The Varsity Marchand, Round 2!
Nov 26, 2025
Andrew Marchand, a sharp sports media reporter at The Athletic, returns to tackle the hottest topics in sports broadcasting. He discusses the NFL's strategic holiday matchups and Amazon Prime's role in driving viewership. Marchand predicts YouTube's impending entry into NFL rights and assesses the implications of MLB's recent media deals. The conversation also dives into Netflix's hiring of ESPN talent as a sign of their sports ambitions and the challenges of fragmented rights affecting fan access.
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NFL Event-Placement Strategy
- The NFL is deliberately putting its best matchups in marquee windows like Thanksgiving to maximize viewership.
- New Nielsen counting methods and streaming extensions amplify those record-setting audience numbers.
Amazon’s Sports-As-Marketing Play
- Amazon Prime has a clear, deliberate sports strategy that ties marquee events to Prime subscriptions and holiday shopping.
- Prime uses sports scheduling to change viewing and shopping habits and to make membership stickier.
NFL Wants Streamers Hooked
- The NFL intentionally seeds top matchups to streamers to make those platforms fall in love with the league.
- Getting Amazon, YouTube, Netflix and other digital giants invested protects future bidding leverage for the NFL.