This has got to be one of the worst ideas ever.
Former ESPN President John Skipper thinks it would be a good idea if the NFL turns the Super Bowl into a pay-per-view event.
Appearing on The Big Suey Podcast on Dan Le Batard’s podcast network, Skipper said the NFL would “rake in billions” of dollars by making viewers pay for the big game
“I assume that there are some number of people that’s the only game they watched the entire year, and they don’t want to be left out. That’s a pretty great place to be for a live event,” Skipper said. “50 percent of the country does not want to be left out.”
“It leads me to a slightly different discussion; if half the country is watching your game and they’re watching it for free, how many of those people would pay a big sum of money to watch the game?”
Over 113 million viewers tuned into watching the Chiefs win Super Bowl LVII over the Eagles. The victory gave the Chiefs their second Lombardi Trophy in four years.
The former ESPN boss was eventually asked if the NFL would consider charging fans to watch the Super Bowl in an effort to ramp up revenues.
“If you just assume that half of the people watched would still figure out a way to watch if it costs $200-$250 for a household, you’re just going to have more of what David said, bigger parties,” Skipper said.
“I don’t know how many households, I assume it’s half the households who watched; if it was only a quarter of them are willing to pay $20 to have a party at their house, it would still get you into the billions of dollars for a single game, and that is the single best way I can think of for the NFL to increase their annual revenue take for their clubs, is to make the Super Bowl a pay-per-view event.”
Aside from the game action, another big draw for viewers is the annual halftime show. FOX Sports said the Apple Music Halftime Show featuring Rihanna drew an average of 118.7 million viewers. The figure represents the second most-watched performance in Super Bowl history.
