Is that still a thing?

If you are reading on a smartphone, use landscape / hold phone sideways. 

Is anyone watching the Winter Olympics this year? NBC Sports says 16 million viewers tuned in to watch the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics opening ceremony on Friday, an all-time low. That is a 55.53% difference down from the 28.3 million viewers that watched in February 2018. 

Do you know the name Joe Rogan? How about the name Howard Stern? It was back in 2004 that Howard Stern signed a five-year deal with Sirius XM worth $500 million. In December 2020, Stern signed a new deal with Sirius XM to extend his deal for his show for another five years. The terms of the deal have not been revealed but it is thought to be in excess of $100 million per year. 

The controversy surrounding the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show led to the government's crackdown on indecency in radio and television following a surge in audience complaints. The situation prompted tighter control over content by station managers which made Howard Stern feel "dead" creatively. Subscription-based satellite radio service, exempt from the FCC's broadcast regulations made the Howard Stern move to Sirius XM a very, very big deal. 

Back to the Olympics....

I am not going to watch the Winter Olympics this year. Not at all. None of it. If something "big" happens, I can watch a clip on YouTube or such. Maybe (maybe) if I really feel the need, I can find it on one of the streaming services. But the Olympics has earned zero minutes of my live eyeball time this year. Are you watching? If yes (or no) do you know......why?

Back to the Super Bowl....

I WILL watch the Super Bowl this year. I will turn on the TV (live) at around 3:00 PM EST for the pre-pre game show, and watch the pre-game show, and then watch the game. Live. I'll set a reminder on my calendar to make sure that I am home, with lots of snacks, ready for THE BIG GAME. Ah, yes, THE BIG GAME. The Super Bowl is still...... the BIG GAME, right? Heck, maybe it is just THE GAME. As in, "Where are you going to watch THE game?" 

Back to Joe Rogan / Howard Stern......

In May 2020, Stern admonished all of the Trump supporters that listened to his Sirius XM show, saying that "President Trump despised his own supporters." FYI, Howard Stern KNOWS Donald Trump. As in, really (really) knows all about THE DONALD. Ahem. 

In response to Stern's criticism of Trump, Donald Trump Jr. then tweeted out a 1993 video of Stern in blackface repeatedly using the N-word and other racial slurs that parodied Ted Danson's Friars Club appearance. Stern admitted, "The *hit I did was *ucking crazy" and that he has since toned down his show, crediting years in psychotherapy for his evolution. By the way, Ted Danson's career seems to have done just fine after that very poor taste, not funny incident. 

Back to the Super Bowl......

Last year's Super Bowl was the most livestreamed Super Bowl in history. The game delivered an average per-minute livestreaming audience of 3.4 million, up 30% over the previous year. It is predicted that this year's Super Bowl will once again set a record for total eyeballs captured across all media formats. 

During the normal NFL season, I watch the NFL RedZone. I don't watch the "games live" but I watch RedZone from 1:00 PM to 8:00 PM or until the last afternoon window game ends. The RedZone "whip around coverage" shows me EVERY GAME being played in real-time, and EVERY TOUCHDOWN of the day, as a final Touchdown montage. RedZone operates as a commercial-free service. 

Joe Rogan. Howard Stern. Ted Danson. Sirius XM. Spotify. COVID-19 misinformation. The N-word. If the controversy around the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show never happened, I am not sure that Howard Stern would have made the move to satellite radio for $500 million. I think that Howard Stern paved the way for Joe Rogan's $100 million contract - and also today's Spotify stock price disaster. 

Revenue from advertising creates Billionaires. Fox News, Fox Sports, Facebook, Amazon. And now, revenue from subscription services like Spotify, Sirius XM and NFL RedZone makes the same Billionaires even more Billions. 

OK..... Land the plane Tom.......

Why is Joe Rogan "in the barrel" but not Howard Stern? Just think about the time and money that Spotify is spending right now, combing through past Joe Rogan podcasts, to figure out which ones they need to delete and remove. Just think about the BILLIONS of dollars that are spent on things that will not, do not, and will never - make our society - better. 

Why are Super Bowl crazy ratings crazy good, but the ratings for the Olympics are terrible? Why are Fox News, Facebook, Spotify boycotts causing their stock prices to crater, but not Sirius XM? 

Why do I know EXACTLY where I will be on February 13th, 2022 at 6:30 PM EST and I cannot say the same thing about just about ANYTHING else? And how is it that I know that the halftime show of this year's Super Bowl will have Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, and Kendrick Lamar? 

THIS JUST IN: Four days after former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores filed a class-action lawsuit against the NFL and all 32 teams, Commissioner Roger Goodell basically says that "We need to do better." That was it. We need to do better. Ah, Roger, Colin Kaepernick would like a word. 

For some reason, I am predicting that people will NOT boycott the Super Bowl on NBC - nor will they be boycotting any of NBC's paid advertisers of this year's Super Bowl. Unless of course, one of those paid advertisers is Spotify. 

What do you think? 

Roger "We need to do better" Goodell