On Friday's edition of Felger and Mazz, the guys reacted to the news that ESPN bought the rights to NFL Red Zone. While trying to figure out how it will work, Felger's mind gets put in a pretzel once again by technology.
00:00They're launching the ESPN app, which I have, but now, like, there's another app?
00:08Okay, and then there's their partnership with the NFL, where ESPN is taking over the NFL network.
00:16And Red Zone.
00:17And Red Zone, but then I heard Goodell yesterday say, no, no, Red Zone's still produced by us in our offices and our studios,
00:24and that's not going to change, what we've done is give ESPN the right to use the branding Red Zone for other things,
00:33like college football or whatever, so they can just use the name?
00:38I'm like, huh?
00:39All right, who gives a flying fart about that?
00:43But then I'm like, I mean, Maz, you can help me.
00:47I have the ESPN app.
00:49So what's this new app?
00:51What are we doing there?
00:52So I don't, look, the new app thing I can't speak to, I read some of this the other day, though,
00:57and that the way I understood it was that Red Zone will still stay on the Red Zone channel,
01:02but it will also be available on the ESPN app, so that if you were, now, again, maybe I'm getting this wrong.
01:08You know, I thought that's what I read.
01:10Okay.
01:11So anyway, and I just assumed it was the same app that they were upgrading it.
01:15So all due respect, I'm going to stop you there, because I started down the road of this, Murray and Maz.
01:21It's just very confusing.
01:23Okay, so what does this mean?
01:25And we talked about it the other night on the Off Air Show.
01:27Yeah.
01:28And Jake the Snake, our guy, says, well, if you subscribe to something that you get ESPN on, you get the app.
01:37Okay, so this new app has all their programming, right?
01:40Correct.
01:40Okay, so because I subscribe to YouTube TV and ESPN's on YouTube TV, I get access to this app.
01:50But why do I need access to the app?
01:53I'm watching it on YouTube TV.
01:55I don't get – I don't –
01:57Well, it might be more for someone like me.
01:59So I still pay for cable.
02:01I pay Xfinity.
02:02And so if I want to watch a game, I can ostensibly watch it on my phone, because I'm paying for ESPN through paying for cable.
02:08You know what I mean?
02:09Yeah.
02:09So for you, you subscribe to YouTube, it's almost irrelevant because you can get it on YouTube.
02:13For someone like me, it's actually pretty beneficial.
02:15So listen, I'm going to try and stop right here, because you see how, like, these tentacles and how confusing and complicated this is?
02:24Yeah.
02:25Well, in your case, it's a redundancy.
02:26It really doesn't – it's kind of foolish.
02:29And I still don't really get it.
02:31Here's all I know.
02:33It's going to suck.
02:34Of course.
02:35That's a given.
02:36So I started to look at it and think about it, and, like, I started to go down the rabbit hole of what it means and what I need, and do I have this, and does it change anything that I need to do?
02:47Am I on the – what am I – and then I stopped.
02:49I said, you know, whatever it is, it's going to cost more.
02:53It's going to be more complicated.
02:55You're going to have to do more logging in and downloading and scanning and authentications.
03:01It's more.
03:02It's more of it.
03:03And it's definitely going to be more expensive.
03:06I don't know if it's more expensive right out of the chute, but –
03:09Oh, the boning's coming, though.
03:11The digital penetration is coming.
03:14It's coming.
03:15And that's the bottom line.
03:18So whatever it means, I get it here but not there.
03:22I got to download that and have this app, even though I have YouTube over here, but then I'm going to get that but access to that.
03:29And I could try and figure it all out, or I could just sit there and say, just go ahead, bone me.
03:32Just go ahead and do your thing.
03:35And over time, eventually, I guess I'll figure it out.
03:39It's definitely going to cost us more money.
03:42It's definitely not going to improve the product.
03:45And it's just this beyond slippery slope of where this has all gone and how we just, the consumer, do not make out.
03:54It continues to get more expensive, more complicated, more convoluted, and it sucks.
04:00And I told you it was going to suck, and I'm telling you now it's going to suck, and it's going to suck even worse.
04:06And that's the bottom line of this thing.
04:08The new ESPN direct-to-consumer app tied into the partnership with the NFL.
04:16It's not a win for you.
04:18It's a loss.
04:19It's a loss for us.
04:21Trust me.
04:21Definitely.
04:22I don't know what form it's going to take, but it's a loss.
04:25It's another loss.
04:27Yes, so I do have one question.
04:32So I subscribe to YouTube TV because I want the NFL ticket.
04:40Which you're paying more for anyway.
04:42Huh?
04:42You're paying for YouTube TV, but don't you even pay extra?
04:45Oh, yeah, sure.
04:46Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
04:47I think I get a discount on the ticket because I'm a YouTube TV subscriber.
04:55Okay.
04:55Do you get ESPN on YouTube?
04:58Yes.
04:58Okay, then you should be fine.
05:00That's what I think.
05:02But just wait.
05:04There's going to come a time I...
05:05Yeah.
05:06I mean, right?
05:06I mean, so this is what I'm talking about, Maz.
05:09Okay, can I try to explain this to you in an easy way?
05:12No, no, no.
05:13Maz always sticking up for the apps.
05:15No, no, I'm not sticking up for the app.
05:16I'm just trying to give you some parameters as to what this is.
05:20Look at it the same way you look at the Nessun app, which is a pain in the ass.
05:24I admit, I'm not telling you it's not, but the Nessun app has a $30 a month fee if you
05:29want to watch the games because you can't get the content anywhere else because you don't
05:33have Nessun on YouTube, correct?
05:35Right.
05:36Okay.
05:36You do have ESPN, so you'll get it that way.
05:39But for people that don't, you're going to have to pay $30 a month to get the ESPN app
05:44to watch ESPN.
05:45Are there people out there right now who don't have ESPN in some way, shape, or form?
05:50Probably.
05:51Who?
05:51How?
05:52No matter what you do, whether you have cable, YouTube TV, Fubo, FU, Bling, Blong, whatever,
06:01all these streaming services, who doesn't carry ESPN?
06:05No, they all do, I think.
06:06So then who needs this for cocked a new thing?
06:09Which means somewhere along the line we're going to get blown.
06:11Right.
06:12Yeah, yeah.
06:12Right.
06:12That's what I'm telling you.
06:13So Maz says, for now, you're fine.
06:15You're fine.
06:16He says, oh, no, so you're fine.
06:17I didn't say you're fine.
06:19You did.
06:19No, I said you are fine because you have ESPN already.
06:23To which I said, for now.
06:25Well, that's everybody.
06:27No, we're all fine for now.
06:29Of course.
06:30But they're setting this thing up for another boning.
06:34I agree.
06:36Okay, it's a setup.
06:37Yes.
06:37Oh, if you already get ESPN, you don't need our new direct-to-consumer.
06:42Just wait.
06:43Just wait.
06:44Yeah.
06:45They'll frame it as, well, contract negotiations have broke down with.
06:48Right.
06:49Carriage fees for YouTube TV and Fubo FU.
06:54All this for cocked, all this stuff.
06:56But if you do want to get us, we're still available on our own proprietary app, which you can now pay $49.99 a month for.
07:03For now.
07:03Who doesn't get ESPN right now?
07:06Somebody doesn't.
07:07Who?
07:08Well, otherwise they wouldn't have the app.
07:09I think the reason they have the app map is to bend us over at some point.
07:16But, so, wait a minute.
07:17So, here's my question.
07:20I subscribe to YouTube TV.
07:22Right.
07:23I get the ticket through YouTube TV.
07:25Right.
07:25At a discount, I think, but I've forgotten.
07:28Doubt it.
07:29And the Red Zone is a part of that.
07:33Is it?
07:33Yes.
07:34Okay.
07:34The Red Zone migrated to YouTube TV, right?
07:38Because I get the Red Zone on YouTube TV, don't I?
07:41Well, I don't know.
07:41I don't have YouTube TV.
07:43You get to answer that one on your own, big boy.
07:45I don't know how I get it, but I get it.
07:47You and your fellow YouTubers need to figure that out.
07:49But now it's on this ESPN thing?
07:53I don't know.
07:54Okay.
07:55That's what I thought.
07:56Okay.
07:56So, folks, file it all under Felger Wright again.
08:01I mean, it's.
08:02Oh, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to watch any sport, really.
08:06To use the line that Dan Shonis used in his column today, right?
08:09I feel like I'm talking to Joe Murray.
08:12So, we had to go.
08:14Okay, Maz always defending the app and the technology, always.
08:17So, we had to go through all that to get to Felger's Wright again?
08:21Yes.
08:22We had to go through all of that?
08:24Yep.
08:24Well, it was just to prove that I'm Wright again.
08:27Okay.
08:27That was a hell of a spin around the block.
08:29Well, but that's what the modern world is, Maz.
08:32It's a effing worldly dervish through the Joe Murray cul-de-sac.
08:38I should have taken my drammamine before today's show.
08:41I mean, some people, some people, I guess, love it.
08:44Finger futzing their phone and their computer for 45 minutes to find the game.
08:48I think some people actually enjoy that.
08:50That's Maz in his apps.
08:51Felger is right again.
08:53But I am right.
08:54This is another case of this, this thing that doesn't work.
08:59It's too complicated, and it's a gouge.
09:02It's a gouge on top of a gouge.
09:04I kind of like it.
09:05And the ESPN-NFL merger now.
09:10So ESPN is taking over the NFL network, but the NFL network is still producing the red zone.
09:14I don't believe that for a second, too.
09:15That's going to change.
09:16They're not going to try to crowbar Pat McAfee into this in some way.
09:19Stephen A. Smith.
09:19Right.
09:20And by the way, yeah, right.
09:22Next thing you know, they're on everything.
09:24So now they're on everything over there, too.
09:26And the cost of it was the NFL gets 10% of ESPN.
09:32I bet you no money changed hands with these cheapskates.
09:35You know, no one wanted to give up any money, of course.
09:37It's all 10% equity, I thought.
09:39Yeah, equity, right.
09:40So that doesn't mean anything.
09:41So it's not real.
09:42Did any money change hands?
09:44No.
09:44No.
09:45The reason they – it was a trade.
09:47It was like us getting a free poo-poo platter, and the next thing you know, we're reading an ad for a rest for Kowloon.
09:54You know what I mean?
09:55Nine dragons, too.
09:56It's like – what's that?
09:57Nine dragons also.
09:59Okay, whatever.
10:00But that's what that is because these owners are so cheap, and ESPN probably doesn't have nearly as much money as we think.
10:07Or everyone's so cheap, and no one wants to dole out any money.
10:11They trade.
10:11It was a trade because no one wanted to exchange any cash.
10:15And so, like, that sort of – and I don't know that to be true, but it's like, did anyone really pay for anything here?
10:22No.
10:22All right, but how do you feel about the NFL owning 10% of ESPN?
10:29Do you know who did pay for it, Maz?
10:31You tell me.
10:31Who's the consumer?
10:32The consumer.
10:33Us.
10:34Us.
10:34Well, we may not have yet, but we will.
10:37We will.
10:37It's coming.
10:38And the NFL owning 10% of ESPN?
10:44ESPN could not be more on their knees for the NFL than they are right now?
10:48You think that 10% is going to change the slobbering that goes on at that network of football?
10:53I think it might get worse.
10:55It couldn't possibly.
10:56It couldn't possibly.
10:58How could you get – how could ESPN be possibly any more pathetic in the bag for the NFL than they already are?
