Wasserman Media Group Looks To Digital Area For Growth
 |
Scheckler To Play Prominent
Role On WMG’s SportNet Channel
|
Following a “four-year spree of acquisition[s],” Wasserman Media Group (WMG) represents
“400-odd clients, including 6 of the top 30 picks in last year’s NBA draft,” and
Chair & CEO CASEY WASSERMAN indicated that the company’s annual revenues
“approach $100[M],” according to Ronald Grover of BUSINESS WEEK. Wasserman said
that by “garnering fees of 5% or so for negotiating player contracts and up to
15% for naming rights, the agency is profitable, ... though he declines to recite
numbers.” Grover notes there is “head-scratching among veteran sports marketers
as Wasserman spends heartily to push into the business while major operations
like SFX Sports Group and IMG are trimming back.” SFX Senior VP DONALD DELL:
“He’s like the guy who walks up to this great buffet and picks up things here
and there but hasn’t decided if he likes Mexican food or steak. I don’t think
he has really decided on a game plan.” But WMG COO JOSH SWARTZ said that
the “distressed assets came cheaply.” Wasserman indicated that the company’s biggest
potential payoff is “taking his athletes digital with a dizzying assortment of
online sports channels and [VOD] offerings for cable.” ESPN Exec VP/Content JOHN
SKIPPER said that the net is “negotiating for its online action-sports site,
EXPN, to carry content from Wasserman’s planned SportNet Channel, which will feature
... young stars like” skateboarder RYAN SCHECKLER. Wasserman “intends to
fill SportNet with coverage of popular amateur events including pre-Olympic swimming,
track and field, and gymnastics.” But to create SportNet, he will have to “beat
out well-connected competitors including the [USOC], which has offered money to
secure online rights from some of the same governing bodies with which Wasserman
is negotiating” (BUSINESS WEEK, 4/2).
|
