ESPN on Saturday night will air the Manny Pacquiao-Jeff Horn bout, and VARIETY's Brian Steinberg wrote it could "help ESPN strike a new blow with sports fans." ESPN Exec VP/Programming & Scheduling Burke Magnus said, "We have a sense that there’s a deeper reservoir of notable fighters. We just feel there’s a little more buzz around boxing than there has been in a number of years, and we think that can carry forward." NBC, CBS and Spike have in recent years "begun showing more boxing." ESPN "wants to outdo them and focus more intently on the kind of top-shelf match-ups that might be more the stuff of premium cable." Magnus said that ESPN will "use the match-up to promote other big events it plans to show in July" including Wimbledon and the ESPYs (VARIETY.com, 6/29).
ALL-INCLUSIVE: CABLEFAX DAILY's Alex Silverman noted the European version of the NFL's Game Pass "boasts a content offering far more comprehensive than any single product fans have access to stateside." In one place, European fans can "view live and archived games, condensed games, a linear feed of NFL Network, access to NFL Red Zone and on-demand video, including both timely short-form and documentary-style content." One of the "big upsides" in the NFL expanding its OTT push in Europe is the "customer data the league can acquire and use to further grow its business" (CABLEFAX.com, 6/28).
START YOUR ENGINES: The ESPORTS OBSERVER's Ferguson Mitchell noted "Rocket League" has its stock "soaring." One week following the announcement that NBC Sports was "looking into throwing a tournament and broadcasting it on cable television, the game has been announced as an addition to this summer’s X Games -- including a broadcast on ESPN3." Similar to the deal with NBC Sports, the X Games partnership was "facilitated" by U.K. esports event organizer FACEIT (ESPORTSOBSERVER.com, 6/29).
