NEW YORK—Fox Television Stations has named Robert Lydick senior vice president of engineering, operations and technology for Fox Television Stations.

Lydick will report directly to FTS CEO Jack Abernethy and oversee all engineering, operations, and technology functions for the station group.

Lydick assumes his new role July 13, succeeding Tim Joyce, who retired at the end of June.

“Robert has been a key player at Tegna for over a decade and is a great fit for this role,“ Abernathy said. æHe has tremendous knowledge of our core stations business and a deep understanding of how to manage engineering and technology operations. He is a terrific addition to an already strong FTS bench of executives.”

Lydick was an engineering, technology and operations executive with station group Tegna for 15 yeears, most recently as VP of station operations and technology.

Before that, he was VP of information technology and station operations, overseeing day-to-day station operations, enterprise IT, cybersecurity and special projects. Before his coroprate roles, he was regional head of technology for Tegna stations KSDK St. Louis and KARE-TV Minneapolis.

Lydick began his media career more than 24 years ago at USA Today (then Gannett) where he held the positions of information analyst, project and planning analyst, and project and planning manager. A graduate of the University of Lynchburg, he holds a bachelor’s in business administration.

“Joining the Fox Television Stations is an exciting opportunity,” Lydick said. “I'm looking forward to working with an amazing team on some of local journalism's biggest technical challenges. I'm humbled to be in the role and can't wait to get started.”

Joyce was senior vice president of engineering, operations, and technology for FTS since January. Before that, he was senior vice president of media and broadcast engineering for Fox Corp. for nearly three ears.

Previously, Joyce served as the senior vice president of technology business relations for Fox Networks Group in Los Angeles, and before that, as vice president of broadcast operations for Fox Networks Group in Europe and Africa. He spent 6 years as vice president of operations and production services for National Geographic Channels International. Joyce began his career as a senior editor for Fox Latin American Channels. A graduate of the University of Southern California, he holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations and Spanish.

“Tim is an incredibly talented executive with experience across multiple roles and has been a vital part of transforming and advancing our engineering and technology systems," Abernethy said. "His intelligence, energy, and leadership skills have impressed me since his first day here and we wish him all the best on a well-deserved retirement even as we regret seeing him go.”

Added Joyce: “After 27 years at Fox—from Fox Latin American Channels to National Geographic, Fox International Channels Europe, Fox Tech, and Fox Television Stations—I've learned that while companies evolve and technology changes, it's the people who make the journey unforgettable. Thank you for being the best part of mine.”

FTS owns and operates 29 full-power U.S. television stations, including outlets in nine of the 10 largest DMAs and duopolies in 11 markets, including the top-3 DMAs of New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

DALLAS—In the wake of the news that Fox plans to pay $22 billion to acquire Roku, a new survey from Horowitz Research highlights how important streaming platforms have become in the connected TV ecosystem and reaffirms Roku's position as the most commonly used streaming platform among U.S. consumers.

According to "Horowitz Research’s State of Media, Entertainment, and Tech: State of Subscription’s 2026" report, nearly four in ten U.S. streaming platform users choose Roku to stream content, outpacing top competitors Amazon Fire TV and Samsung’s Smart Hub interfaces, each of which are used by almost one in three streamers.

While Roku leads in penetration and usage, the study also shows that consumers rate competing platforms more favorably across key experience measures.

For example, Amazon Fire TV outranks Roku on ease of finding content within the platform as well as lagging time, the ability to cast to screens, and the ad experience. Samsung outperforms on Wi-Fi connectivity and reliability. Both these systems outrank Roku on start-up speed and smart home integration.

While Google TV and Apple TV have less penetration within streaming households, both platforms fare better on key attributes compared to Roku.

“Roku’s acquisition by Fox is a strategic move designed to deliver younger viewers to the aging Fox demographic,” noted Adriana Waterston, executive vice president of insights and strategy for Horowitz Research. “But as the market for smart TV’s continues to evolve, we anticipate that consumers will increasingly choose their smart TV interfaces scrupulously, much like they do with their mobile devices. To continue to dominate the market, Roku will need to look not just as driving penetration but finessing their interface to meet the demands of Gen Z and younger consumers who will expect a robust, highly personalized, and tech-forward user experience.”

The study also found that “Roku’s new Ad Manager, which will enable smaller businesses to leverage hyper-local TV ads, is exciting because it democratizes access to CTV advertising for local and emerging brands,” she added. “However, it runs the risk of over-saturating the Roku viewing experience with repetitive, lower quality ads which could further alienate the younger audience that already has low tolerance for advertising.”

For more information about the "State of Media, Entertainment & Tech: Subscriptions 2026" report, visit: https://www.horowitzresearch.com/syndicated-research/state-of-media-subscriptions/.

Fox Sports is reporting record viewing for early matches in the FIFA World Cup 2026, with 15,986,000 people watching the U.S. men’s national team beat Paraguay 4-1 across Fox, Fox One and Tubi on Friday June 12.

That made it the most watched USMNT FIFA World Cup English-language telecast in U.S. history, Fox reported, beating out the 7,763,000 people who watched USMNT playing Wales on November 21, 2022.

The 2026 match audience peaked at 18,860,000 viewers at 10:45-11 p.m. ET.

It was also the most streamed English language USMNT match on record, with 1,130,000 people viewing it on Tubi.

Fox also said Mexico beating South Africa 2-0 was the most watched opening English-language FIFA World Cup telecast in U.S. history with 6,309,000 viewers. The match peaked at 8,014,000 viewers.

NEW YORK and SAN JOSE, Calif.—Fox Corp. announced today that it is acquiring Roku, the world’s leading connected TV platform in a cash and stock transaction valued at approximately $22 billion ($160 per share).

The acquisition will give Fox a strong foothold in what is considered the fastest growing segment in the TV advertising market, connected TV (aka “CTV”) and free ad-support TV (aka "FAST"), and an expanding market for its live news and sports programming, according to Lachlan K. Murdoch, Executive Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Fox Corp.

The deal, if approved, would give Fox a stronger platform for its Fox One direct to consumer streaming services launched in 2025 and a unique position among media companies—owning a major broadcast network, one of the largest FAST services (Tubi), a leading TV OS, a premiere CTV platform and a leading streaming service (The Roku Channel).

Bringing all of those platforms together in a combined media ecosystem will bring the company closer to offering advertisers a more holistic approach to media programming, distribution and monetization for both live/linear and streaming/on-demand services.

“This is a defining moment for Fox, and a natural extension of the deliberate and focused strategy we have been executing for nearly a decade,” he said. “In 2019, we reoriented the company around live news and sports. In 2020, we acquired Tubi, and under our stewardship it has become one of the most successful businesses in streaming. Today, we take the next step: bringing together the most valuable live content portfolio in video consumption with the preeminent streaming platform through which America watches it.”

The transaction combines Fox’s sports, news, and entertainment content and the Tubi service with Roku’s leading connected TV platform, The Roku Channel, first-party data and direct relationship with more than 100 million global streaming households. Fox said its acquisition of Roku “will create a scaled next-generation media and technology company positioned at the intersection of two of the most important forces reshaping video consumption: the enduring primacy of live sports and news, and the continued rise of streaming.”

Roku Founder, Chairman and CEO Anthony Wood will join the combined company and its board.

“I’m incredibly proud of what our team has built, and the combination with Fox is an extraordinary opportunity to accelerate our vision, scale faster, and innovate more aggressively for viewers, partners, and advertisers,” Wood said. “That’s why our Board of Directors unanimously determined after concluding its strategic review process that this transaction offers a significant premium to Roku shareholders while also providing them with the opportunity to participate in the compelling future upside of the combined company. I couldn’t be more excited about what we’ll accomplish together.”

Fox and Roku said they are “committed to continuing to operate Roku as an open, partner-friendly platform and to the continued ubiquitous distribution of Fox content.”

In its investor call this morning, Murdoch emphasized the importance of maintaining Roku’s extensive partnerships with competitors such as Netflix, Amazon or Disney.

“It is essential that Roku remain an open and partner-friendly business,” he said. “We're in a business that we have tremendous partners who really rely on Roku for a lot of their distribution, and we don't see that changing at all from a Fox perspective.

Wood added that “Roku has a very large platform business [that] consists of advertising and subscriptions. A lot of that business is driven by promotion of our partners, and our goal is to grow that business. It's not for that business to retreat, so we're going to continue to grow that business. That means that means working closely with partners to do that."

On a pro forma basis, the combined company will become the third-largest player in U.S. TV by share of viewing, spanning “every major viewing environment—broadcast, cable, local, and streaming – creating broad and diversified reach that benefits viewers, partners, and advertisers.”

Upon closing, existing Fox shareholders are expected to own approximately 73% of the combined company and Roku shareholders approximately 27%. The transaction has been unanimously approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies. The transaction is expected to strengthen Fox's long-term growth profile, accelerate its digital strategy, be accretive to free cash flow per share by the second full year after closing, and achieve approximately $400 million of run-rate cost synergies with additional revenue upside.

Fox expects to fund the cash portion of the transaction consideration with a combination of new debt and cash on hand. Fox has obtained $12.0 billion of fully committed bridge financing from Morgan Stanley Senior Funding, Inc. At closing, the company expects pro forma net leverage to be approximately 2.8x, inclusive of 50% credit for run-rate cost synergies. Additional detail on financing terms will be included in the companies' required filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Associations representing ABC, CBS, FBC and NBC have filed reply comments with the Federal Communications Commission arguing that the ongoing shift of major sporting rights from broadcast to streaming service is not in the “public interest” because it is forcing consumers to sign up for expensive streaming services and threatens the economy viability of the local TV stations who use the profits from sports to fund local news.

The filing also laid out a series of policy recommendations that would preserve major sports on broadcast TV. Those include: ending station ownership caps, speeding up the transition to NextGen TV/ATSC 3.0, changing the rules on how retrans fees are negotiated with vMVPDs, and giving local stations more power to preempt network programming so they can air local sports and ensuring that

Changing rules regarding station ownership caps and the ATSC 3.0 transition were also major policy recommendations made by the NAB and other broadcasters.

“[W]hile live sports have never been so critical to local broadcasting, the Public Notice comes at a time when the continued availability of marquee national live professional and collegiate sporting events on local broadcast television faces unprecedented uncertainty,” the associations stressed in their filing. “The Affiliates Associations echo NAB’s observation that Internet streaming of sports content threatens to completely upend the system of local sports distribution that has served America so well. The increasing placement of major sports programming behind paywalls on multiple different streaming platforms, including those owned by the Big 4 Networks themselves, threatens to further fragment audiences while forcing consumers to spend more and more just to watch what used to be and should remain free. Sporting events can’t unify Americans if the cost of watching them turns us into a nation of haves and have-nots. And those sporting events locked up behind paywalls won’t help fund local television service because, quite simply, none of the streaming platforms is required to operate in the public interest and none provide any local service to any local communities.”

Like the NAB, the affiliates also blasted the Consumer Technology Association and others who argued the rise of sports on streaming media has given consumers more choice and that the FCC does not have the authority to dictate where those sports air.

“in 2025, NFL games appeared on 10 different paywalled platforms, and the cost of the subscriptions necessary to watch every NFL game approached $1,500,” the affiliates contented. “These developments threaten to get worse because streaming platforms owned by Google/Alphabet, Amazon, Netflix, Apple, and the like have nearly limitless budgets and face no regulations that would check their growth. Indeed, they are already increasingly outbidding Big 4 Networks for major sports rights and cutting local broadcasting out of the picture entirely.”

“When the Big 4 Networks are forced to outbid streaming platforms for sports rights, those Networks inevitably pass those costs on to their Affiliates in the form of spiraling and unsustainable affiliation fees,” the filing said. “Since these affiliation fees grow more quickly than local station revenue, local Affiliates have no choice but to cut costs and reduce local service. Marquee sporting events must remain on local broadcast television to sustain important, but costly, local news operations, but the more sports rights cost and the higher affiliation fees rise, the less local news and fewer jobs will remain.”

“The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) and the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) argue that this is nothing more than the marketplace providing more and better choices to consumers and that the Commission is powerless to step in,” the affiliates complained. “Consumers know better, which is why thousands of individuals have filed comments in this proceeding urging the Commission to take action to help keep national sports programming on local broadcast television. The Commission should reject the arrogant and simplistic `free market’ rhetoric of CCIA and CTA. Despite the claims of CCIA and CTA that all of this `competition’ among streaming platforms will increase choice and lower prices, the reality is that consumers always end up paying more for less, and they’re sick of this same old song and dance.”

The filing did highlight the fact that the decline of pay TV and regional sports networks has allowed local stations to successfully acquire sports rights in recent years. “Even here, however, there are hurdles to local stations acquiring local sports rights,” the affiliate reported. “In particular, Big 4 Network preemption policies can make it impossible for stations to air more than a handful of games of local sports programming on their main channels, forcing them to instead broadcast that programming on multicast channels or commonly owned independent channels.0 These alternate channels are carried less frequently by traditional MVPDs and even less frequently by virtual MVPDs. The combination of Network preemption

policies and vMVPDs’ refusal to negotiate directly with local television stations significantly complicates local stations’ efforts to acquire sports programming on local broadcast stations.”

“The Commission must recognize that additional steps must be taken in order to preserve – and grow – sports on local television stations while at the same time helping ensure stations are financially healthy enough to afford that programming and are positioned to acquire that programming when certain rights become available,” the affiliates stressed in one of their major policy recommendations.

“That requires the Commission to address two pressing issues that the Affiliates Associations’ members face every day," they said. "First, the Commission should ensure that local television stations, including Network Affiliates, have the right to negotiate for local sports programming without third-party interference. In support of this right, the Commission should make clear that local stations’ preemption rights under the Commission’s rules extend to preempting Network programming for local and regional sports content. Existing rules require that broadcasters must have the right to preempt Network programming in favor of programming that a licensee deems, in its mandate to serve the local community, of greater importance to its local community than Network programming. The Commission should clarify unequivocally that this right applies when a local station rejects Network programming in favor of airing local and regional sports programming. This step will allow local broadcasters to compete for local sports rights without the fear that doing so could negatively impact their relationship with their affiliated Networks.”

The full filing is available here.

The 8,600 plus filings received by the FCC in it "Sports Broadcasting Practices and Marketplace Developments" proceeding (Docket 26-45) is available here.

NEW YORK—The world’s largest prediction market Kalshi and Fox Corporation have announced a major deal that will see Kalshi’s data and forecasts integrated across Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, Fox Weather and the Fox One platform.

"Prediction markets have quickly become an essential data point and a compelling new experience across our live content portfolio," said Paul Cheesbrough, CEO, Tubi Media Group. "By integrating Kalshi's real-time data into our fast-growing streaming platform Fox One and across Fox News Media's leading networks, we're giving audiences both deeper insights and a more engaging way to follow the stories that matter most."

In announcing the deal, Fox stressed that prediction markets create data that can complement polling and expert opinion. Kalshi data has been adopted by newsrooms to provide nonpartisan data on the likelihood of current events across politics, economics, and culture. Institutions like the Federal Reserve have also adopted Kalshi data, calling it “valuable to researchers and policymakers.”

Trading on data from prediction markets has, however, proved to be controversial in cases where people have used prediction markets to bet on such issues as the possibility of a war. This has prompted reporting from The New York Times and others about the possible abuse of inside information to profit from bets on upcoming events or trends.

Kalsi noted that millions of people come to Kalshi each month, primarily to see the forecasts. Roughly 70% of people who visit Kalshi use the site to check market odds, while about 30% of people use it to trade. By providing another data point to supplement reporting, Kalshi said it is quickly becoming an additional way for people to understand and follow current events.

As part of this sponsored integration, relevant Kalshi data will be incorporated into Fox’s linear and digital content. Kalshi will also work directly with Fox data and production teams to provide real-time data access for seamless data visualization around key political, economic, weather and cultural storylines.

“More people are watching Kalshi’s forecasts than trading them, which says a lot: our data effectively complements news and polls,” said Tarek Mansour, co-founder and CEO of Kalshi. “As misinformation grows more common, Kalshi offers accurate, unbiased data to help people better understand what’s going on in the world.”

SAN FRANCISCO—Ad-supported streaming service Tubi next week will launch Matter Casting, a new casting standard that will enable seamless mobile-to-TV viewing directly from iOS and Android devices to Fire TV with no need to install a separate application.

Tubi says it is the first streaming platform to automatically trigger app download and launch on Fire TV via Matter Casting, a new standard developed by the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) and championed by Amazon.

With Matter Casting, users can launch and control Tubi on Fire TV directly from their mobile device to the living room TV without needing to initiate downloads, sign-ins or setup. Matter Casting automatically handles these processes. The Tubi launch of Matter Casting reflects the streamer’s commitment to enabling effortless entertainment and giving viewers a cross-platform experience that lets them to discover more than 300,000 on-demand movies and TV episodes, it said.

“In a world where content proliferates and entertainment lovers want to jump into a movie or TV show as quickly as possible, an experience that is hyper-personalized to your taste and effortless to get into is paramount,” Deirdre Hesseldieck, senior vice president of Product, Viewer Experience at Tubi. “With Matter Casting, we’re simplifying connected viewing by removing setup friction and enabling instant access to content.”

Matter Casting handles automatic app installation, secure sign-in, and real-time playback control, creating an over-the-top experience, not a temporary screen mirror. Tubi’s launch will be available globally by the end of December on select Fire TV devices, such as Fire TV Stick 4K Max, Fire TV Omni QLED Series, Fire TV Omni Mini-LED and Fire TV Cube (3rd Gen).

Tubi is part of Tubi Media Group, a division of Fox.

More information is available on the company’s website.

NEW YORK—“Pass the turkey.” “Pass the stuffing.” “Pass the cranberry sauce.” All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and friends.

This year—like most in recent memory—another familiar plea was surely heard around millions of TVs across the country: “Pass the football!”

Nielsen is out today with its ratings for the week of Nov. 24-30, which includes Nov. 27, Thanksgiving Day, and NFL broadcast coverage put up big viewing numbers.

CBS coverage of the Kansas City Chiefs-Dallas Cowboys Thanksgiving game was the most-watched NFL regular-season telecast in league history with 57.23 million viewers, Nielsen said.

Fox’s coverage of the early Green Bay Packers-Detroit Lions game, simulcast on Tubi, garnered 47.7 million viewers, making it Fox’s most-watched regular-season game ever, it said.

NBC’s Thanksgiving Cincinnati Bengals-Baltimore Ravens game, simulcast on Peacock and Telemundo, saw 28.4 million viewers tune in, making it the most-watched Thanksgiving-night NFL game in league history, Nielsen said.

The following day, an average of 16.33 million viewers streamed the Chicago Bears-Philadelphia Eagles game on Prime Video, making it the most-watched Black Friday Football game to date, Nielsen said.

In all, NFL games secured eight of the top 12 slots across networks and distributors, including Fox, NBC, CBS, Prime Video, ABC, ESPN and ESPN2.

College sports also proved to be popular, with Fox’s Ohio State-Michigan game telecast averaging 18.42 million viewers, the biggest college football audience this season, it said.

College hoops broke viewing records on Thanksgiving Day as well. Duke-Arkansas on CBS was the most-watched regular-season college basketball game on any network since the 1992-93, season with 6.8 million viewers.

Michigan-North Carolina was the most-watched college basketball game in Fox history, with 6.5 million viewers, it said.

Overall, college football occupied 12 of the top 25 slots across five different networks, including three games with more than 10 million viewers, Nielsen said.

ESPN coverage of the Minnesota Timberwolves-Oklahoma City Thunder NBA game placed No. 24 in the top 25, and the 2025 National Dog Show on NBC and Peacock averaged 12.8 million viewers to take the No. 11 slot.

NEW YORK—Fox Sports said its coverage of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ win over the Toronto Blue Jays in the decisive Game 7 of the 2025 World Series delivered 27,330,000 viewers across Fox, Fox Deportes and Fox Sports streaming platforms. That ranked it as the most-watched World Series game since 2017’s Game 7, which pulled in 29,069,000 viewers, according to Nielsen data.

On Fox, the 11-inning Fall Classic conclusion delivered an average audience of 26,882,000 viewers and peaked at 33,064,000 from 11:45 p.m. to midnight ET. Fox said the number is up 16% over the most recent World Series Game 7 in 2019 and ranks as Fox’s most-watched Saturday primetime telecast since Jan. 18.

TV Tech's coverage of the new technologies that Fox Sports used to produce the games is available here.

Through seven games on Fox, the 121st World Series delivered an average of 15,709,000 viewers—the best complete average for a World Series since 2017 (18,926,000 viewers) and up 2% over last year’s average for five games (15,336,000 viewers), Fox said.

In addition, the complete 2025 MLB postseason on Fox, FS1 and FS2 averaged 8,088,000 viewers, up 8% over last year’s average (7,520,000) and Fox Sports’ best postseason since 2017.

On Fox, Game 7 drew a 22.2/62 rating in Los Angeles, peaking at 26.5/66 from 12:15-12:30 a.m. ET.

Top local markets for the entire World Series included:

• Los Angeles 17.6/53
• San Diego 10.9/40
• Seattle 9.6/37
• St. Louis 9.2/26
• Milwaukee 9.2/27
• Las Vegas 9.1/32
• Portland, Ore. 9.1/34
• Buffalo, N.Y. 8.9/24
• Sacramento, Calif. 8.9/31
• Minneapolis 8.7/27

Fox Sports’ digital platforms and streaming services recorded record levels throughout the 2025 World Series. Game 7 was the most-viewed World Series game in Fox Sports history, with a total average minute audience (AMA) of 752,731. Fox Sports delivered 1.3 billion views for the World Series across @MLBonFox social media channels, up 96% from 2024 (664 million).

In addition, Fox Deportes’ coverage of Game 7 averaged 448,000 viewers—the most-watched Game 7 on Spanish-language television since 2019 (613,000 viewers for Nationals-Astros).

Separately, Major League Baseball said Game 7 of the 2025 World Series averaged 51.0 million viewers combined across the U.S., Canada, and Japan, making the 11-inning contest the most-watched MLB game in 34 years, going back to Game 7 of the 1991 World Series.

ATLANTA—Local Now, Allen Media Group’s free streaming service, will add five channels from Fox to its growing lineup. The new offerings are Fox Sports, Fox Weather, LiveNOW From Fox, Fox Soul and TMZ.

“Local Now is committed to bringing the audience what they want," Byron Allen, founder/chairman and CEO of Allen Media Group, said. "Local Now continues to be the go-to destination for free news, weather, sports and entertainment across America.”

Local Now provides localized news, weather, sports, traffic and entertainment, produced by various news organizations in more than 220 U.S. markets.

It also offers more than 400 free-streaming channels, including a Local Now channel in every DMA in the country, and 20,000 movies, TV shows, and documentaries.

AMG described the Fox channels being added to Local Now’s streaming platform as follows:

• Fox Sports: A curated selection of top FS1 studio shows, compelling documentaries and captivating podcasts covering today’s most relevant sports topics.
• Fox Weather: Your home for 24/7 weather news, with the latest forecasts and continuous weather coverage when it matters most.
• LiveNOW from Fox: A nonstop stream of breaking news, live events and stories from across the nation. Limited commentary. No opinion.
• Fox Soul: Explores Black culture, entertainment, and conversations.
• TMZ: Keeps fans up to date on the latest in celebrity and entertainment news.

The Local Now app is available on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Xfinity, Vizio, Samsung, Android and IOS devices.

NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES—Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, Fox Weather, Fox Sports, FS1, FS2, Fox Deportes, Big Ten Network, the Fox network and all Fox local stations.

On Monday, YouTube TV told subscribers that it might have to remove Fox media channels from its lineup by 5 p.m. ET on Wednesday if the two didn't reach a carriage agreement. Wednesday night, the two parties said they had reached a “short-term” agreement to keep Fox stations on the streaming service.

Separately, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr had urged the two parties to resolve their differences before the weekend's big game between Texas and Ohio State. “Get the deal done, Google!” he posted on X.

Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

“We’re happy to share that we’ve reached an agreement with Fox to keep their content on YouTube TV, preserve the value of our service for our subscribers and offer more flexibility in the future,” YouTube TV said in a statement. “This means that Fox channels, including the Fox Broadcast Network, Fox News, and Fox Sports, remain available for our subscribers along with 100-plus channels and football fans will not miss any of the action this weekend.”

Fox and YouTube TV have agreed to a "short-term" extension in their carriage talks as they try to replace the existing agreement that expired on August 27 at 5 pm ET.

The two companies did not say how long of an extension they had agreed to. Such disputes right before the start of football season have become increasingly common in recent years.

"We have reached a short-term extension with Fox to prevent disruption to YouTube TV subscribers as we continue to work on a new agreement," YouTube TV reported in a blog. "We are committed to advocating on behalf of our subscribers as we work toward a fair deal and will keep you updated on our progress."

Separately, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr urged the two parties to resolve their differences before the weekend's big game between Texas and Ohio State. "Get the deal done Google!" he posted on X.

With the start of another football season, a new carriage dispute has arisen.

This time it’s Fox, which has been unable to renew a new content partnership with YouTube TV. In an email sent to subscribers on Monday, the virtual multichannel video programming distributor (vMVPD) said: “[I]f we are unable to reach an agreement with Fox by 5 PM ET on August 27, 2025, their content may become unavailable. If this happens, this will impact channels like the Fox Broadcast Network, Fox News, and Fox Sports, as well as any Library recordings you have from these channels.”

YouTube said it hopes to reach a mutual agreement “without passing on additional costs to our subscribers.” It also said it will give a $10 credit to subscribers if Fox’s content becomes unavailable “for an extended period of time.”

Fox has launched a “keepfox.com” website designed to keep viewers updated and issued the following statement:

“While Fox remains committed to reaching a fair agreement with Google’s YouTube TV, we are disappointed that Google continually exploits its outsized influence by proposing terms that are out of step with the marketplace,“ Fox said. ”We are alerting FOX viewers who are YouTube TV subscribers that they could lose access to much of their favorite news, sports, entertainment and local station programming unless Google engages in a meaningful way soon.”

As the costs of sports rights continue to soar, the networks are using the popularity of football as a cudgel against pay-TV providers who are also losing viewers to cord-cutting. TV carriage disputes have become fairly common during the late summer, early fall time period, during the beginning of the NFL and college football seasons; in 2023, Charter Communications and Dish settled their disputes with Disney at the beginning of the season; Nexstar Media Group and Verizon Communications had a similar conflict in 2022.

As of the beginning of 2025, YouTube TV was estimated to have 9.4 million subscribers, making it the fourth-largest U.S. pay-TV provider after Charter, Comcast and DirecTV. ‌

NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES—Fox Corporation has officially launched Fox One, a new streaming service that brings together the full portfolio of Fox's sports, news and entertainment live and on demand content from the full portfolio of Fox brands, including Fox News Channel, Fox Sports, the Fox Network, B1G, Fox Business, Fox Weather, FS1, FS2, Fox Deportes, Fox Local Stations and Fox Nation.

The service is priced at $19.99/month with a 7-day free trial or $199.99/year, with the option to add-on B1G+ or bundle Fox Nation. Starting October 2, customers will also have the opportunity to bundle Fox One with ESPN DTC Unlimited for $39.99/month.

The Fox One launch coupled with the August 21 launch of ESPN’s direct-to-consumer app could have a major impact on the pay TV ecosystem, which has long relied on high profile sporting events to drive subscriptions.

Both Fox and ESPN have, however, argued that the new services are designed to serve the 65+ million U.S. households that live outside the cable bundle.

"We are excited to get Fox One in the hands of viewers today, and bring our leading News, Sports and Entertainment programming to fans who have been underserved in the streaming ecosystem to date," said Pete Distad, CEO, Direct to Consumer, Fox Corporation. "In my time here, I have come to appreciate that Fox is as ambitious and entrepreneurial a tech company as it is a media company. The team has worked tirelessly to bring all of our live programming together with our emerging technology into the new Fox One platform in a very short period of time...and we are just getting started. Fox One will continue to rapidly evolve in the weeks and months ahead to seek to not only meet, but exceed our customers' expectations for a premium and personalized viewing experience in an AI-powered world."

In launching the new service, Fox touted its streaming technologies, which allowed the live-stream presentation of Super Bowl LIX on Tubi to reach 15.5 million peak concurrent viewers and 24 million unique viewers, and stressed that Fox One builds on that technological achievement and momentum with a next-generation platform.

Fox said that the consumer experience will be underpinned by purpose-built AI integrations that give audiences of all types choice and flexibility in when and how they watch. The service features personalized content packaging and publishing, intelligent discovery and enhanced search capabilities powered in partnership with Perplexity and responsive support through Sierra AI.

Fox One is now available on Apple iOS and Android mobile, web (www.FoxOne.com) and such connected TV platforms as Roku, Amazon Fire TV and Prime Video Channels, Apple TV, Google TV, Android TV, Microsoft Xbox, Samsung, LG and VIZIO. Existing pay TV customers will have the ease of authenticating within the Fox One platform for no additional cost.

Fox Nation and B1G+ are available on the Fox One platform where users can add-on B1G+ or bundle Fox One and Fox Nation for $24.99 per month or the equivalent of $19.99 per month when purchasing the annual plan at launch.

Fox described the key highlights of the service as follows:

• Live And Unfiltered: Fox One has a robust collection of live sports, news and entertainment for your viewing pleasure.
• Fox News: Stream Fox News live 24/7 anytime, anywhere. Get around-the-clock access to live coverage, breaking news and your favorite Fox News shows—all in one seamless experience, with alerts to keep you informed.
• Your Fox, Your Way: Skip the search and cut down on aimless scrolling with personalized content from Fox One. Discover relevant live and on-demand shows right on your home screen.
• Record Your Favorites: Watch live or save it for later. You can record your favorite leagues, teams and shows with no storage limits. Find all your recordings in your personal library to enjoy anytime.
• Catch Up With Highlights: Catch up with the highlights you missed, then join live instantly. Bypass the spoilers and hide the live score until you're all caught up. The biggest moments in sports, served just how you like them.
• Swipe-Worthy Shorts: Discover the top trending sports stories, informative news, and TV clips filled with jaw-dropping hot takes in a fresh vertical video format. Get all the moments you crave in bite-sized, sharable pieces of content. (currently in Beta)
• News & Opinion: Fox News Channel, Fox Business, Fox Weather, LiveNOW, Fox Local Stations and more—live and on-demand
• Fox Television Stations are a local news powerhouse, producing over 1,350 hours of local news a week across linear and streaming and features over 600 local sporting events including top NFL, MLB and NBA events.
• Sports: Fox Sports, FS1, FS2, Big Ten Network (BTN), and Fox Deportes provide the games, leagues, commentary and moments you don't want to miss. NFL, MLB, College Football and Basketball, UFL, NASCAR, INDYCAR, FIFA World Cup 26™ and more.
• Entertainment: This fall's biggest hits are on Fox, including Doc, The Floor, 99 to Beat, Celebrity Weakest Link and Celebrity Name That Tune, Special Forces: World's Toughest Test, Hell's Kitchen, Murder in a Small Town, The Faithful, The Simpsons, Universal Basic Guys, Krapopolis and Bob's Burgers.

ATLANTA—Gray Media, Inc. has reached an agreement with the Fox Television Network that extends and renews the network affiliations for all of Gray’s Fox affiliated television stations across 27 markets, including Portland, Ore., Cincinnati, Ohio; Las Vegas and Birmingham, Ala.

The news comes as Gray has been looking to expand its footprint with acquisitions. It recently announced plans to acquire TV stations from Block Communications for $80 million.

That deal, which would require the Federal Communications Commission to change its ownership rules includes WDRB and WBKI, the Fox and The CW affiliates for the Louisville, Kentucky, market (DMA 49), where Gray owns and operates NBC affiliate WAVE-TV.

Currently Gray owns local television stations and digital assets serving 113 television markets that collectively reach approximately 37 percent of US television households.

NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES—Fox has finally announced a launch data and pricing for Fox One, with the direct-to-consumer streaming service set to launch Aug. 21 for $19.99 per month or $199.99 a year.

As previously reported, Fox One will bring all of Fox's news, sports and entertainment branded content together in one streaming platform, including the Fox broadcast network, Fox-owned television stations and Fox News Channel.

Fox One for the first time will provide cord-cutters and cord-nevers with full streaming and on-demand access to the company’s full brand portfolio, including Fox News, Fox Business Network, Fox Weather, Fox Sports, FS1, FS2, Fox Deportes, Big Ten Network, its local TV stations and the over-the-air Fox network.

Subscription streaming services Fox Nation and Big Ten+ will also be available on Fox One. Subscribers can bundle Fox One and Fox Nation for $24.99 per month or the equivalent of $19.99 per month when purchasing the annual plan at launch, the company said.

“We’re eager to launch Fox One in just a few weeks and super-serve our viewers with the best in live news, sports and entertainment content all in one place,” Fox CEO, Direct to Consumer Pete Distad said. “In bringing together the full power of the Fox content portfolio in one service, we have created a great value proposition and user experience that will appeal to the cord-cutter and cord-never fans currently not served by conventional pay TV packages.”

Fox also said the streaming service will feature advanced, AI-powered personalization technologies that seamlessly integrate live and video-on-demand content in a cohesive experience.

More information is available at www.FoxOne.com.

NEW YORK—During the landmark month of May, when streaming surpassed the combined viewing shares of broadcast and cable for the first time, Nielsen’s latest Media Distributor Gauge report found that pure-play streamer YouTube maintained the leading share of total TV viewing, while the largest monthly increases in share belonged to multiplatform distributors, Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox.

Warner Bros. Discovery exhibited the largest gain of any distributor in May, adding 0.3 share points versus April to finish the month with 7.0% of total television usage.

WBD’s increase was overwhelmingly powered by TNT, which notched a 69% jump in viewership over last month due in large part to its coverage of the NBA Playoffs, Nielsen reported.

The eight New York Knicks games carried by TNT amassed nearly 7 billion viewing minutes combined. In fact, the NBA Playoffs generated 31.4 billion viewing minutes overall in May across WBD and Disney entities, with nearly a quarter of the viewing total attributable to Knicks games.

Fox added 0.2 points to its share of TV in May. While it was partly due to NASCAR traction on Fox Sports 1, Fox’s increase was primarily due to the continued growth of its FAST service, Tubi, Nielsen said.

Tubi achieved a platform-record 2.2% share of TV viewing in May, driven by a 25% increase among 18-24 year-olds, and accounted for nearly a third of Fox’s overall viewing total.

Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery each finished the month with a 7.0% share of TV, although WBD came out slightly ahead based on unrounded figures and moved up to sixth overall in the distributor ranking.

YouTube extended its streak as the leading media distributor to four consecutive months, gaining 0.1 share point in May to represent 12.5% of total TV. While YouTube actually exhibited monthly declines in virtually every demographic group (with the exception of audiences 65+), its overall decrease was ultimately less than that of total TV, leading to a monthly gain in share and yet another platform best, Nielsen explained.

Other key developments in the May distributor rankings included:

• NBCU moved up to third with 8.0% of television viewing.
• Paramount fell to fourth after losing a full share point, following the conclusions of the NCAA basketball tournament and The Masters.
• The Roku Channel also hit a new platform-best in May with a 2.5% share of TV, boosted by double-digit gains among the 12-17 and 25-34 age demographics.
• The May 2025 interval included dates 04/29/2025 through 05/26/2025. Nielsen reporting follows the broadcast calendar with measurement weeks that run Monday through Sunday.

LOS ANGELES—Fox Corp. has announced its acquisition of Caliente TV, a leading sports broadcasting platform in Mexico.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

As part of the acquisition, Fox said longtime industry executive Carlos Martinez was hired as executive vice president and managing director, Latin America, responsible for overseeing the overall Fox broadcast strategy in Latin America, Caliente TV in Mexico and the sports channel’s launch in Central America.

“Fox’s investment to acquire Caliente TV reflects our commitment to building a leading sports streaming business in Mexico with massive audience reach, a robust sports rights portfolio and an impressive roster of exclusive sports leagues and talent,” Martinez said.

With this acquisition, Fox said it will develop a multiplatform business in the region. This will include the launch of a new pay TV channel and an SVOD platform that will join the existing AVOD platform Tubi, producing and distributing more than 3,000 hours of original sports content.

Additionally, Fox will now hold a broad portfolio of premium broadcast rights to deploy across its owned and operated platforms, including:

• Six Liga MX Men’s Soccer Teams: Including Club Leon, Club Pachuca, Club Tijuana, Club Queretaro, Club Tigres UANL and Club Juarez.
• Ten Liga MX Women's Soccer Teams: Including Club Guadalajara, Club Leon, Club Pachuca, Club Tijuana, Club Juarez, Club Queretaro, Club Atlas, Club Santos, Club Puebla and Club Mazatlán.
• CONCACAF Champions Cup (Copa de Campeones de la CONCACAF): Featuring the top football clubs from North and Central America including Liga MX and MLS
• Premier League and FA Cup: Featuring England's top football clubs.
• UEFA Champions League: Featuring Europe’s top football clubs.
• Ligue 1 France: Including this year's UEFA Club Champion, Paris Saint-Germain.
• Coppa Italia: Featuring the top Men and Women's clubs from Italian Serie A football in an annual knock-out competition.
• United Football League (UFL): The exciting American football competition played each Spring.
• Big Ten Conference: The premier college athletics conference in the U.S. featuring American football, basketball and a variety of other athletic events from top U.S. universities.
• World Enduro Championship (WEC): NASCAR Mexico Series and Other Motorsports International Rights.

With over three decades of broadcast industry experience in Latin America holding executive roles at such companies as Turner, Discovery and Fox, Martinez will oversee the operations and strategy of the new Fox platforms in Mexico and Central America, which are expected to employ over 350 people both directly and indirectly.

NEW YORK—Fox Advertising announced a number of improvements and upgrades to OneFox, its media platform that unifies inventory and audiences across linear, streaming and digital into a media buying experience powered by AdRise.

The improvements bring together offline and digital identity along with verticalized audience attributes spanning categories that include demographics, lifestyle, hobbies and purchase intent. Those new features, Fox said, will make its inventory more valuable to advertisers.

More specifically, Fox is expanding its OneFox platform to include data integrations with TransUnion and Experian. This will augment Fox's first-party data with TransUnion, Experian and LiveRamp's capabilities so that advertisers can target custom segments and reach the right audiences, Fox reported.

Through this integration, Fox said it will create audience segments and layer on key attributes, providing a more holistic look at a desired audience. By harmonizing once disparate data points into one unified audience view, OneFox will deliver a seamless, signal-based platform for brands to reach their most valuable consumers across Fox Entertainment, Fox Sports, Fox News Media and Tubi, Fox Advertising reported.

"Fox's converged media platform was purposefully built to unify our portfolio," said Stephano Kim, chief strategy and operations officer, Fox Advertising. "By layering in Fox's first-party data backed by insights and audience attributes from Experian, TransUnion and LiveRamp, we will deepen the platform's precision and performance, turning data and insights into intelligence that drives audience activation and creates opportunities for businesses and consumers alike."

Other key features and developments include:

• Matching audiences at scale.
• Unlocking smarter creative decisioning, informed by contextual signals and delivering greater resonance.
• Enabling audience activation across linear and streaming with unified reach and frequency controls.
• Creating audience segments that are based on key attributes, giving advertisers expansive access to their desired audience.

"We're excited to help power OneFox with Experian's product suite," said Chris Feo, chief business officer, Experian. "By integrating data from our identity graph and audience attributes, Fox can merge offline and digital signals into a single view, uncover high-value segments, and help advertisers reach them across every Fox screen—from primetime and Fox Sports to Tubi—while seeing results faster, all within one seamless workflow."

"TransUnion has been a trusted partner of Fox and Tubi for years, and we're excited to deepen that relationship across the broader Fox ecosystem," added Julie Clark, senior vice president of media and entertainment, TransUnion. "With our long-standing expertise in identity, we've been at the forefront of enabling meaningful connections between audiences and content. This expanded partnership reinforces TransUnion's critical role in powering data-driven television and delivering the precision and scale that today's media landscape demands."

LOS ANGELES—The Walt Disney Co. has agreed to pay Comcast an additional $437.8 billion for Comcast’s 33% stake in Hulu, ending years of maneuvering and negotiation over who would take full control of the streaming service.

Disney had paid $8.6 billion in 2023 for the minority stake, but Comcast had asked for $5 billion more, which sent the issue to arbitration over the appraised value.

Disney has had operating control of Hulu, which was founded in 2007, since it acquired Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox.

Concluding the deal for Comcast’s stake, which is expected to close in July, will, however, give Disney more flexibility in how it packages its various streaming services, which include Hulu, Disney+ and the upcoming ESPN direct-to-consumer streaming service.

“We are pleased this is finally resolved. We have had a productive partnership with NBCUniversal, and we wish them the best of luck,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said in a statement. “Completing the Hulu acquisition paves the way for a deeper and more seamless integration of Hulu’s general entertainment content with Disney+ and, soon, with ESPN’s direct-to-consumer product, providing an unrivaled value proposition for consumers.”

SEATTLE—KCPQ (Fox 13) and KZJO (Fox 13+) here have announced that they will be expanding their news programming. Beginning June 16, the stations will provide more local news, adding new newscasts and greatly increasing their live local news offerings on streaming.

As part of the effort, Fox 13 is investing in digital platforms with 31 additional hours of live-streamed news content every week on its Fox Local Seattle streaming platform. Viewers can expect live anchored updates throughout the day, ensuring local news is available anytime, anywhere. KCPQ and KZJO are both owned by Fox Television Stations.

Additionally, beginning later this summer, “Good Day Seattle” will now run six full hours from 5 to 11 a.m., providing early risers and late starters with live local news, weather and features.

Together, Fox 13 and Fox 13+ are adding 2.5 hours of additional news content to their weekday broadcast schedule, bringing viewers more access to trusted information throughout the day, the stations said.

“By expanding our local programming and enhancing our streaming presence, we're making it easier for viewers to stay informed, wherever and whenever they choose to watch,” said Amber Eikel, senior vice president and general manager of KCPQ-KZJO. “This transformation reflects our commitment to delivering trusted, relevant news across all platforms.”

• 4 p.m. and 5 p.m., “Seattle News Tonight”: Local news with depth, context and the stories that matter to the community. Long-form interviews, extended live coverage on local stories, and in-studio guests.
• 6 p.m., “Washington News Wrap”: A nightly focused look at state headlines and regional developments.
• 6:30 p.m., “Washington Sports Wrap”: The day's top sports stories from across the state.
• 7 p.m., “West Coast News Wrap”: Coverage and commentary on major stories along the coast.
• 10 p.m., “Seattle News Tonight”

On Fox 13+ (KZJO) the news schedule will be:

• 8 p.m. and 9 p.m.: “Seattle News Tonight”

NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES—Fox Corp. said it will call its direct-to-consumer streaming service Fox One.

The company said the service is on track to launch later this year before the NFL and college football seasons, but has not released pricing.

Fox One will bring all of Fox's news, sports, entertainment and content together in one dynamic streaming platform, giving cord-cutters and cord-nevers access to live streaming and on-demand content from "the full portfolio of Fox brands including Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, Fox Weather, Fox Sports, FS1, FS2, BTN, Fox Deportes, Fox Network Stations and the Fox network, as well as the option to bundle Fox Nation, within one platform," the company said.

“We know that Fox has the most loyal and engaged audiences in the industry, and Fox One is designed to reach outside of the pay TV bundle and deliver all the best Fox-branded content directly to viewers wherever they are,“ Fox One CEO Pete Distad said. “We have built this platform from the ground up to allow consumers to enjoy and engage with our programming in new and exciting ways, leveraging cutting edge technology to enhance the user experience across the platform.”

Among Fox One’s features will be advanced personalization technology that adapts to viewing preferences while seamlessly integrating live and video on-demand content in a cohesive experience, the company said..

More information is available at www.fox.com/FoxOne.

NEW YORK—LiveNow From Fox, Fox Television Stations’ national news streaming service, has released viewing data showing the first quarter was the best quarter in its history, delivering more than 500 million video views on YouTube, according to Comscore.

With 502 million video views on YouTube, LiveNow reported that it outpaced NBC News by 42% (353 million), ABC News by 56% (322 million) and CBS News by 217% (158 million) on the social platform. Compared to the same period last year, LiveNow grew by 373% on YouTube.

“There are many options for mainstream scripted packaged news. Fox takes a different path. It is locally powered coverage that is unscripted and intentionally raw,” Jeff Zelmer, Fox Television Stations executive vice president of digital operations, said. “It's no surprise that this unique, live, event-driven approach works best on YouTube's fast-growing platform. ”

Additionally, LiveNow is averaging more than 5 billion minutes of total viewing time across all streaming platforms each month, reaching an all-time high of 6.6 billion minutes in January.

The viewing surge was driven by live coverage of major breaking news events, including the Los Angeles wildfires; the Washington, D.C.; plane crash, and the presidential inauguration. This past Saturday, LiveNow’s coverage of the funera of Pope Francis exceeded 100 million streaming minutes.

LiveNow From Fox is a national news service with coverage and content supported by local Fox Television Stations and the resources of Fox News.

LiveNow is widely distributed across all major streaming and free, ad-supported streaming television (FAST) platforms, including YouTube, YouTubeTV, Roku Channel, Samsung TV Plus, Tubi, Fox Local, Vizio Watchfree+, LG Channels, Amazon News/FireTV Channels, Freevee, Pluto TV, Xumo, Plex, TCLtv+, FuboTV and Sling Freestream.

Fox Television Stations owned and operates 29 U.S. television stations inluding outlets in 14 of the top 15 DMAs and and duopolies in 11 DMAs, including the three largest markets, New York (WNYW-WWOR), Los Angeles (KTTV-KCOP) and Chicago (WFLD-WPWR).

NEW YORK—YouTube hit record share of monthly TV viewing in February and had the largest share of TV viewing by the major media companies, according to Nielsen’s February 2025 Media Distributor Gauge, which ranks media companies by the combined share of TV viewing their various networks and outlets achieve.

In February YouTube gained two share points over January to capture 11.6% of time spent watching TV across the month. This marks YouTube’s best share of TV to date, and is the second time the pure-play streamer has topped the Media Distributor Gauge since Nielsen began tracking in November 2023.

Disney came in second with 10%, followed by Fox, which moved up to the third spot for the first time with 8.3% on the strength of Super Bowl Viewing. Netflix was tied for fourth with Paramount at 8.2%, followed by NBCU (8.1%), Warner Bros. Discovery (6.1%) and Amazon (3.5%).

Nielsen reported that YouTube has exhibited steady usage increases for some time. A longer-term look at the platform’s growth illustrates that time spent watching YouTube on television is up 53% versus two years ago in February 2023, and its share of TV has grown from 7.9% to 11.6% in that time, according to Nielsen’s The Gauge™ reports.

Interestingly, the data also showed that the overall viewing bump has been increasingly driven by older audiences. YouTube viewing from adults aged 65+ has nearly doubled in the last two years (+96%), and the demographic now represents a viewing contribution similar to that from kids 2-11 (15.4% vs. 16.9%).

Fox-owned entities gained 5% in February on the strength of a successful multi-platform Super Bowl, in addition to a 3% bump in Fox News Channel viewership, which drove 37% of the company’s total viewing. Fox Sports 1 viewership was also up 45% compared with January, primarily attributable to NASCAR events. Overall, Fox achieved an 8.3% share of TV usage in February and climbed from sixth to third in the rankings to notch its highest placement to date in the Media Distributor Gauge.

Following its best monthly performance to date in the Media Distributor Gauge, which was driven by NFL games and the College Football Playoffs, Disney lost two share points in February. This impact dropped them out of the top slot for only the third time since the inception of the Media Distributor Gauge, the researchers noted.

NEW YORK—Nielsen is reporting that an estimated 36.6 million people watched President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, March 4. Viewership peaked from 9:45 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. ET with 37,895,000 viewers.

This year’s audience was up over 13% compared with the 32.2 million viewers that watched President Biden’s State of the Union address in 2024.

But it was lower than most of the State of the Union Speeches delivered by Trump during his first term in office. The 2016 speech attracted 31.3 million viewers, but there were 47.7 million viewers in 2017, 45.6 million in 2018 and 46.8 million in 2019.

Of the 36.6 million viewers that watched President Trump’s joint address in 2025: 5.7% of viewers were aged 18-34; 20.5% of viewers were aged 35-54; 70.7% of viewers were aged 55 and older.

While coverage varied by network, 15 networks televised the joint address from approximately 9:15 p.m. ET until 11:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday.

Separately, Fox News Channel reported that the speech was the highest rated joint address to Congress in cable news history with an audience of 10.7 million viewers and 1.9 million in A25-54 from 9:17-10:58 PM/ET, according to Nielsen.

The network also drew the largest audience for the democratic response, averaging 5.9 million viewers and nearly 1 million in A25-54. During coverage of the speech, FNC held 74% of the cable news audience share in viewers and 70% in the A25-54 demo ahead of MSNBC (1,924,000 P2+; 237,000 25-54) and CNN (1,929,000 P2+; 585,000 A25-54).

Fox News Media delivered an audience of 13.6 million viewers and 2.9 million in A25-54 across FNC, Fox Business Network (FBN) and Fox Network.

Historical viewing figures for the State of the Union speech can be found here.

LOS ANGELES—Fox Corporation has announced that Pete Distad has been named CEO of the recently announced Fox direct-to-consumer streaming platform.

Distad, who served as an executive at Apple for a decade following six years at Hulu, comes to Fox from his most recent role as CEO of Venu Sports, which was shut down earlier this year by its joint venture partners, Fox, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery.

Distad will report to Paul Cheesbrough, CEO of Tubi Media Group, and will assume oversight of all aspects of the upcoming platform.

During a recent earnings call, Fox announced that it would launch a direct-to-consumer subscription streaming product later in 2025 that will seek to extend the reach of Fox News, Fox Sports and the Fox broadcast network outside of the traditional cable bundle. The company has not yet provided details on pricing, features or other aspects of the planned services.

“Pete is a proven leader with deep experience in consumer products, and we’re thrilled to have him join the team to lead this new platform,” Cheesbrough said. “His track record of innovation, execution, and building world-class streaming products speaks for itself, and we’re confident that under his leadership, we will deliver a best-in-class service that showcases Fox’s premium content and brands.”

“I’m excited to bring Fox’s leading sports, news, and entertainment content to audiences outside the traditional pay TV bundle for the first time via an all-new streaming platform,” said Distad. “Working closely with our content, distribution, and platform partners, we’re going to build and grow a differentiated viewing experience for consumers to access their favorite Fox programming.”

Prior to Venu, Distad worked at Apple from 2013-2023, where he was responsible for the business, operations and global distribution for Video, Sports and Apple TV+. He originally joined the company to lead product marketing for the Apple TV hardware product. Before Apple, he served as the senior vice president of marketing and distribution on the executive team at Hulu (2007-2013) and was part of the original Hulu launch team.

NEW YORK—The media measurement company VideoAmp has announced VXP, aka VideoAmp Cross Screen Planner. It is billing the offering as a first-of-its-kind media planning solution that leverages publisher first party data to help agencies and brands more efficiently reach target audiences across linear TV, streaming and digital platforms.

The solution is available now in early access and will be available for broader access in Q2 2025

With the announcement, VideoAmp reported that it is expanding its current integrations to unlock access to census-level streaming data from leading publishers including Disney, Fox and Paramount to provide a true cross-platform solution that augments their currency-grade cross-platform measurement dataset spanning 40M homes and 65 million devices. Snap was previously announced last August.

Several companies, including Disney, Fox and Omnicom, praised the effort.

“In pursuit of enabling precise, cross-platform planning for our rich and engaging content, this solution from VideoAmp will continue to expand the way we demonstrate performance and outcomes for advertisers across our inventory,” said Dana McGraw, senior vice president of data and measurement science, Disney. “By leveraging insights rooted in identity and our clean room engagement with VideoAmp, we’re continuing to explore new ways we – and the wider industry – can plan and measure reach of audiences in streaming, with accuracy and precision.”

“Census-level data provides the necessary precision required for more accurate planning across linear, streaming and now social video,” added Megan Pagliuca, chief product officer, Omnicom Media Group. “Given the abundance of inventory generated from the shift to CTV and the importance of social video platforms, it is critical we have a complete view into our video investment opportunities. By integrating audience and outcomes datasets from Omni - the open operating system that supports all Omnicom agencies - Omnicom has and continues to work diligently with VideoAmp to build planning capabilities that reflect the full scope of the marketplace, ensuring a unified approach across all video channels.”

VideoAmp integrates these datasets through its patented clean room technology to enable privacy-first cross-platform planning, helping advertisers maximize reach of advanced and demographic audiences. By breaking down traditional silos, VideoAmp’s advanced planning solution empowers advertisers to effectively allocate their media budget and find their target audiences - whoever they are and wherever they are watching - via the most representative, first party datasets.

“We are extremely excited to join forces with VideoAmp to integrate Fox data into the Planning tool, providing an enhanced solution to our agency partners," said Darren Sherriff, senior vice president of advanced TV at Fox. "Working more closely with VideoAmp allows the planning process to be far more holistic and representative of all Fox inventory across both linear and digital. As the paradigm for buying extends beyond traditional linear to include cross platform, demo and advanced audiences, this evolution is essential for our agency partners and we are happy to support it.”

LOS ANGELES—Fox Corporation's presentation of Super Bowl LIX on Fox and Tubi generated over $800 million in gross revenue from advertising sales across all platforms. The event also saw record pricing for the sold-out game, Fox reported.

“The clear winners Sunday night were the Eagles, the NFL, and Fox. Congratulations to our teams at Fox Sports and Tubi for a record-breaking and historic Super Bowl LIX, the most-watched, most-streamed, and most successful Super Bowl ever,” said Lachlan Murdoch, executive chair and CEO, Fox Corporation.

The game saw a record-setting average audience of 127.7 million viewers watch the Philadelphia Eagles’ 40-22 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX. The 127.7 million viewers set a new all-time high mark for Super Bowl viewership (up +3% vs. 123.7 million viewers last year) featuring fans across all platforms, including television (Fox, Fox Deportes and Telemundo) and digital (Tubi and NFL digital properties, including NFL+), Fox reported, citing Nielsen data.

The big game peaked at 137.7 million viewers in the second quarter (8:00 PM – 8:15 PM ET), per Nielsen.

Fox Super Bowl LIX Pregame coverage averaged 23.4 million viewers from 1:00 PM ET to kick-off. It ranks as the best for a Super Bowl pregame starting at 1:00 PM on record. The pre-kick portion averaged 82.5 million viewers, up +9% over last year’s 75.8 million viewers.

The Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show, starring Kendrick Lamar, drew an average of 133.5 million viewers across television and digital platforms from 8:30 PM – 8:45 PM ET (up +3% vs. 129.3 million viewers last year), setting a new record as most-watched Super Bowl halftime performance in history

In addition, Tubi’s simulcast of Fox’s Super Bowl LIX broadcast broke the Super Bowl streaming record as part of the networks special game day takeover, reaching 5 million peak concurrent streaming viewers and a 13.6 million average minute audience, up by a decisive margin from prior Super Bowls. Tubi also saw 24 million unique viewers access the platform across game day programming starting with Fox’s pregame show.

For Super Bowl LIX Tubi leveraged Fox’s state-of-the-art livestreaming operation in Tempe, Arizona to deliver the highest quality, 4K live stream.

LOS ANGELES—Fox Corporation is making a major investment in the podcasting and streaming space with the acquisition of Red Seat Ventures, a major platform that provides tech, marketing and support for such clients as Tucker Carlson, Nancy Grace, Megyn Kelly, Dr. Phil, Bill O’Rielly, Piers Morgan and others.

Across their 17 creator-led shows, Red Seat Ventures properties cumulatively drove over 200 million monthly active views in November 2024. It is a top 10 podcast network in the U.S.in terms of scale and reach, the companies said.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Fox reported that Red Seat Ventures will operate as a standalone entity within Fox's Tubi Media Group. Paul Cheesbrough, CEO of Tubi Media Group, assumes the role of chairman, Red Seat Ventures.

The Red Seat Ventures executive team, led by founding partners Chris Balfe and Kevin Balfe, will continue to lead and operate the business.

"The creator economy is one of the fastest growing media categories worldwide by measure of reach and influence, and consumers are increasingly looking to get their information, insights and entertainment directly from the voices and brands they trust across these platforms," said Paul Cheesbrough, CEO, Tubi Media Group. "Working with two outstanding entrepreneurs like Chris and Kevin, we see tremendous opportunities to drive additional scale in genres such as sports, news and entertainment and look forward to supporting the continued growth of this business."

Red Seat Ventures is involved in a variety of areas, including podcasts, streaming video, subscription products and live events, such as the wholly owned CrimeCon.

"From the beginning, Red Seat Ventures has had the opportunity to work with some of the most influential creators in the world to grow their new media businesses and develop their personal brands," said Chris Balfe, CEO, Red Seat Ventures. "In aligning with Fox, we will be able to build upon that investment and expand the services we provide to our creators, while continuing to maintain the independence and integrity of their brands, which is truly the best case scenario."

ATLANTA—Gray Media has announced that it will be using NextGen TV broadcasts to offer enhancements to its coverage of the Super Bowl. As part of the effort, Gray Media will broadcast Super Bowl on Feb. 9 using High Dynamic Range (HDR) at all their Fox affiliates who have launched NextGen TV/ATSC 3.0 broadcast, allowing viewers in eight markets to watch the biggest game of the year with improved contrast between the brightest and darkest colors on the screen.

In addition, Gray added GameLoop, a new NextGen TV free gaming channel, in two markets this week.

Gray has previously described its plans to use NextGen TV broadcasts to offer HDR feeds to TV Tech.

For the Super Bowl, WVUE, Gray’s Fox affiliate in this year’s Super Bowl host market of New Orleans, recently launched both Dolby Vision and HDR10+ formats, along with four other Gray Fox affiliates: WHNS in Greenville-Spartanburg, SC and Asheville, NC, WBRC in Birmingham, Alabama, KPTV in Portland, Oregon, and WALA in Mobile, Alabama.

Gray previously launched HDR enhancements at three other Gray Fox affiliates: KVVU in Las Vegas, Nevada, WXIX in Cincinnati, Ohio, and WFLX in West Palm Beach, Florida.

“Live sports events are the perfect venue to experience the vivid imagery and immersive audio of NextGen TV,” Gray’s Chief Operating Officer Sandy Breland said. “With these upgrades, millions of fans in our markets can enjoy the highest quality in picture and sound, over-the-air and for free this weekend.”

In addition, Gray added GameLoop, a new NextGen TV free gaming channel, in two markets this week. GameLoop allows users to play iconic games like Pac-Man, Tetris, and Doodle Jump on select NextGen TVs simply using their remote or mobile phone. The slate of games also includes Planet Crossword, the first collaborative crossword experience designed for television.

GameLoop is available now over-the-air for free via WANF, Gray’s CBS affiliate in Atlanta, on channel 46.20 and on WVUE in New Orleans on channel 8.20. Gray plans to launch GameLoop in additional markets soon.

“NextGen TV enables countless advanced features to boost viewer experience,” said Rob Folliard, Gray’s senior vice president and currently the chairperson of NextGen TV consortium PearlTV. “We are excited to offer this new interactive option and will continue to increase NextGen TV offerings and value to our audience.”

DirecTV said it has significantly expanded its MySports package, which includes 40 national sports and local broadcast channels, to 122 Nielsen designated market areas (DMAs) across the U.S. in the few weeks since the package was launched.

DirecTV is currently promoting MySports for $49.99 a month for the first three months, a $20 monthly savings.

“The recent launch of MySports from DirecTV is delivering consumers more choice and flexibility in how they watch and pay for their favorite programming,” DirecTV chief marketing officer Vince Torres said. “We are excited to expand the availability of MySports today to more than 100 markets and will continue to enhance the package and make additional genre options available in the near future.”

During this rapid expansion, an additional 104 Fox stations have opted into the new service.

In addition to including all Fox-owned and operated stations at launch, the package also includes support from all of America’s largest broadcast station groups— including Cox Media Group, Gray Media, Nexstar Media Group, E.W. Scripps, Sinclair and others. That has positioned DirecTV to make MySports available nationally in time for the Super Bowl on Fox on Feb. 9, the Daytona 500 on Fox on Feb. 16 and the NBA All-Star Weekend on TNT and ESPN on Feb. 14-16.

MySports initially rolled out to 24 Nielsen markets, including 16 of the top 20, on Jan. 14. These additions expand that reach by an additional 100 cities. MySports is now available to sports fans in every top-50 market with more stations and markets added daily, DirecTV said.

Some of the key new cities where MySports is now available include Denver; Cleveland; Sacramento, California; St. Louis; Charlotte, North Carolina; Pittsburgh; Portland, Oregon; Baltimore; Indianapolis; Nashville, Tennessee; San Antonio, Texas; Columbus, Ohio; Kansas City; Salt Lake City; Cincinnati; Greenville, North Carolina; West Palm Beach. Florida; Las Vegas; Oklahoma City; Norfolk, Virginia; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Birmingham, Alabama; Greensboro, North Carolina; Jacksonville, Florida; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Louisville, Kentucky; and New Orleans, among several others.

National sports channels and stations owned by The Walt Disney Co. (ABC) and NBCUniversal (NBC) were already included in MySports, and DirecTV will continue to add additional ABC and NBC affiliates as their respective owners choose to be available through MySports, too.

Sports fans can stream MySports through the DirecTV app on mobile devices or popular platforms like Roku, Amazon Fire, and Apple TV. MySports also offers game-time notifications and the ability to watch now on live TV or later through unlimited cloud DVR.

Sports channels immediately available through MySports include ACC Network, Big Ten Network, DirecTV 4K Live, DirecTV 4K Live 2, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNews, ESPNU, Fox Sports 1, Fox Sports 2, Golf Channel, SEC Network, and USA Network, among many, many others. Channels from each major professional sports league—NFL Network, NBA TV, NHL Network, and MLB Network—are all included at no additional cost. MySports also includes all the Warner Bros. Discovery sports networks, including TNT, TBS, and TruTV that will be televising games in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament coming up in March and April.

In addition, MySports customers also have access to the full lineup of MyFree DirecTV ad-supported sports channels, including sports networks like ACC Digital Network, Big 12, Fight Network, Fuel TV, Origin Sports, Pickleball TV, Players TV, Sports Grid, Stadium Stream, Surfer TV, Swerve Combat, T2, The Jim Rome Show, TNA, Torque by History, Waypoint TV and Women’s Sports Network.

More networks, local stations and ESPN+, will be included in MySports at no extra cost in the near future, the operator said.

In addition, DirecTV plans to offer local sports fans the option to add regional sports networks and team networks, including the recently announced Rangers Sports Network, as an add-on to MySports later this year.

Five days after they unveiled a settlement with FuboTV over the proposed Venu sports streaming service, The Walt Disney Co., Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery announced today that the service will not launch after all.

The three studios announced the launch of Venu a year ago, prompting litigation from FuboTV, which said the combined sports streaming service is anti-competitive. It won a court injunction in August, which survived a December challenge.

On Monday (Jan. 6), Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery said they had patched up their differences with FuboTV, and would make an aggregate cash payment to Fubo of $220 million. In addition, Disney has committed to provide a $145 million term loan to Fubo in 2026 as part of the transaction.

In addition, Disney announced that it would merge its Hulu + Live TV vMVPD service with FuboTV, which would continue to be marketed as a separate service.

Monday’s announcement drew stern criticism from multiple corners of the industry, including DirecTV, which told the Justice Department that it might join EchoStar in challenging the deal in court.

What scuttled the deal is still up to speculation but the end came swiftly in an announcement this morning:

“Venu Sports, the proposed virtual MVPD service from ESPN, FOX and Warner Bros. Discovery, will be discontinued,” the companies said. “The collective decision by the three companies not to move forward with the contemplated joint venture is effective immediately.

“After careful consideration, we have collectively agreed to discontinue the Venu Sports joint venture and not launch the streaming service,” they added. “In an ever-changing marketplace, we determined that it was best to meet the evolving demands of sports fans by focusing on existing products and distribution channels. We are proud of the work that has been done on Venu to date and grateful to the Venu staff, whom we will support through this transition period.”

DirecTV issued this response:

“DirecTV remains a leader in sports, and we look forward to working with our programming partners —including Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery—to compete on a level playing field to deliver sports fans more choice, control, and value all-in-one experience. ”

Article updated to include DirecTV comment.

SAN FRANCISCO—Tubi, Fox’s free ad-supported streaming service, has released new data showing it surpassed 97 million monthly active users and streamed more than 10 billion hours during the 2024 calendar year.

“Tubi’s momentum is growing as audiences increasingly value a premium entertainment experience that is also 100% free, fun and reflective of culture,” Tubi CEO Anjali Sud said. “Our strategy is simple yet powerful: put viewers first by offering unique stories from unique storytellers, a vast selection of content to choose from and a delightful experience across devices. We let our viewers guide us and obsess over their engagement, and we are seeing the results.”

Tubi also reported that exclusive content has been gaining adoption on Tubi with nearly one in four viewers watching a Tubi Original. “Sidelined: The QB and Me,” a young-adult romance, premiered in November and brought in more viewers than any title in Tubi’s history in its first week and the most new viewers for any Tubi title ever. In the last six months, six Tubi Original films hit Variety’s Streaming Originals Chart, which ranks the most-watched streaming originals every week based on data sourced from Luminate.

In addition, the majority of Fortune 100 brands are now advertising on Tubi as more advertisers seek to reach the growing population of cord-cutters and cord-nevers, the streamer said.

HUNT VALLEY, Md.—Sinclair has announced a significant expansion of its free over-the-air network TBD TV via a network distribution agreement with Fox Television Stations that will see Fox’s owned-and-operated stations add it to digital subchannels beginning Jan. 15.

The expanded agreement positions TBD TV in Fox’s key channel slots in several of the country's top markets, including the three largest DMAs, adding a total of 22 million TV households.

Beginning Jan. 15, TBD TV—billed by Sinclair as “the home of big stars and big comedy, with a lineup of groundbreaking, funny franchises”—will be available on the following Fox multicast stations:

• New York, WNYW Channel 5.4
• Los Angeles, KTTV Channel 11.3
• Chicago, WFLD Channel 32.4
• Atlanta, WAGA Channel 5.4
• Phoenix, KSAZ Channel 10.4

“We are excited to launch TBD TV on five powerhouse Fox-owned television stations, including the top three DMAs in the U.S.,” Sinclair senior vice president of distribution Lee Schlazer said. “This partnership greatly expands TBD TV’s reach while securing Big Four network row positions and maintaining Sinclair’s strategic initiative of growing coverage in the largest DMAs. TBD TV is a great fit with Fox’s younger-skewing audience, as TBD TV is the second-youngest multicast network.”

Sinclair also said TBD TV’s ratings have increased steadily over the past year with the addition of “Saturday Night Live” to the network’s daily lineup. In November, TBD TV achieved its highest ratings month ever, including a 114% year-over-year increase in total day ratings for persons 25-54.

NEW YORK—The Justice Department and 17 state attorneys general have filed filed briefs in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals opposing an appeal by the backers of Venu Sports that would lift an injunction against the launch of the sports streaming service.

In August, U.S. District Court Judge Margaret Garnett in Manhattan issued a preliminary injunction in Fubo’s antitrust lawsuit against Venu, a sports-centric multichannel video programming distributor backed by The Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery that blocked it from launching.

Venu’s owners, who had hoped to launch near the start of the NFL season, appealed the decision, which would block operations until the case goes to trial in October of 2025.

The DOJ’s brief against the appeal and in support of the preliminary injunctions called the arguments by the owners of Venu to lift the appeal “a red herring” and “likely misplaced.”

“First, they [Venu] argue the district court improperly ‘grounded its analysis in bundling practices’ predating Venu rather than focusing on the competitive effects of the transaction itself,“ the Justice Department argued. “Second, they contend that “provid[ing] consumers an additional option at a lower price is unambiguously a pro-consumer outcome that cannot violate the Clayton Act. Both critiques are wrong.’ ” (The Clayton Act is a 1914 law passed to curb antitrust practices.)

“This court should hold that Fubo established a likelihood of success on the merits” in its claims against Venu, the DoJ concluded.

In a note to investors, Lightshed Partners analyst Richard Greenfield wrote that the filings reduced the odds that the injunction against the service would be lifted quickly.

“While it is unclear how new DoJ leadership in 2025 will view Venu, the odds of the injunction being lifted ahead of the District Court trial appear to be falling,” he noted. “It will also be interesting to see if this leads to greater questions around bundling practices more generally.”

The attorneys general brief was filed by state AGs in New York, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington, as well as the District of Columbia.

Their brief defended the injunction by arguing that “defendants’ joint venture violates § 7 of the Clayton Act” as it “substantially lessens competition in the relevant market.”

NEW YORK—In the battle for viewing among the big TV and media players, Fox had a superb October, earning an 8.4% share of total TV viewing in Nielsen’s October Media Distributor Gauge. That was its highest share of TV viewing for the since Nielsen began releasing the data in November of 2023.

During October, Fox also notched the largest monthly increase among all reported media distributors, with overall viewing up 16% in October (+1.1 share points of TV viewing).

In the October rankings of TV viewing share by media company, The Walt Disney Co. was on top at 11.7%, followed by YouTube (10.6% of total TV viewing), NBCUniversal (9.2%), Paramount (9.2%) and Fox in fifth place. Sports and news programming drove increases in viewing for Fox, Disney and others during the month.

October’s TV landscape featured a wide range of compelling events that drew large audiences across broadcast and cable channels, leading multiplatform media distributors like Fox to thrive on the strength of diverse content offerings, Nielsen said in its explanation of the data.

On top of last month’s 69% bump in viewing, Fox broadcast affiliates were up another 16% in October, driven by sporting events including the NFL, college football, the Major League Baseball postseason and Games 1 and 2 of the World Series. From a cable-network perspective, election-related coverage boosted Fox News Channel to a 12% viewing increase in October, and FS1 shot up over 260%, due primarily to its National League Championship Series games. Fox also benefited from a 2.5% lift in Tubi viewing.

Disney also took advantage of its multiplatform capabilities and repeated as the top media company in October, adding 0.4 share points from September to notch 11.7% of overall TV. Disney was buoyed by a 7% increase in viewing to ABC broadcast affiliates as a result of NFL and college football, as well as the consistent performance of ABC World News Tonight With David Muir. Meanwhile, an 8% bump in viewership to ESPN, driven by both football and baseball, was the largest gain among Disney’s cable networks.

Among the 14 companies reported in the Media Distributor Gauge, nine of them exhibited monthly shifts of plus or minus 0.1 share point or less in October. An exception, however, was The Roku Channel, which tallied the second largest monthly increase among distributors with a 12% gain over September to lift the FAST service to a platform-best 1.8% share of TV.

The measurement month of October included four weeks: Sept. 30 through Oct. 27. Nielsen measurement weeks run Monday through Sunday.

Fox Entertainment and Hulu have renewed a multi-year content distribution agreement that will keep in-season streaming rights for Fox’s programming slate on Disney’s Hulu streaming service for the next four years.

If advertising is included, the deal is valued at more than $1.5 billion, Deadline reported, citing anonymous sources.

Under the terms of the agreement, Fox primetime entertainment programming—ranging from “The Masked Singer,” “The Floor” and “Gordon Ramsay’s Next-Level Chef” to “Bob’s Burgers,” “The Simpsons,” “Family Guy,” “Animal Control,” and the new Fox fall dramas, “Rescue: HI-Surf” and “Murder in a Small Town”—will continue to stream on Hulu one day after airing on Fox.

The agreement also allows Hulu to stream out-of-season episodes of key Fox unscripted programs and includes an extension of the successful, expansive marketing alliance established in 2023.

Disney’s 20th Television produces a number of shows for Fox, including “The Simpsons.”

The agreement will provide Hulu with a secure source of highly profitable content as Disney is looking to boost subscribers and improve its streaming profits by bundling it with its other streaming services, Disney+ and ESPN+.

“The long-standing, valued partnership we have with Fox has cemented Hulu as the next-day streaming home for current Fox hits and out-of-season episodes of key Fox titles, and we’re excited to continue offering these scripted, unscripted and animated series to our subscribers,” Hulu General Manager Lauren Tempest said. “Our collective marketing efforts, which will continue with this new deal, have generated impressive results and helped viewers successfully find the shows they want to watch, when they want to watch them.”

Added Fox Entertainment CEO Rob Wade: “Our friends at Hulu and Disney Entertainment are exceptional partners, together driving ongoing mutual growth and strong results. Through our new agreement, we look forward to expanding on this impressive track record and collaboratively shaping the future of television in today’s shifting media landscape.”

In between helpings of turkey and other Thanksgiving Day fare, viewers will see companies dishing up hefty portions of ads on sports programming, with the national TV ad spend expected to hit $624 million over the four-day holiday weekend, according to new data from Guideline.

New insights from Guideline show sports programming will account for at least 84% of all broadcast dollars over the holiday weekend with NFL games accounting for 69% of all ad spending and 80% of the spending on sports.

“Thanksgiving weekend highlights the unmatched value of sports in video advertising,” Guideline Head of Product Strategy Alberto Leyes said. “With the NFL driving nearly 70% of national TV, advertisers see this holiday as a prime opportunity for massive reach and engagement despite double-digit growth in unit rates. From record NFL audiences to rising demand for college football, sports remain the go-to choice for connecting with viewers at scale.”

Guideline captures actual agency investment from all holding companies and most large independents, representing spend committed by contributing agency partners for yet-to-run inventory.

Ads during the NFL Thanksgiving Day games on Thursday (Nov. 28) have the highest 30-second unit rate at $1.45 million, up 16% year over year.

With the NFL setting a record of 34.1 million viewers for last year’s Thanksgiving games, Guideline reported that sports are once again expected to dominate broadcast ad spending with $570 million in spending from Nov. 28 to Dec. 1.

That accounts for 84% of all broadcast dollars and includes streaming service Prime Video’s Black Friday NFL game. Factoring in sports content on cable during those dates, the figure tallies $624 million.

Guideline also reported that the share of spending on sports programming during the Thursday-Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend is up from 81% in 2023 and up from 73% in 2019, the year prior to the pandemic.

The NFL Thanksgiving Thursday games (on NBC, Fox, CBS) have the highest 30-seond unit rate at $1.45 million, up 16% year over year. NFL Thanksgiving weekend games (NBC, Fox, CBS and Prime Video) cost $576,000 for a 30-second spot, up 11% YoY.

The Guideline data also indicated that college football also sees a boost during the holiday weekend, as 30-second units for college football Saturday games (ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC) cost $133,000, up 12% year over year.

LOS ANGELES—Major League Baseball rules like the 18-second pitch clock aren’t the only thing that’s changed about the national pastime.

How games are produced for television is undergoing a series of incremental changes that, when taken together, will bring a fresh point of view to those watching the action. That will be especially true during the Fox Sports production of this year’s World Series between the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers.

[Game 1 of the 2024 World Series is Friday, Oct. 25, starting at 8:08 p.m. (ET). The series will air exclusively on the Fox broadcast network and Fox Deportes. Streaming coverage will be available on the Fox Sports App and FoxSports.com.]

“There are some years that are revolutionary, and some years that are evolutionary,” said Michael Davies, senior vice president of technical and field operations at Fox Sports, referring to at least a half-dozen production and technology enhancements added over the years.

“You put all of these changes together, and you’re starting to say, ‘My God, there's been a ton of evolution in baseball [coverage],’ ” he said. “Year-on-year, we’ve gone from covering the game from the outside in to looking for ways to cover it from the inside out.” Much of the credit for this evolution goes to Fox Sports producer Pete Macheska, director Matt Gangl and Brad Cheney, vice president of field operations and engineering, Davies said.

Inside-Out
Fox Sports is augmenting familiar production staples like Dirt Cams, on-field mics and in-game player interviews, which have helped to bring an “inside-out” perspective to viewers, with enhanced versions of other production technology.

Perhaps the most notable enhancement will be a new Ump View camera that brings a far clearer point of view from behind the plate to the production.

“Ump View is a fantastic camera,” Davies said. [Production coordinator] Rob Bunn and the RF Wireless guys have done a phenomenal job improving that camera. We’re using their very new camera now, and that actually makes a big difference in terms of clarity, eliminating motion blur. And the battery life is insane.”

Davies credited MLB for its willingness to work with RF Wireless to perfect an RF camera mounted at the top of the plate umpire’s mask that can be shaded to match other game cameras and support its use during games. Fox Sports, which debuted its use of the camera during the 2022 MLB All-Star Game, is looking forward to seeing its clearer shots integrated into World Series coverage, he says.

“You know, baseball, being good partners, allows us to do these things,” he said. “Their evangelism of the umpire camera was the reason that now it’s becoming an indispensable type of camera, and you know, we’re really looking forward to seeing what the next umpire cam can do.”

How drones are used also contributes to the inside-out perspective the broadcaster is seeking. Between innings, Hummingbird drones add a first-person perspective, Davies said.

“We started several years ago using drones,” he said. “Using them in the game is table stakes—not only for beauty shots but to capture a unique perspective during some interesting between-inning flights.”

Evolution To Revolution
As with its other MLB postseason coverage, Fox Sports will shoot the World Series in 1080p HDR, which Davies considers to be “table stakes” for an industry continuing to evolve from 720p and 1080i HD and standard dynamic range.

The broadcaster also will incorporate its “iterative home-run tracker” to represent home runs graphically and “make the look and sound more exciting,” as well as a new treatment for behind-the-plate ad signage that doesn’t require a green board, he said.

“We use a method to place the ads between the players and the wall,” Davies said. “It’s not revolutionary, but if you don’t think about the ads and you don't see a green board, that's a good thing.”

Fox Sports will continue to use its strike-zone treatment—a far subtler approach than others, says Davies.

“That’s something that’s uniquely Fox,” he said. “Everybody does the strike zone. We do a very subtle strike zone that you can kind of see if you’re looking for it, and you kind of miss if you’re not, which is exactly what we are trying to achieve.”

If all of these advancements are steps up the evolutionary ladder, what will characterize the next revolution in remote production? While Davies didn’t specifically identify what might be the next big thing, he did point to artificial intelligence as a potential catalyst certain to play a bigger role in the future.

“If you squint, you’ll see AI everywhere,” he said. “AI is all around us, and we’re just beginning to understand how to use it.”

Early use cases have involved video interpolation—mathematically creating new video frames squeezed between real frames, like lunch meat between two slices of bread—that have powered production tech like XtraMotion synthetic slow motion, he said.

AI algorithms also create rich metadata that makes it easier to find desired shots on the Fox Sports media asset-management system and can cut the time needed to create highlight reels and find specific shots for replays.

“What we’re looking at in the future for AI is tracking, having tracking inform different high-resolution cameras,” he said.

Even generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) will play a role in the future, but not one that threatens the jobs of those who produce the games, Davies said.

“Everybody wants to talk about Gen AI. It's funny that there just aren’t too many hard-and-fast use cases,” Davies said. “I keep hearing the same things over and over again. Like we can do real-time translation. We can do real-time descriptive audio. But in terms of the machines coming for our jobs, we're not quite seeing that yet.”

NEW YORK—July TV viewing marked a notable milestone in the evolution of how consumers watch TV and their use of streaming platforms, YouTube moved into the lead among media distributors in the July 2024 Media Distributor Gauge report, Nielsen’s monthly view of total TV consumption by media company. 

In July time spent watching YouTube on television was up 7% compared to June, leading the streaming platform to account for 10.4% of total TV in July (up from 9.9%). This marks the first time a streaming platform ranks first in the Media Distributor Gauge chart, and the first time a streamer has exceeded 10% of total TV usage in a given month. Disney, which owns both linear networks and streaming services was second with a 9.9% share. 

Nielsen noted that seasonality plays a significant role in viewing behavior fluctuations observed throughout the year, and summer months typically include increases in both streaming viewership and kids’ total TV usage. 

As such, YouTube’s leap to the top media distributor in July was driven largely by school-aged viewers (P2-17) who accounted for nearly 30% of YouTube viewership this month, and 13% of TV viewership overall—the largest usage total for that age demographic since July 2023, Nielsen said. 

TV viewing in July was also impacted by increased political news coverage and the start of the Summer Olympics. Led by coverage of the Republican National Convention, Fox News Channel saw a 39% bump in viewing this month, while Tubi notched 6% growth compared to June. Both entities helped drive a 16% increase for Fox overall. Fox added a 0.8 share point to its share of TV to finish July with 7.4% total TV usage, marking the company’s largest share of TV so far this year and moving it to 5th among media distributors. 

Even with just three days of Olympics coverage included in the July reporting interval, the impact the Summer Games had on NBCUniversal was evident, the Nielsen data showed. 

NBCU’s share of TV climbed from 8.5% in June to 9.5% in July, and viewership across all NBCU distribution channels was up 14%, driven by a 33% increase for Peacock and a 24% increase across broadcast affiliates.

Disney finished July with the second largest share of TV at 9.9% after recording a 0.9 share point loss from June. However, year-to-date totals (January – July) show that Disney leads all media distributors with 11.0% of TV viewing through seven months, followed by YouTube at 9.6% and NBCU at 9.1%. A wider lens look further emphasizes the potential impact of monthly factors like content availability and time of year.

The summer-to-fall transition is one of the most dynamic in the TV viewing landscape each year. And this year, on top of the expected return of football and a new season of scripted programming, we also factor in major TV events including the Summer Olympics and the lead up to the presidential election. With these variables in the mix, TV viewership over the next few months could be as exciting as the content that drives it.

The measurement month of July 2024 included four weeks: 07/01/2024 through 07/28/2024. Nielsen measurement weeks begin on Mondays and run through the following Sunday.

NEW YORK—A federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction in an antitrust lawsuit against the Venu Sports streaming services backed by The Walt Disney Company, Fox Corp. and Warner Bros. Discovery that will at least temporarily block the launch of the streaming service. 

The owners of Venu has hoped to launch the services around the time of the start of the NFL season. They have said they plan to appeal the decision. 

The ruling in from U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York on August 16 came in response to a lawsuit filed by Fubo that said the streaming service raised antitrust concerns that would limit competition and raise prices. 

In response, David Gandler, co-founder and CEO, Fubo, commented that “Today’s ruling is a victory not only for Fubo but also for consumers. This decision will help ensure that consumers have access to a more competitive marketplace with multiple sports streaming options. But our fight continues. Fubo has said all along that we seek equal treatment from these media giants, and a level playing field in our industry. The proposed joint venture was only the latest example of anticompetitive practices that The Walt Disney Company, FOX Corp. and Warner Bros. Discovery have consistently engaged in for many years. We believe these practices monopolize the market, stifle competition and cheat consumers from deserved choice.”

“A fair and competitive marketplace is necessary to provide consumers with multiple, robust and more affordable sports streaming options,” he continued. “We will continue to fight for fairness and for what’s best for consumers.”

Fubo had sought to stop the launch of the JV that would have controlled roughly 60%-80% of live broadcast sports content, according to its partners. Fubo said that in the court case it had presented evidence of the JV’s primary effect of limiting competition, removing consumer choice, and ultimately leading to steep price hikes for consumers and boosting profits for the partners.

Fubo said that it also intends to move forward with its lawsuit against the JV partners and their affiliates for antitrust practices. The suit, filed February 20, 2024, alleges that the vertically-integrated media companies have engaged in a years-long campaign to block Fubo’s innovative sports-first streaming business resulting in significant harm to both Fubo and consumers. 

In a joint statement, the backers of the service said: “We respectfully disagree with the court’s ruling and are appealing it. We believe that Fubo’s arguments are wrong on the facts and the law, and that Fubo has failed to prove it is legally entitled to a preliminary injunction. Venu Sports is a pro-competitive option that aims to enhance consumer choice by reaching a segment of viewers who currently are not served by existing subscription options.”

LOS ANGELES—Venu Sports, the upcoming standalone streaming service backed by Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery, has announced that it will launch at $42.99 a month, with a seven day free trial. The service has yet to unveil an exact launch date, though the joint venture is hoping to launch it before the start of the NFL season. 

The hefty price tag for the service reflects the fact that its backers are targeting sports fans outside the traditional pay TV bundle and are hoping that it will not compete with or interfere with their ability to continue to extract hefty carriage fees from pay TV operations. Some research has cast doubt on that strategy, prompting some analysts to claim it may in fact accelerate cord cutting. 

The service could still face some regulatory hurdles and TNT's loss of NBA rights after the upcoming season could also impact its prospects. 

The service announced that anyone signing up for Venu's launch price will be able to receive the service for that same price for 12-months from time of sign-up, with the ability to cancel at any time. 

At launch, Venu will offer thousands of live sports events from all the major professional sports leagues and top college conferences. The streaming service will provide access to 14 live sports channels and an expansive library of on-demand content from the collective companies' portfolios of sports networks and ESPN+.

"With an impressive portfolio of sports programming, Venu will provide sports fans in the U.S. with a single destination for watching many of the most sought-after games and events," said Pete Distad, CEO of the upcoming Venu Sports service. "We're building Venu from the ground up for fans who want seamless access to watch the sports they love, and we will launch at a compelling price point that will appeal to the cord cutter and cord-never fans currently not served by existing pay TV packages."

Subscribers to Venu will have access to linear sports networks, including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNEWS, ABC, FOX, FS1, FS2, BTN, TNT, TBS, truTV, as well as ESPN+. Programming will include three key pillars of content in the service:

• Extensive Live Games and Event Coverage of the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, WNBA, NCAA Division I football and basketball, U.S. and international soccer, combat sports, Grand Slam tennis, championship golf, INDYCAR, NASCAR and F1 auto racing, and more.
• Iconic Sports Studio Shows and Pre/Post Game Programming with ESPN's SportsCenter, First Take, Get Up!, College GameDay and The Pat McAfee Show, FOX's NFL Sunday, The Herd with Colin Cowherd, First Things First, and TNT's Inside the NBA to name a few.
• Robust Library of On-Demand Sports Content with programming that celebrates sports culture and fandom, including ESPN's 30 for 30 library, ESPN+ Originals, ESPN Films, documentary programming from Fox Sports Films, and more.

 More specifically, the live events and games on Venu will include: 

• Championship Golf: Year-round coverage of professional golf with select rounds from the Masters Tournament, extensive coverage of the PGA Championship and PGA TOUR LIVE, which brings golf fans more than 4,300 hours of live coverage from 35 tournaments a year.
• College Sports: Thousands of games and events across multiple sports from the biggest college conferences, including SEC, ACC, the Big East, Big Ten and Big 12, with extensive coverage of NCAA Football, including the College Football Playoffs, along with NCAA Men's and Women's Basketball, including March Madness.
• Combat Sports: A robust slate of boxing and MMA fight coverage throughout the year, including events from UFC, Top Rank Boxing, PFL, and Bellator.
• Grand Slam Tennis: Complete coverage of all four of the annual Grand Slam tournaments, including the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and US Open.
• MLB: Comprehensive coverage with over 700 games throughout the regular season, along with postseason National League and American League Series coverage, in addition to full coverage of the World Series. (Blackouts apply.)
• Motorsports: Coverage throughout the season of the biggest auto racing events, including all NTT INDYCAR SERIES races, NASCAR's Daytona 500 and Championship Race, and all Formula 1 events.
• NBA: Extensive coverage of the NBA with 165 regular season games, plus postseason coverage with playoff games, conference finals, and the NBA Finals, along with access to the biggest studio shows, including Inside the NBA from TNT Sports, along with ESPN's NBA Today and NBA Countdown. (Blackouts apply.)
• NFL: Broad NFL coverage provided by ESPN/ABC and FOX, with over 120 regular season, Wild Card and Divisional round playoff games, the NFC Championship game,Super Bowl LIX in February 2025, and Super Bowl LXI in February 2027.* Venu will also have ESPN's Emmy Award-Winning Monday Night Football with Peyton & Eli, along with FOX NFL Kickoff and FOX NFL Sunday.
• NHL: Extensive coverage of the NHL 2024-25 season with over 1,200 regular season games and all postseason playoff games, All-Star Game, and Stanley Cup Finals, with access to NHL studio programming, including NHL on TNT Face Off and ESPN's NHL studio show, The Point. (Blackouts apply.)
• U.S. and International Soccer: Home for extensive men's and women's soccer coverage with some of the biggest leagues and tournaments worldwide, including the FIFA World Cup, UEFA European Football Championship, FA Cup, CONMEBOL Copa América, and MLS Cup Championship, along with MLS and NWSL regular season and playoff game coverage, in addition to Bundesliga, Eredivisie, and LALIGA coverage.
• WNBA: Regular season coverage of the WNBA and full postseason coverage with every playoff game.
• UFL: Complete coverage of the United Football League, which just wrapped its inaugural season broadcast across FOX Sports and ESPN and Disney properties.
• Venu will also offer the world's biggest cycling events, every game of the Premiere Lacrosse League, coverage of Major League Rugby, all three of horse racing's Triple Crown events, and more.

Fans can find updates on the latest news and information about Venu Sports at www.venu.com. 

NEW YORK—Fox Corporation has announced an expanded deal with the ad tech platform FreeWheel that will expand Fox’s dynamic ad insertion capabilities and roll out new co-developed targeting technology. FreeWheel will also become Fox’s primary ad serving partner across the entire One Fox enterprise.

As part of the agreement FreeWheel’s technology will now power Fox’s ability to offer dynamic ad insertion in college football, allowing advertisers to purchase more premium live sports inventory from Fox while also incorporating a variety of features to provide an optimal viewing experience for audiences. 

Fox’s AdRise and FreeWheel have also partnered to build technology that can enrich an ad opportunity with contextual signals ranging from specific player or team information to the type of play or score happening in the live game. This further allows advertisers to purchase One Fox inventory in high attention moments where audiences are paying closer attention to the onscreen action, the companies reported. 

The move is part of Fox’s ongoing shift towards automated forms of ad transactions. FreeWheel will utilize capabilities across its portfolio, including Beeswax, to create a unified pool of premium video ad inventory across the entire One Fox portfolio that can be more directly available to marketers using FreeWheel’s technology.   

This long-term deal expands on FreeWheel’s previous relationship with Fox. In November 2022, Fox Corporation announced that it had tapped FreeWheel to power its One Fox video inventory across the company’s leading entertainment, sports, streaming and news portfolio.

“The TV ad marketplace is very complex and when we thought about who is doing a great job helping advertisers to cut through that clutter and drive ROI, FreeWheel clearly stood out,” said Darren Sherriff, senior vice president, advertising technology solutions, Fox. “We’re thrilled to be able to offer our advertising partners a powerful way to reach engaged audiences across the entire Fox portfolio, including our premium live sports events, while prioritizing and protecting the viewer experience.” 

“We are excited and proud to strengthen our relationship with Fox,” added Katy Loria, chief revenue officer, FreeWheel. “Our antidote to today’s complicated ad landscape is to provide technology and solutions to help further accelerate the momentum, growth and innovation behind premium video. As Fox’s primary ad serving partner, we are looking forward to working with them – and advertisers – to drive better business results.”

Top executives from Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery have consistently insisted that their joint venture to launch the Venu Sports streaming bundle in the fall of 2024 would not harm the pay TV industry or accelerate cord cutting. 

Right from the start, a number of analysts have doubted that assessment. Now a new survey from Aluma provides new notable and compelling data supporting the idea that the Venu service will negatively impact the already crumbling pay TV industry. 

The issue is important not only for pay TV operators but also for broadcasters who have staked much of their financial future on extracting ever larger sums of money from retransmission consent deals with pay TV operators. 

In earnings calls right after the sports streaming service was announced, the backers of Venu Sports argued that the new service targets cord cutters and would not hurt the pay TV industry. 

However, the new Aluma Insights study finds that pay TV subscribers are far more inclined than non-subscribers to sign up for the Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery (DFW) sports bundle when it launches. One-in-five pay TV subscribers are at least moderately likely to sign up for the DFW bundle, double the rate of those without pay TV, reports Michael Greeson, principal analyst, at Aluma Insights. 

The data is based on cost-averaged interest across three randomly and exclusively assigned price points: $29.99, $39.99, and $49.99 per month.

Among the pay TV customers likely to sign up for the DFW bundle, 39% are at least moderately likely to cancel their pay TV service as a result. And MVPDs are taking notice, Greeson explained. 

“A loss of even 10% to 15% of the already-declining base of paid subscribers would severely diminish the ability of operators to stay afloat,” noted Michael Greeson, principal analyst at Aluma. “And if those launching the DFW bundle intend to rely on demand from those without pay TV, they can forget about it. Less than one-in-ten are legitimate prospects for the service.”

In other words, the most lucrative audience for the DFW bundle is pay-TV subscribers, not at all what MVPDs want to hear, Greeson noted. 

The analyst also notes that the potential impact of the DFW bundle on pay-TV subscriptions spurred virtual MVPD Fubo to file an antitrust lawsuit against the three companies. It charges that these networks continue to thwart Fubo’s service by forcing it to buy bloated channel bundles in order to distribute the high-value live sports they own.

“If the Department of Justice does not enjoin the DFW venture or level the playing field for Fubo to license their content at rates larger operators enjoy, Fubo could lose as much as 10% to 15% of its subscriber base by summer 2025,” Greeson noted. 

The data also raises some interesting questions about how successful the streaming JV might be. 

One factor that could constrain uptake of the new bundle is price. At the moment, there is a modest consensus it will launch at $50 a month. If it does, it would lessen its disruptive potential. Aluma’s research found that only 11% of decision-makers are at least moderately likely to sign up for the bundle at $49.99 per month, half the demand at $29.99 a month, the Aluma data showed. 

The data comes from March and April 2024, when Aluma Insights surveyed 2,032 US adults that use a broadband internet service at home, watch TV at least once a month, and who make or share in making decisions about their household’s TV and video services. Respondents were randomly drawn from a panel of over three million double-opt-in participants managed by a top-5 sample vendor. Quotas were set to represent the population in focus using data from Aluma, Pew, and US Census data.

NEW YORK—As declines in linear TV viewing make the ongoing popularity of live sports, particularly football, central to financial success of the TV industry, the NFL has released details of its 2024 regular season that will play a major role in the success of broadcasters, networks and streaming companies in the last four months of 2024. 

The league schedule includes specific details on the specific regular season games that will be aired or streamed by CBS, NBC, Fox, ESPN, ABC, Prime Video, Peacock, Netflix and The NFL Network during the 18-week, 272-game regular-season schedule for 2024, which kicks off on Thursday night, September 5, in Kansas City and concludes with 16 division games in Week 18 – two on Saturday, January 4, and 14 on Sunday, January 5. 

For the 2024 NFL regular-season schedule by week, click here.

For the 2024 NFL preseason schedule, click here. 

More specifically, the NFL released these details about the schedule, which it described as follows: 

The 2024 NFL schedule, powered by AWS, will feature each team playing 17 regular-season games and three preseason games for the fourth consecutive year. The 17th game will feature teams from opposing conferences that finished in the same standing within their respective divisions the previous season. The NFC will be the home conference for the 17th game in 2024. For how opponents were determined for the 2024 season, click here. 

The NFL uses the power of Amazon Web Services (AWS) to power its schedule-making process. There are approximately a quadrillion possible schedule combinations each NFL season and over 26,000 factors to take into consideration such as stadium availability, travel requirements, primetime games, competitive fairness and division rivalries. The NFL uses AWS to run high performance computing workloads to find the best possible schedule each year. For more information, click here. 

The NFL's 105th season begins with the league's annual primetime kickoff game, as the defending Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs host the Baltimore Ravens at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on Thursday, September 5 (8:20 p.m. ET, NBC) in a rematch of last season's AFC Championship Game. 

The two most recent winners of the Most Valuable Player award, Baltimore's Lamar Jackson (2023) and Kansas City's Patrick Mahomes (2022), are scheduled to face off for the sixth time in their careers, including the postseason. Should both players start as expected, Jackson (two-time MVP) and Mahomes (two-time MVP) would become the seventh different pair of quarterbacks to meet in a regular-season game after both players had won multiple MVP awards. 

The NFL's primetime kickoff game – which has been an annual tradition since 2002 – will feature a rematch of one of the previous season's conference championship games for only the third time and first since 2010, when New Orleans defeated Minnesota in a rematch of the NFC Championship. The other instance was 2004, when New England defeated Indianapolis in a rematch of the AFC Championship.

On Friday, September 6 (8:15 p.m. ET, Peacock), the Green Bay Packers will meet the Philadelphia Eagles at Corinthians Arena in São Paulo, Brazil, the first-ever regular season NFL game to be played in South America. It will mark the first time the NFL has played a game on Friday of their opening weekend in over 50 years, when the St. Louis Cardinals and Los Angeles Rams met on September 18, 1970.

Week 1 continues on CBS at 4:05 PM ET, with two head coaches making their Week 1 debut with their club as Antonio Pierce and the Las Vegas Raiders visit Jim Harbaugh and the Los Angeles Chargers in an AFC West showdown, while Super Bowl-winning head coach Sean Payton and the Denver Broncos travel to Seattle to face the Seahawks, where Mike Macdonald will make his NFL head coaching debut. On FOX at 4:25 PM ET, the Dallas Cowboys visit the Cleveland Browns in a matchup of two 2023 playoff teams and the Washington Commanders, under new head coach Dan Quinn, travel to take on the reigning NFC South champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers. 

Later that day, NBC's Sunday Night Football begins with Mathew Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams visiting Jared Goff and the Detroit Lions (8:20 p.m. ET), in a rematch of last season's NFC Wild Card round, in which the Lions earned their first playoff victory since 1991. NBC will televise one game each Sunday night in Weeks 1-17. Additionally, NBC will feature Miami at Green Bay (8:20 p.m. ET) on Thanksgiving night as well as Houston at Kansas City (1 p.m. ET) on Saturday in Week 16. 

Kickoff Weekend concludes on Monday, September 9, with ESPN/ABC's Monday Night Football, featuring Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets visiting Brock Purdy and the San Francisco 49ers (8:15 p.m. ET). YouTube TV is the presenting sponsor of Kickoff Weekend, inclusive of the entire Thursday through Monday slate. 

ESPN will televise one game each Monday night in Weeks 1-17 and will be simulcast on ABC in Weeks 1, 8, 14 and 17. In Weeks 3 and 4, there will be two Monday night games with broadcasts at 7:30 p.m. ET and 8:15 p.m. ET. In Week 7, there will be two Monday night games, with Baltimore at Tampa Bay on ESPN at 8:15 p.m. ET and the Los Angeles Chargers at Arizona on ESPN+ at 9 p.m. ET. In Week 15, the two Monday night games begin 30 minutes apart, with Chicago at Minnesota at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and Atlanta at Las Vegas at 8:30 p.m. ET on ESPN. 

Additionally, ESPN/ABC will air two games with playoff implications on the Saturday of Week 18, January 4, at 4:30 p.m. ET and 8 p.m. ET. These games will be selected following the conclusion of Week 17. There will be no Monday night game on the final regular-season weekend (Week 18) to provide more flexibility for the scheduling of the opening weekend of the NFL playoffs. 

Thursday Night Football will air exclusively on Prime Video, kicking off its slate in Week 2 with an AFC East matchup as the Miami Dolphins host the Buffalo Bills (8:15 p.m. ET). Prime Video will broadcast 15 Thursday Night Football games between Weeks 2-17 (excluding Thanksgiving night) and exclusively stream the second-ever NFL Black Friday game when the Kansas City Chiefs host the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 13 (3 p.m. ET). 

The first-ever NFL games streamed on Netflix will be played on Christmas, Wednesday, December 25, in Week 17, as the Kansas City Chiefs visit the Pittsburgh Steelers (1 p.m. ET) and the Baltimore Ravens travel to face the Houston Texans (4:30 p.m. ET). Additionally, Netflix will stream at least one holiday game in 2025 and 2026. 

NFL Network will exclusively televise seven games – four international games and three games in Week 17 on Saturday, December 28. 

The NFL schedule features five international regular-season games – three in the UK, one in Germany and one in Brazil, marking the first-ever regular-season NFL game to be played in South America. As part of the league's expansion of the regular season to 17 games, it was determined that, beginning with the 2022 season, teams from the conference whose teams were eligible for a ninth regular-season home game would be among the designated group to play a neutral-site international game each year. 

The international slate begins in Week 1 in Brazil with Green Bay and Philadelphia (8:15 p.m. ET, Peacock) and follows with games in three consecutive weeks, beginning in London at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in Week 5 with the New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings (Sunday, 9:30 a.m. ET, NFL Network). In Week 6, Jacksonville meets Chicago (Sunday, 9:30 a.m. ET, NFL Network) at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium before the London action shifts to Wembley Stadium in Week 7, when the Jaguars will meet the New England Patriots (Sunday, 9:30 a.m. ET, NFL Network). The Jaguars are scheduled to play two regular-season games outside of the United States for the second-consecutive season. 

As part of the league's commitment to playing regular-season games in Germany, the NFL will conclude the international slate of games in Munich in Week 10 as the New York Giants meet the Carolina Panthers (Sunday, 9:30 a.m. ET, NFL Network). It will mark the league's second game in Munich at Allianz Arena – Home of FC Bayern Munich and the fourth international regular-season game to be played in Germany. 

The Madden Thanksgiving Celebration will feature a tripleheader on Thursday, November 28. The first game will feature a pair of NFC North foes, as the Bears travel to Detroit to face the Lions (12:30 p.m. ET, CBS). The late afternoon game will match two NFC East rivals, as the New York Giants visit the Dallas Cowboys (4:30 p.m. ET, FOX). The Thanksgiving Day festivities end with the Miami Dolphins traveling to Green Bay to face the Packers on NBC (8:20 p.m. ET). 

The regular season will conclude with Week 18 on Saturday, January 4, and Sunday, January 5. For the 15th consecutive year, all 16 games scheduled for the final week of the season are division contests, enhancing the potential for more games with playoff ramifications. 

The NFL's 32 teams will each play 17 games over 18 weeks. Byes will begin in Week 5 and end in Week 14. 

Additional 2024 schedule notes:

• Fourteen games will be Super Bowl rematches and nine 2024 games are rematches from the 2023 playoffs, including Super Bowl LVIII (Kansas City at San Francisco in Week 7), both Championship Games (Baltimore at Kansas City in Week 1; Detroit at San Francisco in Week 17) and all four Divisional playoff games (Tampa Bay at Detroit in Week 2; Kansas City at Buffalo in Week 11; San Francisco at Green Bay in Week 12; Baltimore at Houston in Week 17).
• The top-two picks in the 2024 NFL Draft, Caleb Williams and Jayden Daniels, are scheduled to meet in Week 8 when the Chicago Bears visit the Washington Commanders (1 p.m. ET, CBS). Should both players start, it would mark the sixth game in NFL history between rookie starting quarterbacks selected with the first and second overall picks in the NFL Draft. Williams and the Bears are also slated to play against No. 3 overall pick Drake Maye and the New England Patriots in Week 10 (1 p.m. ET, FOX) and No. 4 overall pick Marvin Harrison and the Arizona Cardinals in Week 9 (4:05 p.m. ET, CBS). 

The NFL will continue to use “flexible scheduling" this season to ensure exciting and meaningful games are available for viewing by the largest number of fans. For up-to-date information about “flexible scheduling" for the 2024 season, please visit https://www.nfl.com/schedules/flexible-scheduling-procedures. 

As in prior seasons, for Week 18, the final weekend of the season, the scheduling of the Saturday, Sunday afternoon, and the Sunday night games is not assigned. In Week 18, two games will be played on Saturday (4:30 p.m. ET and 8 p.m. ET) with the remainder to be played on Sunday afternoon (1 p.m. ET and 4:25 p.m. ET) and one matchup to be played on Sunday night (8:20 p.m. ET). Specific dates, start times, and networks for Week 18 matchups will be determined and announced following the conclusion of Week 17. 

Introduced in 2020 and continuing for a fifth-consecutive year, a total of 14 teams – seven each in the American and National Football Conferences – will make the postseason. The No. 1 seed in each conference will receive a bye in the Wild Card round. The remaining division champions in each conference with the best records will be seeded 2, 3, and 4, followed by the next three teams per conference with the best records seeded 5, 6, and 7. 

Since 1990 – a streak of 34 consecutive seasons – at least four new teams have qualified for the playoffs that missed the postseason the year before, including seven of the 14 playoff teams in 2022. 

AFC and NFC Wild Card games will feature the 2 seed hosting the 7 seed, the 3 seed hosting the 6 seed and the 4 seed hosting the 5 seed. 

Super Wild Card Weekend presented by Verizon for the 2024 season will feature six games, starting on Saturday, January 11.  

Wild Card winners join the top seeds in each conference in the Divisional Playoffs, presented by Intuit TurboTax, on Saturday and Sunday, January 18-19. The AFC and NFC Championship Games, presented by Intuit TurboTax, will be played on Sunday, January 26. The winners meet two weeks later on Sunday, February 9, in Super Bowl LIX at New Orleans' Caesars Superdome (FOX), marking the 11th time the league's final game will be played in New Orleans. 

The NFL is the only sports league that presents all regular-season and postseason games on free, over-the-air television in local markets. All postseason games are distributed nationally. 

Westwood One will broadcast on radio all NFL primetime games, the three Thanksgiving Day games and the entire NFL playoffs. SiriusXM subscribers will have access to every live NFL game, as well as exclusive 24/7 talk channel coverage on SXM NFL Radio. All live and local prime time games will be available to stream on mobile devices with NFL+. 

LOS ANGELES & NEW YORK—More than three months after announcing plans to launch a major new sports streaming service, ESPN, Fox Corp. and Warner Bros. Discovery, have finally given the service a name: “Venu Sports”. 

Along with the new branding the joint venture backers have also launched a website for the service, though no pricing or other important details have been disclosed. 

“We are excited to officially introduce Venu Sports, a brand that we feel captures the spirit of an all-new streaming home where sports fans outside of the traditional pay TV eco-system can experience an incredible collection of live sports, all in one place,” said Pete Distad, CEO of the forthcoming Venu Sports streaming service. “As preparations for the platform continue to accelerate, we are singularly focused on delivering a best-in-class product for our target audience, built from the ground up using the latest technologies to engage and entertain discerning sports fans wanting one-stop access to live games.”

Venu Sports, which is on track to launch this fall in the U.S, will bring together the companies’ portfolios of sports networks and certain direct to consumer services in a new streaming sports service. It will be operated by a joint venture created by ESPN, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery.  

The proposed service has faced anti-trust criticism from rivals and could face regulatory scrutiny. 

Venu Sports, scheduled to launch in the fall of 2024, will be made available directly to consumers via a new app. Subscribers would also have the ability to bundle the product, including with Disney+, Hulu or Max, the companies have said. 

The service will feature content from all the major professional sports leagues and college sports. 

BRISTOL, Conn.—With the first weekend of the United Football League (UFL) complete, there are early signs the new league’s emphasis on using technology to engage television viewers more fully may be working.

An early season example was a touchdown scoring play in the fourth quarter of the D.C. Defenders vs. San Antonio Brahmas game that was called back after Defenders Jean Delance jumped early. 

“There was a notable exchange where a player [Brahmas linebacker Delonte Scott] called out a personal foul. It came to be a major [flagrant] personal foul … and a player [Delance] was actually ejected,” says Jarrett Baker, manager of remote operations at ESPN.

Viewers could clearly hear Scott saying to Defenders quarterback Jordan Ta’amu: “Hey, your boy spit on me again, it’s over. He spit on me again, it’s over.”

Capturing the on-field comment is the direct result of the UFL micing six players and coaches every week, says Baker.

“The viewers are hearing about that as you head into the replay,” he says. “Then you hear the conversation with the officials and the replay center and what they’re looking at. While it takes a couple of minutes to sort out, the viewer at home knows what they’re looking at. It’s not a guessing game.”

As a result, viewers are more engaged in what’s happening on the field, says Tommy Mitchell, senior manager of remote operations at ESPN. “Whether it’s officials, coaches, players to players, it [the wireless communications] brings viewers into the game,” he says.

The new league, the result of the merger between the USFL and XFL, carries on the XFL practice of outfitting some players and coaches with wireless mics and sharing what they say during the game—something fans “don’t see anywhere else,” says Baker.

ESPN shares UFL coverage with Fox Sports. Between the two, the broadcasters will produce four regular season games each weekend through June 1. Each will then produce a conference championship game, and ultimately Fox Sports will produce the league championship on June 16.

(This weekend, ESPN will air the Brahmas vs. Memphis Showboats at noon EDT and the Arlington Renegades vs. St. Louis Battlehawks at 8 p.m. EDT, Saturday, April 6, as well as the Birmingham Stallions vs. Michigan Panthers at noon EDT, Sunday, April 7. Fox Sports will telecast the Houston Roughnecks vs. D.C. Defenders at 4 p.m. EDT.)

The UFL has also partnered with BOLT6 to deploy the company’s optical tracking technology for precise ball spotting and instant down-and-distance. “It's a perfect example of leveraging technology,” says Baker.

Six fixed cameras have been deployed at each UFL stadium for the entire season. They are used to map each field with a virtual grid. Then using a laser-based Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) system, BOLT6 determines exactly where the ball should be spotted based on where forward momentum stopped. 

“In many cases, the chain gang is there just for decoration,” says Baker, referencing the officiating crew traditionally responsible for measuring to determine if a team has made a first down. “If it’s a close read…, BOLT6 works in the cloud, and on our director’s call, they can roll an animation that shows a review and instantly tells viewers if it is a first down.”

Planning and setup
Being brand new, the UFL offered league management and broadcasters alike the chance to take a fresh look at how best to use existing and new television technologies to engage viewers more fully in games. But they didn’t start with a blank slate.

“We took under advisement what we accomplished with the XFL last year,” says Mitchell, pointing to micing players and coaches. “We took a lot of what we learned last year, tailored some of those things and streamlined them into a broader approach to the UFL.”

For ESPN, that streamlining comes in the form of uniformity. While it had different versions of how it produced XFL games, ESPN has one approach to UFL game production, he says.

“It allows us to do a lot of things in replication, so it’s easier to communicate and easier to work with the league when all of our plans are the same and our shows are all the same size,” says Mitchell. “Our execution model is all the same, which was not the case in the past.”

While this uniformity streamlines production, it does not diminish the overall goal of the league for television. “They [the league] definitely wanted the big game feel and that comes with the technology that you use—a Skycam, for instance,” says Mitchell. “If you don’t have a Skycam on the game, people notice. They wanted super slow-motion; they wanted RF to have access on the field.”

“We were able to manipulate our plans to fit the vast majority of those requests,” he adds.

ESPN is producing UFL games in 1080p SDR and down-converts the productions to 720p HD for distribution. The sports network is employing REMI (remote integration) production from its facility in Bristol, Conn.  

The move to 1080p HD using REMI production was a big step for ESPN. “Getting that many feeds coming in and out of the plant [in Bristol], especially on a weekend when all three crews are working, that’s a pretty big undertaking,” says Baker.

Not only is the Bristol facility servicing ESPN, but also ABC, ESPN2 and digital with REMI production resources assigned to the 2024 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament, Sunday Night Baseball and the NHL. “That stuff doesn’t stop,” he says.

Besides the seven hard cameras, one of which is on a sideline cart, ESPN is deploying two wireless handhelds, which can be taken into the locker rooms, a Skycam and a robotic booth camera. ESPN also takes multiple feeds from the UFL, including fixed POV camera angles, says Baker.

Between 60 and 70 feeds leave the on-site truck for multiple destinations, including Pico, Calif., for replay, Bristol for REMI production and a DVSport site for review, he adds.

Moving on
Going into Week Two of the season, ESPN is generally pleased with its performance out of the gates, but it’s likely there will be small tweaks in its production from week to week.

“I think like any new property, you’re always going to look at what you did really well, acknowledge that and identify areas where you can grow,” says Baker.

Improvements going forward come down to addressing the finer details. “Because there were so many different groups involved after the leagues completed their merger in January and people are still getting up to speed on their roles, it’s making sure we’re communicating and checking that we have that one little detail on tab seven of page 13 covered,” he says.

“It’s those sorts of little adjustments that just come with everybody settling into their roles.”

(Editor’s Note: To read about the Fox Sports UFL coverage see: “Fox Sports Prepares For UFL, ‘A League Defined By Technology’.”)

The new sports streaming service from Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery doesn’t yet have a name, but the joint venture backing the streamer does have now a CEO with the appointment of Pete Distad. 

The streaming service is expected to launch sometime in the fall of 2024. 

Distad, who has extensive experience in media, sports and technology at companies like Apple and Hulu, will assume oversight of all aspects of the joint venture, including overall strategy, distribution, marketing, sales and more.

Distad worked at Apple from 2013-2023, where he was responsible for the business, operations and global distribution for video, sports and Apple TV+. While there, he launched the new Apple TV in 2015, and later led teams that launched and scaled the Apple TV app, Apple TV+, and MLS Season Pass. He originally joined the company to lead product marketing for the Apple TV hardware product.

His Hulu experience (2007-2013) included serving as senior vice president of marketing and distribution on the executive team. He was part of the original Hulu launch team, overseeing customer acquisition and retention, distribution and marketing.

Prior to Hulu, Distad worked in various technology and management consulting roles, including at McKinsey & Company, Calence (now Insight) and Andersen Consulting (now Accenture).

“This is an incredible opportunity to build and grow a differentiated product that will serve passionate sports fans in the US outside of the traditional pay TV bundle,” Distad said. “I’m excited to be able to pull together the industry-leading sports content portfolios from these three companies to deliver a new best-in-class service.”

Upon establishment of the JV, Distad will report to its board of directors, which will include representatives selected by each of the three companies. He will be based at the to-be-established offices of the joint venture in Los Angeles, along with the independent management team he will assemble.

In a letter to the FCC, U.S. Senators Robert P. Casey, Jr. and John Fetterman have weighed in on the license renewal of Fox’s WTXF-TV in Philadelphia, saying “after half of a year of public comment, the FCC should act swiftly to conclude its review of the station’s license renewal. WTXF-TV has provided a platform that uplifts Philadelphia's diverse voices and supports local journalism, and we hope that its delivery of local news and local programming to the community is not disrupted.”

The two U.S. Senators also noted that “as United States Senators for Pennsylvania, many of our constituents in the Greater Philadelphia Area look to Fox 29 (WTXF-TV) as a reliable local media outlet that helps residents stay connected to their community and current events. With the station’s broadcast license renewal still under review by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), it is critical that the process be administered in a fair and neutral manner, as it has been for decades. The FCC has an important responsibility under the Communications Act to determine whether a broadcast licensee has served the public interest when it assesses a license renewal. We are aware that for six months, the FCC has been engaging the public to collect comments regarding WTXF-TV's license renewal. The record is replete with comments from Philadelphia residents, organizations, and elected officials from a range of backgrounds attesting to the station's commitment to upholding the core values of local broadcasting and to serving Philadelphia’s residents. We hope that you take these comments as a testament to the importance this station has in the community.”

Following the April 3, 2023 application by Fox Television Stations, LLC to renew the license of station WTXF-TV, the Media and Democracy Project (MAD); Milo Vassallo; John McGinty; Peter Lems; Chenjerai Kumanyika; and Bill Hartman filed a petition on July 3 to deny the Application. 

They cited the $781 million judgment in the Dominion case against Fox Corporation, which is the parent company of Fox News and the Fox-owned stations. They argued that the election lies regarding Dominion and the 2020 election that aired on Fox News were grounds for the FCC to hold an evidentiary hearing and rule that Fox was unfit to hold the license. 

Since then others have filed informal objections, including the former president of Fox Broadcasting Jamie Kellner, Alfred Sikes, a former Republican FCC chairman, former Democratic FCC Commissioner Ervin Duggan and ex-Fox News Channel commentator Bill Kristol.

Meanwhile Fox and a number of other local politicians have filed papers urging the FCC to renew the stations license, citing its reliable local news and First Amendment issues. 

The letter from Casey and Fetterman is available here. 

NEW YORK—FuboTV Inc. has filed an antitrust lawsuit against The Walt Disney Company, Fox Corp., Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. and their affiliates, alleging that the three media giants have engaged in a years-long campaign to block Fubo’s sports-first streaming business resulting in significant harm to both Fubo and consumers. The complaint alleges that the forthcoming launch of a sports-streaming joint venture is the latest example of this campaign.

Fubo TV initially raised antitrust issues shortly after Disney, Fox and WBD announced plans to launch a massive sports streaming services in the fall of 2024 and has now followed up on those complaints with a wide ranging antitrust lawsuit. It claims that the defendants have engaged in a long-running pattern of stymying Fubo’s sports-first streaming service by engaging in anti-competitive practices. 

“For decades, Defendants have leveraged their iron grip on sports content to extract billions of dollars in supra-competitive profits” by engaging in practices causing consumers to pay more for highly popular sports content and resulting in significant damages to both Fubo and its customers,” the complaint said. 

In the complaint Fubo alleges that the defendants engaged in a number of tactics to prevent Fubo from competing fairly in the marketplace, including unfair “bundling”, which forced Fubo to carry dozens of expensive non-sports channels that Fubo’s customers do not want as a condition of licensing the Defendants’ sports channels. 

Other examples of anti-competitive behavior cited in the complaint include the defendants charging Fubo content licensing rates that are as much as 30%-50%+ higher than rates they charge other distributors. Defendants also impose non-market penetration requirements (the percentage of total subscribers to which a content package must be sold to or cannot exceed) on Fubo, the complaint alleged.  

Fubo said that it believes it has incurred billions of dollars in damages as a result of the Defendants’ actions. 

Fubo described the recently announced joint venture as simply the latest coordinated step in the Defendants’ campaign to eliminate competition in the sports-first streaming market and capture this market for themselves.

The complaint also argues that the Defendants control more than half of the U.S. sports rights market. By combining to license their must-have sports content on a standalone basis to their own joint venture, other distributors, including Fubo, would be at an extreme competitive disadvantage to the detriment of millions of U.S. consumers, according to the complaint.

The complaint was filed in Federal Court in the Southern District of New York.

“Each of these companies has consistently engaged in anticompetitive practices that aim to monopolize the market, stifle any form of competition, create higher pricing for subscribers and cheat consumers from deserved choice,” David Gandler, co-founder and CEO, Fubo commented. “By joining together to exclusively reserve the rights to distribute a specialized live sports package, we believe these corporations are erecting insurmountable barriers that will effectively block any new competitors from entering the market. This strategy ensures that consumers desiring a dedicated sports channel lineup are left with no alternative but to subscribe to the Defendants’ joint venture.”

“We have previously collaborated with each of these companies so that we could offer ‘must-have’ sports content to Fubo customers,” he continued. “For many years, they have challenged our business at every opportunity through pernicious practices. While other new competitors were prevented from entering the market, Fubo has continuously fought back. The Defendants’ unconscionable practices have impacted our ability to grow and have deprived consumers of a compelling and competitively-priced product. Simply put, this sports cartel blocked our playbook for many years and now they are effectively stealing it for themselves.”

“Silence is no longer an option,” he concluded. “The fact that live sporting events dominated television viewership in 2023, with 97 of the top 100 broadcasts, highlights the critical importance of sports in entertainment and the necessity for its broad dissemination. Reports that the Department of Justice intends to look into the joint venture are encouraging, and it evidences the potential negative and widespread impact this alliance will have. Fubo seeks equal treatment in terms of pricing and all relevant conditions from these media giants to ensure we can compete fairly for the benefit of consumers. Our customers deserve access to a competitively priced offering with innovative features designed by Fubo for an unparalleled sports viewing experience.”