The biggest reason for the recent rush to CBA negotiations seems to be centered around NFL content rights deals. Here’s the simple logic: the sooner the better for both the owners and the players. Another year leads to more uncertainty. You may have heard this rumor about cord-cutters leaving traditional cable and getting over the air antennas — a different type of OTAs when it comes to football — which aren’t tracked using traditional methods. The league and players have to think that they can cash in on a great season and strong viewership numbers from last season. Owners are apparently scared enough of traditional distributors getting cold feet from the continuation of cord-cutting/market factors, a dip in ratings due to competition from the upcoming presidential election and apparently Bernie Sanders.
Believe or not, owners are fearful of what Bernie Sanders clinching the democratic nomination might do to the market (we explained it in here: https://t.co/NL7W2nMCnH). That plus a looming, expected, election-driven dip in ratings has heightened urgency to get to the TV deals. https://t.co/nabAfulbCK
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) February 25, 2020
Fine, Sanders won’t really affect ratings, but there is maybe some logic behind the concern that owners won’t be in as much of a powerful position next year as they are now and they should strike while the iron is hot. We get it. It’s an interesting message being pushed, but that’s now why we are here.
We are here to try and figure out what will actually happen. We’ll go through each package and take a guess where it ends up after the television dust settles.