Official Sports Business News/Talk Thread

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Part 3

For smaller leagues, networks will need to have business plans that show profitability from ad sales, since they are unlikely to drive distribution revenue.

The NWSL is closing in on deals with Amazon, CBS, ESPN and Scripps that, all told, will pay the league in the low eight figures, up from the $1.5 million CBS currently is paying. Sources with those media companies say they can sell enough ads around these games to justify the deal.

The other component to the tightening sports marketplace is that digital streaming companies, such as Amazon, Apple, Google and Netflix, are not spending as wildly on sports content as leagues and teams had hoped.
Amazon, for example, has approached the market in a manner similar to traditional media companies’ networks, where it wants specific packages rather than a tonnage of programming, according to several executives who have negotiated with the companies.

When Amazon was negotiating for Big Ten and Pac-12 rights, it wanted packages of programming that it could stream exclusively on specific nights. Think of the way it holds the exclusive rights to the NFL’s Thursday night games.

Apple, on the other hand, wants to control everything on a global basis and negotiates the types of deals where leagues and conferences share in the risk. As part of the Pac-12 deal that it negotiated, Apple would have held all global rights to that conference.
Google cut an NFL deal to carry “Sunday Ticket,” but so far has not been engaged in other rights deals. And Netflix takes calls from all the leagues and conferences, but it has yet to make a big splash in the business.

The good news is that the digital giants have dabbled in sports and are happy enough with sports rights that they are still cutting new deals.

The bad news is that their interest is not making up for the cutbacks from traditional media companies, creating the tightest sports rights marketplace in decades.

 

[Rev]

@K-Apps with the SBJ paywall subscription

Now we just need that Andrew Marchand New York Post Sports+

 

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@K-Apps with the SBJ paywall subscription

Now we just need that Andrew Marchand New York Post Sports+

I posted that on the Disney Possibly Selling ESPN Thread:

Disney’s hope is to find two partners for ESPN as it attempts to sell a piece of the sports network, The Post has learned.

In an ideal world, ESPN would have a digital company, like Apple, and a mobile platform, such as Verizon, to go in together so it can leverage its sports assets with the best distribution channels. It is believed Disney only wants to sell 10 percent of ESPN, but this number could be fluid.

Let’s go deeper:
A little more news: It is looking ever likelier that ESPN, the mothership, goes direct to consumer in 2025. We have reported for a long time that it would happen by 2026 at the latest, pointing to 2025 as very possible. Disney is narrowing that down; if you are placing bets, go with 2025.

As we have discussed many times in this newsletter, the No. 1 way you win in media is by being the best at distribution. This dates back to the printing press.
In the digital age, this is much tougher. The cost to enter is now very low for anyone to publish words, video or audio, which makes competition more intense. It was not that way before the internet.

That said, there are clear leaders in distribution with companies like Apple and Amazon being among the digital kings. ESPN on Apple would allow it to be preinstalled on all Apple devices around the world and could become a default app on the company’s phones, iPads and computers, while also being able to further leverage Apple’s incredible subscription strength. This could work with many of the top digital players, including Google/YouTube and Microsoft, but Apple makes a lot of sense
The mobile aspect in ESPN’s two-pronged distribution approach would allow the network to be on every phone and come with service contracts. There would be a ubiquity to it, which would create a smoother transition as the cable bundle weakens and direct-to-consumer potentially becomes a better business. Verizon and T-Mobile are among the potential partners.

Will Disney and ESPN be able to pull this off? Maybe. Say you are Apple, and you want a foothold in sports. You could wait out everyone and try to own entire leagues, like it is doing with MLS. And though a deal is very possible with the NBA in the near-term, it will not be the all-inclusiveBut if Apple bought into ESPN and became the hub of sports, it could be a pretty unbeatable one-two punch because Apple would add even more financial might. If Apple wants to be big players in sports on its own, it will take at least another decade — and there would be no guarantees. The same sort of equation holds true with the Verizons and T-Mobiles on the mobile side. scenario that Eddy Cue has mused about.But if Apple bought into ESPN and became the hub of sports, it could be a pretty unbeatable one-two punch because Apple would add even more financial might. If Apple wants to be big players in sports on its own, it will take at least another decade — and there would be no guarantees. The same sort of equation holds true with the Verizons and T-Mobiles on the mobile side.

 

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[aceboon]

so I guess Matt and Stack will take All The Smoke somewhere else? disappointing, besides being a boxing fan I liked what Showtime was doing with basketball, the Rachel Nichols, KG, Pierce hires weren't that long ago.

 

[Rev]

so I guess Matt and Stack will take All The Smoke somewhere else? disappointing, besides being a boxing fan I liked what Showtime was doing with basketball, the Rachel Nichols, KG, Pierce hires weren't that long ago.

damn i thought it was SHO Boxing only...not all of their sports programming.

sad state of affairs on the boxing side. i think they're keeping PPV only for those Canelo fights especially or what?

 

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[Rev]

 

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[Rev]

 

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[Lucky_Lefty]

Good. fukk Sinclair as a media conglomerate and as record label and a staff

 

[Rev]