>> i am caroline hyde. >> i am romaine bostick. >> i am taylor riggs. >> the cowboys are taking on the brady bucaneers. major sporting events are drawing more viewers, ratings are still down significantly from pre-pandemic times.

nba playoff viewership is down 18%. the tv viewership down. there is a re-think of advertising. the espn chairman was on bloomberg earlier today and he made it clear that it is less about attracting fans in the traditional sense and more about the leap to broadcast networks following the fans to where they want to be. >> hourly partners are really embracing sports betting. more and more americans are able to participate now and from our perspective, it is really natural for espn to do the same. our mission is to serve the sports fan anytime, anywhere.

that includes the sports betting fan. sports betting has been a strong and vibrant part of our offering for a while now. we had sportscenter themed segments. we had dedicated areas within our website. podcasts, regular and recurring shows like daily wage or, we have -- they have a better studio in las vegas. we struck a partnership. we are bringing this altogether. we are doing alternative broadcasts. we also had the nba team to broadcast last season. there is continued momentum in the industry. i think 24 states plus washington dc are allowing sports betting and i think 15 of

them are allowing mobile sports betting, new york is also coming soon. we see nothing but opportunity here. opportunity to expand our brands, our audience, in cleese -- increase fan engagement and address the fact that sports betting has become endemic to the overall experience for the sports fan. >> that was the chairman of espn and sports content over at walt disney. he spoke a little bit earlier exclusively with us. let's bring in chris to talk more about what is going on. you will talk in depth later about the gambling side of this but i'm curious about the viewership side of this. we have seen viewership fall during the pandemic and engagement fall. there are concerns that with these tv companies like disney and espn having these big contracts, that they have locked into for years with some of these sports leagues that the

viewership is not there at the level that would justify some of these billion-dollar contracts. >> a couple of things on that, one is that we saw they were getting a record price for the super bowl ads in february. that is even though the super bowl average viewership has been down for 10 years. the reason is advertisers are still flocking to these big shows because it is a single baked live event where they can get their message out to billions of euros at once. the advertising is still there. the other thing is the strategy that was talked about which is they are spreading the cost many ways. disney is writing a big check to monday night football. they will it on espn, they will have streams for espn, they will have a different version for sports bettors on espn plus. it is all that same high of

gains being delivered in multiple ways to different audiences and different advertisers. >> different types of companies wanting to put their name to work, whether it be on cable or the streaming platform. does disney think that streaming will end up being a bigger part of the viewership? will they have to cater to a younger audience? >> i think they not only think that, they are doing everything they can to make that happen. bringing a live nfl game to a streaming service would not have made sense from a cost standpoint. espn plus has been around for a few years now and it was sort of a niche product for a while but in the last year they have added some of the marquee sports to it and they saw a 75% increase in subscribers.

>> you would know that better -- this better than i would. i think when espn plus started, it was a red to begin with, or were a lot of concerns that people were not as invested. things have been turning around in the last year. given the backdrop of that, what was the last -- of sports was the last frontier to cross over to this. every sort of media company was able to do streaming, live sports. what changed? >> just the consumer getting more and more used to doing this, the pandemic was a huge contributor. he saw everybody watching online. it has just become too big a business. when you think about disney plus, 100 million subscribers,

nobly can ignore. courts that initial rollout of some of these streaming services, they were kind of a dud. a lot of the content on there wasn't even like the really big gains you wanted to see. some of it was some of the secondary gains. that almost seems intentional. that is the way that some of these networks were trying to straddle the line and dipping their toe into the digital world. i am wondering how for on espn and some of these other networks are now with regards to the digital experience. and making for the people can watch what they want to watch on whatever device they want to watch it on, when they want to watch it, presumably. >> you hit on the issue. espn is charging cable companies who are all in around $10 a customer per month. if your comcast and you are

paying that money to disney, you don't want them putting the same content on disney plus and then charging a separate price that disney collects but that was the issue everybody has been wrestling with. comcast, peacock, everybody has a streaming service. those old walls come tumbling down. everybody has them. >> coming up, we continue the conversation. this is bloomberg. ♪

>> if you are a sports fan in the u.s., this has always been an exciting time of the year. the official start of the nfl season actually kicks off tonight here. there is a big question about viewership. how many people are actually watching these games on television or whatever device. the numbers have been down because of the pandemic. >> let's give caroline another reminder that football is not soccer. >> my football. your soccer. taylor: during covid, we were not sure. this was the first drop, about 7% in your ship. this year you had all of america's big media giants coming in.

let's see if this money pays off. his live television sports back? let's welcome in george. he has been tied to more than 50 investment in the sports industry. if you want to talk about the broad overview you have, our live tv sports something that can inspire people to actually watch live? >> absolutely. if you've looked at florida state versus notre dame, it was the second most-watched game of the past five years. this summer, you have football on top of hockey on top of baseball. i think the nfl is really king. >> there was a lot of talk about competition for eyeballs, the

idea that we are of a certain age where on sunday there was really only one thing to watch. now you have video games, netflix and other streaming services. people have options to choose what they want to do. i am just wondering about the draw. how do you get people on the television side. crisis 74 of the top 100 programs on television are nfl games. more people are streaming and doing other devices. young people like nfl football on the red zone. nfl audiences, -- the nfl when it comes to tv is king. that is why the collected 110 billion over the next 12 years. that is translated into average franchise values of $305

million. quite every asset price is inflating. when you look at the investment opportunities when it comes to viewing at the moment, we have streaming, we want to be everywhere where our viewer is. what other technologies, the areas people are investing in? >> everything we did is around media consumption. we invest in data and technology. we invest in new technology to bring the fan closer to the game in terms of multi-platforms but also this company that is a training technology that helps people train for golf. i think technology is changing the relationship with the consumer. >> i think about all the different platforms out there, espn plus, hulu, amazon, you

name it, the list goes on but at the end of the day, he just wants to watch his home games. are you seeing consumer shifting where they are watching based on availability? >> the money is in the old media. consumers are going streaming. the majority of the marquee events will be on regular television, linear television. the old media is for the common fan. >> this is the elephant in the room. gambling. they kind of pretended it didn't exist. now they seem to be embracing it. they are accepting the fact that gaming is a thing. it brings in viewers and keeps

people engaged here. i am wondering where you see the opportunities going forward. >> there are two big elements. one of them, overall, your 19 times more likely to watch something then bet on it. betty connects with your core consumer. the second part is the new revenue stream. i think we will see a lot of in game bedding. what pitch are they going to throw? different things that go on during the game. we will bet on those elements. it will become more and more interactive. >> in the u.k., they have been used to this for a while. >> whether we did it on the corner, high street. there is regulatory pushback. now, it has become a clearly

mobile experience. when you go to a game and watch it live, you need the wi-fi and the ability. how much are you seeing the infrastructure back at the game, in the flesh. >> the u.k. is head of america. a lot of the technology exists in europe. we just invested in gambling. >> what they have to the point is great technology. all of this technology has to be applied against gambling. much of it exists outside of the united states. >> we have been talking about viewership. there is the expectation that a lot of these nfl games will be sold out. are we still seeing that fan

attendance? that appetite to be there in person? >> it is getting harder and harder to sell tickets because you have so many options at home. i think there is pent-up demand. we will have to see how that evolves coming out of the pandemic. these towns depend on those games for their livelihood. alabama and georgia are one of the larger states in terms of bedding because football in america is the bet of choice. >> the only sport that owns a day of the week. now they only four days of the week. -- own like four days of the week. >> we will continue this

conversation and focus a little more on the gambling, the bedding aspect. everyone is betting that the football season will be a big catalyst of business. this is bloomberg. ♪

>> we are focused on all things to do this. legalization has been spreading. >> it has gotten popular but i am not much of a gambler. a lot of states have jumped on this bandwagon.

you see someplace really have not jumped on it. -- some have not jumped on it. maybe the recall election will sort all that out. let's talk about this rally. we talked about the rollout of the legalization. a lot of key states have jumped on this. other than the obvious answer, why are they doing this other than just money? >> do you want to take a bigger cut of revenues? if you look at estate like new york, that has been a bigger drawback. in new jersey, it was a free-for-all. there have -- they have been

very welcoming, there have been low tax rates. >> it is fascinating how this is happening in the u.k.. you have the u.k. taking on low tax islands that were becoming a hub of where you go. is that going to happen in the u.s.? does that not matter at all? >> it does not really matter. they are rolling out the apps in-state on a state-by-state basis. there was a lot of promotional spending going on there. he does not matter where you are domiciled, it matters how you are checking those boxes to rollout in different states have

to meet those regulations on a state-by-state basis. >> talk to us about some of those companies you mentioned. arizona getting promotional material. what does it mean for the companies getting ad dollars, spending at dollars? from a company perspective, they are not expected to turn a profit until 2024. they are spending so much money on getting people hooked. >> draftkings and fan 20, weren't they told to bring back their marketing? most of them were just duking it out and it became ridiculous. >> they have a very strong hold across the industry. it is all about what

consolidation will look like. you can't make money. that is a hard part of the calculus when you're looking at the industry. >> who are you backing? >> brady! >> no. sorry, tom. i am looking ahead to saturday, big marquee game. >> caroline, did you know it is called football here in the u.s.? >> i have just about come to grasps with that. >> remember when they try to get the soccer games to come play football and they could not? >> in the u.k., rugby is a

hooligans sport and football is a -- >> have a great evening. ♪

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>> from the heart of where innovation, money, and power collide, in silicon valley and beyond, this is "bloomberg technology" with emily chang.