Latest / Best of the NFL Podcast Network / The Season with Peter Schrager: Crafting the 2024 Season Schedule with Mike North, NFL VP of Broadcast Planning

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The Season with Peter Schrager: Crafting the 2024 Season Schedule with Mike North, NFL VP of Broadcast Planning · Best of the NFL Podcast Network

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: The Season with Peter Schrager is a production of the
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: What's Up Everyone? Cool episode of the season with Peter Schreger.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: We're recording this Thursday morning. The NFL schedules came out
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Wednesday evening, but the team's got them Tuesday night. And
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: my guest is one of my favorites. It's Mike North,
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: the vice president of broadcast Planning. With no further ado,
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: let's get Mike the bone. Mike, what's up man? Peter?
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: Good to see you, buddy, good morning, Great to see you.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: You and I seem to be texting about the schedule
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: for over a twelve month period, but we're talking about
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: if the Jets finishing third and not fourth, the Packers
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: finishing third and not fourth, does that mean we get
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: a potential Rogers game? And that's the stuff we do
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: during the year. And now that the schedule is out
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: there and it's done and it's been put to bed,
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: what is the feeling the morning after knowing there are
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: no chances to be made and this is the schedule
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: that everyone is going to be dealing with for the
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: next eight to ten months.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, that's Honestly, the weirdest part about this.
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: You know, usually you what work on a big project,
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: you get instant feedback. You you know, turn in a paper,
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: you get a grade. Like, we don't even grade it
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: on this until the season's over, So you're talking eight
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: months away before anybody even really does the forensics on Hey,
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: how good was that schedule? So last couple of days,
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: a lot of you know, initial emotional visceral reaction from
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: our clubs, from our network partners, always wondering what did
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: we miss, what could we have done better? Was there
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: a previous version of this schedule that maybe we had
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: in our hands on Friday or Saturday, and maybe we
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: should have played that one instead of the one the
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: commissioner approved on Monday. It's just a constant sort of rehash, reimagining,
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: you know, did we pick the right one? When you
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: get down to the end like this, we've obviously made
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: some of the big your decision. So we've painted ourselves
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: into a nice, tidy, little corner. And now it's not
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: so much as this schedule better than that schedule. It's
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: just different flavors. So vanilla chop at strawberry, you know,
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: O Schroeder likes Oreo, likes butter Pecan like pick one somebody,
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: but always kind of wondering, you know, what could we
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: have done just a little bit better?
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: Okay, so you said the commissioner gets a final approval.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: I guess on Monday. Is that the timeline, because right
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: now we're recording this on Thursday morning. The schedule or
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: is at least Wednesday, I believe, And tell me if
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: I'm wrong. Tuesday night you told the team, so is
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: the order of the week. You guys work, you know,
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: tirelessly for months. You present to the to everybody. There's
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: back and forth. Goodell checks off like a seal of approval,
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: and then you guys sell the teams Tuesday and then
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: the world finds out Wednesday. Is that kind of the time. Yeah.
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: The only thing I would check you on there is
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: we don't uh check. We don't show the schedule to
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: anybody except the commissioner. The teams don't see it, the
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: network don't see and nobody sees it. I know some
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: of the other sports leaves we've got this weird little
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: you know, nerd fraternity of all the schedule makers. We
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: have professional sports leagues, and I know some of those
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: guys actually send out beta versions of their schedules to
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: their clubs and say, hey, what do you think of this?
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: Like a living document, like lets you know I think this.
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: They hate it, and everybody's like, well I would change this,
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: and I would change that, And so you change one
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: little thing, you change everything. So don't we don't do
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: a test run, We don't do a beta version. We
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: just grind and grind and grind. But yet at the
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: end of the day, Commissioner, we don't do anything in
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: this league obviously without his approval. We certainly don't put
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: out the playing schedule.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: So kind of.
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: Checkpoint with him. Haydence is really kind of like weekly
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: start in early April. Here's kind of what we're thinking
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: about for prime time. First age box for the big
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: windows for the holidays, and then more like you know,
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: bi weekly as we get closer to the end, and
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: then really down the stretch. It was every day last week,
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: so he saw again Vanilla Chop and Strawberry different versions. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: sent us home over the weekend, the computers ran all night.
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: We were on a zoom with Hans Schroeder and the
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: scheduling team Mother's Day night for about that right, and
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: then at midnight we drop one in his inbox. Commissioner's
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: inbox came in Monday, walked him through it. He obviously
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: approved it, so he liked it. But you know, never perfect.
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: None of these things are ever perfect. So once you
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: hit his final blessing on Monday, then the train starts rolling.
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: Do the paperwork, do the game by game, week by week,
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: broadcast partners, kickoff times, call the teams on Tuesday. They've
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: got work to do, obviously, those fabulous social media executions
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: that they all did, they've got business to do, right,
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: They've got to do their dynamic pricing, set the costs
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: of the tickets, get that stuff over to ticketmasters, so
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: that on Wednesday, Wednesday night, eight pm Eastern, when it
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: goes live, everything's were ready to go. So Tuesday to
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: the teams, Wednesday to the broadcast partners, Wednesday night to
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: the world. But nothing happens without the commissioner's approval on Monday.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: Which makes it interesting with those like you know, here's
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: a scheduling leak. You're here, okay, couple of things to
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: there's like the myths and the facts, so I know,
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: and I don't know if this is breaking news. I
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: said it on McAfee SJA and people were surprised that.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: Like when the teams get the schedules from you guys
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: on Tuesday, it's watermarked with their emails. So if forever
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: reason they wanted to send it to someone, we've got
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: your red handed. You're you're the culprit, like your email
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: specific to the email and it says that person's email
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: on the schedule, all right, any like scheduling leak that
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: you would hear from like a week ago, Like there
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: was rumors that, you know, Cowboys versus Texans on Thanksgiving,
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: Like that's all bs, because you guys hadn't even come
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: up together with a schedule yet.
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: I was watching your guesses for hey, here's that prediction
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: for week one. Not only were they all wrong, but
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: we wouldn't know because week one wasn't done yet. Right
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: in the old days, when we were sitting in that
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: room that you've seen without pinchback and we're hanging the
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: tags one at a time, Yeah, week one was done.
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: You did that a month ago, and now you're just
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: grinding on, you know, week fourteen, just to finish the
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: puzzle doesn't work that way anymore. The computers are so smart.
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: We kind of call it Howard Katz's brain in a box.
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: We just kind of put everything that's in his mind
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: into the software program, and it's searching through an infinite
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: solution space. And it came back today with Baltimore Kansas
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: City for kickoff. They could come back tomorrow with Chargers
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: Kansas City for kickoff. Maybe we're gonna use Houston, Kansas
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: City for kickoff. No, let's use Houston, Kansas City for
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: the Christmas round robin and just around and around permutations combinations.
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: It is truly an infinite space and anything could change,
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: literally right up to the last minute.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: So let's get into the nitty griddo of this year's schedule.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: The Jets are prominently featured again and up front of
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: the marrow. Oh well, this is a role. Were they
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: before Rodgers? I feel like they were definitely last year.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: And are the Jets one of these marquite? I think
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: they have more primetime games than any other team in
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: the NFL on the schedule, including the Chiefs. Is that true?
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: I think seven? I think seven.
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: We think about they might stand alone windows if you
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: throw London in there somewhere. But you know, we don't
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: just think about it in terms of primetime. I know
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: that's a big thing that everybody goes out there and
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: talks about, but you can't really talk primetime without also
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: talking about.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: America's Game of the Week on Fox, which is a
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: bigger rating sometime. Yeah, yeah, always. I mean, that's our
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: average highest window.
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: I think I may have not have this exactly right,
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: but I think Fox and CBS both average twenty five
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: million viewers for that four to twenty five double header window,
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: and I think the gap between the two of them
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: was like fifteen thousand viewers when the whole thing finished.
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: Those two Still like, that's our window where we get
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: more eyeballs than any other. Every now and then you
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: get something pop on a Sunday night or a Monday
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: night obviously Thanksgiving, Christmas, you see some thirty thirty five
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: million numbers, But average day to day, week to week
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: cadence of the NFL season, that's Sunday four twenty five
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: windows really where you get the most eyeballs, so that
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: should count. You may not be in prime, but if
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: you're in four twenty five, that's maybe even a big
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: or give to the brand, and I mean even bigger
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: indication of what we think you're going to be this year.
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: So here in Sunday afternoons, then you really get a set.
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: That's it. So it's seven standalone games in the first
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: eleven weeks for the Jets.
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: Oh man, I mean last year from Aaron like that,
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: anybody who thinks the NFL is scripted, I assure you
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: that was not was not the way you drew it up.
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: Are we maybe a little too all in on the
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: Jets again this year? Look, if he's healthy and they're relevant,
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: then no, this is the games that you know, our
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: broadcast partners asked for early in the season, that our
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: fans want to see. And then you get to the
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: second half of the season, and if he is healthy
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: and their playoff relevant, they've got a really good schedule
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: down the stretch against the Rams, the Bills, the Dolphins,
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: the Seahawks. Maybe those games move into flexible scheduling windows
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: or get into a bigger footprint on a Sunday afternoon.
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: So yeah, maybe a little heavy on the Jets early,
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: but I think that's a story that everybody's going to
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: be following this year, and that's what we're to do.
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: We're here to tell the stories.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: Totally. Giants fans were upset. I got a lot oft
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: Giants fans. My buddy Deetro's text to be are you
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: having Mike North on tomorrow asking what Giants? Ask them?
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: What the Giants did wrong? Two Thursday games against the Cowboys?
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: What do we talk? We just play them on a regular,
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: regular day when it's not a short at a regular day.
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: You're playing both Cowboys Giants games on exactly the same rest,
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: exactly the same situation, two short week thursdays, one in
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: New York, one in Dallas. That's unfair. Come on, that's unfair.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: I don't know. But I also ask about the Giants,
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: like they're such a unique situation in that they're usually
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: one of these parocial, stay behind the scenes franchises that like,
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: we're not going to beat our own chest. Now they're
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: doing this hundredth year anniversary where it's like marketing power
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: of the Giants, and they're doing hard knocks and they
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: want to be out there. I see that you guys
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: gave them some prominent games. But also I noticed and
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: I wonder, like do they come to you and say, hey,
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: that we play the cults, like the greatest game ever
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: was played this weekend in nineteen fifty eight. Can you
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: align it up with that? Like is that kind of stuff?
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: Take it into account where it sounds so in the weed,
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: So like that's but like there's a big marketing initiative
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: from a team. They might want to make a big
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: piece out of this one particular weekend. Yeah.
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: Look, you know this, because we've talked about this quite
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: a lot. It's never as easy to just say, oh well,
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: just put this game there. What's the problem. It can't
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: be that hard like it is so to say we're
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: going to build the schedule around you know, a Coults
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: Giants game is probably not what's going to happen. But
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: the big focus for them this year, obviously they're doing
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: that offseason, show that off season hard. It's gonna be
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: a lot of attention on them all summer. They were
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: kind of building toward that week one, you know, start
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: the hundred season. Can we bring back a whole bunch
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: of alumni to do that on a Sunday night or
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: a Monday night changes logistics. Us old guys can't stay
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: up that late. So you know, they were really looking
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: for that Sunday one o'clock afternoon home could have been
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: the Colts. We saw schedules with the Colts, we saw Tampa,
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: we saw Many. It wasn't one where we said, oh,
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: it's got to be this team, it's got to be
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: that week. They were also pretty focused on Germany. You know,
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: they have Germany as one of their marketing territories. So
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: once the Panthers signed up, we knew it was going
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: to be a Panthers game in Germany. You start looking
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: at the Panther's list of home opponents, which of them
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: are going to get you know, drafted to go over
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: to Germany with them. The Giants did raise their hand
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: for that one. So really did they get locked in
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: day one? They did not, But were they you know,
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: serious candidate and easy to consider and thought of it
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: kind of as a win for the scheduling team if
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: it landed that way. Yeah, So that that was one
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: they were volunteering for. Like we said, the Thursday night
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: early in the season with the Cowboys seems like a
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: nice give to Amazon. You play it back on Thanksgiving.
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: Giants Cowboys just sounds like Thanksgiving.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: They got a Sunday nighter in there.
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: A Monday nighter in there like, Yeah, they're a traditional
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: national brand, and obviously a lot of attention on the
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: quarterback coming back from injury and a couple of the
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: draft pieces they added again a storyline you want to
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: tell early.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: In the season.
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: In the early part of the season, it's storylines, it's
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: quarterbacks coming back from injuries, it's new coaches, new faces,
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: and new places. The second half of the season, the
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: playoff implications.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: Tell the matchups. We're not manufacturing anything at that point totally.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: And I love the back half of the schedule. I
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: saw so many good matchups, especially on those Christmas Day games,
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: which is my next question. Christmas Day games Wednesday football.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: So many logistical things to keep in mind with the
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: days off and the rest, but also how are we
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: gonna promote this Christmas Day slate and also who's going
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: to broadcast it? It ends up being Netflix. I don't
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: know how much you can go into the weeds with this.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: Was this months in planning it was going to be Netflix.
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: Were they late additions to the conversations?
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: Was months in planning to land on Netflix. It was
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: months in planning to figure out can we play on
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: a Wednesday? Yeah, I think.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: When what took what was the what was the give back?
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: Because I think a lot of players were like, yeah.
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: Answer you to question is the fans have spoken right?
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: Think about where Christmas has been these last what is it,
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: two triple headers each to the last two years, for
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: the last five years we're playing on Christmas. The fans
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: are there, you know. Last year, I'm pretty sure the
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: three games on Christmas average something like twenty seven to
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: twenty eight million viewers. That's monumental numbers. They're there, they
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: want the games, they expect the games from us. Now,
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: But it's a Wednesday. We'll figure it out. Well, we
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: figured it out. We play Sunday to Thursday in this
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: league all the time. Could we play Saturday to Wednesday.
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: It's really the same thing. It's a couple of short
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: weeks back to back Sunday Saturday Wednesday. But it's doable.
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: So early in the process we kind of figured out
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: a path to how we could get there. The real
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: challenge for us was finding the right teams because you're
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: talking about this little round robin between four teams that
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: all have to play each other, but they all have
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: to have one home in one road, and they have
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: to be four teams that we can think we can
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: count on here in May, they're going to be playoff
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: relev and national television worthy seven months from now, like
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: it's sports.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: God only knows, right.
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: So, could you've teams that all play each other, one home,
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: one away, put them on a Saturday and a Wednesday.
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: We kind of settled in on this AFC North, maybe
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: AFC North with the team or two. You could throw
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: Philly in there, You could throw Houston in there. You
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: can throw Kansas City in there. What's the trickle down
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: effect on the rest of the broadcast partners if you
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: do take a couple of Kansas City games out of
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: the mix like this? So we taught the computer put
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: these games in here to Saturday to Wednesday round robin go,
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: but turn them black college instead of all the pretty
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: colors for all our broadcast partners like we usually do.
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: Turn them black, take them away from everybody. They could
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: go anywhere. Now. Once we thought we could do it,
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: then Hans Schroeder and the business team started reaching out
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: to the existing and apparently non existing broadcast partners and hey,
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: who's interested, And thankfully everybody was a really kind of detailed,
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: drawn out process and really excited to land on something
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: really historic. We've never had nobody's ever had a global
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: rights deal like this, one broadcaster, one sports league, truly
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: global reach. It's gonna be fascinating to see what Netflix
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: could do. And it's part of the reason we put
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: the games in the afternoon. By playing at one o'clock
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: Eastern in the States. Now you're in primetime in other countries,
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: You're not in the overnight for some big markets.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: For US, Oh that's interesting.
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: On the afternoon for US made for a better global
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: opportunity for Netflix. And then you back up afternoon on Wednesday.
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: We probably shouldn't be then playing Saturday night. That's a
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: short week made shorter, so afternoon Wednesday kind of led
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: to afternoon Saturday, and that's how we kind of backed
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: into the time slots. Then which broadcaster we're going to
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: take them? Yeah, really went down to the wire. There
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: were a lot of people interested, and it's gonna be
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: really fascinating to see how this works.
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: So this was an international play in many ways in that,
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: and I would assume Netflix has a very wide ranging
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: international viewership as opposed to maybe some of the linear
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: traditional broadcast partners. AM I overstepping tradition. I'm sure they
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: would argue that.
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: But yes, look, our traditional linear broadcast partners, when they're
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: purchasing rights from us, they're purchasing domestic rights, right, That's
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: what we're selling you A whole other group that goes
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: out and says, Hey New Zealand, Hey Australia, Hey Germany,
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: Hey Asia. You know, here's a package of games. This
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: is the first time we've taken one broadcast partner and
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: sold them rights on a truly global scale like this.
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: And I'm not sure I have the numbers right, but
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: I think I saw maybe two hundred and sixty million
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: subscribers worldwide. How many of them are going to be
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: sitting home on Christmas in Hey, a Kansas City Chiefs game,
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: A Pittsburgh Taylor's game, A lot.
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: I know those teams. Yeah, yeah, And then I guess
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: that might be a Hans question how Netflix ended up
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: being the home for these games. But I have to
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: imagine when we push back a week extra than we
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: have usually, that there was some late flurry of action
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: maybe with you know, there is a weird narrative out
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: there that week. Is that not true? Or no?
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: We put the schedule out on May eleventh last year, Okay,
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: here came out on May fifteen.
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: Is that I think. I think it's the upfronts is
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: what everyone was circling. That parts true, That part's fair,
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: and usually you have your full schedule before the network
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: up fronts and.
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: Give everybody at least one game. So they had a
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: little something to tease that they're upfronts, that that part's fair.
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: But look, frankly, I wish they'd give us another month.
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: Like I said, yeah, I hear woreo butter pecan budge
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: ripple Like, there's so many possible schedules out there. Is
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: there one more out there that we just never got
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: to put our eyes on that Charlotte Charlotte Carey never
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: got to think about the CBS regional map for Week seven.
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: It might have been a little bit better. I would
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: I would take every minute they give us. The solution
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: space is infinite. I'm not sure we saw, you know,
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: more than one tenth of one percent of it.
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: The Netflix zeal is that for one year or is
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: that a multi year thing? Okay, year, they're gonna be uh.
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: I believe the Home of Christmas Games for two games?
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: Two games this year, and I think it's at least
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: one okay, next two years and then still a little
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: wiggle room for us to figure out. Let's see how
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: it works. Let's see if they've earned and you know,
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: the additional windows. Let's see how it you know, fans react.
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: Let's see about their production. As you hinted at right now,
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: they don't have a sports production team, so they're gonna
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: need a producer or a director.
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: They're gonna need talent. What are you doing on Christmas? Man?
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: Then they need an announcer. I'm interested, Uh, figure it out,
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: that's the question. Though. It's like, is it one of
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: those deals where you know because it is pe listeners,
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: if you're listening to my podcast, it's usually pretty well
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: versed in the stuff because we go in the weeds.
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: When Amazon launched, Fred Goodelli from NBC played a real
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: influential role, and when the Thursday night games first came
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: out on I want to say NFL network part of
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: those packages where CBS or Fox would assist with the production.
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: And even when you see those Saturday games on NFL
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: Network for years, Mark Titleman and Fox was the producer.
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: And now I think someone at CBS does it I
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: assume that there's anything with Netflix, right, I would assume,
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: but it is it? Is it?
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: Like?
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: Is it assumed or is that like, hey, Fox?
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: Is my knowledge, I wasn't obviously in the room where
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: did it deals were getting made, But to the best
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: of my knowledge, Netflix will go out and find you know,
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: NFL production corew I assume they'll reach out to CBS
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: and Fox and you know, hey, you're you know, b
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: C D Cruise. There's really talented people totally all the
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: way down the roster for those networks. I assume Netflix
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: will reach out to those guys try to find a
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: deal there. What I doubt they'll do is just take
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: the announcers from there. I think there's gonna be some weeks.
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: I agree unity you know, producer, director, camera guy, sound
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: guy like, you know, they're the they're the grunt workers,
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: but they're the ones that actually put it on television totally,
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: you know, the announcers. I think we could probably try
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: something a little bit different, But it's.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: A big it's a big it's a big deal totally,
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: and it's a big deal for Netflix obviously for their
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: you know, union with the NFL. And I've mentioned it before,
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: like I think just dipping their toe in the water
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: with the Quarterback Show and then doing live events with
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: the golf and they did tennis and they you know
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: I mentioned on Pat Mcaty yesterday they did a Chris
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: Rock Live special. They did this Love Is Blind Live special.
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: Like they've dipped their toe in live events and this
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: ghost last Sunday. Whether or not it was favorable for
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: the NFL or favorable for Tom Brady, it was a
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: major hit and it was live and it was produced
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: and it was a success. So they've shown they can
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: do live TV. But like to put on a game,
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: like you said, has to have the look and field
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: an NFL game, it also has to have a graphics
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: package music like this is a major, major deal. And
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: if Netflix is probably not gonna start from scratch, right,
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: I assume they're gonna go find somebody to do this
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: for them who does this for a living.
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: And again, I think it'll look and sound like NFL
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: football on your television when you see it. Maybe try
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: a little something different with you know, the global audience
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: or the announced team or something like that. But I imagine
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: they'll end up with you know, an experienced NFL crew
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: producing the game.
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's burn one Quist to play by play. You're
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: gonna have Burt Kreischer the Machine as your analyst, big
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: Netflix star, and Kevin Hart as your sideline reporter. And
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: I'm here for it. Look, let's go watch. I would
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: watch it, all right. The Taylor Swift questions next, which
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: I'm sure you're getting a lot. Obviously, the Chiefs have
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: won two Super Bowls in a row. They're looking to
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: be the first team to threepet in over twenty years.
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: There's no reason we have to say that Taylor Swift's
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: the reason the Chiefs are being premiered. My question is,
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: did you guys keep an account her tour schedule at
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: offer where where the Chiefs were playing, and if there's
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: any possibility that maybe they can sync up with their
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: fall tour.
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: I only know the tour dates that were impacting NFL stadiums,
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: So whether it was Miami or New Orleans or wherever
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: it was where I knew those teams had reached out
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: to us and said, look, no, we can't block our
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: stadium for you know, concert tours, but if there's any
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: way you can find us on the road or on
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: by this weekend, here's what the load in for the
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: concert would be. Here's the date, here's the load out.
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: We'll be ready to play again by Monday or Thursday,
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: whatever it is. So I only knew the dates that
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: were truly impacting our schedule. I have since heard or
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: somebody sent it to me on social that she's in Toronto.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: Yes, the same weekend. Do you guys play coming to Flow?
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: I assure you that was non intense. It's funny.
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: It's one of the things actually, Holland Schroeder when he
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: kind of came into the room and we're grinding through
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: thousands and thousands and you know, Vanilla chop at Strawberry,
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: one of the things he was really focused on was,
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: you know, the we've settled kind of early that Kansas
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: City was probably going to be part of this round
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: robin for the Chris that takes Kansas City off the
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: table for CBS for week sixteen and seventeen. We know,
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: we get the TVD. We wanted a Kansas City Chiefs
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: game on NBC Sunday Night Football in December. That's sort
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: of how we edge against flexible scheduling. Put a Dallas game,
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: put a Kansas City game, put a Green Bay game
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: in December. We wanted Kansas City for Black Friday because
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: Amazon is so focused on continuing to you know, change
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: consumer behavior and change the idea of Black Friday into
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: a real national holiday, and so nothing moves to needle
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: right now like Kansas City. So you think about how
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: we're deploying Kansas City week thirteen, fifteen, sixteen seventeen, Where
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: exactly is CBS going to get their city doubleheader game?
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: And this Buffalo Kansas City game that we know is
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: one of the most anticipated games.
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: Of the year. And I picture in Nanson Romo calling
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: thirty of their games.
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so last year it was Cincy Kansas City. We
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: saved it all the way to week seventeen. Hey, this
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: is going to be great, the one seed in the
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: AFC on the line, and we didn't get there. Borough
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: got hurt. It was still a good game, it still
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: did a good rating, but we waited too long to
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: quote deploy that asset. So one of the things Hans
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: was really looking for every time he looked at a
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: schedule was how late could we get that Buffalo Kansas
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: City game? Can we can we get it all the
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: way to week eleven or week twelve? So at least
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: it's not gone too early or we waited too long,
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: and once it kind of settled in a week eleven,
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: we felt like that was a good sort of folcrum
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: for the middle of the schedule. That buffcase hanging out
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: there week eleven. I assure you, I did not know
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: Taylor was in Toronto that way.
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: Sometimes sometimes the scheduling gods and the music tour gods
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: were out in mysterious ways. That's what we're learning. And
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: if she's there again, great, Okay. So that's the chief
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: thing the Texans get that. I'm going to say the
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: Lions situation from last year and that they were the
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: hot team. Everyone fell in love with them. At the
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: end of the season. I thought CJ. Stroud was magnificent
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: in that Cleveland playoff game. And also it's just a
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: lovely team to follow this offseason, and then they made
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: big deals getting Digs and Hunter and they really went
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: all in last year. You guys put the Lions on
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: a lot and it turned out to be the right decision.
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: You guys looked very smart because the Lions were the story.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: Texans get a lot of love this year. Is that
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: deliberate or is that just how the schedule works out.
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah, no, they earned it. I mean there's no cho
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: ways around it. If there was a miss by the
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: scheduling team last year, you know it was probably the Texans.
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: It was what zero national television appearances.
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: Everything, Every game was at one pm, every single regulations.
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: And the one that was at three o'clock, I think
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: we moved back to noon like it was. It was
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: a team that what three or four years in a
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: row of three or four or wins Like hard to
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: blame the schedule makers for not seeing them coming. But
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: that's the kind of thing you always wonder who's this
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: year's Texans, Who's this year's Lions, And maybe it was
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: the Texans that early in the process Texans chiefs for
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: kickoff was absolutely on the table. That would be like
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: run it back, like you said that Detroit Kansas City
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: from last year. But maybe even a bigger testament to
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: our belief in the Texans is not using that Houston
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: Kansas City game for kickoff. Using it down there in
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: the Christmas around Robin like that tells you we're banking
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: on the Texans not to be relevant in story worthy
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: Week one, but to be relevant and worthy of national
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: Football National Television Week sixteen and seventeen. There's no flex
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: for the Saturday and the Wednesday Christmas around Robin. Those
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: four teams are going to be there. Think you can
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: count on Baltimore and Kansas City. Mike Tomlinson never had
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: to lose in season, so you know, the Seals are
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: going to be there. Houston might have been the you know,
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: arguably the risk in those four, but I think that
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: you know, shows our commitment to them maybe more than
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: putting them in the kickoff. You could have done anything
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: for kickoff, right nine. Friends could have played the Chiefs
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: in Week one on kickoff and fans watch it. Yeah.
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: Could have been.
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: Chargers, those Harbos first game would have been fun. Could
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: have been Raiders. We ended up using the Raiders for
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: Black Friday and Sunday because they played on Christmas last
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: year and the Raiders went in the ahead and beat them,
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: so awesome game. Those are the kind of conversations that
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: go into literally every schedule. Vanilla Chocolate Strawberry landed on
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: one where yeah, a lot of Texans, you know a
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: lot of Bears kind of count on Caleb down there.
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: Obviously, You're you know, Cowboys, Niners, Packers Bears, Bears Lions.
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: Thanksgiving is an awesome game.
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: Thanks we started. That's cool for to Bears Texans Sunday
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: Night a week two. I think that was great fun.
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: You could have if your predictions a year ago were
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: Bears Texans Sunday Night Football Week two, people would have
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: thought you were nuts.
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: That's the NFL. Though I'm a Fox guy. I think
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: they did very well. A lot of hackers, a lot
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: of Niners. They have to be very happy it's a
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: super Bowl year? Do you keep that in consideration that, hey, everything, it's.
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: Less about the regular season and it's more about as
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: we head into the postseason. Because you got to know
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: that four week run to the super Bowl. You want
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: to make sure that the super Bowl broadcaster is obviously
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: front of mine. It's not like you have to promote
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: to something that people wouldn't otherwise find, right, totally. No,
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: it's the super Bowl and if it's not on Channel two,
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: then it's on channel four, channel five. People are going
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: to find the super Bowl. Are they going to find
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: you know, Black Friday on Amazon? Are they going to
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: find the Brazil game on Peacock? Those are the things
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: that you have to really use your marketing and promotional muscle.
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: For I don't think we have to worry about people
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: finding the super Bowl. They're going to find it.
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: Browns hosting Cowboys. Obviously it's Dallas Fox with the static.
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: They premiered that at their upfront, so straight hand and Brady.
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: It is an amazing unveiling. Brady has no connection to Cleveland.
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: Brady has no connection to the Browns. Did that take
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: in any to me? It's kind of like, all right,
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: that's a great matchup, but it's certainly not around Brady.
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: So I would have tried.
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: Maybe the very early in this problem. I tried to
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: sell Fox on New England San Francisco for Brady's first
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: and I thought that would have been pretty fun. They
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: were not as excited about it.
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the Patriots are bad, but like, that's that's an
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: exciting Brady story.
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: And if you're Fox, if you're Mike Mobilehill and you're
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: thinking about what's the biggest splash wee can make for
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: Week one Tom Brady's first game. You know, we've had
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: this double double header in Week one, which has been
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: I think really fun for the fans, where you think
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: about four games every market Week one four games every market.
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: Week eighteen, great little bookend. But for Fox, it's like,
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: all right, we got you know, fifteen million people watching, Like, okay,
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: thanks Tom Brady for all, you know, the effort. You know, Instead,
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: this way, you take that double doubleheader out a week one,
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: you move it down to December, and now week one
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: you kind of go back to what we used to do,
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: a standalone Nasho exclusive double header. For Fox, the best
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: way for them to make the biggest splash in week
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: one is to grab a Cowboys game. So we started
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: talking pretty early with them about which Cowboys game. Their
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: stadium's not available week one. They've got what's going on
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: in Dallas Week one soccer game or something like that.
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: So Cowboys the road.
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: They couldn't go to Pittsburgh because the Pirates are playing
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: maybe I Love, I Love, but you know, we've got
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: San Fran in another window that week. They could have
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: gone to Atlanta. That would have been interesting. Kirk Cousins
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: first game obviously could have gone to the Giants like
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: we talked about, but the Giants were really looking for.
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: A one of the four thirty.
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: So you come back around to Cleveland and you're like,
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: that's a big market it relevant playoff team. A playoff
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: team with what four different quarterbacks? Ye I saw Deshawnee
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: was what fourteen for fourteen with a couple of touchdowns. Like,
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: that's a team that, again we believe is going to
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: be relevant. Cowboys Browns Week one. I think the fans
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: are going to care. And for Tom Brady to have
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: that first game and then for Fox to be able
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: to tout on Monday morning twenty five, twenty six, twenty
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: eight million people watch Tom Brady's debut. That's a better
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: story for Fox and maybe maybe better for us to
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: take that double double header out of Week one, move
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: it down into the seven Wavin Magic wand I put
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: it in week seventeen. I like the idea at seventeen
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: and eighteen, four games in every market, everybody getting to
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: watch more for fall awesome games. Seventeen was tough this
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: year just because of two Wednesday, you know, one Thursday second.
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: And the four teams being committed were all pretty good,
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: good teams already.
• 30:25
  Speaker 3: Here we put in week fifteen. But I feel like
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: if you're trying to balance the double double header between
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: CBS and Fox, we've got a pretty good shot at
• 30:33
  Speaker 3: balancing those two windows after thirteen weeks of football, instead
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: of heading into Week one where none of us know
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: what these teams are yet. So is that wrinkle always
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: trying new stuff and trying to see what the fans like?
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: Is that Patriots Niners game still a Fox game later
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: in the schedule or it is a Fox game? Okay?
• 30:51
  Speaker 3: I don't know that Brady's gonna do it. It depends what
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: games are, But yeah, it did land on the Fox.
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: Good okay, because I do.
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: I do love that too. I love Brady going back
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: into Foxboro. I think that's kind of cool and sure.
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: As they you know, Jacob Allman and the guys set
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: the production schedule for the year. Obviously, Brady's going to
• 31:07
  Speaker 3: do the biggest games of the weekend. Of course, he's
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: going to do Thanksgiving like that's why they hired him,
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: That's why they're paying them all the money. But I'm
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: sure if they can find a chance for him to
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: do a New England game, to do it Tampa Bay game,
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: I'm sure they're looking for something like that.
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: Absolutely does like the Cousins signing with Atlanta have any
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: oomph as like they know that Rogers.
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: Kind of storyline games Cousins you know, going back to Minnesota, Cousins,
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: going back to Washington, Like, those are interesting storylines. Maybe
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: the one game I think I'm more surprised than any
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: that didn't end up in a national window probably Buffalo Houston.
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: Like you said, with the Digret and all that kind
• 31:42
  Speaker 3: of stuff, Like we saw schedules where it was a
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: Monday night, or we saw schedules where.
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: It was where did that end up? That's like a
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: one o'clock CBS.
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: Look, we shouldn't dismiss one o'clock any kind of dump.
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: You're either doing Nance or iron Eagle. That's still pretty good, and.
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: It's still might end up going to sixty five to
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: seventy percent of the country. CBS and thoughts need good
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: one o'clock anchors for every week of the season as well.
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: You can't just put all the good stuff in prime.
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: So you know, some of those storyline games, like you
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: could find a one o'clock home for Buffalo Houston, You're
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: not going to find a one o'clock home for Baltimore Chargers.
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: For the hardball ball, it's a late window game. It
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: can't be played at one o'clock, and should it be
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: in a four to twenty five window and have that
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: beyond in LA instead of the Cowboys or the Chiefs game.
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: So finding a primetime home for Baltimore Chargers felt like
• 32:24
  Speaker 3: the right thing to do, being willing to see a
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: Minnesota Atlanta or a Buffalo Houston and a one o'clock window. Again,
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: you tell the computer what you're open to, what you're
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: willing to see, and then the computer searches this infinite
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: space and comes back and says, here, so I think
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: we can best use these two hundred and seventy two assets.
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: What do you guys think?
• 32:40
  Speaker 3: And then it's just constant iteration back and forth, humans
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: and computers, humans and computers, until pencils down and the
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: commissioner says, that's the one butter pick.
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, let's go Butterfergain. I obsess over the mock draft
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: and try my hardest to get as close possible this year.
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: How to do I did very well, Mike, it did
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: very well. I would just say number one on the internet.
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: We're on TV thirteen Direct hits twenty nine to thirty
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: two first round picks. We'll just leave it at that.
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: Just dropped them, Mike. You know, it's what we do.
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: It's worked the scheduling thing. Scheduling picks are throwing darts.
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: But one thing I thought was that Harball was such
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: a big success on Thanksgiving night. But I would assume,
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: and you tell me if I'm wrong. Once he got
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: the Ravens in the mix for that Christmas Day game,
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: it was also put them on Thanksgiving evening. Is that true?
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: If in retrospect, maybe asking the Ravens to play on
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: the road on Christmas two years in.
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: A row made again because last year Christmas was at Niners, right, which.
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: And you remember that day like it felt like a
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: Super Bowl pro Oh my gosh, it's one seeds and
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: it was gonna be such a big game and it
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: was gonna be the culmination of this incredible weekend and
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: it didn't turn out to be.
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: It was still a cool game.
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: It was, but like the Ravens were rolling right already
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: had five and Cisco is like, jeesus, these guys are unstoppable,
• 34:01
  Speaker 3: look hard and fast. Rule that you can't play Thanksgiving Christmas. No,
• 34:05
  Speaker 3: I'm not sure that's the right thing to do to
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: the players, to their families. Maybe having both of those
• 34:09
  Speaker 3: games at home wouldn't be the right thing to do
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: to the fans asking them to show up on both holidays.
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: But look, if we're gonna be playing on Christmas now,
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: and you know, we're playing on Thanksgiving, and we're playing
• 34:18
  Speaker 3: on you know, Black Friday, and we'll play on New
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: Year's and we'll play on you know, just about any
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: holiday they'll give us. It's going to land on the
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: teams that are good. Right, we put our biggest games
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: and our biggest windows, and that those holiday tenth polls
• 34:33
  Speaker 3: have become such good storylines for us and such good
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: results for our broadcast partners, You're gonna find the good teams,
• 34:39
  Speaker 3: the teams would think are going to be Playoff relevant
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: in those bigger windows over and over and over again.
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: We probably shouldn't put the Ravens on the road on
• 34:46
  Speaker 3: Christmas again next year, but excited to see what they
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: do on Christmas this year.
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: That the playoff schedule to me, like I've talked about
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: this with you at nauseum, I think there should be
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: a live television event after the Week eighteen for now,
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: and it's all the different network executives with all the
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: lead broadcast crews on a zoom or in person somehow
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: after their Week eighteen games, And like we do the
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: NCAA tournament, we dole out play off the side it
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: because I think a live review, I think that is
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: such a big deal. And the difference between getting you
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: know whatever it is the Sunday night game being the team.
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: Do you hear more from the networks going into the
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: regular season schedule or are they lobbying that week seventeen
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: week eighteen time frame, like hey, if we don't get
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: the Cowboys this year, Like what are we doing here?
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: What do you hear more from from the networks going
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: into the season or at the end of the regular
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: season when the real big dogs in the real primetime
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: and the real big numbers are lying in the balance.
• 35:52
  Speaker 3: The good news with the postseason schedule is that you
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: can't get a bad game, right, you can't make a
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: bad decision. All right, maybe you didn't get the Cowboys,
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: but you know, here's Rams Detroit, or here's Philly Tampa
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: or whatever it is, Like, you know, there's no bad
• 36:05
  Speaker 3: games or all our best teams this playoff weekend. You know,
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: wild card is still a bit of a scattershot. You know,
• 36:12
  Speaker 3: two Saturday, three Sunday, one Monday. That's a lot of football.
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: But then once you get to wild card weekend, like
• 36:18
  Speaker 3: when you get to division weekend, like that's that's maybe
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: the best weekend of NFL football the whole year, right,
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: it's the best day teams to Saturday to Sunday. You
• 36:26
  Speaker 3: can't make a bad decision. So are they lobbying? Are
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: they making requests? It's usually a chance to kind of,
• 36:31
  Speaker 3: like you said, maybe you're kind of greasing the runway
• 36:34
  Speaker 3: for the super Bowl broadcaster. Maybe the super Bowl broadcaster,
• 36:38
  Speaker 3: you know, is holding the super Bowl at the end,
• 36:39
  Speaker 3: so maybe they don't need that bigger game on divisional weekend.
• 36:42
  Speaker 3: They're gonna be just fine. You kind of use it
• 36:46
  Speaker 3: to maybe pay off a debt. Maybe somebody was down
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: three to five percent year over year, and hey, here's
• 36:51
  Speaker 3: a little for something in your stocking. You know, you
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: get see one of the better playoff games. Maybe there
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: was a flex scheduling move that we made that didn't
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: work out, or we didn't make that you would hope
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: that we did. So you can use those playoff windows
• 37:04
  Speaker 3: to kind of, you know, make everybody whole, make everybody
• 37:06
  Speaker 3: feels seen and heard. But you can't make a bad decision.
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: There are best games. They're monster viewership numbers, Our fans
• 37:13
  Speaker 3: are interested. We're thinking about things like truck movements. We're
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: thinking about weather. We got, you know, either lucky or unlucky,
• 37:19
  Speaker 3: depending on your view last year with the weather, the
• 37:21
  Speaker 3: freezing cold temperatures.
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: The peacock game, twenty three million.
• 37:25
  Speaker 3: What do any of us know? So I think the
• 37:27
  Speaker 3: answer to your question is yes, everybody's lobbying week seventeen eighteen,
• 37:30
  Speaker 3: wild Card weekend, but we hear more from them this
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: time of year. This is really more where we got
• 37:35
  Speaker 3: to get in their heads and really understand. You know,
• 37:37
  Speaker 3: what is Eric Shanks thinking, What is Rick Cordella thinking?
• 37:40
  Speaker 3: What is David Burston thinking? Help us understand what your
• 37:44
  Speaker 3: priorities are, what your you know, key windows are, the
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: key weeks for you, the key venues for you. Like
• 37:51
  Speaker 3: nobody gets everything, but everybody gets something. You got to
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: tell us what your something is so we can then
• 37:55
  Speaker 3: figure out if we can check a couple of boxes
• 37:57
  Speaker 3: for you. And judging by their reactions yesterday when they
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: all got their schedule, I think they all felt heard,
• 38:02
  Speaker 3: they all felt seen again. We're in a really really
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: good position in this league. The games are so close,
• 38:07
  Speaker 3: the teams are so good, young quarterbacks everywhere, like we're
• 38:11
  Speaker 3: in such a good spot right now. It's it's almost
• 38:13
  Speaker 3: like you said you could throw darts and whatever schedule
• 38:16
  Speaker 3: comes out, we're gonna be fine. It's a little more
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: sophisticated than that. But the only way we get better
• 38:21
  Speaker 3: is understanding from them what's important to them. So a
• 38:23
  Speaker 3: lot more conversation kind of February March, April than there
• 38:26
  Speaker 3: is December January. At that point, you get what you
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: get and it's all great.
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: I would imagine most of the teams either acknowledge the
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: schedule to you or they'll call in and say, hey,
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: good job. But their job is that, right? Is there
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: not one person like Patt in the back of man like, hey, Mike,
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: I know it's a tough deal, and I know that
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: we don't know.
• 38:46
  Speaker 3: The guys who have been in the league for a
• 38:47
  Speaker 3: long time, they know it's an impossible task, like it's
• 38:50
  Speaker 3: truly a zero something.
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: But no one's one hundred percent happy.
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: They shouldn't be right. No teams should get everything they want.
• 38:56
  Speaker 3: No teams should look at their schedule like this is perfect.
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: You did everything we asked. That's probably not the job here.
• 39:01
  Speaker 3: But no teams should be how could you This is
• 39:04
  Speaker 3: completely unfair. We told you this was the one thing
• 39:08
  Speaker 3: that you've done to us eleven times in the last
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: fourteen years, and the data supports that it's unfair, and
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: you did it again. How could you?
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: Like?
• 39:16
  Speaker 3: Those are the calls that we're hoping to avoid. It
• 39:18
  Speaker 3: would be nice if somebody called and said thank you,
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: but I'm more worried about somebody calling and saying, you fools.
• 39:23
  Speaker 3: How could you have done this again? We talked about this,
• 39:27
  Speaker 3: you know this, and you blew it like. Those are
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: the calls I dread, Thankfully, They're pretty few and far
• 39:32
  Speaker 3: between these days. Harder when we were doing it by hand,
• 39:35
  Speaker 3: hanging one game that we if we've got our minds
• 39:38
  Speaker 3: right and we've got the computer thinking the way we're thinking,
• 39:40
  Speaker 3: we really shouldn't have those. This schedule is unfair. Nobody
• 39:45
  Speaker 3: should believe that on release day, and nobody would say
• 39:47
  Speaker 3: it right. You never want to tell your fans and
• 39:48
  Speaker 3: your teams we can't compete because everybody says the same thing.
• 39:52
  Speaker 3: You tell us when to play, and we'll show up.
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: We'll be there.
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: We're good, We'll overcome whatever obstacles you put in our way.
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: I mean the schedule release show becomes this parade of
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: here are pups, and here we're gona interview over our
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: and everyone we're gonna be and here's everybody's record. I mean,
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: I don't I don't take part in that predicting. Our
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: record in May is amazing. But I think if we're
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: being honest, one of the one of the things we
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: don't do is what's a what's the main complaints that?
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: Like not enough prime like hearing like a team's complaints
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: like it?
• 40:25
  Speaker 3: It depends on who you talk to, right, because you're
• 40:27
  Speaker 3: in buildings every week, like you know this, if you talk.
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: We didn't get enough primetime games. Sometimes the other one
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: is how could you give us three road games in
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: a row? Like and what which one do you hear
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: more from?
• 40:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, look, i'll give you a real good example. One
• 40:41
  Speaker 3: of the teams that was a little disappointed with their
• 40:43
  Speaker 3: schedule this year was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They have
• 40:46
  Speaker 3: a few one o'clock Eastern time home games in September
• 40:52
  Speaker 3: and it is apparently ninety degrees yeah, in September. So
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: the marketing guy, the ticketing guy, the fan services guy
• 41:02
  Speaker 3: is like, hey, this is a lot to ask of
• 41:04
  Speaker 3: our fans to come out and sit in the sunlight.
• 41:06
  Speaker 3: This But you talk to the head coach and I
• 41:09
  Speaker 3: suspect he would say, that's our home field advantage. Right.
• 41:12
  Speaker 3: We've been practicing in this heat throughout training camp. Give
• 41:15
  Speaker 3: me Buffalo, give yeah, give me those cold weather teams
• 41:18
  Speaker 3: down often?
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: Do you still always give the Patriots fits? In September,
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: it was like, this is our natural element. They're not
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: ready for this. This is our home field advantage. So
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: like always, you know, the football side of the house
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: and the marketing and revenue side of the house. That's
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: what this whole puzzle really is. We're trying to, you know,
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: maximize the viewership and the ratings and the revenue while
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: minimizing the competitive inequities. And as those two things balance out,
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: you know, where's that perfect mythical schedule where every team
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: feels like, you know, they were heard. You know when
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: when teams react to their schedule initially, when they got
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: it on Tuesday, it's emotional, it's visceral, it's it's gut reaction.
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: Let's give them a couple of days, Let's let them
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: do the digging. Let's let them see the other schedules.
• 41:58
  Speaker 3: Because they're only reacting to their own Tuesday Wednesday now
• 42:01
  Speaker 3: that they've seen everybody else's. This is when the phone
• 42:04
  Speaker 3: starts to ring. Oh you did this to us, but
• 42:06
  Speaker 3: what you did to them now I feel even worse
• 42:08
  Speaker 3: or even better about what you did to me. So
• 42:11
  Speaker 3: give it a couple of days. They're not shy. They'll
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: find us if there's something we need to think about.
• 42:15
  Speaker 3: And then it's a conversation with Donna Ponte, our senior
• 42:18
  Speaker 3: pet book person, Mike Lopez, who runs our analytics team, Like,
• 42:21
  Speaker 3: those are the guys that are really going to try
• 42:23
  Speaker 3: to dig in with us and figure out, Hey, is
• 42:25
  Speaker 3: this something that we shouldn't do next time? Is this
• 42:27
  Speaker 3: something that really is unfair? Forget the pursuit of ratings
• 42:31
  Speaker 3: and revenue. You got to make sure that the competitive
• 42:33
  Speaker 3: equity is first and foremost, player health and safety, fan comfort,
• 42:37
  Speaker 3: statement availability. Those things really do have to take precedence
• 42:40
  Speaker 3: over this, you know, relentless pursuit of more eyeballs watching television.
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: Two more questions, because I think this one leads into
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: that there are so many analytic models that you guys,
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: Now have you said it used to be taking hands
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: on a board and figuring out how you've got simulations
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: and not that long ago, and I've assumed with AI
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: there's going to even more help and assistance from how
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: this thing's going to go. Is there a world where
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: you wake up this mo or you wake up Wednesday
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: morning after you reveal it to you and you're like,
• 43:09
  Speaker 2: you know what really did screw this team over? Where
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: we didn't as a total blind spot, like we didn't
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: even think of that? Or has that now been to
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: the point where like I remember one year, Bay was
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: seventy one days in a row without being at home
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: and Bruce arians blew a gasket and we had you
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: on the show and you're like, well they have a reason, yeah,
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: reason to be upset, Like it won't happen again. That
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: stuff kind of still happens.
• 43:33
  Speaker 3: Is you learn those things, like kind of like we
• 43:35
  Speaker 3: do with our rules, right when you see something happen
• 43:37
  Speaker 3: on the field and you need to change what was
• 43:40
  Speaker 3: it that NFC Championship game, Burda Manuel right, like we
• 43:43
  Speaker 3: nine because we had something that didn't make sense. If
• 43:46
  Speaker 3: if we've got something in our schedule that doesn't make sense,
• 43:48
  Speaker 3: we should change our rules. So hopefully as these things
• 43:51
  Speaker 3: come up, that are truly unfair, truly onerous. We shouldn't
• 43:54
  Speaker 3: ever do them again. Now the question becomes, what is
• 43:57
  Speaker 3: that to your point earlier? You know, some teams looking
• 43:59
  Speaker 3: they see a three game road trip and they're like,
• 44:01
  Speaker 3: how could you do that to us? Well, we could
• 44:03
  Speaker 3: break up your three game road trip by giving you
• 44:05
  Speaker 3: a home game and third week, but you might have
• 44:07
  Speaker 3: to host Kansas City. Are you telling me a home
• 44:10
  Speaker 3: game versus Kansas City and bet better than a road
• 44:12
  Speaker 3: game against a team that didn't make the playoffs last year.
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: I don't know the answer to that.
• 44:15
  Speaker 3: Road after road Monday, having to play Dallas, coming off
• 44:18
  Speaker 3: of Dallas's by two, A way to start too, a
• 44:20
  Speaker 3: way to finish, playing in September in the heat, playing
• 44:23
  Speaker 3: in Lambeau in the cold? What every team's got a
• 44:25
  Speaker 3: slightly different reaction to the things that we all think
• 44:28
  Speaker 3: are competitive inequities. If we could ever truly get you know,
• 44:32
  Speaker 3: maybe Coach Belichick, now that he's you know, looking for
• 44:34
  Speaker 3: a gig, maybe he could actually help us. I think
• 44:37
  Speaker 3: he was playing the parade of horribles and what is
• 44:39
  Speaker 3: the worst that you could do to somebody versus, Hey,
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: you worry so much about doing this to somebody and
• 44:44
  Speaker 3: it doesn't even matter. I hope we're solving for the
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: right things. And kind of where I think you were
• 44:50
  Speaker 3: going is. You know, it's one thing to have Howard
• 44:52
  Speaker 3: Katz here, unbelievably lucky to have him here for the
• 44:54
  Speaker 3: last fifteen years. I hope we have him here for
• 44:56
  Speaker 3: the next fifteen years. But can you take Howard Katz's
• 44:59
  Speaker 3: brain and put it in a box? Can you take
• 45:01
  Speaker 3: Bill Belichick's brain and put it in a box? Can
• 45:04
  Speaker 3: you have this AIML super tool, quantum whatever? Taking all
• 45:08
  Speaker 3: this input in everything, the fans care about everything, the scouts,
• 45:12
  Speaker 3: the PR directors, the airlines, the hotels, the fans, the
• 45:15
  Speaker 3: ticket holders. Put it all in a big, just you know,
• 45:19
  Speaker 3: black box and hit a button and walk away and
• 45:21
  Speaker 3: come back. And here is the best way for the
• 45:23
  Speaker 3: two hundred and seventy. That'll be awesome. We're gonna get
• 45:27
  Speaker 3: there anytime soon.
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: We have humans still involved, and I.
• 45:30
  Speaker 3: Never want to take the humans out of this process.
• 45:32
  Speaker 3: There's a lot of gut and feel and emotion about this.
• 45:35
  Speaker 3: You can't just trust the computers to do it all.
• 45:37
  Speaker 3: So you guide the computers, right. You put up some constraints,
• 45:40
  Speaker 3: You put up some guardrails, really hoping to see this
• 45:42
  Speaker 3: game in a window like this, really not willing to
• 45:44
  Speaker 3: see that game in a window like this. Let's not
• 45:46
  Speaker 3: give that team a three game road trip. Let's go
• 45:48
  Speaker 3: ahead and try to avoid the Taylor Swift concert in Miami.
• 45:51
  Speaker 3: All of it goes into the big pot and it
• 45:53
  Speaker 3: just churns and churns and churns. Do we see the
• 45:55
  Speaker 3: entire infinite solution space? Probably not. Do we see one
• 45:59
  Speaker 3: tenth of one percent of the solution space? I hope
• 46:01
  Speaker 3: we got through a little bit more of it. Vanilla
• 46:03
  Speaker 3: chock at strawberry pick a winner.
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: Another thing is in November, there's something called the election.
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: I don't know what you could do from a scheduling
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: standpoint to combat or compliment election coverage or whatever happens
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: after the election is decided. Does that have That's what
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna say. How do you even like every four years,
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: does that come up? Or is it just like there
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: was one year where show regardless, there was one year
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: where ESPN and I'm pretty sure it was Mike Turrico
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: it was. It was his idea. He asked, could we
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: get an ESPN Monday Night game in Washington for the election,
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: and then can we I don't want to say, have
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: some fun with it, but could we do something, you know,
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: sense of place and maybe extend halftime by a couple
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: of minutes and do a news hit. Maybe the candidates
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: want to come on and have a little debate during halftime.
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: Look the way this particular election is going to go,
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: and there's no fun in games.
• 47:00
  Speaker 3: There's I don't think we're you know, programming toward it
• 47:04
  Speaker 3: or programming away from it. There's time and I feel
• 47:06
  Speaker 3: like sports is a nice escape from all that kind
• 47:08
  Speaker 3: of stuff. So we were talking a lot about the
• 47:11
  Speaker 3: Monday night before, the Thursday after, or even gonna know
• 47:14
  Speaker 3: the winner duringday night?
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: What is I don't have it. What is the Monday
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: night before? What is it? November?
• 47:19
  Speaker 3: It would be Monday night before. I'm pretty sure it
• 47:21
  Speaker 3: is Kansas City. I think it's Bucks Chiefs, a couple
• 47:23
  Speaker 3: of division winners. And the Thursday after is Cincinnati Baltimore
• 47:26
  Speaker 3: on Thursday night. Kind of running that one back? Is
• 47:29
  Speaker 3: we goin to throw you on like that? Since the
• 47:31
  Speaker 3: Baltimore game last year, she lost Joe Burrow for Amazon,
• 47:34
  Speaker 3: and we lost Joe so it sucked. Look I don't
• 47:38
  Speaker 3: think we can avoid the election. We know it's there.
• 47:40
  Speaker 3: I wonder if maybe people are having a little bit
• 47:42
  Speaker 3: of fatigue and it's not really gonna have the impact
• 47:44
  Speaker 3: on you know, our viewership. The previous election year cycles
• 47:47
  Speaker 3: have had who knows what the world's gonna look like
• 47:50
  Speaker 3: five months from now. But look, the election is gonna happen.
• 47:54
  Speaker 3: The country's gonna stay in business, and we're gonna have
• 47:57
  Speaker 3: somebody in the White House after the election, and there
• 48:00
  Speaker 3: will still be NFL football on television, including on Netflix
• 48:03
  Speaker 3: on Christmas.
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: There you go. My last question. Taylor swift ovisally a
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: major rue, but I'm a Billy Joel guy. Did the
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: Billy Joel Sting Concert Tour play any role on any
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: scheduling things?
• 48:14
  Speaker 3: I'm a huge day there in Vegas. I'm pretty sure,
• 48:17
  Speaker 3: right Vegas. I think we have Vegas on the road
• 48:18
  Speaker 3: that weekend.
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 48:19
  Speaker 3: Look, these venues are you know, expensive and paid often
• 48:25
  Speaker 3: times with taxpayer dollars, and we're using them ten times
• 48:28
  Speaker 3: a year, so there's a lot of days in the
• 48:30
  Speaker 3: year where they need to be available for something else.
• 48:33
  Speaker 3: To their credit, most of the stadium operators try really
• 48:36
  Speaker 3: hard to avoid having you know events in their buildings
• 48:39
  Speaker 3: during our season, not just because it impacts, you know,
• 48:42
  Speaker 3: our scheduling process and the integrity of the NFL schedule,
• 48:45
  Speaker 3: but also because it impacts the team. Right you think
• 48:48
  Speaker 3: about you go to the team and you say, hey,
• 48:51
  Speaker 3: team president, when you submit your form to the league
• 48:54
  Speaker 3: office this year, tell them that your stadium's blocked in
• 48:57
  Speaker 3: weeks fourteen and fifteen. That team president is all but
• 49:01
  Speaker 3: signing up for a three game road trip totally thirteen
• 49:04
  Speaker 3: fourteen fifteen or fourteen fifteen on them, and his head
• 49:07
  Speaker 3: coach is going to kill him. And so you have
• 49:10
  Speaker 3: to be, like we said, a little bit of revenue,
• 49:13
  Speaker 3: a little bit of competitive fairness. You got to be
• 49:15
  Speaker 3: careful about too many stadium blocks because it is going
• 49:19
  Speaker 3: to have an impact on your team's schedule. And then
• 49:21
  Speaker 3: you look at a team like you know, Green Bay
• 49:23
  Speaker 3: who doesn't book anything in their building until after the
• 49:26
  Speaker 3: Packers schedule comes out.
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: That's awesome.
• 49:29
  Speaker 3: I'm not sure it's fair that they should get a
• 49:30
  Speaker 3: three game road trip.
• 49:31
  Speaker 2: Then yeah, we're we're giving the NFL first DIBs. We
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: should be rewarded.
• 49:35
  Speaker 3: Get some giants share a building if they want to
• 49:37
  Speaker 3: block one weekend. That's going to create a weekend somewhere
• 49:40
  Speaker 3: where there is going to be you know, Sunday Monday
• 49:42
  Speaker 3: or Thursday Sunday. And that's a challenge for you know,
• 49:45
  Speaker 3: everybody who works there. So far, with the Chargers and Rams,
• 49:49
  Speaker 3: I think there's a Green Day concert in there week two.
• 49:51
  Speaker 3: So you know that the Rams and Chargers both have
• 49:54
  Speaker 3: to be on the road week two. If you don't
• 49:56
  Speaker 3: get them both home in week one, somebody's starting with
• 49:59
  Speaker 3: a two game road trip. That's what happens when your
• 50:01
  Speaker 3: building gets blocked. So, yes, you have to have these other,
• 50:05
  Speaker 3: you know, revenue rating events in your building, but yes,
• 50:08
  Speaker 3: there's an impact on your football team.
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: I grew up with Billy Joe Tolliver and Billy Joe
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: Robudo Billy Joe Armstrong clubusing problems in the NFL schedule
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: in week two. Interesting, Uh, Mike, you're the man. I
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: love this. I honestly could do this for two hours,
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: and I think we have enough open space on the
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: NFL network where we probably should be doing this for
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: two hours. Man, what are we doing what? Maybe I
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: wasn't planning on it until I heard Green Day is
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: going to be there week two. Now, thanks change for
• 50:36
  Speaker 2: a weekend a month. How about that. I'm out there
• 50:39
  Speaker 2: every weekend for Fox. So I get my I get
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: my packed up.
• 50:42
  Speaker 3: The kids head out. West California is the place you
• 50:45
  Speaker 3: ought to be, buddy. Yes, I've got a laptop and
• 50:47
  Speaker 3: I still get a laptop.
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I signed it, signed a MacBook Pro, Twitter and
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: West Coast, good boarding, football really popular topics in my
• 50:57
  Speaker 2: household these days. On that Uh Mike all.
• 51:00
  Speaker 3: Good to see you, buddy. And look, you know what
• 51:02
  Speaker 3: we talk about this in May. Season doesn't even start
• 51:05
  Speaker 3: for a few months. It's like once the season starts,
• 51:08
  Speaker 3: we should talk again in like October, like weekend. We'd
• 51:11
  Speaker 3: love to what did we do that worked? What are
• 51:13
  Speaker 3: we looking at coming ahead? That you know fans should
• 51:15
  Speaker 3: be nimble? That's a candidate for flex Or how about
• 51:18
  Speaker 3: this team coming out of nowhere? God forbid, there's a
• 51:20
  Speaker 3: quarterback injury. Happy to come on and do this again
• 51:23
  Speaker 3: and kind of give everybody a sense of what just
• 51:25
  Speaker 3: happened and what's coming up.
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: If you want. I love it's an annual tradition that
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: I really do cherish and I so appreciate your time.
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: Fifty minutes on the NFL schedule and I could do
• 51:34
  Speaker 2: two hours. But Mike, oh, all day, buddy. Go pour
• 51:37
  Speaker 2: yourself a coffee or bourbon, whatever you do to celebrate.
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: You did an excellent job as always, and ignore those
• 51:42
  Speaker 2: calls of what'd you say, the parade of terribles that
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: I love that term. Ignore them because you did a
• 51:48
  Speaker 2: wonderful job and you deserve a pat in the back
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: and share that with your whole team.
• 51:51
  Speaker 3: And the team is outstanding. We're really lucky. We talked
• 51:53
  Speaker 3: a little bit about AI and mL those things are coming.
• 51:56
  Speaker 3: We're going to need some, you know, really smart people
• 51:58
  Speaker 3: helping solve a really hard math problem. But you're right,
• 52:01
  Speaker 3: it's still about the humans. It's still about those players
• 52:03
  Speaker 3: playing the game. It's still about us fans watching on television.
• 52:06
  Speaker 2: You said it best, you said it way back. You
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: said Howard Katz said it's an art and a science.
• 52:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, art science, and don't lose the art a little
• 52:14
  Speaker 3: bit more towards the science than the art.
• 52:15
  Speaker 2: Don't lose the art.
• 52:16
  Speaker 3: But don't ever want to give up on a guy
• 52:18
  Speaker 3: like Howard Katz or Hans Schroeder or Annie Bo's like,
• 52:21
  Speaker 3: what they think and what they know is real, and
• 52:23
  Speaker 3: we shouldn't just dismiss that and just always trust the
• 52:26
  Speaker 3: hardware and the software. There's there's got to be room
• 52:28
  Speaker 3: for a human element in here. It's human beings playing
• 52:31
  Speaker 3: the game, coaching the game, calling the games, officiating the games.
• 52:34
  Speaker 3: It's it's part of why we love sports and don't
• 52:36
  Speaker 3: ever want to lose that human touch.
• 52:38
  Speaker 2: If we can. All Right, you're the best. Thank you.
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: Good to seeing my friend take care. All Right, that
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: was awesome. Thanks for listening. If you're in the weeds
• 52:48
  Speaker 2: like I am, that is just candy. It's so good.
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: We're gonna do a lot of stuff this offseason. Obviously,
• 52:53
  Speaker 2: we're going to interview coaches and gms like we do
• 52:56
  Speaker 2: every off season, and I'll give you my thoughts on
• 52:59
  Speaker 2: all the NFL things that are happening. But also I
• 53:04
  Speaker 2: think it's really interesting to to hit New York City,
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: which is in the middle of a NIS and Rangers run,
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: which over the next few weeks might extend. Will continue
• 53:14
  Speaker 2: to keep talking about that, So appreciate everyone listening on
• 53:17
  Speaker 2: behalf of Aaron Wan Kaufman, Jason English, the entire iHeart
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: team than everyone with the NFL media side scheduling talk.
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: That was great. Thanks for listening until next week.
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: The Season with Peter Schrager is a production of the
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts.