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Roger Goodell shops Ticket

Moving the Market: National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell is courting new streaming partners like Amazon and Disney for NFL Sunday Ticket, straining an exclusive 25-year relationship with AT&T and setting the stage for a landmark shift in NFL sports rights.

• The Big Picture: Sunday Ticket, which gives viewers access to the full slate of NFL games, could be the X factor for a major media company vying for preeminence in the new streaming era.

What's Next: Goodell has the option to end the League's exclusivity deal with AT&T at the end of the 2019 season, and said last month that he's "looking to see how we can change the delivery."

• Disney and Amazon are top prospective buyers, while Google has wavered and Netflix has taken a hard pass, sources with knowledge of the NFL's discussions say.

• "What could Disney add to their arsenal to be distinct in the market?" one source asked. "Every out-of-market NFL game."

• "Google has been on and off," the source said.

• "The NFL always wanted [Netflix chief] Reed [Hastings] to be interested and he never was."

The Strain: The NFL's plan to break the 25-year exclusivity deal is not playing well with AT&T chief Randall Stephenson, the sources said, as evidenced by the recent fight over the NFL Network.

• AT&T announced this week it was dropping the NFL Network from DirecTV Now and U-verse, apparently without making any effort to negotiate. "We never heard a word from them," an NFL Network spokesperson said.

• Stephenson may renew the deal before September, but not without embarrassing Goodell: "The NFL does not like being blacked out," one source said. "It’s wildly embarrassing to them that partners can do this."

• Meanwhile, the NFL is working with AT&T's competitor Verizon to create 5G services like games and AR experiences for fans.

The Upshot: It's a sign of the times, and a sign what's to come: Heightened tensions between the NFL and AT&T as Goodell looks for new ways to move the NFL into the streaming era.

• So, whither Sunday Ticket? Probably to the highest bidder, whether that's Disney or Amazon or ... AT&T.

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Bob Kraft wins a reprieve

Big the Owners Box: The Florida judge overseeing Bob Kraft's day spa prostitution case has temporarily blocked the release of video footage that allegedly shows the Patriots owner paying for and engaging in sex.

• "I don’t want this released until I've ruled," Circuit Court Judge Joseph Marx said during an emergency hearing yesterday.

The Big Picture, via NYT's Ken Belson and Frances Robles: "Kraft, a businessman, philanthropist and N.F.L. team owner, has turned the dispute over the video into a bare-knuckle legal fight."

• "Kraft has filed motions first to keep the video private so as not to prejudice his case, and then to suppress the video from the evidence entirely because, he argued, it was obtained under false pretenses."

Oh/and: "Kraft and his legal team are also facing off against several news organizations, including The New York Times, that have filed a motion to oppose keeping evidence in the case private."

✍ Rally the Market ✍

Top Talker: The Time 100 is out.

• Beyoncé on Michelle Obama

• Warren Buffett on LeBron James

• Kai-Fu Lee on Zhang Yiming

• Sean Parker on Mark Zuckerberg

• Mike Bloomberg on Bob Iger

& many more ...

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Jay Y. Lee's Mendoza line

Blowing Up the Market: Jay Y. Lee is enduring Samsung's most embarrassing product roll-out since he was forced to recall the Galaxy Note 7 phones because they were literally blowing up in people's pockets.

The Fire This Time, via CNN's Sam Kelly:

• "Several reporters with early access to Samsung's Galaxy Fold — a luxury foldable smartphone that turns into a tablet — say their new devices broke after just a few days of use."

• "Mark Gurman from Bloomberg said his 'review unit is completely broken and unusable after just two days in.' The Verge's Dieter Bohn called out a 'small bulge' on what he said was a defective hinge. Other reviewers have indicated a constant flickering screen."

• Samsung's response: "We will thoroughly inspect these units in person to determine the cause of the matter." (And: Don't remove the protective layer.)

The Big Picture: Innovations aren't innovations unless they work. There's also a difference between creating bright shiny objects that wow and reliable devices that actually improve people's lives.

On that note:

• I've noted that analysts and reporters are beginning to question whether Apple is losing its ability to innovate, a critique born in part from the incredibly high standards Apple has set for itself. It used to bat .999, should it be worried if it's now batting, say, .500?

• The concern for Samsung is that after Explosion-gate and Fold-gate, it's on course to be batting somewhere below the Mendoza Line.

❄️ Cold Take from FT's Tim Bradshaw on Tuesday: "It is apparent from handling Samsung’s Galaxy Fold that this was not a rush job, bodged together to generate a bit of extra press."

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Mark Zuckerberg's new mess

Big in the Bay: "Facebook harvested the email contacts of 1.5 million users without their knowledge or consent when they opened their accounts," Business Insider's Rob Price reports.

• Facebook tells Price the contact data was "unintentionally uploaded to Facebook," and it is now deleting them.

The Big Picture: Facebook is enduring multiple privacy-related scandals, including a glitch that exposed some users' passwords, precisely as regulators are ramping up their scrutiny of the social media company.

• What's Next: "I'm confident regulators will be taking a look," former FTC chief technologist Ashkan Soltani tweets. "Whether it will be included as part of the pending [Cambridge Analytica] settlement or started as a new investigation is the question."

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Susan Wojcicki in spotlight

Talk of the Valley: YouTube chief Susan Wojcicki is the subject of a new profile by NYT's Daisuke Wakabayashi, who reports that her job has become "less about growth and more about toxic containment."

• "Political figures and tech luminaries alike are castigating YouTube for not doing enough to rein in the crooks, crackpots, racists, Russian agents and charlatans who call the platform home."

• "New horrors are ceaseless ... and reinforce the view that the platform is corroding society."

• "While Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, Jack Dorsey and others have gotten their share of public scrutiny, Ms. Wojcicki largely has not."

The Big Picture: Wakabayashi says his investigation into Wojcicki's leadership was "both reassuring and alarming."

• "At the top of the world’s largest and most volatile video platform is a calm, levelheaded person. But her deliberate style may be at odds with the pace and scale of horrors and just plain stupidity that relentlessly arises on YouTube."

Market Links

• Zhang Yiming has different ideas about free speech (Bloomberg)

• Mark Zuckerberg is working on his own voice assistant (CNBC)

• Ben Silbermann values Pinterest at over $10 billion (CNBC)

• Steve Mollenkopf reaps reward from 5G wireless bet (WSJ)

• Ben Chestnut dives back into the podcast space (Nieman)

Bloomberg/Getty

Ynon Kreiz goes Hollywood

Turnaround Plan: Mattel's new chief, Ynon Kreiz, may be turning the tide on his company's declining toy sales by "flexing his entertainment-industry muscles" and trying to meet his audience on new digital platforms, WSJ's Paul Ziobro reports:

• "He’s launched a Mattel film studio and struck new deals to develop movies based on Barbie, Hot Wheels and other cherished toy brands."

• He's also "added new leaders to develop episodic television shows and to license Mattel brands more broadly into things like digital gaming and live-action events."

The Big Picture, via Kriez: "We’re not trying to get [kids] to put their iPads down. ... The opportunity for us is to evolve those experiences. Let’s be available for the kids to play wherever they are, including games, content or digital experiences that are a natural extension of the physical play system."

Hollywood Goes Riviera...

🎥 The Cannes Film Festival has unveiled its lineup, including new films from Pedro Almodóvar, Terrence Malick and Jim Jarmusch.

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Hollywood's war goes nuclear

Talk of Tinseltown: "The Writers Guild of America has filed suit against the major talent agencies, turning a roiling conflict into an outright war in which neither side is likely to compromise," THR's Jonathan Handel reports:

• "The lawsuit alleges that television packaging fees... are a breach of fiduciary duty and an illegal kickback under federal and state statutes, including California’s Unfair Competition Law."

• "The suit seeks an end to packaging fees on new and existing series, and also disgorgement and restitution of packaging fees previously received by the agencies."

What's Next: "Asked at a press conference whether the WGA has the resources to fight four well-funded talent firms" — WME, CAA, UTA and ICM — "WGA West general counsel Tony Segall responded, 'We will see it through to the end.'"

• 🔥 Hot Take: THR's Eriq Gardner argues that the war between writers and agents is "not unlike the battle between the taxi industry and Uber."

What's Next...

• Today in Washington: The Mueller report drops this morning. My colleague Dareh Gregorian tells you what to expect.

• Tonight in New York: My colleague Lester Holt hosts the 80th Annual Overseas Press Club Awards Dinner, at which Washington Post chief Marty Baron will honor Jamal Khashoggi.

See you tomorrow.