Daily fantasy sports sites "are taking a beating" from New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, and that pain "could be felt by Fox, CBS, NBC, ESPN and other networks that have been pumped up by ad dollars from DraftKings and FanDuel," according to Jon Lafayette of BROADCASTING & CABLE. Kantar Media data shows that DFS sites in September "spent more than" $1M with 13 different networks: Fox, CBS, NBC, ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, NFL Network, Spike, Comedy Central, MTV, TNT, TBS and Discovery. MoffettNathanson Senior Research Analyst Michael Nathanson said the presence of DFS in expensive NFL time slots "helped create a tighter scatter market in September." He added, "While the category is obviously not as large as autos, films, health care or CPG, the birth of a new category was incremental to the market and had to be a factor in quarter’s upside to ad estimates. Looking out, network owners should be concerned if regulators determine that DFS is 'nothing more than a rebranding of sports betting'" (BROADCASTINGCABLE.com, 11/18).
NICE TO HAVE BUT NOT NECESSARY: In N.Y., Vindu Goel writes while the NFL stream of Bills-Jaguars from London a month ago "was successful enough that both Yahoo and the NFL are exploring further streaming partnerships, daily fantasy games have been more troublesome." Schneiderman's investigation "puts an uncomfortable spotlight on Yahoo’s sports offerings, which have been one of the few bright spots for the troubled Silicon Valley icon." Yahoo, an early leader on the Internet, has in recent years "fallen further and further behind Google and Facebook in the fight for online advertising and traffic." But any restrictions on DFS games "are unlikely to damage Yahoo as much as its competitors in the business." Former Yahoo Dir of Engineering for Fantasy Sports Jerry Shen said, "Yahoo does not depend on gambling revenue for its fantasy business. It’s nice to have, but Yahoo has had an ad-supported fantasy business for 15 years" (N.Y. TIMES, 11/19).
