Amazon’s first NFL viewership numbers — and what it means. A conversation with Boston Globe sports media writer Chad Finn. Plus, Fred Segal, the author of Freezing Cold Takes: NFL and the person behind the Old Takes Exposed Twitter account.

Episode 243 of the Sports Media Podcast features a conversation with Boston Globe sports media writer Chad Finn. He is followed by Fred Segal, the author of Freezing Cold Takes: NFL. Football’s Most Inaccurate Predictions And The Fascinating Stories Behind Them. Since 2015, Segal has run the popular Old Takes Exposed account on Twitter. In this podcast, Deitsch and Finn discuss what Amazon’s huge ‘Thursday Night Football’ debut viewership number means; Amazon getting 11.8 million viewers on its own for the main broadcast and 13 million when you include the local broadcasts; Amazon’s first-party measurement, across all platforms, saying it averaged 15.3 million viewers in total; how to view the issues some viewers had; the PR push from Amazon and the NFL; broadcasting Aaron Judge’s record homer run and more. Segal discusses why he wanted to turn this content into a book; how he approached the research for this; his favorite NFL stories in the book; the exploding growth of Old Takes Exposed; how sports media people have responded over the years; the idea of monetizing opinion with no accountability, and more. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and more.