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The NFL鈥檚 shift to streaming reflects a broader move away from traditional cable, yet latency issues could hinder real-time engagement and sports betting. The final word: Super Bowl LIX showcased the changing nature of live sports broadcasting, advertising, and viewership habits.

The details: Amazon plans to spend $7.2 billion on servers, fiber-optic cable, and tech infrastructure for the Mississippi project, per state planning documents. The company estimated the investment would add some $3.3 billion to the state鈥檚 gross domestic product and create 1,000 jobs by 2027. However, documents show that two-thirds of those jobs will be contractor roles without company benefits.

So in this case, traditional pay TV, which we could just call cable TV. People have been bailing on cable TV for a long time. That is not my big surprise revelation today.

TV will claim just 15.1% of all US ad spending this year, though US adults will spend almost a quarter of their daily media time with old-fashioned cable, satellite, and broadcast TV services. The ad industry鈥檚 disproportionate disregard for TV is the reverse of its too-slow embrace of CTV. Click here for the full forecasts for US time spent with TV and US TV ad spending.

Sports programming will become an increasingly vital revenue stream for NBC as parent company Comcast plans to separate the broadcast network from its cable channels. The network's strategy of combining star athletes with entertainment personalities is likely a first step of many to come in touting its substantial rights investment鈥攂ut there could be hurdles effective monetization.

The news: Apple TV+ is offering a free preview of the streaming service this coming weekend, leveraging traditional cable marketing tactics to boost subscribers ahead of the 鈥淪everance鈥� Season 2 premiere, as the platform seeks to expand its 0.2% share of TV viewership. The strategy mirrors legacy cable networks鈥� 鈥渇ree weekend鈥� promotions but with a digital-first approach.

As recently as 2018, the vast majority of US households had both a CTV device and a traditional pay TV subscription (cable, satellite, or telecom). Since then, traditional pay TV has declined precipitously, while CTV has climbed steadily. Digital pay TV viewership has also ascended in recent years, but nearly everyone in that cohort of households will be watching via a CTV device as well.

Our take: Operating nuclear sites鈥攊n addition to building subsea cable infrastructure鈥攃ould add 鈥渆nergy provider鈥� to these Big Tech giants鈥� business descriptions. Regulators are already scrutinizing how Google, Meta and others dominate their current fields, and these moves could draw further regulatory attention.

Traditional pay TV services include cable, satellite, telecom and fiber operators, multiple system operators (MSOs), multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs), and major TV broadcast and cable networks. Virtual multichannel video programming distributors (vMVPDs) are internet-delivered live TV services (e.g., Hulu + Live TV, Sling TV, YouTube TV).

The company took a $9.1 billion writedown on cable networks in August after losing critical NBA rights to Amazon Prime Video.

As more viewers abandon pay TV, networks have raised carriage fees to limit financial losses, which drives up cable bills. And that leads more people to cut the cord in a brutal cycle. Because obtaining rights for TV packages has become more expensive, traditional pay TV providers are pivoting their businesses away from TV and toward more profitable broadband services.

In Q2 2024, cable and broadcast linear TV accounted for nearly 90% of the time viewers spent watching ads on TV screens, according to ESHAP鈥檚 analysis of Comscore data. That鈥檚 due to the higher ad loads there and the commonality of ad-free streaming. Ad load estimates for linear TV vary, but generally the average is about 15 minutes of ads per hour.

Yeah, I mean cable TV is too expensive, so we've had cord cutting for years. Digital pay TV we thought maybe was going to be competitive. Now that's too expensive. These things are free, and they're just sitting there waiting for you, right? Everyone has a CTV. Zach Goldner (16:34):. No signups. Ethan Cramer-Flood (16:35):. No signups. It's just there for-. Zach Goldner (16:37):. No paywalls.

Put another way, 11% of people's TV time, cable streaming, all of it, is spent watching YouTube. Evelyn, you said there's a bit of a milestone announced by YouTube as it pertains to TV versus mobile. Evelyn Mitchell-Wolf:. Oh, yes. Yeah. Neal Mohan just announced that TV now is the primary device from which YouTube watchers watch YouTube.

College football is also seeing a boost across broadcast and cable networks, with 30-second spots 12% more expensive this year. As Americans prepare for their traditional Thanksgiving football festivities, advertisers are making history with unprecedented investments in holiday sports programming.

While competitors like Comcast consider spinning off cable assets, Murdoch confirmed Fox has no such plans. That鈥檚 because political and live-event programming continue to drive cable revenues, distinguishing Fox from peers facing more significant cord-cutting pressures.