Bleacher Report has produced a series of online videos designed to show the sports media outlet's editorial processes and stem continued industry criticism the company is based around search-engine optimization as opposed to high-quality content. The first video, posted on the company's blog and its YouTube channel, debuted this week and will be followed by two more later this month and likely further installments after that. The clips were developed by Bleacher Report Chief Content & Product Officer Dave Finocchio and King Kaufman, manager of the company's writer program. They were produced with the aid of video personnel from corporate parent Turner Sports. "We're trying to be more transparent about who we are and what we do," Kaufman said. "We've become a bit of a black box in terms of our approach and we felt it was time we did more to explain ourselves. We've reached a point where we're able to lift our heads up and explain what we do." Kaufman wrote on the company's blog, "Isn't Bleacher Report just a bunch of jokers writing SEO headlines to game Google search? That's like asking if the world is flat." Kaufman said the videos also were aimed as a tool to help recruit new writers. "We're proud of the machine we've built here. We think we're at the forefront of the new generation of telling stories digitally, and this should help in terms of recruiting good talent." The first clip focuses broadly on Bleacher Report's overall process, while the second to be released next week is devoted to writer development and a third slated for March 20 will discuss the company's various online, mobile and social media channels. The videos feature extensive testimonials from Bleacher Report writers including NFL columnist Matt Miller and college football writer Michael Felder.

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Yahoo Sports again earned the top spot of comScore's monthly reach rankings of U.S. online sports destinations, pulling in an audience of 44.63 million unique visitors in February. Largely mirroring rankings from January, the top three slots were unchanged, and the list still does not include a combined listing for Yahoo and NBC Sports that will soon begin as a result of their broad digital content and marketing partnership. The February comScore report, however, also will be among the last to feature just online traffic rankings and exclude mobile traffic. The measurement agency is about to bring its Media Metrix Multi-Platform, a unified metric that combines online and mobile traffic, out of beta and into broad release. During beta measurement in January, ESPN led the new blended comScore rankings with a total of 62.6 million unique visitors and also led the sports category in average minute audience and total consumption. The beta data also showed 39% of ESPN's digital audience in January exclusively accessed its content via smartphones and tablets. A unified metric has been long sought in the digital media industry, particularly among sports publishers that often post disproportionately large traffic spikes from mobile devices.

RANK	SITE	UNIQUES (000)
1)	Yahoo Sports*	44,630
2)	FoxSports.com on MSN	34,008
3)	ESPN	29,937
4)	Bleacher Report-Turner Sports Network**	22,233
5)	USA Today Sports Media Group***	20,918
6)	CBS Sports	17,582
7)	NFL Internet Group	13,920
8)	NBC Sports^	12,564
9)	SB Nation	11,987
10)	Sporting News on AOL	11,254
11)	Sports Illustrated Sites	11,035
12)	MLB	8,421
13)	Active.com sites	6,240
14)	Stack Media	4,944
15)	JumpTV/NeuLion	3,785

NOTES: All numbers do not include wireless traffic. * = includes Rivals.com and ThePostGame.com. **= sites include NBA.com, PGA.com, NCAA.com and WNBA.com. ***= includes 81 local Gannett newspaper sites, 23 Gannett-owned broadcast TV station sites, USA Today High School Sports, BNQT Media Group ^ = includes NHL.com.

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NBC Sports Network finished with 813,000 viewers last Sunday night for Canadiens-Bruins, marking the net’s fifth-best NHL regular-season audience yet. The telecast also was the net’s best Sunday night regular-season audience on record and best for a telecast involving a team from Canada on cable TV in 13 years. Meanwhile, the net averaged 720,000 viewers for Avalanche-Blackhawks on Wednesday night, marking the net’s ninth-best NHL regular-season telecast. The net has now seen six of its top 10 most-viewed NHL regular-season telecasts air this season. The game, which extended the Blackhawks’ record-setting point streak to start a season, earned a 7.0 local rating in Chicago, marking the net’s best rating ever in the market for an NHL regular-season game. Meanwhile, NBC drew 1.9 million viewers for Blackhawks-Red Wings last Sunday, marking the net’s best audience ever for a non-regionalized, non-Winter Classic NHL regular-season game.

 

MOST-VIEWED NHL REGULAR-SEASON TELECASTS ON NBC SPORTS NET
DATE	GAME	VIEWERS (000)
1/23/13	Bruins-Rangers	956
2/20/13	Flyers-Penguins	901
10/6/11	Flyers-Bruins	874
1/30/13	Blackhawks-Wild	827
3/3/13	Canadiens-Bruins	813

FIGHT FOR THE RIGHT: “UFC on Fuel TV 8” averaged 485,000 viewers from 10:00pm-1:12am ET last Saturday for a fight card featuring Wanderlei Silva-Brian Stann, marking the net’s most-viewed telecast. The audience was up 90% from the net’s previous record, set during prelims for “UFC on FX 7” on Jan. 19. The previous “UFC on Fuel TV” record was 217,000 viewers for the first iteration on February 15, 2012. Last Saturday’s telecast also delivered Fuel TV its best total-day and primetime average. The net’s pre-fight and post-fight shows saw record audiences as well.

"UFC ON FUEL TV" AUDIENCE TREND
TELECAST	DAY	DATE	START	VIEWERS (000)
1	Wed.	2/15/12	8:00pm	217
2	Sat.	4/14/12	3:00pm	197
3	Tues.	5/15/12	8:00pm	173
4	Wed.	7/11/12	8:00pm	211
5	Sat.	9/29/12	10:00pm	140
6	Sat.	11/10/12	7:00pm	143
7	Sat.	2/16/13	3:00pm	195
8	Sat.	3/2/13	10:00pm	485

NOTES: Fox finished with a 5.6 rating and 9.1 million viewers for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series telecast from Phoenix last Sunday. While the rating was flat, viewership was down from 9.2 million viewers for the same race last season….ESPN earned 780,000 viewers for the UConn-Notre Dame women’s basketball telecast on Monday, marking the net’s second-best women’s game this season, behind only Baylor-UConn with 982,000 viewers on Feb. 18….Fox Soccer averaged 520,000 viewers for the second leg of the Real Madrid-Manchester United UEFA Champions League Round of 16 match on Tuesday, marking the net’s most-viewed Champions League match and most-viewed weekday telecast of any kind. The game was the third-best audience all-time for the net. Another 582,000 viewers tuned in for the game on Fox Deportes.

The charts below list final Nielsen ratings from recent sports telecasts.

TELECAST	DATE	NET	TIME (ET)	RAT.	VIEWERS (000)
NASCAR Sprint Cup: Phoenix	3/3	Fox	3:30-6:30pm	5.6	9,100
NBA: Heat-Knicks	3/3	ABC	12:56-3:37pm	2.8	4,086
NBA: Thunder-Clippers	3/3	ABC	3:37-6:30pm	2.8	4,228
PGA Tour: Honda Classic: Final Round	3/3	NBC	3:15-6:00pm	2.0	2,820
NCAA Basketball: Michigan State-Michigan	3/3	CBS	4:00-6:15pm	1.8	n/a
PGA Tour: Honda Classic: Third Round	3/2	NBC	3:00-6:00pm	1.6	2,170
NCAA Basketball: Kentucky-Arkansas	3/2	CBS	4:15-6:30pm	1.5	n/a
NHL: Blackhawks-Red Wings	3/3	NBC	12:30-3:15pm	1.3	1,900
NCAA Basketball: Louisville-Syracuse	3/2	CBS	12:00-2:15pm	1.2	n/a
NCAA Basketball: West Virginia-Kansas	3/2	CBS	2:15-4:15pm	1.2	n/a
"NBA Countdown"	3/3	ABC	12:30-12:56pm	1.0	n/a
PBR: Dickies Iron Cowboy IV	3/3	CBS	1:00-2:00pm	0.9	n/a
Gymnastics: AT&T American Cup	3/2	NBC	1:00-3:00pm	0.8	1,140
NCAA Basketball: FSU-North Carolina	3/3	CBS	2:00-4:00pm	0.8	n/a
Liga MX: Club America-Cruz Azul	3/2	Univ.	5:55-8:00pm	0.7	1,282
AMA Supercross	3/3	CBS	12:00-1:00pm	0.7	n/a
"ESPN Sports Saturday"	3/2	ABC	4:00-6:00pm	0.5	n/a
TELECAST	DATE	NET	TIME (ET)	RAT.	VIEWERS (000)
NCAA Basketball: Miami-Duke	3/2	ESPN	6:10-8:18pm	2.2	3,416
NCAA Basketball: Indiana-Minnesota	2/26	ESPN	7:00-9:23pm	1.5	2,221
NASCAR Nationwide Series: Phoenix	3/2	ESPN2	4:30-7:01pm	1.4	2,054
NBA: Mavericks-Nets	3/1	ESPN	8:05-10:47pm	1.4	2,002
NBA: Thunder-Nuggets	3/1	ESPN	10:47pm-1:17am	1.4	1,988
"College GameDay"	3/2	ESPN	8:18-9:00pm	1.2	1,978
NCAA Basketball: Kansas-Iowa State	2/25	ESPN	9:10-11:35pm	1.2	1,778
NCAA Basketball: Duke-Virginia	2/28	ESPN	9:03-11:06pm	1.2	1,754
NBA: T'Wolves-Lakers	2/28	TNT	10:43pm-1:14am	1.2	1,681
NBA: Bulls-Pacers	3/3	ESPN	8:00-10:37pm	1.1	1,665

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Outdoor Channel Holdings on Thursday indicated that its BOD "has decided a bid from Kroenke Sports & Entertainment was superior to an existing pact with InterMedia." The decision comes after KSE "said it had delivered a definitive counterproposal to buy Outdoor for $8.75 per share in cash." InterMedia "had offered $8 per share." If Outdoor Channel accepts KSE's offer, it "would have to pay InterMedia, which also operates the Sportsman Channel, a breakup fee" of $6.5M (REUTERS, 3/8).

VOICES DON'T CARRY: In St. Louis, Dan Caesar reports Grand Slam Sports, which owns sports-talk stations KFNS-AM and KXFN-AM, "plans to switch their formats." May 1 is the target date for the change, "although it might take longer because of existing contracts." The switch will leave WXOS-FM, which has been the "market leader for most of its four years in the format, as the only all-sports station in a market that as recently as three years ago had five" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 3/8).

BRONX BOMB? In N.Y., Bob Raissman writes with the Yankees already battling injuries and far from a lock for the postseason, the '13 season "will make for must-see TV" on YES Network. The Yankees last year averaged a 3.92 local rating per game, down 8.3% from '11 and YES' "lowest Yankees household rating since 2003." If the team has to "run baseball's equivalent of an obstacle course, if the script is flipped, if legitimate concerns metastasize into a train wreck, eyeballs galore will tune into YES" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 3/8).

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