Broadcasting legend Al Michaels advised CNN anchor Chris Wallace that X/Twitter proprietor Elon Musk coujld purchase your entire NFL “out of petty money” — however added it wouldn’t occur.
Wallace interviewed Michaels for this week’s version of his Max sequence Who’s Speaking to Chris Wallace — now accessible solely on Max, and now not airing a weekly highlights model on CNN. As an alternative of two or three episodes, the present hosts one visitor per week now, since Wallace will even be internet hosting the newsy The Chris Wallace Present on CNN Saturday mornings later this fall.
Within the wide-ranging interview, Michaels advised Wallace the story behind his iconic “Do you imagine in miracles?” name on the 1980 Winter Olympics, his lengthy and illustrious profession in broadcasting, and his tackle the way forward for sports activities and sports activities media.
Alongside these traces, Wallace requested if Amazon’s Thursday Night time Soccer deal is the form of issues to come back for main sports activities, with tech giants outbidding broadcast nets:
WALLACE: You say that you’re fired up about your Thursday Night time Soccer schedule this yr and also you even obtained the primary Black Friday, NFL recreation ever.
MICHAELS: That’s on Friday, three o’clock Jap time. It’ll be an enormous day for Amazon as a result of they’re taking it out from behind the paywall. So you go online to your Amazon account. You may watch the sport and do all your Christmas purchasing.
WALLACE: Do you notice, because of this these guys are a lot richer than you and I are as a result of they’re smarter than you and I are. That may be a sensible concept. Let’s have a look at tv and sports activities from 30,000 ft. With the decline within the viewers of the networks and cable, TV sports activities and notably stay soccer is the one factor that may nonetheless appeal to a crowd. Are we going to method a degree the place these large tech giants like Amazon, like Apple are gonna be capable of purchase up all of the TV rights to those issues and the networks ABC NBC, CBS, Fox received’t be capable of compete?
MICHAELS: I’ll inform you this, Chris, if Jeff Bezos, or Elon Musk or just a few different folks, the Saudis needed to purchase your entire Nationwide Soccer League, they may. Simply easy as that. Your complete NFL, let’s say the typical franchise proper now, since Washington simply went for six Billion. So let’s say you realize, let’s say the entire league is value round 200 billion, 32 occasions 6, give or take. Elon Musk may purchase that out of petty money. Will that occur? No, it received’t.
WALLACE: Do you suppose Congress would ever enable the World Sequence or the Tremendous Bowl to be on paid for TV streaming?
MICHAELS: Years in the past, I might have stated no. Now all bets are off. Something is feasible. It wouldn’t shock me.
Watch above by way of Who’s Speaking to Chris Wallace.