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NFL renews TV deals with CBS, Fox, NBC for nine more years, money reportedly involved
Yeah, the NFL's really great and everything, but you know what would make it even greater? More. Money. Fortunately for Roger Goodell & Co., that's exactly what the league is due to receive, thanks to a slate of TV deals signed last week. The agreements, set to go into effect at the end of the 2013 season, effectively renew the NFL's current agreements with CBS, Fox and NBC, extending the league's TV contracts for a "record-setting" nine extra years. Not surprisingly, the deals will also funnel some extra pocket change through the NFL's coffers -- which will of course be coming from you, if you're subscribing to cable or satellite TV. Currently, the three networks pay a combined $1.94 billion in annual rights fees, but according to the LA Times, the league will now receive an average of $3.1 billion per year, as stipulated under its renewed agreements. In a statement, Commissioner Goodell said the deals underscore his league's "unique commitment to broadcast television," with CBS Chief Executive Leslie Moonves adding that his network will benefit from the NFL's "terrific, exciting programming," and from the consistently high ratings that "no other franchise delivers." The agreements, which come just a few months after the NFL inked a comparatively lucrative deal with ESPN, will also allow for the league to shift games between CBS and Fox, in order to bring "regional games to wider audiences." Each network, moreover, will air three Super Bowls over the course of the nine-year contract, continuing the rotation currently in place. Tebow past the break for the full PR.
Filmmaker says Motorola's Super Bowl ad bears some striking similarities to his short film
He's not going as far as to say that Motorola (or its ad agency) blatantly swiped his idea, but L.A.-based filmmaker Mike Sarrow thinks that the company's recent Super Bowl ad bears a few too many similarities to one of his short films to simply let slip by without a comment. That film, "Do Not Disconnect," was shot back in 2009 (and shopped around for a few years prior), and involves a world filled with "drones" wearing white earbuds who are oblivious to the real world around them and incapable of human interaction. Now, that in and of itself obviously isn't the most original of ideas, but Sarrow notes that there a few "striking" similarities beyond the general concept between the ad and his short film, particularly when it comes to the ending (which we won't spoil for you here). Adding a bit of meta-ness to the whole thing is the fact that Motorola's ad is of course a reference to Apple's famous "1984" commercial, and we all know Apple is no stranger to accusations that it's borrowed some ideas for its ads. Contrary to what you might think, however, Sarrow isn't seeking any compensation from Motorola (or even an attribution), he just wants people to see his film and make up their own mind. Judge for yourself after the break.
Best Buy Buy Back becomes official, free through February 12th
Best Buy's gadget repurchase program has become official during the Super Bowl, courtesy of a silly commercial starring Ozzy Osbourne and Justin Bieber. The ad's actually a lot less cringe-inducing than it might have been, though the content of the program still doesn't seem to make much fiscal sense to us. You have to buy into it at the time of purchasing a gadget -- that requirement is set aside until this Saturday as a sort of grace / enticement period -- and Best Buy depreciates at a very aggressive annual rate, arguably cutting more of your trinkets' value than the incumbent options like online auction sites. Skip past the break to see the two gentlemen at opposite ends of their careers selling their souls to the almighty dollar, along with Best Buy's full press release and Buy Back Program details.
Sony Ericsson makes Xperia Play official in Super Bowl commercial, full launch coming February 13th
Sony Ericsson has finally stopped teasing, winking, and nodding knowingly and has just come clean -- the Xperia Play is most definitely real and it'll be one of the first devices announced at this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. We're treated to a date and time, February 13th at 6PM GMT, a pair of full frontal shots of the Gingerbread-running, gamepad-wearing smartphone, and the full version of that creepy ad we saw for it a couple of days back. Missed it on the Super Bowl? Scope it out after the break. P.S. - Missed our coverage of Super Bowl Media Day? Catch up here!
Motorola's Xoom Super Bowl commercial tips hat to Apple's '1984' spot (video)
We saw it teased right around 48 hours ago, and now Motorola's full Xoom Super Bowl ad is out and about for the world to see. It aired just moments ago during Super Bowl XLV, and it's fairly obvious where it took inspiration. It's easily one of the best tech spots we've seen in quite some while, and as much as Motorola has been hyping its Honeycomb-based superslate, we'd say it better sell quite a few to recoup what it's already lost in marketing -- even at $800 a pop, it'll still take a boatload. The real question, however, is this: will today's America even get it? Hop on past the break and mash play if you missed out. P.S. - Missed our coverage of Super Bowl Media Day? Catch up here!
In Arlington, TX? Try the official Super Bowl app
If you happen to be in Texas for Super Bowl XLV, it's worth your time to download the official app for the Super Bowl. While you could cobble together the same functionality from Google Maps, Yelp and a few other apps with food, travel and event info, why bother? The Super Bowl app is free and offers some pretty useful information. First, you will want to be on Wi-Fi for the initial opening of the app, as it will download all the mapping info on first run. After that, you'll have a 3D map of Cowboys Stadium in Arlington and buttons that will highlight area events, places to eat and more. You can use two fingers to rotate your 3D view, but the 3D is a bit of a gimmick, and this is no GPS app. Points of interest are filled with live data, and I found the Super Bowl events to be interesting, as you'll want to find real, live parties before, during and after the game. There's also a usable search tool, which you can see in the gallery -- I used it to find local pizza places. Be sure to pull down menus for Dining, Nightlife, Shopping and Entertainment to see what's open at a given hour, or sort by price. You can tap on certain buildings to see what's there as well. During the game, when you're actually at the stadium, you can "enter" the 3D stadium to see gate, elevator and restroom locations. If you aren't in Texas for the game, check out our apps for planning a Super Bowl party.
Motorola Super Bowl ad pokes fun at Apple users
The Super Bowl means elaborate and expensive TV ads. I think there's a football game, too. This year, Motorola will poke fun at iPhone users with a commercial for the Xoom that features homogenous, mindless drones who all look alike and use the same chuck of hardware. The standout -- a handsome young gentleman using the Xoom -- is even reading Orwell's 1984. Sound familiar? It's an obvious poke at Apple's 1984 ad (which aired during a Super Bowl) that prompted mindless business machine users to break from the pack and use a Macintosh. You can view a teaser after the break and watch for the full thing on Sunday.
Planning a Super Bowl party? Check out these apps
With the countdown to the Super Bowl underway, TUAW is here to highlight some apps that will help smooth out your party planning. Apple helped as well, releasing its own list of Super Bowl party apps. We'll share some of those with you, as well as a few of our own favorites.
Motorola teases the real Xoom Super Bowl ad: George Orwell, flowers, iPhone-using automatons in white hoodies all involved
We already got teased on this, but it turns out that the first teaser -- which, let's be honest, didn't have the highest production value -- was strictly a teaser. Now, Motorola's sent us a fragment of the real commercial they'll be debuting during the Super Bowl this Sunday, and it's got pretty much everything you'd expect: a handsome gentleman with flowers reading 1984 on a Xoom, white headphones, and thousands of emotionless drones "enjoying" their Apple products. The whole thing is an obvious swipe at Apple for seemingly endorsing the very homogeny it waged war against in its Ridley Scott-directed Super Bowl commercial for the Macintosh back in 1984, and we suspect you good folks are going to have some very strong opinions about it. Follow the break for the first 15 seconds of the ad.
Best Buy's Buy Back Program to be made official during the Super Bowl... by Justin Bieber and Ozzy Osbourne
We heard about this during the news avalanche that was CES early last month, but today Best Buy has started making its new Buy Back Program official in emails sent out to valued Reward Zone customers. The gist of the scheme is that Best Buy will offer you set "Buy Back" prices for goods you purchase from its stores, advertising it as a reassurance that your electronics won't depreciate too much during your ownership. The leaked info we saw in January showed that you'll have to pay an extra fee at the point of purchase to enroll into the Program and Best Buy's highest re-purchase offers were capped at 50 percent of the initial price, so don't expect this to be any great favor to you, Mr. Consumer. For more info, keep your eyes locked on the Super Bowl this Sunday, when Justin Bieber and Ozzy Osbourne (no, seriously) will do their best to explicate Best Buy's new venture. [Thanks, Jeff and John]
Super Bowl XLV Media Day: Packers split on iOS / Android, Cowboys CIO talks mobility
We woke up this morning in Dallas to 20 degree temperatures and a parking lot covered in ice. Not exactly the kind of weather the NFL was hoping for when it selected the new Cowboys Stadium to host Super Bowl XLV, but it didn't stop both teams and media from making their way -- however slowly -- to Arlington for Super Bowl Media Day. Naturally, the likes of ESPN were there in full force, but rather than picking apart defensive schemes and seeing who could outgun Troy Polamalu for the longest mane in North Texas, we spent our time asking about mobile OS preferences and soaking up knowledge from Cowboys CIO Pete Walsh. With a price tag well north of $1 billion on the new Cowboys Stadium, the home to the world's largest HD display is certainly one of the most technologically advanced in the world. It's packing 884 wireless access points throughout (not to mention an internal network operations center that constantly monitors activity on each one), 260 miles of fiber optic cabling, capacity to handle over 100,000 simultaneous wireless connections, over 3,100 IPTVs and micro cell towers for each major carrier within -- you know, so that kickoff video that just can't wait actually sees its way onto YouTube prior to the start of the second half. Head on past the break to catch of a video of us talking smartphone platforms with Green Bay Packers center Scott Wells, as well as a lengthy (and insightful) interview with the Chief Information Officer of the Dallas Cowboys. Everything from the Cowboys' rejection of FanVision to their hopes to blanket the stadium with gratis WiFi is covered, and we're even given a hint that contactless payments and mobile food ordering systems could be just a season or so away. %Gallery-115523%
Motorola Xoom lands in Chad Ochocinco's safe hands, is 'pretty awesome'
The Motorola Xoom's release is close, very close. How do we know that? Well, Moto has just handed one to Chad Ochocinco -- one of the NFL's most recklessly loquacious players -- and you don't do that with an unfinished product. For his part, Chad's finding the Honeycomb tablet to be "pretty awesome" and regretfully informs Motorola that it "won't be getting this back." Tracking Chad's tweets reveals that he's just landed in Dallas, site of this year's Super Bowl, where he's received the Android-driven hardware. Something tells us neither he nor Motorola's tablet will spend the next week hiding in the shadows -- look for a lot more screen time for both in the buildup to the big game (and Moto's big halftime ad). One last note? Chad's image above was taken using an iPhone 4. Guess he's holding out for the Atrix 4G. [Thanks, Zizo]
Totally blow out the big game! Super Bowl XLV
It's been confirmed, Super Bowl XLV will not be the first one with a full HD 3D broadcast (no gimmicky 3D commercials this year either, you can put the paper glasses away) despite featuring a halftime show by James Cameron's BFFs, the Black Eyed Peas. Still, considering what happened the last time they tried 3D at the House That Jerry Jones Built it's probably for the best. Still, just because you don't have one of Cowboys Stadium's record breaking HD screens you should still enjoy the game in style. In 2011 that means going beyond just the screen, the sounds and the seats -- we'll tell you how after the break.
Motorola teases Xoom Super Bowl ad: '2011 looks a lot like 1984'
Moto hasn't been shying away from the Apple jabs this year, and it's got another one in store for the Super Bowl this week with a commercial that'll poke fun at Cupertino's 1984 Macintosh ad, perhaps the most famous Super Bowl spot of all time. In it, the company says that "2011 looks a lot like 1984" with "one authority, one design, one way to work" while showing Planet Earth wearing a pair of shiny white iPod / iPhone buds. Boom, here comes a new planet -- a red, gaseous one with an "M" logo on it -- that pimps a bunch of wild features we'll be seeing in the Xoom like a dual-core processor, upgradeable 4G, and Honeycomb out of the box. In closing, Moto says "it's time to live a free life." We would've liked to have seen Motorola follow a format closer to that 1984 commercial, but it's a pretty well-played jab nonetheless -- and it's conceivable that this is just a teaser for the actual ad that'll air next weekend. Follow the break to check it out.
CBS Sports updates pro football iPad app for playoffs
I may not be happy about what happened to my New England Patriots on Sunday, but that won't stop me from following the last four teams on their road to the Super Bowl this year. For those of you who may feel the same way, 148Apps is reporting that CBS Sports has updated their free CBS Sports Pro Football iPad app right in time for the rest of the playoffs. iPad owners get play-by-play action, scoring updates, streaming video, lineups, and even control over their CBS Sports fantasy football teams. While one may think it's a little late in the season to update an app, these last three matches are a very important group of games. We'll be sure to have more coverage here of football apps just in time for the Super Bowl, but in the meantime, maybe football fanatics can pass some time with a little Madden 2011 for the iPad and iPhone? Football fans can download the free app from the Apple App Store but remember -- if you are at someone else's house for the remaining games, please be sure to wash the Doritos off your fingers before bogarting their iPad. Don't own an iPad? No need to fret, as CBS Sports also has an iPhone/iPod touch version of the app that you can download as well. [via 148Apps]
Breakfast Topic: Are You Ready for Some Football?
It was sort of lost in the shuffle between Love Is in the Air and the fact that we're technically not a sports blog, but this weekend featured one of the biggest events in American sporting, the Super Bowl. Believe it or not, even some of us uber geeks here at WoW.com's world headquarters like sports. Some of us even watched the Super Bowl. Some of us even watched it for a reason other than the commercials. (And honestly, the commercials sucked this year. Except the Google one. That made me melt and go all gooey and squeal with warm fuzzies.) Anyhow, it was a good game, if not the best Super Bowl I've seen in years. But what it really got me thinking of was Warcraft football. Believe it or not, football in Warcraft is totally canon. If you don't believe me, you should watch the end credits for Warcraft III. With that in mind, I got to thinking about what an Azerothian football league might look like, what cities and villages would field teams, and who'd win the superbowl.
VIZIO Super Bowl ad pushes internet connected HDTVs in a big way
We weren't sure exactly what Beyonce, David Goes to the Dentist and Chocolate Rain all had in common, but VIZIO squeezed them all into its Super Bowl ad. Still striving to remake its reputation from being merely a cheap HDTV manufacturer to a premium one offering lots of features, the ad (embedded after the break) shows how it's bringing "the best of the internet" with VIZIO Internet Apps. We still need to see if its picture quality will measure up and whether the widget experience has gotten any better (read: faster) in 2010 to be truly convinced, but a slick ad never hurt.
Madden predicts Saints win Super Bowl XLIV
If the "Madden Curse" is the unflapping revenge exacted by the fowl spirit of the Great Turducken, its devoured body unceremoniously carved up by the bare hands of John Madden on national television those many years ago (seriously, go wikipedia that joint), then the annual "Madden NFL Super Bowl Simulation" is just ... plain math. In the latest case of crunching the numbers, Madden 10 has predicted the New Orleans Saints to be winners of this Sunday's Super Bowl XLIV over the Indianapolis Colts. It was a real nail biter, EA recalls: "with minutes left in the game the duo of Joseph Addai and Peyton Manning put the Colts back on top with a go-ahead touchdown pass. With the game hanging in the balance, Drew Brees hits David Thomas for an 11-yard touchdown and the game winning score." The final: 35-31. But more intriguing than the projected outcome of a mere sporting event is EA Sports' coveted simulation formula, which has become scary good. Not only did it correctly predict the winners of the conference championship games a few Sundays ago within a three-point margin of error, according to EA Sports, the formula accurately played out last year's Super Bowl down to the final score and individual player stats, which begs the question: What can't it predict? We'd like to put a request in to EA to simulate next week's retail showdown: BioShock 2 vs. Dante's Inferno. Place your bets now! %Gallery-84606%
Ask Engadget HD: Is this the best time to buy a new HDTV?
It's the week of the Super Bowl and with the sales pages full of shiny new HDTVs one of the most frequent questions has risen again - is this the right time to buy a new HDTV? We'll let Manu put this one in the atmosphere: "With the Super Bowl coming up, it got me thinking - what's the best time to buy an HDTV with regards to price? I'm assuming right before the new ones come out, but when exactly is that? Or is that not even the right time?" There it is, simple and plain. Is this the time to buy, do you wait a few months for 2009's HDTVs to thin out and the new 2010 models to hit, or are you bargain hunting on Black Friday? Of course, if anyone has spotted a particularly sweet deal, feel free to let us all know where in the comments. Got a burning question that you'd love to toss out for Engadget HD (or its readers) to take a look at? Tired of Google's blank stares when you ask for real-world experiences? Hit us up at ask at engadgethd dawt com and keep an eye on this space -- your inquiry could be next.
Level 3 to deliver uncompressed HD broadcast from Super Bowl XLIV
We're still not sure if this has any noticeable result on picture quality, but Level 3 has announced its going to assist in delivering Super Bowl XLIV's feed uncompressed from the site back to CBS headquarters in New York. Instead of being compressed onsite in a production truck then sent to the studio and stations where it's compressed again, this could help CBS bring a more high quality signal home. If you've been watching Denver Broncos home games, you've seen Level 3's Vyvx broadcast network at work, we'll see how beautiful it keeps things looking in Miami on Sunday.
