Menu
Media

The Old College Try: ESPN, Conference Nets Look To Capitalize On CWS Popularity

The "optimism around college baseball’s TV potential stems largely from the results produced" during the College World Series, which since '07 has seen viewership range "between 1.1 million and 1.9 million on ESPN," according to Matthew Harris of the Baton Rouge ADVOCATE. ESPN2 in that time frame "posted averages between 770,000 and 1 million viewers." The format of the CWS "certainly plays to the network’s advantage." For the first four days of the tournament, ESPN "gets two games -- one in the afternoon and one at night." Holding the championship series on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday "ensures it doesn’t compete head to head" with Wimbledon or the Stanley Cup Final. However, questions "arise over what role the network might play in shaping the event." The NCAA in the past two years has "discussed the possibility of altering the NCAA tournament’s format, adding a 32-team round at campus sites with best-of-three series to replace the traditional regional stage." Moving forward, college baseball "figures prominently into ESPN’s plans, including 270 live games and branded showcases" such as ACC Monday and the SEC Game of the Week. Conferences are "eager to use baseball as another avenue to access TV revenue, and follow the CWS’ method of using the exposure to drive attendance on campus." How the SEC Network handles college baseball "will offer an insight into whether the sport -- outrageously popular at LSU, Mississippi State and Arkansas -- appears as a leading candidate." SEC Network Senior Programming Dir Chris Turner said, "What is happening on national networks will not change moving forward. We’re simply migrating some content over and boosting our inventory as it expands for the SEC Network" (Baton Rouge ADVOCATE, 6/23).

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

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.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2013/06/26/Media/CWS-Media.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2013/06/26/Media/CWS-Media.aspx

CLOSE