As you’ve probably heard, the NFL owners have officially locked out the players in what could be the first lost football season in more than twenty-five years. Basically, a lockout is when a business, in this case the National Football League, ceases operations after a collective bargaining agreement has ended. Until an agreement is reached, all players are barred from team facilities, no longer have healthcare and for all intensive purposes, cannot communicate with their former employers. In response, the NFL Players’ Union has decertified and more than ten big names have filed lawsuits in federal court including Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. Right now, this means very little for the television networks but should this lockout extend much longer, it will start costing everyone a whole lot of money. Here’s why...
Not only is the Super Bowl the highest rated show every single year, the playoff and regular season games are cash cows unto themselves. They generate big sponsorship dollars but perhaps more importantly, serve as venues for networks to advertise their original programming. Think about it. How many times a game does Fox remind you The Simpsons and Family Guy are on later in the evening? How many times do you find out about new shows simply because the network shows a trailer during a timeout? NFL games are perhaps the preeminent source for spreading television-related news to men; without it, it will become infinitely harder to get word out.
Beyond that, advertisers often start booking cushy slots months in advance, and other programs begin negotiating lucrative tie-ins. For example: Fox routinely has one of the American Idols perform during the intermissions during playoff games and the studios frequently bring in stars of popular television shows to do publicity segments during the studio analysis. The NFL is so much bigger than even the massive ratings indicate, and the longer the lockout goes on, the more creative networks will have to begin getting to market their products. And that’s to say nothing of the lost hours of programming. Football takes up dozens of hours of programming across five networks each week during the season. No one will be able to fill that time with anything that attracts even one-third as many viewers.
The National Football League generates more than nine billion dollars in revenue every year. That’s more than most countries, but with all this uncertainty, sponsors are already holding back on re-upping with both the NFL and various television networks. Football will come back at some point, but if it takes too long, it may come back with less money and less fan support. We need football, the networks need football. For the love of God, please give us football this year.
