Fans are consuming pro football games at “record levels,” according to the president of the San Francisco 49ers.
But with ratings for NFL games sliding amid the changing media landscape, Al Guido says the league needs to better job of reaching viewers.
“If you look at the deal we did with Amazon, if you look at the Verizon-Oath deal, the Thursday night deal -- for us, we gotta get to a point where we have content in every single fan’s hand,” he told Cheddar in an interview. “And we’ve removed some of the exclusivities, which I think will lead to better ratings moving forward.”
Guido was referencing the deal struck between the league and Fox this week to carry Thursday Night Football games for the next five seasons.
The $3 billion price tag raised some eyebrows in light of ratings numbers -- research firm MoffettNathanson found viewership was down 13 percent during the regular season this year, and as much as 20 percent for the playoffs. Whether those declines continue into this weekend’s Super Bowl remains to be seen.
The New England Patriots will face off against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, February 4th.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/how-the-san-francisco-49ers-are-taking-advantage-of-silicon-valley).
This year, CES marked a new partnership between gaming hardware maker Alienware and "League of Legends" developer Riot Games, a union that was a year in the making, according to the general manager at Dell's gaming arm, Alienware. "It actually started here a year ago," Azor told Cheddar at the Las Vegas conference on Wednesday. "That's where we first met."
Devon Still, a former defensive end for the Cincinnati Bengals, is sharing his personal playbook ー "Still in the Game," a self help-style manual for success. Still, who retired from the NFL in 2017, told Cheddar the new book revisits his most dramatic challenges ー most notably, his daughter's cancer diagnosis.
League of Legends' Korean scene has a new look. While the region's SK Telecom T1 has remained the dominant force in competitions, other contenders threaten its position. In particular, last season saw teams like Griffin and KT Rolster take advantage of a weakened SKT T1, which missed the Worlds Finals in 2018 for the first time in several years.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2019.
TSM’s Fortnite pro Ali "Myth" Kabbani ignited a conversation last month about esports player unions when he suggested he might start one for the Fortnite community. But esports unions were on the mind of Stephen "Snoopeh" Ellis long before Kabbani pushed them into gamers' consciousness. “There’s a huge lack of education and awareness amongst players in the importance of taking their career seriously," Snoopeh told Cheddar Sports.
Esports fans tuning into Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's new show on NBC, "The Titan Games," may be surprised to see a familiar face: Alex "Goldenboy" Mendez, who is more likely as a commentator for "Overwatch" or "Halo" than for an athletic obstacle gauntlet.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2018.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Monday, Jan. 7, 2019.
Will “wiill” Sims, in-game leader of the NobleGG team that recently qualified for the NPL preseason, started gaming as a League of Legends player in 2012. But his League of Legends skills didn’t foreshadow his later esports success. Sims talked with Cheddar Sports about his unlikely path from casual gamer to PUBG pro.
It's no secret that much of the popularity of Epic Games' smash hit Fortnite comes from its status as a free-to-play game. Now, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter says two other surprising titles may make the switch: Overwatch and Call of Duty.
