Amazon catches NFL games for a cool $50million (The 3:59, Ep. 205)
Amazon catches NFL games for a cool $50million (The 3:59, Ep. 205)
2017-04-05
it's wednesday april fifth and are you
ready for some football that's time at
the 359 podcast and in the house today
we have Alfred Inge and Ben Fox Rubin
good morning guys I am ready forehand
egg and egg and egg baby okay god damn
it we're so nerdy this is really it is
not football we're a little out of our
wheelhouse here today no we're not I
love football like one of the
only sports that i watch I'm he's
probably team sport i watch the
Philadelphia Eagles giant bills okay all
right the only real news or coasters
yeah oh I I agree with that yeah sure I
just I I only picked the Giants because
they're the only team to stop Tom Brady
from winning Super Bowl I mean I could
completely agree with that sentiment for
sure but unfortunately I think we've
lost our entire tech audience yeah with
all this talk about blue ball promise
we're gonna bring it back full circle
there a point to this this is this is
about streaming so Amazon we're gonna
talk about on the show they snagged the
NFL games on Thursday night which is
going to go live globally for about 50
million dollars and we're also going to
be talking about care robots which at
this point are going to be focused on
helping out senior citizens and the
elderly and yeah we'll get into that
Katie Collins word about that earlier
today as always send in your questions
and comments and we'll get to as many as
we can at the end of the show and that's
about it for now we'll see you in three
minutes and 59 seconds from 32
welcome to the 359 I'm Ben Fox Rubin I'm
Alfred Aang Amazon pulled in the
streaming rights for the nfl's thursday
night football games this upcoming
season but it didn't come cheap for the
one-year deal the company reportedly
paid 50 million dollars five times what
Twitter coughed up last season
competition was tough this year with
Twitter Facebook and YouTube all
reportedly bidding also wanted to throw
out a disclosure CBS our beloved
corporate overlords also air thursday
night football games along with NBC and
the NFL network so Alfred 50 million
dollars for the streaming rights
globally you think it was worth it
definitely not what it's stupid
investment didn't even pay off that much
for Twitter when they did it you you
think so i think there was an audience
growth for twitter and and the fact is
is that you know for twitter it made
sense because people love live tweeting
budget and twitter integrated where was
kind of on the sidebar we're like it
would fit in with your tweets and people
could search your comments and your
games in the same way that you can do it
on twitter now i may have so many reason
to check out the games live on twitter
to kind of see what people were saying
live at the exact same time however
putting it on amazon doesn't really
change that twitter has often been a
second screen for me if i'm watching
like an Eagles game or you know the
state of the union address or whatever
so it doesn't take that about me but how
often do you go on Amazon to watch
something live very very little I think
one of their only live shows is this
thing called style code live which I'm
not sure anybody watches and it's
basically QVC for Millennials or
something just made so much more sense
if it were to go to Twitter or Facebook
or even YouTube which all have the live
chat capabilities on the side for me
personally I still think Twitter makes
the most sense because that's where all
the pundits and the analyst you're gonna
get you know like top-rated comments on
there yeah as opposed to you know random
person but they have no money jets they
have no money that's the thing is that
Amazon easily outbid them and it showed
that these global streaming rights have
enormous amount of value that they went
up from 10 million 250 million it just
doesn't make any sense I mean unless
they're putting it on twitch like maybe
twitch you know
yeah that makes the most sense to me to
put her on amazon it I don't get it at
all yeah okay I mean tell me how you
really feel Yin dollars come on you
could send me to the space for that I
hope you didn't want to go to space that
was Brian by the way our producer also
we wanted to get to this other story our
own katie collins wrote about the
emerging world of care robots which can
help senior citizens with simple tasks
around the house like closing the fridge
or answering the door one example was
this cute little rabbit dog thing called
me row which works with a wristband to
track your vitals there's also of course
pepper the robot Alfred would you give
this to Grandma is this something that
you would actually feel comfortable
using I mean like a senior in your life
if I can get it for free definitely I
don't actually for a robot for something
that I could probably do for free do you
think so I mean I think I could do it i
just don't think i'd have time for it
see that's the thing too is that there's
going to be this enormous amount of
devant demand with like more of the
population getting older and graying and
you know dying later and and uh you know
maybe robots are actually gonna solve
this issue I mean to be fair I love
robots in the home like my Roomba it has
been the greatest thing that I've done
and then you know by I have an echo dot
also that's not exactly a robot a robot
it's been nice you know I get to talk to
Alexa when I come home it does make me
wonder if you put in an echo on wheels
is it then a robot yeah I'm gonna glue
my Jericho under my room and it just
goes around them it'll be the party
rumba so do you ever talk to your Roomba
and like asking questions now try to
teach you treat I mean I've run I've
named it what's the roombas name sponge
bot okay that makes sense anyway if you
want to read more about these stories
check us out on cnet I'm Ben Fox Rubin
I'm out burning thanks for listening
in the chat right reason I was always
waiting there isn't lowing up my spot I
was losing my mind off camera was
because Michael Brown and we've got our
new hashtag I love my boy Alfred but I'd
be more excited for Amazon catching
Alfred's man button being cut off for 50
million dollars oh oh definitely and son
should absolutely pay 50 million dollars
for that man button if they paid me 50
million dollars I'd cut my hair on the
way the first time I wanted on the show
next Kickstarter yes the fair enough
Michael Brown is a regular viewer so he
knows about Alfred's man button but
you're right it hasn't been on the show
that's because my I cut my hair like a
few weeks ago and I was waiting for it
to grow back Rio it has its return of
the bun I actually thought it was kind
of funny it was kind of funny because
people were making fun of your man bun
on this show and then you got your hair
cut pretty soon afterward and you were
telling me you were like I really hope
our YouTube viewers don't think it's
because of them it's an honor cut no I
got cut because I'm like I I plan out
how long I want me to grow by a certain
month and the way that I had planned I
why were talking about is not really a
technology only derail Sorry Sorry every
don't care but basically I move on I
have you don't refer to be along in
September in the way that I had it was
like oh it's gonna be long by like
August you've now lost me all right
moving on let's let's get to the
questions before we talk any more about
the man bun but Michael Brown always
good to have you on the show she said
the shout that out thank you very much
Freddie and you definitely I mean you
cracked up Brian like while I was trying
to get through my script so well done to
be paid me 50 million dollars I'll cut
it for maybe 15 we got fifty dollars an
hour would i would definitely also cut
off on my hair for 50 million dollars a
lot of people are really in favor of
this amazon acquisition i think it's a
smart move to I know last year two years
ago forget how long ago was a lost all
sense of time but we watched a the game
that was in the UK oh yeah broadcast on
on yahoo and it was actually a pleasant
experience like I had to put yahoo on my
xbox but in that was that was definitely
one of the earliest iterations of this
concept right obviously the NFL and
probably the other
uh sporting networks sporting groups
well call for fellows Sport sport
appreciation organizations again house
with their they're all realizing that
these streaming rights probably have an
enormous amount of value and the NFL
obviously gave Twitter a pretty awesome
deal for 10 games for only 10 million
dollars I mean like a million a game I
mean if I think sports games are the
biggest reason why cord cutters like
don't actually go all the way because
it's like I want to be able to watch you
know the football game live and that's
why I still have a TV otherwise
everything on my computer one thing that
is a little unfortunate about Amazon
getting the rights to this is you have
to be an Amazon Prime member to actually
watch these games globally so that is
with Twitter all you really needed was
to get a twitter account and you know
just yeah you just needed to be an egg
and then it was lonely as the rest of
the world rolls their eyes and goes
america that's not actually football
bright yeah i called it hand egg that
size or an american football you want to
call an american football that's that's
perfectly reasonable i stopped fun to
watch by eat wings amazon is obviously
gating this behind its prime wall
because they want to be a big enough
money for it yeah and they want to be a
bigger player in video and the reason
for that is mostly to get more people to
join on to prime so why not try to get
people to pay that at ninety nine
dollars a year the u.s. curious to see
what that crossover is and how much this
acquisition will actually pull a new
audience into prime people who are
football fans who weren't already prime
subscribers yeah and to be to be frank
about it I cover amazon and i really
think that amazon spends this enormous
amount of money building out its
original shows this is 50 million
dollars for 10 games just for one year
this isn't going to be added to their
catalog it's not like you're you're
going to be able to like watch the NFL
games like a year time down right yeah
yeah that's not going to have them so
this is this is a really expensive form
of customer acquisition if that is what
they're doing with video which is you
know they want they want to get you in
the door with video and then you're
going to start using their two-day
shipping and
before you know you're going to be
buying everything from amazon i mean
like that's their general yeah way Danny
expands on that idea he says maybe
amazon will throw in a chat window
auction window or deals window to
display beside the game run special
sales during the game one touch by yeah
it's a smart move it's a smart buyer
tebow jersey smell like it rolls in
seneca lolz i had for bud light and then
you just Bud Light yeah yeah yeah and
get it through prime now so and then
shows a war yeah but the thing I don't
know alcohol but I don't know they do
deliver alcohol in a couple of different
cities oh really yeah I don't see the I
don't see the live streamed games like
being able to attract people to go to
Amazon and by and get a prime account
though because if it's something that i
can already watch for free on like CBS
or you know shout out to the company
shout out to less um you know it's
unlike CVS are like NBC are on TV in
general why would i shell out ninety
nine dollars a year just to be able to
watch that watch it online i mean
obviously there's well this is nice for
come with it but cord-cutters who don't
have yeah right or line it is on the
waters of what is an evidence on see it
attracting like new subscribers hey and
it might not and it might not I think
it's definitely a nice make good for
those of us we already departed that
though right and you're probably a prime
member right I'm definitely paying the
99 bucks so this is a nice additional
better view on top of that and I don't
know much about this by Prime members in
Germany or Japan or some of these other
major countries where amazon has a lot
of penetration maybe this actually makes
it easier for that worldwide audience to
see american football if that is what
they want to do the superior football
the superior the best football ever I
mean I tried to watch soccer more than
once very boring this is a good comment
i'm sorry if i'm going to screw up your
name but it spell or Pele I need the
biggest pack TV to watch the sport I
need to watch with streaming I can't
worrying about hmm what thats
constrained to like this is just yeah
football right yeah so he's talking
about like what it's not gonna stream it
like 1080p or 4k let's do they know what
the picture quality is going to be for
this be at least ten eighty well at
least I think he's taking a lot of our
perspective where it's like usually with
streaming you think of it as like a sigh
screen kind of thing where it's like
it's on your laptop screen or you're
looking screaming at my phone which is a
smaller screen but like on Twitter when
the when the game's first started they
were giving out capabilities to kind of
like they they released like apps for it
on like the roku and Apple TV people
could watch it on their TVs easily
chromecast like it was very easy to do
that with to fire stick yeah yeah game
consoles so yes I our sake I wonder what
Amazon's gonna do with that um as far as
like streaming goes cuz they have a
virus yeah yeah the probable that do ya
you think it'll be an isolated app no
but maybe I mean that's what Twitter
densha Lee was it yeah I never watch the
game with your full disclosure I I I
messed around with it and I tried to get
it to work on my fire TV and didn't I
saw some people doing it I watched it on
mobile that's that's basically how I got
it to work and yeah as we mentioned
before it made it it gave you more of a
reason to go on Twitter yes you could
watch the game it was kind of small but
then you could see a bunch of people
come but they were yeah that and they
were looking Twitter was more so looking
for like the the mobile audience where
like I was watching the final four game
on Monday on Twitter but like I was
following it like on my Twitter feed
while I was at the gym mmm no I mean
that I think they were trying to catch
more of that audience but i think what
our commenters asking for he's more of
like the guy that like wants to sit down
on the big couch with like it big TV
yeah the big bowl popcorn yeah yeah but
like I don't think streaming is going to
take anything away from there I mean
there may be like solid a issues with
that especially depending on how you're
like me then the same okay well that's a
hesitation you have with any kind of
streaming platform I think that's yeah
there's lag and fall off it's gonna
happen but you also have interrupted
signal you have cable fail yeah you know
there's always flaws but the thing about
that feels like it's okay for that with
like Netflix because it's not alive you
know I can always like rewind or
something like that as far as like a
football games goes it's like that's
live and I think that's why people want
that like on interrupted experience
right and not have like the stream yeah
degrade it but I think like if any like
of the four that were on there i think
the only company that that like bid for
thursday night football i think amazon
probably like had the second or first
best like capabilities to you know hold
a steady stream on that considering like
don't like half their servers run the
internet yes yeah AWS yeah good point
yeah i mean like the only ones likes run
its entire business through AWS yeah
last time I checked so that's that's
definitely a good point and maybe
that'll give our commenter more reason
to use this like I could only see like
Google and youtubing would compete with
that maybe YouTube will get it next year
for like a hundred million I'm welcome
darting off of that youtube live right
the TV light is expected to come you
know pretty soon actually look at the
monday night games i don't know i mean
like it's just money sitting out there
for the NFL uh uh folks well yeah how
does that work like so if YouTube live
has like a basic like channel like let's
say it has NBC on it or something mmm
and NBC airs thursday night football
games they usually blacked out that's so
that's so really and I really diving all
that NBC really yeah right but that
makes no sense there's agreements agree
that the sketch out what platforms it's
gonna be available right like syndicated
radio programming that pick up from
national distributors they have to
blackout games on that and they black
out games if I mean like I'm an Eagles
fan I'm like you know eagles games get
blacked out all the time yes you know
because here's the Jets games because
the Jets games the Giants games and also
the bills game like the better let
sometimes okay cheese this is this is
tough but you know who does it the best
is CBS I just get out no they do it
always they always do it right I'm just
kidding now they're uh going back on a
point you had before the show imagine
soggy says the funny thing is these
thursday night games are so low quality
in football terms that it really isn't
worth the 50 million dollar price tag
terrible fan experience it's JV and a
fell games that's what I told them out
that's the only reason why they were up
for streaming I didn't okay I mean the
whole reason they started thursday night
football games is to just get you
watching more games as opposed to like
trying to cram more and more into them
of them into Sunday because they've got
like the three different slots on Sunday
think I got like the early game the
afternoon game and then Sunday never bad
so I don't actually agree that they take
the crappiest sunday game and then make
it thursday night football in many ways
it's like you know like they try to like
play it up it's sort of like a like a
watered down version of Monday Night
Football so
i I don't I don't actually agree with
that I think like I just said it was a
watered down version though yeah but
monday night football is usually the one
that they save like this is like the
really big marquee one so it's just like
a slight step from there it's still a
step down though okay but I still think
it's I i would give it more credence
than that our comment or did okay we can
agree to disagree i think i've been
different I think it's just the
experience in itself is just kind of a
fun kind of but I'm a very casual fan go
figure it like the bills I can't be that
pageant if I had my hopes up that high I
wouldn't still be here that's like I
mean like the Eagles have I wish the
Eagles had lost that many superbowls
like that would have been nice I'm just
like I mean there's more premium content
and isolated apps to like the NFL as a
firestick app and everything you can go
and get X interviews games lovable yeah
and verizon has always had like they
also have like their deal with the NFL
to where you can stream like local games
through your verizon like go 90 I think
it's I don't even think it's gone i D oh
yeah I think it's a good the NFL game
it's also like three NFL network app or
like a verizon a person there's another
network syndicator app that I tried the
other day called fubo maybe I've I heard
a FUBU no it's similar to like it plays
out like it's an actual cable provider
type thing right down to like the
navigation screen and all that like if
he got dish network or whatever but it
was again major network kind of stuff
mm-hmm so that was actually kind of cool
to see that there but that's very you
know young it's not a household name yet
amazon bringing football like that's
headlines everywhere yeah yeah and
they're they're really trying to like do
a big push and video all their earnings
calls they talk about how they're going
to be spending a lot more money in in
video and original content so I would
expect this to be like a really big
headline for them this year but there's
probably going to be more to come in
2017 from amazon as they try to like
beat out netflix or at least be a
stronger competitor against netflix they
have expectations that youtube is going
to be doing more stuff so they mean like
it makes sense yeah i mean i try to get
something like the NFL live streaming is
where
everything is heading because you know
of all these cord cutters and this is
testing water yeah more than anything
else is seeing how well this kind of
plays out Ryan testing technology seeing
with the server capacity could be what
the audience retention is going to be
you know how to better serve because
it'll probably change the format like
the delivery of the game we're so used
to the the timed out the commercial
breaks it so probably change that that's
a good point like ultimately if it gets
off broadcast they don't need to take
FCC regulated commercial breaks it'll be
integrated into that I I've seen like
tournaments on Twitch before like they
they do the a stream evo every year and
if like out of lot it's like a fighting
game tournament mm-hmm and it's like a
three-day affair and it's like they do a
pretty good job with the commercials
there and you know basically like I
guess the commentators people talking
analysis and all the stuff they do a
pretty good job like streaming it on
Twitch so I have no reason I think
Amazon will do a bad job with this I
just don't think it's a smart investment
at all it's definitely a dollar it's
definitely had the money to blow yeah
try this out and then ultimately when
they get their footing they'll make it a
smart business me now if you're gonna
spend that kind of money you do it on
something splashy like the NFL exam so
to me it makes sense 50 million dollars
is not a ton of money for Amazon and
they were obviously able to blow Twitter
out of the water whatever with that kind
of money order is doing there live
streaming for baseball now too late link
they announced they 10 games that they
have on schedule for that that might I I
think Twitter is a better place for
baseball than it is for football but
just cuz it's so slow paced yeah and
it's open for a lower conversation yeah
commentator sport yeah that's a good
point I'd like to see this direction
continued bringing more and more
interactivity into the sport yeah um
jump the actual interface yeah I think
that's a that that could really be a
good thing because like again as a cord
cutter I do have an antenna but I live
in the basement apartment I have
terrible terrible reception so it's
usually like me standing on top of the
back of the couch holding the antenna
out the window hoping for the best you
know the gate picture on a game so
actually being able to like screw it
hope my internet holds up yeah that's a
much better solution for me there's like
one tree outside of my apartment that's
blocking my antenna for
getting NBC which is very frustrating
ouch that tree was planted by CBS all
right probably gotta wrap it up that's
been a good long discussion about yeah
something that's not usually on this
show right right well it was amazon
related so also if you'd like to buy our
our stream for 50 million dollars just
let us know or watch it for free on
YouTube and keep your eyes out for the
Kickstarter to cut off Alfred's man bun
right I'm not starting that again start
now we'll see if that happens okay the
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everybody say tomorrow go bills
you
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