SBJ Media: Zion Will Do Fine, But...

Stephen Colbert drew the biggest laugh of the day when he said that instead of reading all of CBS’ talking points about the upfront, he relied on Bill Barr’s four-page summary. “It turns out -- Les Moonves -- totally exonerated.”

BUSINESS FOR NBA, MEDIA WOULD BE BETTER WITH ZION IN N.Y. OR L.A.

• Every time David Levy neared the end of one of his NBA negotiations, the former Turner Broadcasting chief would walk into Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes office to sell him on why the network needed to do the deal. Toward the end of each of those meetings, Levy’s pitch would focus on the Big Apple. “Remember, the Knicks have to get better,” he would tell Bewkes. “And when the Knicks get better, this deal gets better.”
  
  
• I thought about that story last night as NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum revealed the teams that had the first four picks in this year’s draft. The Knicks lost a chance to draft Duke phenom Zion Williamson and will pick third. Another big market team, the Lakers, will pick fourth. All the media execs I contacted afterward said the results are not good for the league or its TV partners. Brands and big TV markets still matter. Playing in the top two media markets, respectively, the Knicks and Lakers fall into both of those categories. It’s not a hard concept -- when the Knicks are good, New York fans get engaged and national TV ratings increase.
  
  
• From Williamson’s perspective, though, it doesn’t matter where he plays. Kevin Durant and LeBron James have proven that good players can become stars in small markets like Oklahoma City and Cleveland. Media execs generally dismiss the theory that Williamson could make more in endorsements in bigger markets. Given the popularity of ESPN, TNT, NBA League Pass, ESPN.com, Bleacher Report and other basketball outlets, it’s easier for NBA players to transcend any small-to-mid-sized markets. 
  

WARNERMEDIA GETS READY TO RUMBLE 

• The only "sports" news that came out of WarnerMedia’s upfront advertising presentation this morning was a deal to put All Elite Wrestling -- a potential competitor to WWE -- on TNT. However, the pact isn't even considered sports inside WarnerMedia. Neither Jeff Zucker nor anyone inside the sports division will oversee the AEW relationship -- WarnerMedia’s entertainment group will, with Turner Ad Sales chief Donna Speciale overseeing ad sales. I’m told that AEW will handle most of the production, with WarnerMedia’s entertainment group handling scheduling, marketing, etc. Before the merger was approved officially, Turner Sports execs handled negotiations.
  
  
• This move flies in the face of the way Fox is handling its WWE relationship. Fox Sports execs negotiated the deal, handle ad sales and marketing and create the programming. The move is more akin to the way NBCUniversal has set up its WWE relationship, which is run out of Bonnie Hammer’s entertainment group, not Pete Bevacqua’s sports group.
  
  
• The deal has TNT and the B/R Live streaming platform carrying weekly matches starting later this year. B/R Live also will carry some PPV events. The deal was negotiated by AEW President & CEO Tony Khan and Bernie Cahill, co-founder of Activist Artists Management.

UPFRONT NOTES FROM DISNEY, CBS

(l-r) Sean McManus, Jim Nantz and David Berson at the Plaza Hotel following the CBS upfront

• The point of the upfronts is to pitch broadcast TV shows that will debut this fall. But at an ESPN press conference before Disney’s presentation yesterday, most of the questions dealt with ESPN+, which now has more than 2 million paid subscribers. ESPN’s Burke Magnus talked about some of the programming aspects that make the streaming service unique: “When you run a Warriors highlight and then tell people at the end that Kobe is talking to Draymond Green as part of the latest episode of ‘Detail’ -- that to me is cool because ‘Detail’ is a show that would be difficult to schedule in a linear environment. It’s so intense. You’re getting a master class from one of the best basketball players of all time.”
  
  
• CBS took a sports theme to begin its upfront at Carnegie Hall this afternoon, with Jim Nantz, Tony Romo and Tracy Wolfson offering an NFL-inspired preview of the show. A highlight was when Wolfson interviewed CBS ad sales chief Jo Ann Ross, who was dressed in a generic football uniform -- complete with a blinged-out helmet and a bejeweled uniform with the “#1.”
  
  
• Best line of the day went to Nantz in the room of ad buyers: “Hello, friends. And hello, friends with money.” Nantz, Romo, Wolfson, Bill Cowher and Phil Simms were among the CBS personalities that attended a party afterward at the Plaza Hotel, taking pictures with a seemingly never-ending line of attendees.

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SPEED READS

• The PGA Championship tees off tomorrow in its new mid-May slot after decades as the final major of the season in August. Will the new spot on the calendar deliver better viewership? It'll be tough to beat 2018. Last year saw big numbers as Tiger Woods played the weekend rounds for the first time since 2013. CBS saw its best Sunday for the event in 10 years (8.5 million viewers) as Woods shot his lowest final round score ever -- at any major -- en route to second place. Woods is back again this year, and this is his first event since winning The Masters. That combination could make for big numbers once again if Woods is in contention on Sunday at Bethpage.
  
  
• NBC has the Preakness on Saturday, but neither Maximum Security -- whose Kentucky Derby win was stripped by a dramatic disqualification -- nor eventual-winner Country House will be in the field at Pimlico. Without a Triple Crown contender in the field, the Run for the Black-Eyed Susans is going to be hard-pressed to match the audience figures from recent years.
  
  
• 
  Funny back story around this week's ESPN The Magazine cover, as photographer Mary Ellen Matthews took one for the team shooting Julie Ertz of the U.S. women's national soccer team. Mary asked Julie to kick the ball directly at her in order to get the best possible shot for the mag's FIFA Women's World Cup preview issue. In doing so, Ertz nailed the camera, completely breaking it and splitting Mary's head open. Thankfully, she ended up with just a bandage and no hospital visit. But the best part -- a shot taken from the accident was the one that was chosen for the cover.
  
  
  

LET'S DO THE NUMBERS

• 813,000 -- Viewers for UFC 237 prelims last Saturday, the "lowest of the four pay-per-view prelims in the ESPN era," per MMAFighting.com. That number is down from the 893,000 viewers for the UFC 236 prelims last month, even though Saturday's slate featured "bigger names" in B.J. Penn, Clay Guida and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. Google searches for the night were just over 500,000, "well below the other pay-per-views of the year."
  
  
  

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