Articles in Media

The Sports Bundle Package

03/04/2024 at 3:31pm EST

from Todd Spangler of Variety,

The Fox Corp., Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery sports streaming joint venture is anticipating signing up 5 million customers in the first five years, CEO Lachlan Murdoch said Monday.

The 5 million mark will be where the JV “settles after five years,” Murdoch said, speaking Monday at the 2024 Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference in San Francisco. He was making the point that Fox Corp. expects the sports streaming venture will be incremental to its existing pay-TV revenue base.

“This a pro-consumer package,” Murdoch said. Historically, the TV industry has “made life for our audiences… incredibly hard,” he continued. “What this bundle does is put a majority of sports into one bundle. It’s an easy place for sports fans to come to.”

Last month, the media company announced a joint venture with Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery to create a unified streaming platform pooling ESPN+ and their linear TV networks that carry sports programming. The as-yet unnamed joint venture is aiming to launch in the fall of 2024. The trio plan to sell the sports package available directly to consumers in the U.S. and as an add-on to services like Disney+, Hulu and Max.

continued

Fubo TV Files A Lawsuit Against Proposed Streaming Service

02/20/2024 at 9:42pm EST

from Mike Vorkunov,

FuboTV, a live TV streaming platform, has launched a civil lawsuit against Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery, alleging that the media companies have engaged in anticompetitive practices for years and that they are continuing to do so through the combined sports streaming app they intend to launch later this year, according to court documents.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in the Southern District of New York, also names ESPN and Hulu as defendants.

In the suit, FuboTV, which has been in business since 2015, alleges that the companies have engaged in a campaign that has resulted in suppressed competition in the U.S. sports-focused streaming market causing harm to FuboTV and its customers and the companies’ latest joint venture will continue to suppress competition.

continued ($)

This New Streaming Service Could Be Big

02/06/2024 at 6:47pm EST

from Brian Steinberg of Variety,

It’s a game-changer.

Fox Corp., Warner Bros. Discovery and Disney are set to launch a new streaming joint venture that will make all of their sports programming available under a single broadband roof, a move that will put content from ESPN, TNT and Fox Sports on a new standalone app and, in the process, likely shake up the world of TV sports.

The three media giants are slated to launch the new service in the fall. Subscribers would get access to linear sports networks including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNEWS, ABC, Fox, FS1, FS2, BTN, TNT, TBS, truTV and ESPN+, as well as hundreds of hours from the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL and many top college divisions. Pricing will be announced at a later date, but the companies will likely look for an monthly subscription that is more than a consumer would pay for a standalone regional sports network, which costs $20 to $30 per month, and less than a larger digital programming package such as Hulu Live or YouTubeTV, which cost around $75 to $80 per month, according to a person familiar with current discussions.

The new joint venture, currently unnamed, is seen as a way for Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery to gain back some of the lucrative affiliate fees they have lost as their cable subscribers have cut the cord ad moved to streaming outlets as their primary source of video entertainment. The new venture would pay its three corporate parents for licensing rights, essentially creating a new distribution partner.

continued

Please Return Your Sports Emmy

01/11/2024 at 1:53pm EST

from Katie Strang of The Athletic,

In March 2023, Shelley Smith, who worked 26 years as an on-air reporter for ESPN, received a call from Stephanie Druley, then the network’s head of studio and event production. Druley said she wanted to talk about something “serious” that needed to stay between the two of them, Smith recalled. She then told Smith that Smith needed to return two sports Emmy statuettes that she had been given more than a decade earlier.

That request was one of many ESPN made of some of its biggest stars last year after the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS), the organization that administers the Emmys, uncovered a scheme that the network used to acquire more than 30 of the coveted statuettes for on-air talent ineligible to receive them. Since at least 2010, ESPN inserted fake names in Emmy entries, then took the awards won by some of those imaginary individuals, had them re-engraved and gave them to on-air personalities.

Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso, Chris Fowler, Desmond Howard and Samantha Ponder, among others, were given the ill-gotten Emmys, according to a source briefed on the matter, who was granted anonymity because the individual is not authorized to discuss it publicly. There is no evidence that the on-air individuals were aware the Emmys given to them were improperly obtained.

continued ($)

Perhaps Another Streaming Option For The NHL

08/07/2023 at 6:16pm EDT

from Alex Sherman of CNBC,

  • Warner Bros. Discovery plans to simulcast live games on cable TV and Max streaming in October.
  • The company plans to charge users more if they want to watch sports on Max.
  • The new streaming tier will be branded under the Bleacher Report name and will include highlights and interviews in addition to games.
  • There won’t be any exclusive MLB or NBA games on Max in 2023...

The company plans to simulcast games from the MLB, National Basketball Association, National Hockey League and National Collegiate Athletics Association, including college basketball’s March Madness, on Max. It also intends to add content from its sports media outlet Bleacher Report, such as highlights and interviews.

Warner Bros. Discovery plans to brand the new tier using the Bleacher Report name, the people said. The company wants to target a younger audience that increasingly skips the traditional pay-TV bundle and would be more aligned with a digital sports brand such as Bleacher Report.

read on

ESPN Has The Content Now Wants To Control It Too

07/21/2023 at 7:01pm EDT

via Chris Hippensteel of The Daily Beast,

In recent talks, ESPN suggested an unprecedented partnership that would have made major professional leagues like the NFL and NBA minority owners of the sports journalism network, according to a new report from CNBC. Citing several people familiar with the matter, the network reported that Disney expressed interest in having the NBA, NFL, or MLB sign on as a “strategic partner” for ESPN as the company attempts to transition to streaming. The proposed deal would raise conflicts of interest for both parties, CNBC reported. For ESPN, it could cast doubt on whether its journalists could report independently on a league directly investing in the network. For the leagues, it might create pressure to bolster ESPN at the expense of its competitors, who shell out big money for sports TV rights.

The CNBC article.


Laid Off Writer On The Athletic

07/20/2023 at 6:14pm EDT

from Sean Keeley of Awful Announcing,

Over his long career writing for Sports Illustrated, the Rocky Mountain News, the Indianapolis Star, The Athletic, and other outlets, sports columnist Bob Kravitz made sure that readers always knew where he stood on the issue he was writing about....

“I’m pissed I got whacked by The Athletic in early June,” starts Kravitz, who says he will be a contributor for Indianapolis Monthly magazine along with running his own Substack. “Not that it was a great job or anything – it wasn’t; more on that later – but hell, it beat the crap out of unemployment.”

Kravitz joined The Athletic in late 2018, writing at the time that he was “bullish” on the online outlet and that his new role meant “I’ll have the time and the freedom to do those kinds of pieces – columns and features – that have made the last 36 years so fun and satisfying.”

In reality, Kravitz says he found the editorial process at The Athletic to be stifling and hyper-focused on numbers.

“I had some lousy editors (and some great ones, too),” wrote Kravitz. “I was constantly questioning myself: Is this the right story idea? Did I write it well enough to produce the kinds of metrics that were absolutely central to the way we were judged? (Although my metrics were pretty strong when I got dumped; they told me the issue was the small market where I work and the move to more national approach to sports). I never felt wanted there; I felt barely tolerated.”

The 63-year-old says that he was put on “probation” soon after a quadruple bypass surgery in 2020, presumably because he wasn’t hitting his traffic numbers.

read on

The Ballots For The NHL Awards

06/27/2023 at 1:35pm EDT

You Know Him As Steve Dangle

06/25/2023 at 2:44pm EDT

from Kevin McGran of Sportsnet,

Steve Glynn didn’t know exactly what would happen when he started recording, and uploading to YouTube, his over-the-top reaction to every win or (more likely) loss by the Maple Leafs. That was 2007.

The first thing that happened was people loved it: a fan being honest about how the team he loved was ruining his life.

The second was that a star — Steve Dangle — was born. Other opportunities followed: podcasts, livestreaming parties and a brand-building association with Rogers Sportsnet.

Fast forward to 2023 and Glynn and early-day partners Adam Wylde and Jesse Blake are media moguls. OK, maybe minor moguls with a downtown Toronto office, a handful of employees and about 20 contractors. But at a time when a lot of media companies are cutting back, Glynn’s Steve Dangle Podcast Network is growing.

“It’s funny. Having a YouTube channel, yelling and screaming about sports in a room full of toys and everyone still thinks you’re a kid, right? But I’m 35,” Glynn said in a recent interview. “We’re all grown-upse also know the potential benefits.

continued

Watching The Stanley Cup Final

06/14/2023 at 7:24pm EDT

from Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch,

The Stanley Cup Final ended with its smallest Game 5 audience in nearly three decades.

Tuesday’s Panthers-Golden Knights NHL Stanley Cup Final Game 5 averaged a 1.4 rating and 2.72 million viewers across TNT (2.47M) and TruTV (253K), marking the smallest audience for a Game 5 of the Cup Final in 29 years — since Canucks-Rangers on ESPN in 1994 (2.41M). That was also the previous Game 5 to air on cable. Keep in mind ESPN’s coverage was blacked out in host market New York, where the games aired on MSG Network.

The Golden Knights’ Cup-clinching win fell below the previous mark of 2.79 million for Stars-Lightning in a fanless fall “bubble” three years ago. It was also the least-watched Cup clincher in at least 30 years, falling below the previous mark of 2.90 million for Senators-Ducks Game 5 in 2007. (The previous Cup clincher on cable — Stars-Sabres Game 6 on ESPN in 1999 — averaged 4.45 million.)

continued

Darren Pang Joins The Chicago Broadcast Team

06/08/2023 at 9:09am EDT

via the Chicago Blackhawks,

The Chicago Blackhawks, along with television broadcast partner NBC Sports Chicago, have announced that Darren Pang will join play-by-play announcer Chris Vosters in the Blackhawks broadcast booth as the color analyst for the 2023-24 season. Pang returns to the Blackhawks where he started his long broadcast career over 30 years ago after playing two seasons as goaltender with the club.

Video- HNIC Opening For Game 1 Of The Stanley Cup Final

06/03/2023 at 8:13pm EDT

TNT With Their First Stanley Cup Final Broadcast

06/01/2023 at 6:49pm EDT

from John Lane of the NHL's website,

Covering the final leg of the race for the first time is Turner Sports after reaching a seven-year multimedia rights agreement with the NHL in 2021.

"It's going to be a blast," Bissonnette said. "And not only that, but the full team that Turner's put together, all the people that help out you don't see on camera, which makes our job easier. And when you see two nontraditional markets, that really helps. You don't need to fabricate any drama or these storylines going in. There's plenty of them to have at it, so I just truly think that we're blessed to get this matchup and I think that even from a ratings perspective, it's going to be great because people are not only invested in the teams but the individuals at hand."

Carter can speak from experience. The retired NHL forward was on location for the Final while working for NBC Sports. ESPN had the 2022 Final and is alternating with Turner until 2027. That left Carter home last June with what he said was a serious case of FOMO (fear of missing out).

"I was watching those guys, the other network, do their thing, and after being a part of it for over 10 years, I missed it," Carter said. "So this is a great opportunity for our crew to continue what we do best, and that's providing great analysis and entertaining people while having some fun, but at the same time putting the game up on the pedestal that it deserves to be on."

Lundqvist is also enjoying a successful transition from the NHL to television. A heart issue and subsequent valve replacement surgery in January 2021 forced the goalie to retire that August at age 39 after 15 seasons with the New York Rangers. He's also a Rangers studio analyst on MSG Network and put in more time at Turner's studios in Atlanta to develop chemistry with the TNT panel.

"I keep telling people this is fun to talk about hockey," Lundqvist said. "For me, it's been a lot of fun."

more

HHOF Media Award Recipients Announced

06/01/2023 at 11:38am EDT

TORONTO (June 1, 2023) ­– Frank Seravalli, President of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association, and Chuck Kaiton, President of the NHL Broadcasters’ Association, announced today that Mark Mulvoy will receive the Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award for excellence in hockey journalism, and Dan Rusanowsky will receive the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award for outstanding contributions as a hockey broadcaster.

Watching The NHL

05/26/2023 at 2:27pm EDT

Why The Networks Want A Game 7

05/24/2023 at 11:48am EDT

from Ken Fang of Awful Announcing,

Networks love when postseason series go six or seven games. That’s when they get to sell extra ads. In the 1st and 2nd Rounds of this year’s NBA postseason and NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs, there were a combined total of six series that went the full seven games and another ten series that ended in six. But in the Conference Finals, that has completely turned around with one sweep in the NBA and potentially two more in the NHL.

Series that go the maximum can be an ad sales bonanza totalling as much as eight figures especially in the Finals. ESPN has sold out its ad inventory for the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs and ratings for the NBA Playoffs have both ESPN and TNT smiling. However, it’s those Game 7’s that can make network executives pop celebratory champagne bottles in their corner offices....

The same is true for the NHL Stanley Cup Final which will be on TNT this year. On April 30, TNT had the good fortune to air two Game 7’s in the NHL 1st round with Florida upsetting Boston and Seattle winning its first postseason series over Colorado. Warner Bros Discovery ad slots were certainly at a premium that night. However, it’s not having the same luck in the Eastern Conference Final as Florida is on the verge of closing out Carolina in a short series. You know that WBD Sports is rooting for the maximum amount of games in the final.

Not only do longer series bring more eyeballs to TV’s, tablets and cell phones, it also allows ESPN and WBD Sports to promote programming on their sister networks (i.e. Dr. Pimple Popper). Now with one conference final ending in a sweep and potentially two more, it would prevent them from running NBA and NHL games through the Memorial Day Weekend. The lack of premier programming airing up to the start of the league finals in early June means no natural promotion across the Disney and Warner Bros Discovery networks.

read on

Watching The NHL On TNT And TBS

05/02/2023 at 12:37pm EDT

Brad Marchand Talks On-Ice Microphones

04/23/2023 at 11:20pm EDT

from Matt Porter of the Boston Globe,

Some unprintable and exceedingly personal comments from Florida star Matthew Tkachuk, including some about a member of Tomas Nosek’s family, accidentally made the live broadcast this series. When asked if Tkachuk had crossed the line, Marchand spun the question back at a reporter.

“I think the NHL and the media outlets cross the line by allowing those mikes,” he said. “There’s a reason guys don’t want mikes on the bench and that’s why, because they’re going to take advantage of it at some point and they did. Regardless of what’s said by Tkachuk or other guys, there should never be an instance where a mike picks up any of that stuff.”

“The fact that the media outlets allowed that to happen, it’s very disrespectful to the (broadcast) agreement we have in place. It’s going to get guys in trouble.”

more


Watching The NHL

04/18/2023 at 8:44am EDT

from John Ourand of Sports Business Journal,

The second season of the media rights deal the NHL has with TNT, ABC and ESPN saw a slight viewership drop, as the league had more tonnage of games across each of its partners, notes my ratings-focused colleague Austin Karp.

ABC/ESPN averaged 583,000 viewers for its games, down 2%. The Disney networks had 50 games this season vs. only 28 last season (no blackouts each season). The expansion of the ESPN slate of games this season included six cable TV windows up against the NFL early in the season, something that wasn’t an issue in Year 1. Excluding those NHL vs. NFL windows, ABC/ESPN averaged 629,000 viewers this season, up 6% from the full 2021-22 season.

ABC on its own averaged around 1 million viewers for games this season, up 19% season-over-season (15 games vs. 9). ABC’s Devils-Bruins on April 8 was the best non-Winter Classic NHL regular-season game under the current rights deal (even with direct competition on ESPN2 from the NCAA Men’s Hockey Championship and its best audience since 2011).

TNT averaged 364,000 viewers for its regular season games, up 1% from Season 1 of the new media rights pact in 2021-22. TNT had 61 games this season, which is 20% more than Season 1.

more (paid but you get at lease on free article)

Video - HNIC Opening Tonight

04/17/2023 at 8:37pm EDT

via Sportsnet's YouTube page,

The Stanley Cup Playoffs have arrived and who better to welcome us to the action than Canadian legend Catherine O'Hara, who lends her voice to this stirring opening.

Tripp Tracy's Road To Recovery

04/01/2023 at 10:10am EDT

from Mark Falkner of the Detroit News,

The team announced the next day that Tracy was stepping away from his duties to "address a personal matter."

"What's done is done," Brind'Amour said. "First, we made sure he was going to be all right. He took ownership right away and then it was what's the next step? He didn't blame anyone. Tons of people supported him because he cares about people. That's what stands out for me and how you get through tough times."

Now, with the first anniversary of the New York incident coming up at the end of the month and Tracy back in the broadcast booth since the start of the 2022-23 NHL season, he credits Brind'Amour as well as a huge support network, including his sister Tiffany Klaasen, his cousin and Ford CEO Jim Farley, and his addiction counselor Brian Spitsbergen, for helping him during these 11 months of sobriety while he attends daily meetings in a recovery program.

"When you're an alcoholic like I am, one of the things you struggle with and prevents you from truly accepting that you have a disease is comparing and not identifying," the 49-year-old Tracy said. "You'll say, 'Well this hasn't happened to me yet or that hasn't happened to me yet.' It takes the yets to get to the necessary acceptance.

"When I think of April in New York last year, one of those yets I couldn't have fathomed was drinking on the day of the game. I did. I had a terrible hangover and I thought another drink would calm my head down. I think about that day every day because it gives me the acceptance that I am one thousand percent an alcoholic."

more ($)

Happy Birthday Stan Fischler

03/31/2023 at 8:35am EDT

Gordie Howe would have been 95 today too.

from Stan Fischler of The Hockey News,

I'm 91 today; so what's the big deal?

You want a 91 big deal; check out New York Islanders great, Butch Goring; the best hockey player not in the Hall of Fame -- give or take #18, my buddy Ed Westfall.

You want a real, good, legit 91; that's Butch who's got the vim vigor and vitality of a teenager.

Me, I'm an imposter; I never graduated beyond 19 and emotionally, 12.

The only reason I'm around to make a joke about being a senior -- I hate that word -- is because of hockey. Our favorite game has kept me alive and kicking.

Don't ask me the medical reason; just take my word that the endless adrenaline push makes me want to to write about guys like Zack Parise and Brock Nelson and this here goalie who should win the Vezina; Ilya Sorokin, by name.

continued

An NHL Animated Game

03/13/2023 at 2:52pm EDT

from John Lane of the NHL's website,

Artistic impression will come to life with the first live, animated NHL telecast when the Washington Capitals play the New York Rangers in the "NHL Big City Greens Classic" on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN+, Disney Channel, Disney XD, Disney+).

The alternate broadcast, inspired by Disney's Emmy-award winning comedy "Big City Greens," will feature live, real-time volumetric animation of players and teams modeled after characters on the show.

Steve Levy and Mark Messier will have the traditional broadcast of the regular-season game (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, ESPN+, SNE, SNP, TVAS and SN NOW) from Madison Square Garden, while Drew Carter and Kevin Weekes will call the special broadcast. In ESPN's Studio Z this past Friday, each wore motion capture suits working to display animation and respective avatars for the simulation modeled after characters from the show.

"I really want my curiosity to be deep, my excitement for it," said Weekes, a former NHL goalie. "Hopefully that ends up translating into the broadcast itself because we're being transported, certainly for me, I'll be transported into a different world. And more importantly, we want to be able to transport the viewer, the listener, into a different world.

"Not only are the players the artists, but so too are the characters, and now we're going to kind of merge and integrate those two in the storytelling via the animation and via that technology."

continued

Video - Hockey Night In Canada Opening Montage

03/11/2023 at 7:09pm EST

via the YouTube page of Sportsnet,

Academy Award Nominated Filmmaker Sarah Polley lent her voice to this stirring Hockey Night In Canada intro and we challenge you not to get fired up!

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