifestation of this ethos repurposing marginal content at a not-so-trivial cost. At a time when Netflix is encountering headwinds retaining cash-strapped subscribers overburdened with too many content options, it’s remarkable that NFL+ might be charging out of the streaming gate with not enough. Sure the NFL might (have to) layer-in additional substance to its service to make for a credible offering, but the damage might have already have been done with that well of goodwill bone dry. What price disappointment? NFL+ has your number.
While you consider the merits of NFL+ and/or the wisdom of lofting a half-baked beta product into winds of mediocrity, consider the much-anticipated game of the week with Sunday’s backstory-filled Bucs at Cowboys. A turgid offseason in the making complete with Tom Brady’s inability to resist the grassy workplace that made him famous in spite of the reported troubles it spun off at his $29M home. But Tom is Tom and his team has never lost to Dallas going 6–0. SNF made it a slam dunk 7–0. Sure Tom threw for an INT and the effortless Tampa Bay offense wasn’t quite on display as in years past but it didn’t matter. If TB’s O had issues, then DAL is going straight into intervention. The League’s #1 offense last year whimpered into 2022 losing 3–19. 3 points. QB Dak Prescott, so explosive in 2021, languished on Sunday night. Cementing the Team’s likely season-long prognosis, Dak suffered some type of throwing thumb injury that will require surgery and likely 8 weeks to suit up again. The team’s perennial defensive weakness actually did show up, perversely enough. Coach Mike McCarthy certainly isn’t a happy camper today; whither be the Season. Stay tuned. Elsewhere in Glendale, the Chiefs arrived to take on the Cards and all that could be seen for miles was a plume of red feathers. Patrick Mahomes, maintaining his elite level of play, saw no problems without superstar Tyreek Hill. He picked up right where last season left off. TE Travis Kelce fit into the routine nicely as the Chiefs snuffed out ARI, 44–21. ARI QB Kyler Murray just couldn’t seem to phone a friend or catch a break but the cumulative threat remains. Perhaps.
Over in Cincy, Steel City narrowly escaped a would-be OT tie overcoming the Bengals 23–20. With the Big Ben era now complete, the weight of the franchise rests burdensomely on Mitch Trubisky’s shoulders. If Week1 is any indication, then the Steelers are in for a turbulent season. That the team nearly lost to a Bengals offensive squad ravaged with 5 turnovers (4 in the first half) and 4 INTs says it all. It at the same time speaks volumes to PIT’s industrial-strength defense. Pity poor CIN QB Joe Burrow who was under attack and in the pressure chamber the entire game as evidenced by his being sacked 7 times. Pre-season, the Bengals had Vegas odd makers favoring a Super Bowl run. Today, they revisit that calculus. Speaking of Sin City, the Chargers descended upon Allegiant Stadium and rocked the house. LAC QB favorite Justin Herbert delivered a combustible season opener (26/34 279yds 3TDs) leading a powerful offensive line showing out in-sync and in unison. The Chargers took the W, 24–19. Against such momentum, LAR QB Derek Carr was left to proverbially (and probably literally) watch film and take notes. He and his team’s inauspicious start does not portend well even with the glittery addition of REC Davante Adams and DE Chandler Jones. Up in Detroit, the Eagles are looking to reset after a so-so 2021. So too are the Lions who went 3–13 last year. The stars of this Summer’s Hard Knocks on HBO bolted out of the den and put up a good decent fight but the Eagles are not so easily star struck and did enough damage in the 2nd and 3rd quarters to cage their opponents, 38–35. Jalen Hurts for PHL and Jared Goff for DET each came in with OK outings. Only one escaped with an unbeaten 1–0 record.
In our traditional Round Robin, hey the Giants of all teams are in a celebratory mood having squeaked by the Titans, 21–20. The Daniel Jones — Saquon Barkley thing is now officially a THING. Daniel was all over the place and lent a mostly good performance to the team’s victory. TEN’s Ryan Tannehill and Derrick Henry can’t be beat but were. Up in Minneapolis, we all see the ugly aftermath of Green Bay’s messy Summer HR affairs anchored by Aaron Rodgers. Aaron Rodgers attempted to connect with anyone and was turned away like a stranger with candy. To the tune of of an unsightly 7–23 loss to on the road. Elder statesman MIN QB Kirk Cousins continued to churn and burn (23/32, 277 yds 2TDs) alongside REC Justin Jefferson. The Saints, in reconstruction mode, travelled to ATL to delight in the Falcons being the Flacons. This of course means ATL was on-course for a W before complete collapse into a rusty L. NOLA snuck by the Falcons, 27–26. The 49ers looked VERY shaky behind starting QB Trey Lance amid laughable rainy field conditions that went viral on Sunday. Their 10–19 loss to the Bears sorta underscore the Team’s complicated story arch heading into 2023. The Pats similarly and uncharacteristically limped to a suddenly buoyant MIA squad with QB Tua Tagovailoa and KC import Tyreek Hill. The Ravens flew high as did the the spirits of WAS fans where Carson Wentz delivered something spectators never expect much of: success. And finally, Carson’s old employer IND was involved with the first tie of the year, 20–20, against the Texans.
So really nothing to see here at all in the NFL at Week1. See ya in a few days.
