Monday Night TikTok

[Bloomberg] [Fully Charged]( From [Bloomberg](   [FOLLOW US [Facebook Share]]( [Twitter Share]( [SUBSCRIBE [Subscribe]](  Hey y’all, it’s Austin, the ultra-fair-weather Boston sports fan. Ahead of the first Monday Night Football of the new season kicking off, this Massachusetts native donned his aging Drew Bledsoe Patriots jersey, cracked open a Harpoon Dunkin’ porter and flipped on the television—to watch anything but football. Like many cord cutters, my connection to the National Football League these days isn’t through commercial-heavy TV broadcasts but rather a raft of streaming services and apps that have largely supplanted my traditional sports viewing habits. In recent years, Silicon Valley has raced to capture the eyeballs of digital-leaning consumers. The NFL is undergoing an [existential crisis](, some argue, driven by declining TV ratings, [ad revenue]( and [relevancy among today’s youth](. Even the Super Bowl, considered one of the few surviving “campfire” events of the internet age, has seen its [audience wane](: Last year’s bout between my beloved Pats and the Los Angeles Rams drew the [lowest ratings]( in more than a decade. But with about 100 million viewers and billions of dollars in annual revenue up for grabs, major tech companies and startups haven’t lost football fever. The NFL has proved willing to experiment with all types of digital platforms, no matter how novel or ephemeral. Last Tuesday, the league announced a multi-year partnership with TikTok, hoping to slay Gen Z. Amazon.com Inc., Twitter Inc. and YouTube have [made huge pushes]( to acquire digital streaming rights to high-profile games over the years. The NFL has also inked deals with [Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s WeChat]( and [Facebook Inc.’s Instagram]( for social reach; with Uber Technologies Inc., apparently in part to provide [safe rides for athletes](; and even HP Inc., for [3D-scanned custom cleats](. These bets on the ongoing potential of football raise the question of who is benefiting most from such alliances: tech companies or the NFL? It depends. For Electronic Arts Inc., the Madden franchise generates a [massive and reliable source of revenue]( each year for the game publisher and the league. Since the NFL teamed up with Snapchat, the social media company has rolled out [gimmicky features such as augmented-reality lenses]( for Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers. Now Snapchat’s [NFL highlight reels averages 4 million views every Sunday](, a total that has roughly doubled in a year. Meanwhile, other tech partnerships have proven pure money plays, such as the [$400 million deal with Microsoft Corp.]( to have coaching staff use Surface tablets on the sidelines. Even when a venture does flop, the NFL seems to come out ahead. In 2015, the first internet-streaming partnership reportedly earned the league at least [$20 million from Yahoo](, for nothing more than granting online broadcast rights for what was described as “[one of the worst games of the season](.” The NFL protects its dwindling but crucial TV audience through the use of a special tool tech companies are happy to compete for: [exclusivity](. The NFL recently signaled that it [hasn‘t seen a tech service with anywhere near the consistent scale of traditional TV](; yet, that hasn’t stopped the biggest players, from [Apple Inc.]( to [Walt Disney Co.](, from facing off for their place on the gridiron. The league appears to be in no hurry to crown a world champion among its various tech partners. In the meantime, we’ll all need to be fair-weather fans with our streaming services. I’ll be there with you, Snapchat in one hand and the WatchESPN app in the other. Perhaps I’ll tune in from [Bill Belichick’s Surface tablet](. —[Austin Carr](mailto:acarr54@bloomberg.net)  And here’s what you need to know in global technology news Microsoft president Brad Smith defended Huawei, during a Bloomberg interview in which he says the Trump administration is [treating the Chinese company unfairly](.  Facebook and Google face renewed antitrust scrutiny, as New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a new probe into possible “[stifled competition](” and consumer data misuse.  Beijing is considering a goal for electric vehicles to reach [60% of all auto sales]( by 2035. It follows a [tax-exemption win for Tesla in China](.  In a race to catch up with Uber and Lyft, Volkswagen [reshuffled its ride-sharing vehicle unit](.   Sponsor Content by Hewlett Packard Enterprise Artificial Intelligence has quickly shifted from hype to reality, now significantly impacting mainstream business. AI is expected to boost the global economy by $15.7 trillion dollars by 2030, and it’s estimated that 58 million net new jobs will be created worldwide by 2022 as a result of the increasing use of AI. [If you haven’t explored what AI can do for your business, here’s the latest research to get you thinking.](   You received this message because you are subscribed to the Bloomberg Technology newsletter Fully Charged. You can tell your friends to [sign up here](.  [Unsubscribe]( | [Bloomberg.com]( | [Contact Us]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022