SBJ’s Michael Smith found out the details of Paul Finebaum’s new ESPN contract — a deal that is believed to make the on-air personality ESPN’s second-highest-paid college football talent, behind only analyst Kirk Herbstreit.
Earlier this month, ESPN agreed to pay Finebaum between $5 million and $6 million over three years to keep the college football personality in the fold. Finebaum, whose previous deal was set to expire at the end of this month, is represented by CAA agent Nick Khan. ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro and Connor Schell, executive vice president, content, took the lead on negotiations for the network.
Pitaro’s involvement in the negotiations shows that ESPN’s commitment to Finebaum runs deep. Finebaum had a close working relationship with former chief John Skipper — it was Skipper who came up with the idea to hire Finebaum in 2013. Pitaro erased any doubts that Finebaum would leave and was integral in making sure he stayed as the SEC Network’s most valued talent asset.
Finebaum’s show will continue to broadcast out of ESPN’s studios in Charlotte, although a move to Bristol was discussed as a possible alternative. The College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta had hoped to make a play for hosting the show, but that scenario never materialized.
Why would ESPN make such a heavy investment in Finebaum, 62, considering that most of his time on the air is spent on the SEC Network? The “King of the South,” as he was once called in a New Yorker profile, fills up hours of the SEC Network’s schedule. And his radio show, which simulcasts on the ESPN-owned conference channel during weekday afternoons, occupies four to five hours of live air when the network otherwise would be running old games.
Advertising takeaways from the World Cup
The World Cup generated $269 million of in-game advertising revenue from the World Cup, according to estimates from iSpot.tv. Volkswagen was the top overall ad spender across both English and Spanish TV, spending $22.795 million.
Sprint, which wasn’t in the top 100 for English-speaking games, was the top advertiser on Telemundo telecasts, spending $12.239 million, iSpot.tv said.
Viewership for the World Cup dropped considerably — down 33 percent from 2014 and 9 percent from 2010. But some advertisers had to be happy with how their messages fared. Here are some stats that caught my eye:
• The World Cup demos are among the most advertiser-friendly in all of sports — 29 percent of viewers were under the age of 34 and 60 percent of the audience skewed male.
• Not surprisingly, the World Cup Final viewers brought the highest levels of attention to these ads.
• Bud Light’s “Early Game” ad had the highest tune-in average of all the advertisements. Verizon’s “End of the First Half” ad also fared well.
