Is This Soccer's Moment in America?

http://online.wsj.com/articles/is-this-soccers-moment-in-america-1403819659?mod=rss_Sports

Fans at the Gone Rogue bar in Boise, Idaho, react during the U.S.-Germany game on Thursday. Associated Press

The World Cup is enjoying a surge in TV ratings thanks to excitement surrounding the U.S. team's strong performance, putting the tournament among the elite telecasts in all of sports. But can soccer sustain its burst in popularity in the U.S.?

The evidence suggests that some skepticism is in order.  

Nielsen and comScore Can’t Tell You How Many People Streamed USA’s World Cup Tie With Portugal

http://blogs.wsj.com/cmo/2014/06/23/nielsen-and-comscore-cant-tell-you-how-many-people-streamed-usas-world-cup-tie-with-portugal/?mod=WSJBlog

It’s becoming clear the World Cup is a hit on U.S. television this year, judging from huge ratings for Sunday night’s riveting game between the U.S. and Portugal. But if advertisers want an impartial estimate of how many people streamed the game online, they’re out of luck. 

World Cup Draws Huge U.S. TV Viewership

http://online.wsj.com/articles/2014-fifa-world-cup-draws-huge-u-s-tv-viewership-1403557936?tesla=y&mg=reno64-wsj

Fans in Chicago's Grant Park react to Portugal's goal tying the USA, while watching the televised match Sunday. Sun-Times Media/Associated Press

The World Cup has taken its place among the very largest sporting events for American television audiences. 

Chase Carey Agrees to Two-Year Contract Extension with 21st Century Fox

http://online.wsj.com/articles/chase-carey-renews-with-21st-century-fox-1402348982?mod=wsj_streaming_latest-headlines

June 9, 2014

Chase Carey, the president and chief operating officer of 21st Century Fox Inc.,FOX +0.83% on Monday agreed to a two-year employment contract extension, ensuring the media company will retain an experienced executive during a period of intense change in the entertainment industry.

Chase Carey

Mr. Carey, 60 years old, has been the No. 2 executive atRupert Murdoch's media company since 2009. His contract was set to expire June 30, and his employment status had attracted some attention and speculation on Wall Street, where he is well regarded as being a shrewd, cost-focused operating executive.

His new contract is only half the length of his last four-year agreement, which took effect in 2010. And while the new contract lasts through June 30, 2016, Mr. Carey has the right to leave as early as the end of December 2015, provided he gives six months' notice.

In an interview, Mr. Carey said he would prefer to not have a contract, and that "flexibility" is important to him. 

Weathering a storm: Rain dampens NASCAR ratings for FOX

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2014/06/09/Media/NASCAR-ratings.aspx

By Tripp Mickle & John OurandStaff Writers

NASCAR’s TV ratings dropped 10 percent on Fox this season, following a stretch of races that experienced the circuit’s most weather-related delays in seven years.

Fox averaged a 4.3 Nielsen rating and 7 million viewers through the first 13 Sprint Cup races of the season compared to a 4.8 rating and 7.8 million viewers last year. 

AT&T Raises Possibility of Offering NFL Sunday Ticket to Wireless Customers

http://online.wsj.com/news/article_email/at-t-raises-possibility-of-offering-nfl-sunday-ticket-to-wireless-customers-1402089079-lMyQjAxMTA0MDAwNjEwNDYyWj

AT&T Inc. T -0.23% is floating the possibility of offering DirecTV's DTV +0.47%National Football League Sunday Ticket programming to all its wireless phone customers, as the phone giant seeks to convince Wall Street of the strategic value of its $49 billion planned acquisition of the satellite TV firm.

In an analyst meeting in New York on Wednesday, AT&T management highlighted Sunday Ticket as a cornerstone of future product-bundle offerings it can market to its customers, according to analysts who attended the meeting. AT&T executives even suggested it could exempt streaming of NFL games from counting toward subscribers' data limits. 

NBA’s talks with ESPN and Turner move forward

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2014/06/02/Media/NBA-rights.aspx

By John Ourand & John Lombardo, Staff Writers - June 2, 2014

Fox and NBC will have to wait at least another year if they want to negotiate a national NBA rights package. That’s because the exclusive negotiating window for the league’s current national rights holders, ESPN and Turner, doesn’t open until late next spring.

Sources with both ESPN and Turner say they have no plans to open that exclusive window earlier. An earlier start, of course, would mean the exclusive negotiating period also would end earlier, thereby opening the door sooner for Fox, NBC and others to bid for a package. 

That doesn’t mean the NBA’s TV negotiations have stalled. Rather, in recent weeks the league has stepped up conversations with both ESPN and Turner about renewing their deals before getting to the exclusive window.