Everything you need to know about NFL’s streaming experiment

The Jaguars’ Oct. 25 game with the Bills is Jacksonville’s most anticipated regular-season NFL game in at least a decade — maybe ever. The curiosity around this game, which will kick off at 9:30 a.m. from London, has nothing to do with how the team performs on the field. Rather, the sports community is focused on this game to see how the team performs online.

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2015/06/22/Media/Sports-Media.aspx

Yahoo paid around $15 million for the rights to stream this game worldwide, sources said, marking the first time that one of the NFL’s regular-season games will be streamed to an international audience. Nobody knows how many people will watch it. Nobody knows whether the technology will work with a mass audience. Nobody knows how the NFL will capitalize on this over the next several years. But Yahoo is in the market selling it already with an initial asking price of $200,000 per 30-second spot. 

It’s a Tier? It’s a Package? It’s…. Cable TV in 2015 as ESPN Sues Verizon

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

http://www.btigresearch.com/2015/04/28/its-a-tier-its-a-package-its-cable-tv-in-2015-as-espn-sues-verizon/?print=true

Oxford Dictionary definitions:

Tier: “a row or level of a structure, typically one of a series of rows placed one above the other and successively receding or diminishing in size”

Package: “combine (various products) for sale as one unit”

Given the rapidly evolving media landscape, multi-year programming contracts (usually 5+ years in length) are incredibly complex documents that attempt to plan for unforeseeable changes throughout the industry.  Making matters even more complicated is the fact that the exact terms of programmer contracts are highly confidential, with most industry participants only talking publicly in generalities. 

Collapse of Comcast-TWC merger could extend Dodgers' TV blackout

http://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/dodgersnow/la-sp-dn-dodgers-comcast-time-warner-blackout-20150423-story.html

Dodgers fans should brace for a second full season without the home team on 
television throughout Southern California.

That was the word Thursday from sports business analysts, as the proposed merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable teetered  near collapse.  

Comcast Takes a $236 Million Write-Down on Houston RSN

https://www1.snl.com/interactivex/article.aspx?KPLT=7&id=31463256

Comcast Corp. recorded impairment charges in 2014 related to CSN Houston.

The cable and media company booked a net $236 million of impairment in investment and loans related to the Houston-based regional sports network, according to a Form 10-K filed Feb. 27.

CSN Houston broadcasts the games of MLB's Houston Astros and NBA's Houston Rockets. Comcast owned a 23% stake in the network while the Astros owned 46% and the Rockets had the rest. But the network had difficulty getting carried by a pay TV operator because its fees were among the highest for RSNs.

After CSN Houston filed for bankruptcy, AT&T Inc. and DIRECTV bought the network. AT&T owns 40% while DIRECTV holds 60%. The new RSN was relaunched as Root Sports Southwest.

The Astros and Rockets gave up their ownership and voting rights but will collect rights fees.

No MLB In-Market Streaming Expected for Opening Day and Beyond

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2015/03/02/Media/MLB-streaming.aspx

No U.S.-based MLB team will have in-market streaming services on Opening Day in April, a development causing mounting frustration among regional sports network executives.

Despite public statements to the contrary, sources familiar with the discussions say MLB and the companies that run RSNs have not made any progress in negotiations since last fall.

Furthermore, several media executives said they are angry that the league is not accepting the same TV Everywhere streaming terms that other leagues and content providers are using. Privately, they say they are skeptical a deal will be completed at all for the 2015 baseball season. 

FIFA Angers ESPN by Awarding U.S. World Cup Soccer Rights to Fox

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Issues/2015/02/16/Media/FIFA.aspx

ESPN President John Skipper on Friday said that the network "had no advance warning about the news" that FIFA had extended its deal with Fox and Telemundo for English- and Spanish-language World Cup rights in the U.S. through '26, according to Neil Best of NEWSDAY. Skipper "did not sound too pleased about it." He said, "No, not only not given an opportunity to bid, but we were given no heads up; nobody's called us yet. We read the press release. We know the same thing you know, which is an interesting position to be in as a former rights-holder who I think did a very outstanding job with the last two World Cups." When Skipper was told he sounded displeased, he responded, "I'm not going to characterize my emotions" (NEWSDAY, 2/14). SI.com's Richard Deitsch cited sources as confirming that ESPN execs "were ticked off -- and rightly so." Sources suggested that granting Fox and Telemundo an "extra round without opening up the bidding means a move to the winter" for the '22 World Cup in Qatar "is a done deal" (SI.com, 2/15). BLOOMBERG NEWS' Tariq Panja noted ESPN's Bob Ley criticized FIFA on his Twitter feed, writing, “Did FIFA just grant rights to WC2026 without opening it up to bidding? #typicalFIFA" (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 2/13). WORLDSOCCER.com's Keir Radnedge wrote the move is "being seen as compensation over the likely date change" of the '22 event. Fox execs "were furious when ... they suddenly discovered that the climate row over Qatar threatened to switch that ‘second’ World Cup into a midwinter broadcast clash with the run-up to the Super Bowl" (WORLDSOCCER.com, 2/13). 

QUESTIONS ABOUND: ESPN FC's Gabriele Marcotti wrote at the "very least," the TV rights announcement "is unusual on two fronts." First, they "never went to tender, unlike last time around when bidding was fierce and the value of the rights went sky high." There "was no auction, just an extension." When asked on Friday as to the reasons, FIFA responded, "The extensions were the result of a detailed assessment of the market and discussions with the relevant broadcasters." Second, the deal "comes with the tournament 11 years away, at a time when we don't even know where it will be held." Location generally "is fundamental to determining how much a broadcaster is willing to bid." The possibility that the U.S. could be awarded the '26 World Cup "would have driven the value of the rights even higher." It is "hard to see how the broadcasters who were awarded 2026 even began to budget for how much they could afford to bid" (ESPNFC.com, 2/14).

FOX Sports 1 To Launch New Sunday Night Show Hosted By Katie Nolan

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Issues/2015/02/16/Media/FS1-Nolan.aspx

FS1 plans to launch a new show hosted by Katie Nolan that it is calling “Garbage Time with Katie Nolan.” It is scheduled to run Sunday nights, but it is not clear when it will debut. Fox Sports would not comment on the show, which was discussed on a recent podcast by "Fox Sports Live" anchors Jay Onrait and Dan O’Toole. FS1 hired Nolan for the Regis Philbin-led studio show “Crowd Goes Wild,” but that was cancelled last spring after eight months on air. Nolan since then has been hosting a regular video series on FoxSports.com called “No Filter."

NBA ratings: Teams in transition post huge TV gains

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2015/02/16/Media/NBA-RSNs.aspx

Bucks, Hawks strong locally after offseason of drama

By John Ourand & David Broughton, Staff Writers

Published February 16, 2015

Two NBA markets that went through tumultuous offseasons — Milwaukee and Atlanta — have posted two of the three biggest local TV ratings increases in the league so far this season. 

In Milwaukee, new owners and a new coach are breathing life into the Bucks, a team that’s finished below .500 on the court nine of the past 10 seasons. This year, however, the team is winning, and Bucks fans are tuning in: Games on FS Milwaukee are up a whopping 323 percent so far this season compared with midseason last year.  

Fox in market with playoff spots on RSNs

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2015/02/16/Media/HTS-NHL-playoffs.aspx

Published February 16, 2015

Fox Sports is in the market selling presenting sponsorships to the first round of the NBA and NHL playoffs on its regional sports networks. 

Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger is no longer viewed as inevitable

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-comcast-time-warner-cable-merger-opposition-20150127-story.html?track=rss#page=1

By MEG JAMES - January 27, 2015

Comcast Corp.'s bold move to buy rival Time Warner Cable in a $45-billion deal once seemed inevitable.

Wall Street figured combining the nation's two largest cable operators wouldn't have much problem clearing regulatory hurdles. Both companies operate in different parts of the country, and wouldn't be seen as anti-competitive. Subscribers, including 1.8 million in the Los Angeles region, would have the same number of choices for pay-TV as they currently do.

But that was 11 months ago — and a lot has changed.