Former ESPN President Asserts The NFL Should Make The Super Bowl A Pay-Per-View Event To Increase Revenues

Every Super Bowl Sundays are like a celebration, both in the United States as well as around the globe. Regardless of what two teams are playing, it’s become a gathering – even for people who aren’t necessarily sports fans. It’s also an occasion when around 100 million people gather together to watch the game, eat lots of food, and help keep the NFL’s cash machine running.

One former TV executive has an idea that could make the cash pot even more richer. John Skipper, former president of ESPN, discussed the possibility of streaming the Super Bowl on pay-per view instead.

Skipper stated that the NFL would be able to offer such a proposal if it ever decided to do so.

“I assume that there is some number of people… that’s the only game they watched the entire year, and they don’t want to be left out,” Skipper made the comments during an appearance Dan Le Batard‘s podcast network.

Super Bowl LVII was viewed by 113 million viewers, which is the highest viewership in six decades.

The Super Bowl is the most anticipated sporting event of the year in America. It has also become a global phenomenon. Super Bowl parties used to be a rare novelty a few years back. They are now the norm. This event has been viewed as both a social and sporting event. Since decades, everyone, from the league to advertisers to television stations, has been able to reap the benefits of this perception.

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Skipper states that it would make sense for The League, to profit from the potential revenue stream available through pay-per view.

“That’s a pretty great place to be for a live event,” Skipper said. “Fifty percent of the country does not want to be left out. It leads me to a slightly different discussion. If half the country is watching your game — and they’re watching it for free,— how many of those people would pay a big sum of money to watch the game?”

Skipper claimed, “If it was only a quarter of the households who were willing to pay $250 to have a party at their house, it would still get you into the billions of dollars for a single game. And that is the single best way I can think of for the NFL to increase their revenue annual take for their clubs; is to make the Super Bowl a pay-per-view event.”

The former ESPN executive is right in many ways. Over time, the audience could essentially be ‘trained’ into getting into the practice of purchasing the game in the long run.

But, the immediate reaction from the football fanbase would be negative. This is especially true considering they have watched the Super Bowl for generations in a traditional way.

What do you think of Skipper’s suggestion? What would you do if you had to pay a fee per-view to see the Super Bowl?

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