⏱Billion dollar bet

Mar 19, 2021

Good morning everyone, and congrats on making it to Friday. March madness is here, so get excited!

After one of the most unique college basketball seasons in history, March Madness is finally upon us just 703 days after the last game was played in 2019. Last night the “first four” games were played, and now the final bracket has been set for the first tip-off at 12:15PM between Virginia Tech (10) and Florida (7). Need a little bit of help on your family/work/friend bracket pool before it locks? Check out ESPN’s Joe Lunardi’s guide here.

Google announced yesterday in a blog post that they would be committing more than $7Bn on its footprint in America through an expansion of both data centers and offices, as well as expansions to its existing offices. Their plan will also feature investments in local communities, and will create more than 10k full time jobs within the next year. This investment comes despite the fact that Google has publicly said that they’ll be allowing employees to work remotely at least 2x a week.

Yesterday the NFL announced that it had finalized its newest media deal that will run through 2033. It’s not only renewing TV rights with all of the current partners, but also adding in Amazon Prime as well as an exclusive partner for Thursday night football, marking the first time a streaming service has ever secured exclusive rights. Amazon is paying more than $1Bn for that right, which sounds like a lot except for when it’s compared to the more than $2Bn annually that Viacom, Fox, and Comcast are paying, or the $2.7Bn that Disney is (they went from carrying 17 games to 23).

According to data compiled by the Motion Picture Association, the world passed an important milestone in 2020— there are now more than 1.1Bn streaming service subscriptions in the world. Netflix still leads the pack with more than 200M, slightly less than 2x the amount of its closest competitor, Disney+, who just recently broke 100M less than two years after its inception.

Have a great rest of your day, and we’ll see you tomorrow bright and early!

-The 90 Second News Team

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