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Sports Business Awards

Best in Digital Sports Media


ESPN Digital Media


STYLE POINTS:


ESPN has an enormous digital footprint, evidenced by the more than 112 million uniques that spent 7.9 billion minutes on the platform last year. ESPN Digital also continued its international expansion, launching in China through a collaboration with Tencent.


Photo by: GETTY IMAGES


Facebook


STYLE POINTS:


It hasn’t stepped up for the biggest sports rights yet, but Facebook is experimenting through deals for Liga MX and the NBA D-League. Plus, Facebook Live’s platform provides huge reach for media companies like NBC, which used it during the Rio Games.


Photo by: MLBAM


MLB Advanced Media


STYLE POINTS:


The streaming numbers are as gaudy as they’ve always been for MLBAM, evidenced by an MLB postseason that saw a record 1.1 billion minutes consumed during 110.5 million unique sessions. Disney’s $1 billion investment for a 33 percent stake in BAMTech shows how big the company has become in sports media.


Photo by: NFL


National Football League


STYLE 
POINTS:


Not only was the NFL’s Twitter deal — $10 million for the nonexclusive streaming rights to 10 “Thursday Night Football” games — unprecedented, but the NFL also became the first league to start a channel on Snapchat and posted tremendous viewership growth for live games via mobile.


Photo by: NBC SPORTS GROUP


NBC Sports Group


STYLE POINTS:


NBC’s digital performance during the Rio Games was astounding. The Games’ 10,000 events streamed were the most in history. The network also set records for total minutes (3.5 billion), live minutes (2.71 billion) and unique users (100 million).



Twitter


STYLE POINTS:


By most measures, Twitter’s streams of NFL “Thursday Night Football” games were a success. They were easy to use and brought in a younger, more international audience. Twitter has secured streaming deals with the major sports leagues (NBA, MLB, NHL) and promises to remain involved in the sports business for years to come.


SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 18, 2024

Sports Business Awards nominees unveiled; NWSL's historic opening weekend and takeaways from CFP deal

ESPN’s Jay Bilas, BTN’s Meghan McKeown, and a deep dive into AppleTV+’s The Dynasty

On this week’s Sports Media Podcast from the New York Post and Sports Business Journal, ESPN’s Jay Bilas talks all things NCAA. Big Ten Network’s Meghan McKeown shares her insight into the Caitlin Clark craze. The Boston Globe’s Chad Finn chats all things Bean Town. And SBJ’s Xavier Hunter drops in to share his findings on how the NWSL is making a social media push.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

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