The person who broke the story that the hit
HBO series “Curb Your Enthusiasm” would return for a ninth season is best known for his television work on the NFL.
The same person — a longtime sports guy — broke the entertainment news that Matthew McConaughey wanted to return to the HBO series “True Detective.”
That person is Rich Eisen, the face of NFL Network and host of “The Rich Eisen Show” on DirecTV’s Audience Network. For longtime listeners of Eisen’s podcast, which he launched in 2010, these types of entertainment stories aren’t unique.
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Rich Eisen interviews Arielle Kebbel from the HBO series “Ballers.”
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But they seem to be attracting more publicity these days thanks, in part, to
AT&T’s new digital strategy of pushing video of these interviews to consumer and entertainment press outlets. AT&T, which also produces shows with
Dan Patrick and
Joe Buck, does not plan to grow its sports business by launching new shows. Instead, it plans to grow the shows it has by following the same digital formula used by late-night talk shows like “The Tonight Show” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” That means creating digital video clips that can be shared easily online.
That’s the strategy that has put Eisen squarely in the middle of entertainment-focused stories.
The buzz around Eisen’s show is important, given that AT&T bought DirecTV last summer for $49 billion. Unlike DirecTV, AT&T is known for its tight budgets, and rumors circulated for a year that the budgets would be slashed for Audience Network shows such as Eisen’s and Patrick’s.
The opposite has happened.
“I know a lot of people were questioning whether or not AT&T was going to embrace this,” said Chris Long, senior vice president of original content and production for AT&T’s Audience Network and Audience Sports division. “To everyone’s surprise, they have really embraced it. … I think there’s more of a commitment. There certainly was an increased financial commitment.”
The Audience Network uses Patrick and Eisen to anchor its morning lineup, meaning that six hours each weekday is devoted to a cross section of entertainment and sports programming. Long is happy with the audience on both shows and expects them to grow even further once the DirecTV Now over-the-top service launches toward the end of the year.
But Long also wants to increase buzz around the shows by making more clips available on social media, such as Eisen’s interview with actor J.B. Smoove, which is where the “Curb” news is highlighted, or his interview with McConaughey, when the “True Detective” news was introduced.
“We want to start becoming part of the social media conversation and start doing a little bit of what James Corden does with ‘Carpool Karaoke’ — have identifiable, short little moments like that where it gets out there and people are constantly forwarding it,” he said.
Eisen has found success on his show by mixing interviews with Hollywood stars and sports figures. He prides himself in being able to interview everyone from actor Ray Liotta (which he did in May) to former NFL executive and current Twitter CFO Anthony Noto, whom he plans to bring on later this month.
“There is always going to be a nexus of pop culture and sports to be exploited and produced in a proper way that makes it entertaining and informational,” Eisen said. “That’s what I want to do. I’d be silly not to do it if I am sitting in Los Angeles.”
Eisen has long thought that a show combining entertainment and sports would be popular. As evidence, he pointed to the annual Super Bowl halftime acts, which have become huge pop culture events.
“It’s now expected to have a musical rock concert extravaganza in the middle of our biggest sporting event,” he said. “The lines between sports and music and sports and TV are all being blurred. I’ve met a lot of folks from music and TV living in L.A., and my ear gets talked off by somebody who’s won an Oscar in the same way as somebody named Oscar who drives a truck. Why not come up with a show where everybody feels comfortable talking and the common denominator is sports and the love of pop culture.”
In 2011, NFL Network put the podcast on air as a way to program the network during the lockout. “As long as you call it inexpensive programming and not cheap, I’ll do it,” Eisen said.
The guest list soon brought on Hollywood stars, like Larry David, Brian Cranston and Olivia Munn.
Two years ago, DirecTV came calling, looking for a show to fill out Audience Network’s morning programming, following Patrick.
“Dan’s kind of a beer and dogs kind of guy, and Rich is kind of like a wine and cheese kind of guy,” Long said. “One was on the East Coast; one was on the West Coast. I thought there was a nice yin and yang there. I felt like that was a great way to start off the network.”
Eisen is not planning to leave his NFL Network gig any time soon. He still describes himself as a sports nut. But he likes exploring the intersection of entertainment and sports.
“Now I’m breaking entertainment news every now and then,” he said. “I am getting a kick out of that.”
John Ourand can be reached at jourand@sportsbusinessjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @Ourand_SBJ.
