When Netflix swooped in and purchased the rights to a pair of Christmas games, some existing broadcast partners got upset. One ultimately got paid, and then some.
Via Ben Fischer of Sports Business Journal, CBS Sports president and CEO David Berson told reporters on Wednesday that his network will get three things in exchange for producing the pair of games on December 25: Cash, promotional spots, and local broadcast rights.
The money was a given. Netflix needed to figure out how to televise a football game to the NFL’s high standards. Netflix had two choices — quickly develop in-house expertise for only two games or hire someone else to do it. Along with whatever CBS will be paid, it’s getting promotional spots during the games.
Perhaps most importantly, CBS affiliates in the four markets involved in the two games will have the local, over-the-air broadcast rights for Chiefs-Steelers and Ravens-Texans. There’s real value there, because fans in Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Houston will be watching the games in droves — and they’ll only be able to watch them on their local affiliates.
That’s one of the league’s primary talking points regarding the fact that Sunday Ticket’s out-of-market distribution and pricing strategy violates antitrust law: All games involving a team from a given market are available on free- over-the-air TV.
