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Blue Jays star wins MLB record salary arbitration case

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Vladimir Guerrero Jr. won a record $19.9 million in salary arbitration on Wednesday when a three-person panel picked his request rather than the Toronto Blue Jays’ $18.05 million offer.

Scott Buchheit, Walt De Treux and Jeanne Charles made the decision a day after listening to arguments. Players have a 6-2 lead in hearings this year with 10 cases pending.

Guerrero topped the previous high awarded from a hearing — the $14 million Seattle outfielder Teoscar Hernández received after he lost.

A three-time All-Star, Guerrero hit .264 with 26 homers and 94 RBIs last year, when he had a $14.5 million salary. He is eligible for free agency after the 2025 season.

HOT STOVE UPDATES: MLB free agency: Ranking and tracking the top players available.

This post appeared first on USA TODAY
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Sports

What does sports streaming megadeal mean for viewers, fans? What we know

Three of the top television companies in American sports delivered a bombshell announcement Tuesday that said they were forming a joint “all-in-one” streaming service that will provide sports content from all the major pro sports leagues, plus college football, college basketball and more.

But what does that mean to the average sports viewer?

ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery shared only some details of their agreement Tuesday. To gain a better understanding of it beyond that, USA TODAY Sports contacted sports business and legal experts about where this is headed, what it might cost and how it will affect viewing habits.

“It certainly is surprising,” said Neil Pilson, former president of CBS Sports. He also called it a potential watershed moment.

The companies otherwise are competitors with each other for viewers, advertising revenue and sports media rights, but in this case are joining to form a new streaming app scheduled to launch this fall, with each company owning one-third of it.

SUPER BOWL CENTRAL: Latest Super Bowl 58 news, stats, odds, matchups and more.

What would it include?

The joint venture would be offered directly to consumers and will include ESPN+, plus access to 14 linear networks: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNEWS, ABC, FOX, FS1, FS2, Big Ten Network, TNT, TBS and truTV.

What you get on those channels would be available on this app. That includes the NFL, Major League Baseball, the NBA, WNBA, NHL, NCAA basketball tournament games and the PGA Tour. Commercials would be included, too.

“To me, this goes a long way in solving the sports dilemma that many viewers have,” former Fox Sports Networks president Bob Thompson told USA TODAY Sports. “They would like to cut the cord (to cable television), but if you are a sports fan, it is very, very difficult to do and get all of what you want. This goes a long way to remedying that situation.”

How much would streaming service cost viewers?

It’s to be determined. But Thompson predicted it could cost more than $40 per month.

The math would have work for three companies that are paying huge fees to sports leagues for the rights to show this content. For example, ESPN, Fox, NBC, CBS and Amazon are scheduled to pay the NFL more than $100 billion combined through 2033 for rights to broadcast NFL games on their networks.

It would also have to take into account how the introduction of this streaming service will spur more viewers to ditch cable television – which has been a huge source of revenue for companies such as ESPN, the most expensive channel on cable television. Last year, ESPN took in more than $9 per monthly subscriber from cable television, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Why are they doing this?

Much of the media business in general has struggled to monetize online content as consumers have “cut the cord” from expensive traditional cable television bundles and instead turn to a wide and fractured array of streaming choices online. Disney, which owns ESPN, had been seeking a strategic partner for ESPN to help it navigate those choppy waters as its lucrative cable TV revenue decreases.

“They’re agreeing with the prediction that the cable audience is going to continue to shrink,” Pilson said.

By joining together online, they’re also not competing against each other for subscribers and instead are sharing them. This has the added benefit of creating a streaming service that has all of this content on one app instead of forcing viewers to subscribe to multiple services and toggle between them online.

So is this just another cable-TV-style bundle?

To a certain extent, yes. A subscriber will pay for a bundle of content from multiple channels. But it’s not like the traditional cable TV bundle in which subscribers were paying for dozens of channels they didn’t ask for and never watched. This is a skinnier bundle, only for sports.

Subscribers would also have the ability to bundle the product, including with streaming services Disney+, Hulu and/or Max, according to the announcement.

All of that could make it more attractive for viewers who pay big bills each month for cable TV.

“It could hasten the demise of the cable and satellite bundle now that there is a robust sports option in the streaming world,” Thompson said.  

Is this even legal?

That’s up to the federal government to decide: Does it violate antitrust laws that prohibit monopolies and anti-competitive conduct? In this case, competitors are joining to sell their content together under one venture. Antitrust regulators would have to look at its structure and decide whether to intervene to protect American consumers and taxpayers.

Regulators tend to get nervous when competitors enter into deals like this, but “antitrust law has always had a soft spot for sports,” said Robin Feldman, professor at the University of California Law San Francisco.

Even if antitrust laws are implicated, regulatory agencies will likely try to factor in consumer interests in their decision. In this case, a new sports streaming platform could make life easier for the average sports fan.

“Consumers have been complaining about how difficult it is to watch various types of sports programs, or even figure out how to watch them,’ Feldman told USA TODAY Sports. ‘I know my family will be thrilled.’

The announcement also noted that the formation of this new pay service is subject to the negotiation of definitive agreements amongst the parties.

Who is left out?

NBC Universal, CBS and their sports properties are not included, among others. So this new app won’t include everything a sports fan might want to see.

NBC is paying for rights to the Olympics through 2032 and NFL games on ‘Sunday Night Football’ through 2033. CBS also has rights to NFL games through 2033 and this year will start broadcasting up to 15 Big Ten Conference football games. The new streaming app also likely would not include men’s basketball Final Four games on CBS, which alternates coverage of those games each year with TBS through 2032.

What about linear TV?

While revenue from cable or linear TV has been shrinking, it’s still a big part of the business for these companies. The NFL also likes being on linear television to maximize its viewership. That’s why Pilson questioned whether the NFL and other sports leagues might have concerns about a streaming service that could accelerate the abandonment of linear or broadcast TV in favor of streaming.

The NFL didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment, but NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said this week he didn’t envision a streaming-only Super Bowl happening during his tenure. “One of the secrets of our success is we are really committed to broadcast television,” he said.

On Tuesday, the three companies announced a deal that raises questions about their own commitment to linear TV.

“They’re placing their bet and business future on viewers who are going to take all of their programming from the streaming services,” Pilson said.

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com

This post appeared first on USA TODAY
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Politics

Pakistan prepares for pivotal election as one of the leading candidates serves jail time

Pakistan heads to the polls Thursday with one of the leading candidates languishing in prison as some reports claim that voter enthusiasm is lacking among the country’s nearly 128 million voters. 

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, founder of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), has been barred from contesting the national parliamentary elections. Khan was ousted as the country’s 22nd prime minister after a no-confidence vote in April 2022. The former cricketer-turned-politician is currently serving more than 30 years in jail. Three out of Khan’s four sentences were delivered last week. Khan has been imprisoned since August 2023.

Khan’s party has raised fears of pre-poll rigging, something seemingly shared by voters. A recent Gallup poll revealed 70% of Pakistanis lack confidence in the honesty of their elections. The current election cycle has been marred with violence and harassment, casting a long shadow over the proceedings.

Forty-four political parties are to compete for a share of the 266 seats in the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament. The newly elected parliament will then choose the country’s next prime minister.

Despite many surveys having Khan as the favored leader, three-time former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is expected to return to power. Like Khan, Sharif is no stranger to the military establishment’s wrath and legal cases, which prematurely ended his past three terms as prime minister. Sharif, 74, had his last premiership cut short in 2017 over corruption allegations.

As a politician, Khan has been known to advocate for liberal ideas while simultaneously catering to Islamic principles and sentiments. During his tenure, Pakistan witnessed a notable surge in Islamist militancy and the fortification of positions held by religious radicals.

Sharif and his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) took control of the country under his brother’s leadership in 2022. At the time, Sharif had exiled himself abroad to avoid being jailed at home.

The PML-N has been campaigning largely on Pakistan’s dire financial situation. The country faced the threat of default last June and is suffering from rising poverty levels. The International Monetary Fund has warned of persistent inflation hovering around 24% this year.

A third major party and PML-N ally, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), is unlikely to garner enough support to secure the premiership. However, PPP leader Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari still stands a chance to be a part of a coalition government under Sharif. 

Syed Zulfiqar Bukhari, a former cabinet member and adviser to Khan, told Fox News Digital that Khan is wrapped up in more than 190 cases. Bukhari said all charges are politically motivated to keep Khan out of the election. Khan’s PTI party alleges a coordinated effort to obstruct their participation in the elections. ‘Draconian’ measures against the party include arrests, home raids, and internet disruptions and freezes, Bukhari said.

Government suppression has led to numerous detentions and heavy-handed tactics have forced PTI leaders to abandon the party. The United Nation’s leading human rights body recently warned of a ‘pattern of harassment’ against members of Khan’s party.

A spokesperson for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Office has urged Pakistani authorities to ensure a free and fair election. In an effort to uphold this standard, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced that there will be as many as 92 international election observers. These observers will include European Union members and several foreign embassies.

Both the military and Pakistan’s caretaker government have denied suppressing Khan or the PTI, despite the party’s complaints of being marginalized and muzzled. Nonetheless, the PTI has pressed on, even leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) in its strategy.

With Khan confined in isolation, his party has heavily relied on social media. The PTI party’s Instagram, X and TikTok accounts boast several million followers, outstripping Pakistan’s two other main parties combined. The party has utilized generative AI to create Khan-approved content; Khan’s preliminary AI-generated speech debuted at a first-ever virtual rally.

Bukhari says the party’s strategic use of ‘social media seems to be doing the trick.’ The PTI has also cautiously and quietly been conducting covert canvassing operations to avoid further crackdowns. The PTI has stayed steadfast in the face of adversity and is ‘hopeful to scoop an easy win,’ Bukhari told Fox News Digital.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS
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Ukraine’s ‘Underground Railroad’ rescues abducted Ukrainian children from Russian reeducation camps

As the 2nd anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches, more evidence has emerged that Moscow’s goal is to redraw the map of Europe and erase Ukraine, according to the testimony of three formerly abducted Ukrainian teenagers.

Authorities in Kyiv have provided evidence to the International Criminal Court that more than 19,000 Ukrainian children have been deported by the Russian military from Ukraine and sent to reeducation camps inside Crimea and Russia.

‘We do not know how many of our children have been abducted,’ testified Ukraine Ambassador Oksana Markarova before Congress on January 31. ‘We hear Russians bragging about 700,000 children. We know that our soldiers already registered more than 19,000. But the matter of the fact, until we liberate all Ukraine, until we win this war, we will not know how many of our children and our civilians have been abducted or killed.’

Three Ukrainian teens who escaped from these camps with the help of their relatives and a group called Save Ukraine spoke to FOX News after testifying before the Congressional Helsinki Commission. 19-year-old Ksenia was kidnapped from their home in Kharkiv by Russian troops two years ago with her brother who was 10 years old at the time.

‘I was sent to school and my little brother was sent to a ‘summer camp’,’ Ksenia told FOX. ‘My brother was under pressure all the time. He was told Ukraine has no future that nobody remembers him in Ukraine. He was told that Ukrainians are dumb, that Ukrainians know nothing, they’re Nazis. They were telling him, war would destroy Ukraine soon and there was no point going back, that he shall stay in Russia, where he can have future.’

Denys was 16 years old when he was abducted 2 years ago. He spent 10 months in a Russian camp in Occupied Crimea until he was rescued by volunteers from Save Ukraine. He was living in Kherson with his two deaf parents, who could not speak and could not fight back when Russian troops abducted him.

‘At the camps, they were telling us that very soon Ukraine will be part of Russia, that it is Russian land,’ Denys said during a visit to Washington DC. ‘They were pressuring us to become Russians.’

Rostyslav recently celebrated his 18th birthday with other children rescued from the Russian reeducation camps.

‘We were supposed to sing the Russian national anthem.

And if you refused, you were punished,’ Rostyslav explained. ‘If you did not sing for the third time, they would put you in a tiny solitary cell with no window and no phone. I was there four times in 35 days.’  

Rostyslav spoke to us in Ukrainian. Save Ukraine is the largest network of volunteers rescuing Ukrainian children deported to Russia in violation of the Geneva Convention. Its founder, Mykola Kuleba, compares it to ‘The Underground Railroad.’ He says they have rescued 232 Ukrainian children in the last 18 months and more than 100,000 other Ukrainians after Russia’s invasion, Feb 24, 2022.

‘It’s very hard. The searching in social media. We receive information on our hotline and check this information. We connect with relatives, with friends, and then we provide rescue operations,’ Kuleba explained after testifying before US lawmakers. ‘It’s very complicated. But we have success.’ 

A dangerous journey for the relatives who are trained to sneak behind enemy lines into Russia, pass interrogations by Russian agents working for the FSB, the internal spy agency, and find their missing children, before they are brainwashed and matched to a Russian family for a speedy adoption.

Kuleba explained what it was like for these children inside Russia’s reeducation camps:

‘Every day, you should wake up in the morning and sing Russian anthem. You cannot speak your language. You should speak only Russian language. You should attend every day classes and learn how Russian Empire is powerful. That everybody want to hurt you. And you have to be prepared well to fight.’

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS
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Politics

Garland says special counsel probing Biden classified records has submitted report, under White House review

Attorney General Merrick Garland notified congressional lawmakers that Special Counsel Robert Hur has submitted his final report after months of investigating President Biden’s alleged improper retention of classified records.

Garland, in a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Ranking Member Jerry Nadler, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin and Ranking Member Lindsey Graham, Garland said Hur submitted the final report on Monday to the Justice Department.

‘Prior to submitting his report to me, Special Counsel Hur engaged with the White House Counsel’s Office and President’s personal counsel to allow comments on the report,’ Garland wrote. ‘That included review by the White House Counsel’s Office for executive privilege consistent with the President’s constitutional prerogatives.’

Garland, though, said the White House’s privilege review ‘has not yet concluded.’ 

‘As I have made clear regarding each Special Counsel who has served since I have taken office, I am committed to making as much of the Special Counsel’s report public as possible, consistent with legal requirements and Department policy,’ Garland wrote.

Garland vowed to ‘produce to Congress the report, its appendices, and the letter from counsel following completion of the White House’s privilege review.’ 

White House spokesman Ian Sams tells FOX that the White House anticipates the privilege review of Special Counsel Hur’s report will be complete by the end of the week.

Hur has been investigating Biden’s improper retention of classified records since last year. Reports suggest there will be no charges filed against the president. 

Classified records were first found inside the Washington, D.C., offices of the Penn Biden Center think tank on Nov. 2, 2022, but only disclosed to the public in early January 2023.

A second stash of classified documents was also found inside the garage of the president’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, in December 2022, prompting Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint former U.S. Attorney Rob Hur to serve as special counsel in January 2023.

Days later, additional classified documents were found in the president’s home in Delaware. The FBI conducted a more than 12-hour search of Biden’s Delaware home, seizing additional classified records.

Biden has defended the storing of classified documents in the past.

‘By the way, my Corvette is in a locked garage, so it’s not like they’re sitting out on the street,’ he once said.

But Garland, on Nov. 18, 2022, appointed former DOJ official Jack Smith to serve as special counsel to investigate whether Trump was improperly retaining classified records at Mar-a-Lago.

When Smith was appointed to investigate Trump, Garland and top DOJ officials were simultaneously conducting an internal review of President Biden’s mishandling of classified records. That review, and the discovery of classified records at Biden’s office, was not disclosed to the public until January.

Republicans and allies of former President Trump were outraged, blasting the Justice Department for a double standard.

Trump pleaded not guilty to all 37 felony charges out of Smith’s probe. The charges include willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and false statements.

Trump, the 2024 GOP front-runner, was then charged with an additional three counts as part of a superseding indictment out of Smith’s investigation — an additional count of willful retention of national defense information and two additional obstruction counts. Trump pleaded not guilty.

That trial is set to begin on May 20. 

Biden’s aides told Axios earlier this week that they are fearful former President Trump’s campaign could use the photos against the Democrat incumbent ahead of their likely 2024 rematch.

Anthony Coley, a former senior adviser to Garland, accused the Biden team of slow-walking discovery in the president’s classified records case, versus the handling of the Trump probe.

‘Against the backdrop of former President Trump’s indictment on charges of willful and deliberate retention of classified documents, the Biden team’s drip, drip, drip of information made the discoveries seem even worse,’ he wrote in an op-ed.

Reports this week suggested the Biden campaign was concerned about potentially embarrassing photos included in Hur’s expected report. 

The campaign was concerned that the images would show how Biden stored classified materials. The classified documents were carried over from Biden’s time as former President Obama’s vice president.

Hur interviewed Biden at the White House — an interview that lasted two days. The White House said the president’s interview with Hur was ‘voluntary.’

Last year, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, who is co-leading the impeachment inquiry against President Biden, began investigating whether the sensitive, classified documents Biden retained involved specific countries or individuals that had financial dealings with Biden family members or their related companies. 

Comer questioned why Biden would have kept certain classified materials and asked Hur to provide his committee with a list of the countries named in any documents with classification markings recovered from Penn Biden Center, Biden’s residence, including the garage, in Wilmington, Delaware, or elsewhere; and a list of all individuals named in those documents with classification markings; and all documents found with classified markings.

It is unclear if Hur cooperated with Comer’s request. 

Fox News’ Patrick Ward contributed to this report.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS
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Stocks

Why the NAAIM Exposure Index Matters to Your Investments

In this edition of StockCharts TV‘s The Final Bar, Dave welcomes Ryan Redfern, ChFC, CMT of Shadowridge Asset Management and President of NAAIM. Ryan provides a primer on the NAAIM Exposure Index, including what it is, how it’s calculated, and how it can be used to measure investor sentiment. David and Ryan discuss sentiment vs. breadth indicators, how to think about risk during a period of uncertainty, and how seasonal trends relate to all of the above.

This video originally premiered on February 7, 2024. Watch on our dedicated Final Bar page on StockCharts TV!

New episodes of The Final Bar premiere every weekday afternoon. You can view all previously recorded episodes at this link.

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Business

New sports bundle could give cord-cutting fans their biggest single source of content yet

Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery announced plans Tuesday to launch a new streaming service that could become the biggest single source of sports content for cord-cutting consumers.

The three companies represent a massive share of the TV sports market, carrying games that are virtually all available online — but often only accessible with subscriptions to pricier traditional cable and satellite services.

Starting this fall, the new package could sidestep those subscriptions and deal another crushing blow to traditional TV providers.

‘This is obviously a nice, positive step for fans,’ media industry analyst Rich Greenfield, cofounder of LightShed Partners, told CNBC.

‘It’s going to make it a little bit easier to access just the content they want if they don’t care about a lot of the non-sports cable networks out there.’

This new sports package adds one more potential cost for cord-cutters who might already be running up a big digital TV bill with other providers such as Netflix, Prime Video and Peacock. However, subscribers would have the ability to bundle the new sports offering with the companies’ streaming platforms Disney+, Hulu and Max, according to CNBC.

This new Disney/Fox/Warner package was unveiled just ahead of Wednesday’s announcement by Disney that ESPN will launch its own flagship direct-to-consumer service in 2025, adding one more overlapping sports option for consumers.

Lachlan Murdoch, the chief executive at Fox, told analysts on Wednesday that the new streaming platform will target millions of “cord-nevers,” mostly young adults who have never subscribed to traditional cable.

Disney carries virtually every sport under the sun, including massive investments in the NFL, NBA and college football and basketball. Those channels are ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SEC Network, ACC Network, ESPNEWS and ABC.

Fox, via its own Fox Network, FS1, FS2 and the Big Ten Network, carries Major League Baseball, the NFL and some college sports. Warner Bros.’ TNT and TBS carry the NBA and NHL.

This new bundle conspicuously does not include NBC and Paramount’s CBS. NBC carries ‘Sunday Night Football,’ some college football, golf, auto racing, horse racing and the Premier League.

CBS has the NFL, golf and some European soccer.

Sports carried by major providers like NBC and CBS are not part of this new offering. So any sports fans thinking about dumping their traditional cable provider would have to weigh all of the Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. sports vs. the loss of NBC content such as ‘Sunday Night Football’ or CBS material, such as AFC action.

‘It’s clearly not a good thing for companies like Paramount who are not being included in this,’ said Greenfield, who estimated this new service could cost between $30 and $40 a month. ‘It’s not good for NBC, although obviously within the size and scale of Comcast, I think it’s less of a negative than it probably is for Paramount.’

That price would make the new offering competitive with YouTube TV, which has become an alternative for sports fans who don’t want to pay for cable and costs $72.99 per month.

A rep for NBC Sports declined comment on Wednesday while a spokesperson for CBS could not be immediately reached for comment.

‘This is a huge move; that’s a lot of sports in your pocket,’ said University of Nevada, Las Vegas sociology professor Michael Borer, who specializes in popular culture. ‘There’s this whole movement of being able to watch a game wherever you go.’

Some individual leagues carry their own digital offerings, which often black out local games.

Baseball fans with a singular focus on the diamond could buy MLB.TV, which cost $150 last season. The NBA League Pass can be purchased by hoop-centric consumers, for the second half of this season, for $50.

The move to digital offerings took a big step in late 2022 when the NFL sold its ‘Sunday Ticket’ package, which brings games not shown on your local Fox and CBS affiliates to YouTube for $2 billion after it’d long been on satellite.

The base price for football fans who purchased their 2023 ‘Sunday Ticket’ package early was $249.

This new Disney/Fox/Warner Bros. bundle would presumably not include Fox games not shown in a viewer’s local market.

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS
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Business

A Big Mac combo for $18? Fast foodies are getting fed up with price hikes

Look no further than the fast-food drive-thru for evidence of inflation fatigue.

Food companies have been passing along higher labor and ingredient costs to consumers long after inflation peaked at 9.1% in June 2022. Diners are getting fed up, eating less fast food and griping on social media that their go-to cheap meals aren’t so cheap anymore.

Sales show it. McDonald’s reported underwhelming results in the fourth quarter, and Yum Brands showed weaker-than-expected growth in its top brands, which include KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut.

Fast-food executives are taking note. McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski told analysts Monday that consumers are becoming more discriminating with their dollars, and he promised the company would focus more on affordability this year.

McDonald’s has faced criticism for one franchise location’s $18 Big Mac meal.Jakub Porzycki / NurPhoto via Getty Images file

Kempczinski noted that consumers earning $45,000 or less annually were favoring comparatively cheaper groceries over Mickey D’s, opting to cook their own meals more often.

“Eating at home has become more affordable,” he said. “The battleground is certainly with that low-income consumer.”

Some common grocery items have been falling in price. In the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index, the food at home category rose only 1.3% between December 2022 and December 2023, but food away from home rose 5.2%.

Long known for its Dollar Menu, McDonald’s was recently pilloried online for a Connecticut restaurant’s $18 Big Mac combo meals and $7 Egg McMuffin.

McDonald’s told NBC News that pricing is up to franchisees and can vary by location but that the company strives to strike a balance for value.

In recent years, many fast-food companies have expanded offerings and tweaked their restaurants to try to attract as many customers as possible across income levels. McDonald’s recently upgraded its famous burgers and opened a new concept called CosMc’s, all while leaning into nostalgia.

But inflation-scarred diners may care more about price, said Laura Murphy, managing director of Bolt PR who specializes in food and beverage marketing.

“People are really telling fast food QSR [quick-service restaurant] industry leaders, ‘This is what we’re looking for, this is what we want: We want efficiency. We want affordability.’”

McDonald’s sales missed expectations in the fourth quarter of 2023.Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Meanwhile, Taco Bell is leaning in on its value menu, promoting 10 items for $3 or less. The company told NBC News it “remains dedicated to offering our fans delicious food at affordable prices.”

This isn’t the first time in recent years that consumers have balked at menu price hikes, or taken to social media to gripe about them.

Yum CEO David Gibbs told Yahoo Finance last year that the company was planning more modest price increases than the ones it implemented in 2022. Amid the latest quarter’s disappointing results, Yum announced plans to juice sales at KFC by launching a smashed potato bowl and the chicken chain’s first loyalty program.

Some major food and beverage brands operating in the Middle East — including McDonald’s, Starbucks and Yum — have said conflict in the region and related boycotts have also dented business. Burger King’s parent company warned in November that the turmoil there threatened to pile on top of other global pressures, from the war in Ukraine to Covid-19, that have already driven up costs over the last few years.

That could potentially “have an adverse impact on our business and results of operations if we and our franchisees are not able to adjust prices sufficiently … without negatively impacting consumer demand,” the company told investors.

Bucking the trend, Chipotle’s sales rose 8.4% in the fourth quarter and foot traffic improved, too, after a 3% menu price hike back in October. The company credited the return of carne asada with helping drive the growth.

With prices for almost everything higher today than three years ago, even though inflation has slowed sharply, Murphy said what matters most in today’s fast-food industry are cost and convenience.

“Let’s go back to really making sure that we’re providing simple food in an affordable way that’s efficient, quick, and it gives people really the basics of what they’re looking for,” she said.

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS
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Bud Light gets back to basics for Super Bowl ad after controversy

The king of beers is sparing no expense in its goal to reign supreme over the Super Bowl. And Anheuser-Busch’s trio of big brands are calling on saviors old and new to take on a particularly big lift this year.

Three years after sitting out the Super Bowl for the first time in 37 years, Budweiser once again trots out its iconic Clydesdales, this time getting an assist from a Labrador retriever. Michelob Ultra targets both its middle-aged demographic and the growing soccer sector by taking Lionel Messi, Ted Lasso and Dan Marino’s talents to something resembling South Beach.

And if Taylor Swift is America’s Sweetheart, Peyton Manning is its nonthreatening dollop of mayonnaise. Who better than Manning, then, to lead the charge for Bud Light in a feverish 60-second spot flanked by Post Malone, UFC’s Dana White and an eponymous genie?

The theme seems clear: Anheuser-Busch, whose products have claimed 14 championships in USA TODAY’s Ad Meter measuring public opinion of Super Bowl spots, is getting back to basics.

SUPER BOWL CENTRAL: Latest Super Bowl 58 news, stats, odds, matchups and more.

“It’s an important moment,” says Kyle Norrington, Anheuser-Busch’s chief commercial officer. “It continues to get tougher as a marketer, but this is an amazing moment. People are seeing 10,000 pieces of communications every day, but Super Bowl’s just different.

“The world is watching. This is an opportunity for us to lean in and get back to what we’ve been doing since 1975, which is great beer marketing.”

And, in a sense, control what they can control.

‘We always listen to our consumers’

For decades – heck, Bud bottled its first beer in 1876 – Anheuser-Busch has been the oxygen of the USA’s beer scene. And its modern dominance has come almost in lockstep with the NFL’s rise as America’s dominant entertainment vehicle.

Bud Light’s 1982 debut arrived just in time for the Super Bowl to take off as the country’s secular holiday, and by the end of the decade, the Bud Bowl added another commercial entry point to join legacy Bud and its Clydesdales in dominating the big game.

By 2001, Bud Light was the top-selling beer in the USA. Yet it would relinquish that distinction in 2023.

The brand somewhat unwittingly wandered into the battlefield of culture wars after transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney promoted on Instagram a partnership with Bud Light.

Never mind that the number of commemorative Mulvaney cans scarcely represented a drop in Bud Light’s ocean of macrobrew – it exceeded $5 billion in 2022 sales – nor was it indicative of a significant shift in marketing strategy.

The right-wing flotilla attacked, with cannons both proverbial and literal blazing. Yet unlike other instances of aggrieved reactionary backlash, the effect went far beyond Kid Rock’s courageous attack on a 12-pack.

By July, Bud Light had ceded its No. 1 spot domestically to Modelo, although analysts suggest that the trend line was developing before 2023. The brand then faced more backlash when Mulvaney said the company did not adequately support her in the aftermath.

By November, Anheuser-Busch announced chief marketing officer Benoit Garbe would be resigning at year’s end, with Carrington “fully dedicated” to marketing going forward.

“We always listen to our consumers. And what they’ve been telling us is, ‘Give us what we all love about your brands,’” says Carrington of the path ahead after 2023.

“So, ‘Give us more football.’ We’ve reconnected with a partner that we started with many years ago with the UFC. ‘Give us more great fight nights.’

“We’re listening, we’re learning and we’re continuing to move forward, which is how we’re thinking about it.”

In that way, the Super Bowl, some 10 months after the controversy began, is timed fortuitously, says Charles R. Taylor, professor of marketing at Villanova’s School of Business.

“It’s a crucial moment because enough time has passed that the controversy has died down,” says Taylor. “I think people are now open to their message in a way that wouldn’t have been the case much of last year.

“Regardless of one’s political views, Bud Light really got a bad deal out of that. But when they lost market share leadership after all these years, I absolutely think it’s a crucial year to start recovering and turn the consumer’s attention to something else and put that in the past.”

Soccer, anyone?

Fútbol as the next frontier

It’s no accident Messi and ‘Ted Lasso’s’ Jason Sudeikis are sprinkled into the Michelob Ultra spot: Soccer is about to further dominate the landscape, and Anheuser-Busch is plotting its attack.

Michelob Ultra is the official beer of Copa America ’24, to be contested in the USA in June and July. One year later, the FIFA Club World Cup will be contested over a similar footprint.

And it’s all an appetizer for the 2026 World Cup, the final scheduled for New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium.

“I call these the golden years of soccer in America,” says Norrington. “Really critical for us to land our connection. We’re going to ensure that we make the absolute most of these next few years with soccer and Michelob Ultra.”

But first, the more familiar football. Las Vegas was deluged with Bud branding even before the 49ers and Chiefs touched down on the Strip.

Budweiser has purchased a significant chunk of display time on the still-new Sphere, as U2 gives way to the Clydesdales in a snow globe-type display that will be visible throughout most of town. Lil Wayne and T-Pain will extol the virtues of Michelob Ultra and drop a few tracks Saturday night at the world’s largest TopGolf venue.

And newly-signed Bud Light pitchman Zach Bryan will play to a sold-out crowd Friday night at The Cosmopolitan.

Come Sunday, Anheuser-Busch reclaims its status as the No. 1 alcohol sponsor for the big game. Whether Bud Light can get back to that top spot is a question for another day.

“We put some emotional and entertaining content together for America,” says Norrington. “Our investment as the No. 1 spender on alcohol in the Super Bowl is unwavering, to connect with consumers and brand lovers when everybody’s watching.

“It’s a very important piece of the puzzle and as we look at the calendar year, kicking it off in a big way with the Super Bowl is the way to get things started.”

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Schlichter pulled over with crack pipe while on probation, police say

The seemingly perpetual, drug-related saga of former NFL and Ohio State quarterback Art Schlichter − who is serving probation for cocaine charges in 2022, months after he was released from prison − continues as he faces another felony drug charge.

Schlichter, 63, was stopped by the Ohio State Highway Patrol late Friday afternoon when a trooper noticed a vehicle driven by Schlichter sitting near an intersection in Columbus, Ohio.

As the trooper approached Schlichter’s car, he handed the officer a crack pipe, according to the criminal complaint. Schlichter’s car was searched and small white rocks believed to be crack cocaine were found, according to court documents.

Last arrest: Unresponsive in a hotel room

At the time of his arrest Friday, Schlichter was serving probation, a one-year sentence handed down in September, for cocaine possession.

SUPER BOWL CENTRAL: Latest Super Bowl 58 news, stats, odds, matchups and more.

That sentence stemmed from an incident in which Schlichter was found unresponsive at an Ohio Hampton Inn in June 2022 − less than a year after he was released from prison for federal fraud charges related to a massive ticket scheme that bilked millions of dollars from his victims. 

Inside Schlichter’s hotel room, officers found a substance they believed to be cocaine after responding to a report of an overdose at the Hampton Inn on Lyman Drive in Hilliard, Ohio. Officers could not get Schlichter to respond.

He was resuscitated with the help of Narcan, a nasal spray used for the treatment of a known or suspected opioid overdose that includes signs of breathing problems. Schlichter was then taken to the hospital.

A test of the substance found in Schlichter’s hotel room came back as cocaine and he was charged with possession of cocaine, a fifth-degree felony.

Less than five months on probation

In September, nearly a year after Schlichter was found unresponsive in that Hampton Inn hotel room, he was sentenced to one year probation for his offense.

The sentence issued by a Franklin County, Ohio, judge was the latest in Schlichter’s encounters with the law, which through the decades have mostly stemmed from illegal gambling and Ponzi schemes.

Ron O’Brien, the former Franklin County prosecutor who fought to keep Schlichter in prison due to his perpetual criminal offenses, told IndyStar in September that in legal terms, the sentence of one year probation was appropriate.

But he also called Schlichter a ‘career criminal who seemingly cannot be rehabilitated.’

A life of run-ins with the law

A former Ohio State star quarterback, Schlichter had dreams of a professional football career, but those were soon sidelined by his run-ins with the law.

In 2010, NFL Network listed Schlichter as the No. 4 draft bust of all time and a top 10 quarterback draft bust of all time.

In 2011, Schlichter pleaded guilty to a massive ticket scheme in which he promised college and NFL game tickets to buyers, but never delivered the tickets despite being paid for them. He was sentenced and released on bond.

Four months later, in January 2012, Schlichter’s bond was revoked due to drug use. According to court records, Schlichter was charged with violating the terms of his house arrest, testing positive for cocaine twice and then refusing to give urine samples. He was taken into custody.

In May 2012, Schlichter was sentenced to nearly 11 years in the Federal Correctional Institute in Florence, Colorado, and 10 years in an Ohio penitentiary. The two sentences were to be served concurrently, and with good behavior Schlichter was to be released Aug. 18, 2020. 

But from inside the walls of prison, just months before his scheduled release, Schlichter was having women outside the prison place bets for him, O’Brien told IndyStar at the time.

He was also betting with other inmates, O’Brien said. Prison officials found out through emails and phone calls Schlichter was gambling from inside. He was banned from email for 90 days due to his gambling, according to prison records. 

In 2020, IndyStar spoke exclusively with Schlichter from behind bars at the Federal Correctional Institute in Florence, Colorado. He said he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and dementia and that he had been treated ‘unfairly’ by the courts and prosecutors.

Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on X: @DanaBenbow. Reach her via e-mail: dbenbow@indystar.com.  

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