SBJ Media: Sports Shines At Fox Upfront

I’m in a rainy New York this week for the TV networks’ annual upfront advertising presentations. It’s always instructive to see the role live sports plays at each network.

FOX UPFRONT PUTS SPORTS FRONT & CENTER

• Madison Avenue got a glimpse this afternoon at how important sports programming will be to Fox's primetime schedule during the 2019-2020 TV season. In the fall, Fox in primetime will have NFL games on Thursdays, WWE on Fridays and college football on Saturdays. “This three-night block of sports is part of our strategy,” said Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier from the Beacon Theater stage during the network’s annual Upfront ad sales presentation in Manhattan. The strategy involves using sports programming not only to generate ratings and ad sales, but to launch new series, such as the planned debut of “9-11: Lone Star” after the NFC Championship on Jan. 19. “In our new company, we’re bringing sports and entertainment together like never before,” Fox Sports CEO & Exec Producer Eric Shanks said.
  
  
• Historically, network upfront presentations go heavy on scripted entertainment and light on sports. The theory was that you don’t have to explain to ad buyers what the NFL brings to the table. But that crime drama set in L.A.? That’s what the networks always wanted ad buyers to notice. Fox’s presentation this afternoon turned that theory on its ear. Shanks was the second exec to come on stage behind Collier. The presentation seemingly spent as much time on sports as non-sports programming, with talent from MLB, college football, NFL and the WWE all having big roles. Even the Texans' J.J. Watt showed up to push his reality series “Ultimate Tag,” which launches mid-season.
  
  
• Fox trotted out Joe Buck and Alex Rodriguez to hype its MLB coverage. “The World Series delivers live audiences like few things can. If it were a primetime series, it would actually out-rate shows like ‘The Big Bang Theory,’ ‘This Is Us’ and ‘Game of Thrones’ -- and by the way, I might throw in, it would have fewer continuity errors than ‘Game of Thrones,’” Buck said. Fox also brought out some talent from its revamped college football studio show. “We’ve got a scheduling change this year with college football,” host Rob Stone said. Fox will put its best Saturday game in the noon window, using the pregame show to lead into it. The “Fox NFL Sunday” crew, including Jimmy Johnson wearing a "Miami Vice"-looking white suit, talked up February's Super Bowl LIV in South Florida, as well as “Thursday Night Football.” Fox then brought out WWE stars John Cena and Ronda Rousey, as well as execs Stephanie McMahon and Paul “Triple H” Levesque.
  
  
• The line of the day went to Shanks. When asked to use five words to describe this summer's FIFA Women’s World Cup in France, Shanks said, “Our American women kick ass.”
  

DISCOVERY CONTINUES DEEP GOLF DIVE

• I wasn’t surprised to see Discovery buy Golf Digest from Condé Nast for $30 million. Discovery President & CEO David Zaslav has been hinting that he was looking at this kind of deal for quite some time. The magazine now will become part of Discovery’s GolfTVportfolio, sitting alongside streaming coverage of various tournaments and its content partnerships with Tiger Woods and Francesco Molinari.
  
  
• During an interview at the World Congress of Sports this spring, Zaslav spoke about the need to invest in the written word as a complement to live sports coverage he produces for Eurosport. As an example, he pointed to tennis' French Open, which starts at 11:00am locally. “If you get up at 5:00am and you subscribe to the Eurosport player ... you want to see what’s coming up at the French Open. If it says, ‘Tennis starts at 11:00am,' your immediate reaction is, ‘I hate this thing.’ You expect to see content.”
  
  
• His charge has been to get people to create written content and short-form video that can post on the player throughout the day. That applies to golf and happens to be what Golf Digest provides. “They want to read about clubs, and they want to buy clubs,” Zaslav said in April. “They want to read about where to go on a golf vacation. They want to do instruction. We want to build the whole golf ecosystem where you can buy your clubs. If you like what Rory (McIlroy) is wearing, you can buy that outfit. You can take lessons from your favorite instructor. You could read about golf courses and book your vacation. But on Thursday through Sunday you can follow your favorite foursomes.”
  
  
• The N.Y. Post broke the Golf Digest purchase story, saying that Discovery outbid NBC Sports Group to buy the publication. But a source with NBC says the company never placed a bid. Other sources said NBC only showed interest in the publication during the sales process.
  
  

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THIS WEEK IN SBJ

• Fox Sports has decided it wants to get into the business of gambling. I sat down with Eric Shanks to discuss what his network’s foray will look like.
  
  
• Those behind the launch of ESPN The Magazine look back at what made it special.

SPEED READS

• MLS has an interesting strategy when it comes to digital. While most other big pro leagues have 24/7 TV channels (NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL), MLS is pursuing a digital approach. This week, the league plans to launch a channel on the Viacom-owned streaming service Pluto TV, with league execs telling my colleague Ian Thomas that it will pick up a rights fee for its content (nothing live or original). Cord cutting is still growing, and I will be looking to see if MLS' bet with Pluto gives it a way to better connect with its core young audience. Pluto started the year with around 12 million monthly active users, and over half of those were on connected TV devices.
  
  
• A couple of weeks ago, Twitter follower Josh Gropper (@GropperBlotter) asked me how Turner Sports would staff this week’s PGA Championship, which had been moved up in the calendar and now competes with the NBA Playoffs. I turned to Turner’s Nate Smeltz for answers, and he said Brian Anderson will be the primary announcer for TNT’s coverage this year, which marks the end of Turner Sports' involvement with the golf major after 29 years. Smeltz reminded me that both Ernie Johnson -- who had hosted in the past -- and Anderson had referenced the change at the end of last year's tournament.
  
  
• I’m always interested in seeing how TV networks react to breaking news, which is what happened at 8:43am this morning when Adrian Wojnarowski tweeted the news that Michigan coach John Beilein was headed to the Cavaliers. SBJ's Austin Karp spoke to “Get Up!” coordinating producer Pete McConville about how the ESPN morning show got the news on air. “Our producer Mark Eiseman got our PA staff to cut video. Ray Necci, our managing producer, wrote copy. Our researcher Paul Hembekides built supporting graphics for when we reported the news. I called Woj and spoke with our graphics producers about how to present it on screen.” The result: a breaking news graphic went up around 8:52am with Mike Greenberg briefly relaying key info -- as he put it -- “on the fly” before he Bruce Bowen and Tom Thibodeau broke down the news.
  
  
  

  "Get Up!" had to quickly pivot this morning with the news of the Cavaliers hiring John Beilein

LET'S DO THE NUMBERS

• 58 million -- Impressions across Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for the "Cup Confidential" series as of last week. The NHL series, which debuted April 11, highlights the league’s efforts to “elevate and highlight the personalities of its on-ice stars” throughout the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The early success already has NHL CMO Heidi Browning thinking the program could expand into a full-season operation next year. Browning: “This has a lot of legs to become a franchise within itself.”

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