http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2014/07/28/Media/Fox-Sports-Sporting-News.aspx
Fox Sports Digital and Sporting News Media have struck a multiyear digital partnership that will create one of the most highly trafficked sports media entities in the industry.
The two companies will collaborate on an array of sales and content initiatives. News, features and video content from each entity will appear on the other’s properties, and the two will jointly sell into a bundle of assets that includes FoxSports.com, Yardbarker, SportingNews.com, Goal.com, and Sporting News Media’s widely syndicated ePlayer video service.
Spotlights and Highlights
Monday, July 28, 2014
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
MLB COO Rob Manfred Early Favorite to Replace Selig as Commissioner
Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig, right, and MLB chief operating officer Rob Manfred Associated Press
As Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig approaches the end of his final season on the job, the task of choosing his successor remains far from finished. But there is a growing sense of inevitability among baseball officials that the job will end up going to Selig's right-hand man.
Monday, July 21, 2014
NFL Teams Could Soon Reap $181 Million Each in National TV Money
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2014/07/21/Finance/NFL-revenue.aspx
Each NFL team will get a 20 percent increase in national television money this year compared with 2013 — up $27 million — as a result of the new TV contracts that commence next month, according to sources who have seen the internal figures. Over the following two seasons, the increases will total an additional $23 million per club, at a minimum.
Each NFL team will get a 20 percent increase in national television money this year compared with 2013 — up $27 million — as a result of the new TV contracts that commence next month, according to sources who have seen the internal figures. Over the following two seasons, the increases will total an additional $23 million per club, at a minimum.
ESPN Charging $1.40 per sub for SEC Network
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2014/07/21/Media/SEC-Network.aspx
It looks like the ESPN-owned SEC Network will be able to sidestep the normally combative distribution battles often associated with the launch of new sports channels.
The network’s carriage talks are progressing so fast that sources with two of the country’s top distributors said they expect to have carriage deals in place by the channel’s first football game on Aug. 28, if not earlier. The channel officially launches Aug. 14.
It looks like the ESPN-owned SEC Network will be able to sidestep the normally combative distribution battles often associated with the launch of new sports channels.
The network’s carriage talks are progressing so fast that sources with two of the country’s top distributors said they expect to have carriage deals in place by the channel’s first football game on Aug. 28, if not earlier. The channel officially launches Aug. 14.
LeBron James assists Fox RSNs in two markets
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2014/07/21/Media/Cavs-Fox-RSNs.aspx
LeBron James’ move to Cleveland could benefit Fox Sports as much as the Cavaliers over the next few seasons.
That’s because the media company, which owns both FS Ohio and Sun Sports in Florida, gained the upper hand in its leverage position in both markets when the teams’ media deals end.
James’ return to Miami would have given the Heat a negotiating advantage, and it already had planned to open negotiations for an extension with Sun Sports. The Heat’s current deal with Sun Sports runs for four more seasons, expiring after the 2017-18 season. Sun Sports pays on average $20 million per year for the rights.
LeBron James’ move to Cleveland could benefit Fox Sports as much as the Cavaliers over the next few seasons.
That’s because the media company, which owns both FS Ohio and Sun Sports in Florida, gained the upper hand in its leverage position in both markets when the teams’ media deals end.
James’ return to Miami would have given the Heat a negotiating advantage, and it already had planned to open negotiations for an extension with Sun Sports. The Heat’s current deal with Sun Sports runs for four more seasons, expiring after the 2017-18 season. Sun Sports pays on average $20 million per year for the rights.
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Tribe's TV ratings among best in MLB
Tribe's TV ratings among best in MLB
July 17, 2014
Author: KEVIN KLEPS
The Indians continue to languish near the bottom of Major
League Baseball in attendance — at the All-Star break, the Tribe is 29th,
with an average crowd of 18,402.
But
the Indians have been producing big numbers for SportsTime Ohio. Fox Looking for Right Media Mix With Time Warner Bid
July 16, 2014 7:31 p.m. ET
As Comcast Corp. CMCSA +0.29% and AT&T Inc. T +0.58% pursue a pair of megamergers that will reshape TV distribution for years, there has been a prevailing wisdom in the media industry: It is time for content players to get bigger in response.
It is tempting, then, to view 21st Century Fox Inc. FOXA -6.22% 's proposed acquisition of Time Warner Inc., TWX +17.07% an $80 billion offer that was rejected last week, simply as a means to gain scale and therein leverage over the pay-TV operators that license programming.
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
NBA Seeks to Double Rights Fees From Disney, Time Warner
The National Basketball Association is seeking to double the TV-rights fees it receives from ESPN majority owner Walt Disney Co. DIS -0.15% and Time WarnerInc. TWX -0.84% 's Turner Broadcasting, as the league looks to lock up deals for nationally televised games in the coming months, according to people familiar with the matter.
Monday, July 14, 2014
Fox deploys ‘super serve’ coverage strategy for All-Star Game
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2014/07/14/In-Depth/Television.aspx
By John Ourand, Staff Writer
Publsihed July 14, 2014
Fox Sports will return to what it’s calling a “super serve” programming strategy for its coverage of this week’s MLB All-Star Game, using its 24-hour sports channel Fox Sports 1 and live streaming app Fox Sports Go to surround the event.
That’s the same strategy Fox used during the Super Bowl and for NASCAR’s Speed Weeks. And it appears to be a blueprint for how the News Corp.-owned media company plans to treat big sports events.
“We take an event like the All-Star Game and try to surround it with programming on Fox Sports 1 to take advantage of the event and promote the event,” said Bill Wanger, Fox Sports Media Group’s executive vice president of programming, research and content strategy. “We’re surrounding the week with cool All-Star Game programming to get people in the mood and get people jazzed up.”
By John Ourand, Staff Writer
Publsihed July 14, 2014
Fox Sports will return to what it’s calling a “super serve” programming strategy for its coverage of this week’s MLB All-Star Game, using its 24-hour sports channel Fox Sports 1 and live streaming app Fox Sports Go to surround the event.
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| Kevin Burkhardt (left), Gabe Kapler and Frank Thomas will handle pregame duties. |
“We take an event like the All-Star Game and try to surround it with programming on Fox Sports 1 to take advantage of the event and promote the event,” said Bill Wanger, Fox Sports Media Group’s executive vice president of programming, research and content strategy. “We’re surrounding the week with cool All-Star Game programming to get people in the mood and get people jazzed up.”
On a new RSN, Dodgers see TV numbers dive
The Los Angeles Dodgers, one of sports’ marquee franchises, this season are posting their lowest RSN ratings ever, averaging a 0.74 local rating and 40,000 homes in the country’s second-biggest media market, according to viewership figures through the first week of July.
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Despite on-field success, things are looking down for the Dodgers on TV.
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Not only are the team’s SportsNet LA regional ratings and viewership figures down 70 percent from last year’s Dodgers games, which were carried on the Fox Sports-owned Prime Ticket, but it’s the team’s poorest TV performance since at least the mid-1990s, when Prime Ticket started adding more Dodgers games to its schedule.
Perhaps even more concerning to the team: This season’s numbers fall well below those of the Dodgers’ cross-town rival, the Los Angeles Angels. Angels games on FS West have doubled the Dodgers’ viewership so far this season, averaging 80,000 homes. Viewership for the Dodgers, a team that has traditionally dominated sports fans’ discussions in Southern California and has been near first place for much of this season, compares more closely to franchises in Oakland and Denver than the franchises in New York.
Friday, July 11, 2014
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Rivals Wary of Comcast's Mobile-Ad Prowess
Comcast Corp.'s CMCSA -1.31% recent purchase of one of the major players in online video advertising is stoking fears at media companies that the cable giant is gathering too much influence over the digital-TV business, adding to the leverage it already has in traditional television.