RENTON , Wash. (AP) — the Seattle Seahawks decided not to take a risk or get cute at the end of the first round of the draft.Yet in true Seattle style, the pick made to address an acknowledged need was a player few were expecting to go on the first night.Seattle selected TCU defensive end L.J. Collier with the No. 29 pick on Thursday night, while also making a pair of important trades to bolster their total number of selections over the three days.Defensive line, and specifically defensive end, was a major priority after Seattle traded Frank Clark to Kansas City earlier this week. By selecting Collier, the Seahawks went with a versatile pass rusher who can project to rush off the edge and move inside as well. Collier isn’t intended to be a replacement for Clark, but rather is another option to use in multiple positions on the defensive line.“I didn’t know where I was going to go. But man, it’s truly an honor,” Collier said. “I’m truly appreciative of coach Carroll and those guys up there. They took a chance on me. They took a chance on a good one.”Collier was a first-team All-Big 12 selection in his senior season after recording 42 tackles, 11 Ѕ tackles for loss, six sacks, and four pass breakups. He played in a rotation during his first three years at TCU before becoming a full-time starter as a senior. The lack of playing time early in his career didn’t deter Seattle. And it was his versatility that was key to Seattle going after a player that most analysts didn’t expect to go until the second day of the draft.While Collier played mostly off the edge at TCU, he also projects to be able to rush fr om the interior. If Collier develops, Seattle could have found its new version of Michael Bennett, a comparison former Seahawks scout and current Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy made on Twitter . Coach Pete Carroll agreed with the comparison.“The thing I liked the most is the chip on the shoulder mentality. He’s got something to prove,” Carroll said. “That came through in the interviews , too. That was really important for our coaches to see him and talk with him and get that feel. He’s one of our guys.”While addressing a position of need was big for Seattle, the more important accomplishment was landing four additional picks.“We really feel like we’re back in the mix in this draft,” general manager John Schneider said.Seattle was originally set to sel ect at No. 21, but traded that pick to Green Bay in exchange for the No. 30 pick and a pair of fourth-round selections. Seattle has not used its original first-round pick in eight straight drafts.That 30th pick was later dealt to the New York Giants as Seattle picked up a second-round pick, an additional fourth-rounder and another fifth-round selection. Seattle began the week with just four selections, the fewest of any team in the NFL. After all the trades, including the one involving Clark, the Seahawks have eight more selections over the final two days along with landing the pass rusher they needed.“It was very important,” Schneider said. “You’re looking at where we started out having four picks going into this thing, it’s not a good feeling. I think everybody understood wh ere we were at in terms of trading back.”Schneider and Carroll also addressed the Clark trade for the first time Thursday. Both indicated that the market for defensive ends simply became too inflated for Clark and the Seahawks to reach agreement on a long-term contract, and Kansas City was aggressive about making a trade. While Seattle budgeted for Clark to play the upcoming season on the franchise tag costing $17.1 million against the salary cap, the market dictated a trade was likely the best move.“We had every intension of doing a long-term deal with him and hoped that we could,” Carroll said. “The market just went crazy. It went out there so far. We just couldn’t work it in, so we had to make him available at the end of it.” Comcast’s NBC is airing both the Super Bowl and the Olympics in February, a double-whammy sports extravaganza that the company expects to yield $1.4 billion in ad sales, helping it justify the hefty price it’s paying for both events. NBC is banking heavily on these sports events since traditional TV ratings have slumped in recent years. Live sports are marquee TV events that draw most of the largest TV audiences, but even those ratings have declined. More Americans are dumping their cable packages – Comcast lost 33 ,000 video customers in the fourth quarter and 151,000 for all of 2017 – and advertisers are following consumers to their phones.
Spending on U.S. TV ads is expected to grow an anemic 0.4 percent this year, according to eMarketer.
In the October-December quarter, NBCUniversal’s broadcast TV ad revenue fell 6.5 percent, after a boost in 2016 from election ads. As it adapts to a slowing TV market, NBC is continuing some digital efforts from Rio and expanding others to meet viewers wherever they are – whether in front of a TV or not.
THE SUPER BOWL
The Super Bowl reaches more than 100 million people in the U.S., outstripping every other TV event. It’s the most expensive ad time on TV.
This year’s Super Bowl is Feb. 4 and follows a two-year slump in regular-season NFL ratings, according to ESPN . But NBC has said it is not worried about a lack of interest. The game is an event that ”transcends sport and even the game itself,” Dan Lovinger, an NBC Sports ad-sales executive, said in January, about three weeks before the game.
NBC said then that it had nearly sold out Super Bowl ad spots and that on average, companies are paying more than $5 million for 30-second ads during the game. Kantar Media expects rates slightly higher than last year’s $5.05 million.
Fox aired the Super Bowl in 2017, and said it had $500 million in ad revenues for the day. NBC has predicted about $500 million for the game and associated events this year.
NBC also makes money from ads during events before and after the game and a special episode that day of its hit drama, ”This is Us.”
For the first time, it’s selling ads for the game that will only appear on its app or website.
ADS FROM PYEONGCHANG
NBC is paying $963 million for the broadcast rights to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea , which follow a Summer Olympics in Rio two years ago that disappointed in some ways.
NBC ruled the airwaves during the Rio Games, besting other networks, and raked in $250 million in profit. But ratings for the prime-time broadcast declined compared to the London Olympics in 2012, so NBC had to give advertisers some extra ad slots to make up for it.
This time around, NBC will sell ads for this Olympics based on total viewership, counting cable and digital viewers as well as those who tune into NBC proper. That gives them more leverage with advertisers, said Brian Wieser, an ad analyst for Pivotal Research Group.
NBC expects to sell more than $900 million worth of ads for the Olympics, which it says would be the highest ever for a Winter Games. (Summer Games are more popular.) The company is offering more hours of programming this year, both on TV and online, than it did for the Sochi Games in 2014.
KEEPING FANS HAPPY
Past Olympics have been criticized by fans for tape-delayed events. This year, NBC will air its nightly prime-time broadcast simultaneously across the country. That means the West Coast evening broadcast will start early, at 5 p.m.
The company says it will be able to show many Olympics events live for the U.S. audience, including skiing, snowboarding and figure skating. (U.S. prime time starts at 10 a.m. Korean time.) But some popular events will be live at odd hours in the U.S. Speed skating will take place in the evening in Korea, for example – but morning in the U.S.
NBC will stream the opening ceremony at 6 a.m. Eastern on Feb. 9, but only for cable customers. A delayed version will air on prime time. And it’s not yet clear whether exciting medal-round events will be shown at the best time for NBC’s ratings , said Kantar Media chief research officer Jon Swallen. NBC just says that all figure skating, alpine skiing and freestyle snowboard finals will be aired live in either prime time or what it calls ”prime-time plus,” which stretches from 11:30 p.m. until 2 a.m. Eastern.
GOING DIGITAL
As it did during the Rio Olympics, NBC has again partnered with BuzzFeed to make videos on Snapchat, a messaging app popular with millennials. These will include behind-the-scenes videos posted by Snapchat users, clips of athletes and Olympics venues shot by BuzzFeed, and snippets of NBC’s own Olympics coverage. NBC’s revenue from its Snapchat deal is in the tens of millions, said an NBC Sports spokesman.
The broadcaster is also teaming up with the online news site Vox to make a daily Olympics podcast for the 18 days of competition. NBC parent Comcast is showcasing both NBC’s Olympics broadcasts and streaming video for its home cable customers in a way that will be easily searchable on TV sets.
In its fourth-quarter earnings report on Wednesday, Comcast said its net income soared to $15 billion, or $3.17 per share, from $2.3 billion, or 48 cents per share, because of a one-time impact fr om tax changes recently signed into law. Revenue climbed 4 percent to $21.92 billion.
Spending on U.S. TV ads is expected to grow an anemic 0.4 percent this year, according to eMarketer.
In the October-December quarter, NBCUniversal’s broadcast TV ad revenue fell 6.5 percent, after a boost in 2016 from election ads. As it adapts to a slowing TV market, NBC is continuing some digital efforts from Rio and expanding others to meet viewers wherever they are – whether in front of a TV or not.
THE SUPER BOWL
The Super Bowl reaches more than 100 million people in the U.S., outstripping every other TV event. It’s the most expensive ad time on TV.
This year’s Super Bowl is Feb. 4 and follows a two-year slump in regular-season NFL ratings, according to ESPN . But NBC has said it is not worried about a lack of interest. The game is an event that ”transcends sport and even the game itself,” Dan Lovinger, an NBC Sports ad-sales executive, said in January, about three weeks before the game.
NBC said then that it had nearly sold out Super Bowl ad spots and that on average, companies are paying more than $5 million for 30-second ads during the game. Kantar Media expects rates slightly higher than last year’s $5.05 million.
Fox aired the Super Bowl in 2017, and said it had $500 million in ad revenues for the day. NBC has predicted about $500 million for the game and associated events this year.
NBC also makes money from ads during events before and after the game and a special episode that day of its hit drama, ”This is Us.”
For the first time, it’s selling ads for the game that will only appear on its app or website.
ADS FROM PYEONGCHANG
NBC is paying $963 million for the broadcast rights to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea , which follow a Summer Olympics in Rio two years ago that disappointed in some ways.
NBC ruled the airwaves during the Rio Games, besting other networks, and raked in $250 million in profit. But ratings for the prime-time broadcast declined compared to the London Olympics in 2012, so NBC had to give advertisers some extra ad slots to make up for it.
This time around, NBC will sell ads for this Olympics based on total viewership, counting cable and digital viewers as well as those who tune into NBC proper. That gives them more leverage with advertisers, said Brian Wieser, an ad analyst for Pivotal Research Group.
NBC expects to sell more than $900 million worth of ads for the Olympics, which it says would be the highest ever for a Winter Games. (Summer Games are more popular.) The company is offering more hours of programming this year, both on TV and online, than it did for the Sochi Games in 2014.
KEEPING FANS HAPPY
Past Olympics have been criticized by fans for tape-delayed events. This year, NBC will air its nightly prime-time broadcast simultaneously across the country. That means the West Coast evening broadcast will start early, at 5 p.m.
The company says it will be able to show many Olympics events live for the U.S. audience, including skiing, snowboarding and figure skating. (U.S. prime time starts at 10 a.m. Korean time.) But some popular events will be live at odd hours in the U.S. Speed skating will take place in the evening in Korea, for example – but morning in the U.S.
NBC will stream the opening ceremony at 6 a.m. Eastern on Feb. 9, but only for cable customers. A delayed version will air on prime time. And it’s not yet clear whether exciting medal-round events will be shown at the best time for NBC’s ratings , said Kantar Media chief research officer Jon Swallen. NBC just says that all figure skating, alpine skiing and freestyle snowboard finals will be aired live in either prime time or what it calls ”prime-time plus,” which stretches from 11:30 p.m. until 2 a.m. Eastern.
GOING DIGITAL
As it did during the Rio Olympics, NBC has again partnered with BuzzFeed to make videos on Snapchat, a messaging app popular with millennials. These will include behind-the-scenes videos posted by Snapchat users, clips of athletes and Olympics venues shot by BuzzFeed, and snippets of NBC’s own Olympics coverage. NBC’s revenue from its Snapchat deal is in the tens of millions, said an NBC Sports spokesman.
The broadcaster is also teaming up with the online news site Vox to make a daily Olympics podcast for the 18 days of competition. NBC parent Comcast is showcasing both NBC’s Olympics broadcasts and streaming video for its home cable customers in a way that will be easily searchable on TV sets.
In its fourth-quarter earnings report on Wednesday, Comcast said its net income soared to $15 billion, or $3.17 per share, from $2.3 billion, or 48 cents per share, because of a one-time impact fr om tax changes recently signed into law. Revenue climbed 4 percent to $21.92 billion.