SBJ Media: DAZN, MLB At Odds

It's July 22, and the Orioles are still in first place.

SOURCES: DAZN, MLB COULDN'T COME TO TERMS ON SHOW

• It appears that MLB will be down one media partner this season. Sources said that DAZN will not produce its whiparound show “ChangeUp” for the shortened season after the two sides butted heads over rights fees. A blog called The Streamable was the first with this news this afternoon. Neither MLB nor DAZN would comment for this story.
  
  
• Back at the end of March, DAZN told leagues that it would not pay rights fees for any games that were suspended because of the pandemic. Those calls included MLB. In November 2018, DAZN signed a three-year, $300 million deal to carry a nightly "NFL RedZone"-style show. DAZN still has two more years on that contract, which was cut by Executive Chairman John Skipper.
  
  
• DAZN has stripped all mentions of MLB or “ChangeUp” from its website. The company has not tweeted about MLB for months,. MLB starts its 60-game season tomorrow, but the two sides were not able to agree on a pro-rated price for the rest of the season. It’s not clear how much MLB wants DAZN to pay, the size of DAZN’s counteroffer or even if DAZN made a counter. It’s also not clear if either side has pursued legal proceedings in this case.
  
  
• DAZN originally cut that deal as a way to set up a relationship with one of the top leagues in the U.S., a market where it looked to grow. Sources said DAZN execs grew unhappy with viewership numbers last season for the show, hosted by Adnan Virk and Scott Rogowsky.

“ChangeUp” is likely out for 2020 after MLB and DAZN butted heads over rights fees

NBA COULD LOOK INTO MORE COMMERCIAL IMAGES FOR REVENUE

• Adam Silver did not dwell on media issues during an interview at today's SBJ virtual event. But the undercurrent of how important media money is to league finances was an unspoken theme when the NBA commissioner spoke about how the league will lose 40% of its revenue with no crowds. “I'm not sure we can make that up during a pandemic,” he said.
  
  
• Silver said the NBA has looked into possible revenue-generating ideas like putting commercial images on the court to complement jersey patches that the league already has approved. “There are other opportunities you see in international soccer and other sports, where they find other ways to express advertising. With 40% of our revenue coming from gate and gate-related revenue streams, we're not going to make that up if we go into next season still in the heart of a pandemic and unable to have fans in arenas.”
  
  
• With regard to next season, Silver said the league is targeting a December start, but that "hasn't been locked in yet." He spoke about how the NBA is hopeful to have fans in arenas for 2020-21. “We certainly haven't given up on that prospect,” he said. “It's our goal to have fans in the arena next year. Whether that will happen is dependent on so many things outside of our control -- a potential second wave of the virus, the timetable of a vaccine and antivirals. ... There may be configurations of arenas that may not allow for 19,000 people, but could allow for 5,000 or 8,000. That's yet to be seen, but like any other business, we also have to plan potentially for worst case scenarios.”

GARBER TALKS ABOUT DELIVERING MEDIA VALUE WITH TOURNAMENT

• MLS will suffer through about $1 billion in losses due to the COVID pandemic. But Commissioner Don Garber praised ESPN, Fox and Univision -- as well as MLS Business Ventures President Gary Stevenson -- with creating the MLS Is Back Tournament that has started to recoup some of that money, thanks to virtual boards surrounding the field and a big Adidas logo in the middle of it.
  
  
• Garber: “If you think of our tournament, it is games in a box. They're studio games. Gary and his team were able to work with ESPN to create a production that creates a virtual stadium. These are youth soccer fields, and when you watch those games on ESPN, Fox, and Univision, they feel like a stadium. ... We've been able to deliver value for our broadcast partners, deliver value for our corporate partners nationally and locally, and that's important.”
  
  
• More Garber: “At the end of the day, this league needs to drive revenue. Our business was halted. We need to continue to find ways that we could provide value so that we can invest in facilities, invest in player development, continue to pay our players what they deserve and what they want to earn, and to continue to grow professional soccer at the highest level in the United States.”
  
  
• Garber praised some of the innovations in the TV productions of the games, citing more audio, added cameras and the use of drones, which he said may be used even when crowds are allowed back in the stadiums. “We might have to think about new technology virtually and from an audio and visual perspective to make games perhaps with fewer fans for a time being that are going to create the environment that will deliver excitement for our players on the field, but our fans at home.”

Garber noted MLS has started to recoup some money thanks to virtual boards and the Adidas logo at midfield

MLB NETWORK LOOKS TO HIT THE GROUND RUNNING

• MLB Network President Rob McGlarry had one main message when he met with his channel’s on-air talent this afternoon, on the eve of Opening Day. “We’re already in the middle of the season,” McGlarry said. “We don’t have time. We have to hit the ground running. We only have 60 games.” That’s advice McGlarry and his team have followed as he has outlined how MLB’s cable channel will cover an abbreviated season. “It’s going to be a different season, but we are going to embrace that,” he said. “A lot of different quirks. We’re going to embrace all of that and do as much as we can in the limited time that we have.”
  
  
• Back in April, the channel had planned a new open for its signature show, “MLB Tonight.” It also will unveil an entirely new graphics package for its studio shows, "The Rundown" and "Quick Pitch." McGlarry: “We’ve been working on this for years. There are a lot of ideas that were ready in April and now we’re finally going to be able to do them in late July.”
  
  
• One of those changes will come during several -- but not all -- of the channel’s “showcase” games, which MLB Network will produce from its Secaucus, N.J., studios. Rather than having a traditional two-person booth calling one game, Greg Amsinger and Harold Reynolds came up with the idea of giving the telecast more of an “MLB Tonight” feel. “Why can’t we show that game but also do all the things that are unique to MLB Network,” McGlarry asked. “We’ll show that game. But if there’s something interesting in another game, why can’t we jump in and show that as well? If we see something interesting in the game that we’re primarily focusing on, and we want to show that, whether it’s in a commercial break or with a two-box, we got a big beautiful studio where we can do a demonstration and illustrate a little bit more differently what we just saw. This is a perfect opportunity to try new things.”

SBJ MEDIA NEEDS YOUR INPUT

• We’re asking for your help today. Please take our media agenda poll so SBJ can understand the critical initiatives you will be working on in the near future. Your answers will help to drive our strategic direction and future media coverage.
  
  
• This is a 11-question poll and should take no more than 6 minutes. Your answers will remain anonymous and will not be reported individually.
  

SPEED READS

• A shortened MLB schedule means fewer ad opportunities, which means good ad sales results for Fox Sports. The network’s Seth Winter said the MLB package is 90% sold, with this opening weekend virtually sold out. A main reason for the sellout: Fox moved a lot of the advertisers who had already bought MLB schedules in the spring into this shortened season. “They invested in us and the belief that baseball will come back,” Winter said.
  
  
• Since the English Premier League started up again on June 17, NBC and NBCSN have averaged 373,000 viewers for games, notes SBJ's Austin Karp. That is down around 17% from an average of 451,000 prior to the shutdown. Hurting the EPL's average has been a schedule featuring big-name matches in weekday afternoon windows that normally would have been on weekends (i.e. Tottenham-Manchester United, Manchester City-Arsenal and Chelsea-Man City). One silver lining is that those matches have boosted the weekday afternoon window by 31% compared to the same window prior to the shutdown -- and up 44% from the full 2018-19 weekday afternoon average.
  
  
• Liga MX club Chivas de Guadalajara received “several competitive bids” from media companies for its U.S. rights to broadcast home matches, SBJ's Mark J. Burns reports. Telemundo ultimately secured the rights through a multiyear agreement. Wasserman Senior VP/Properties Tag Garson, who repped the club during the RFP process and negotiations, said: “You are talking about the Yankees of the Mexican soccer league. ... The opportunity to speak to anyone and everyone in the media distribution business was one we couldn’t pass up.” Garson added that there were media organizations that “some people may never have even heard of that expressed interest because it was Chivas."

Chivas had several competitive bids from media companies for U.S. rights to its home games

• This Variety story titled “R.I.P. Cable TV” is worth a click. Writers Michael Schneider & Kate Arthur lead with a story of the MTV viral video-clip show “Ridiculousness,” which “aired for 113 hours out of the network’s entire 168-hour lineup” in late June. Schneider & Arthur: “Pundits had long predicted the death of broadcast TV, while basic cable feasted on a dual revenue stream of subscriber fees and advertising revenue. But that gravy train started going off the rails when the streaming services arrived.”
  
  
• MLB opens its season tomorrow night with Yankees-Nationals, and ESPN could be looking at record viewership for the league's opening game, SBJ's Austin Karp notes. ESPN's record for an MLB opener is 3.7 million viewers for Cubs-Cardinals in 2017. The last time the Yankees appeared on ESPN's primetime opener was in 2010 against the Red Sox on ESPN2 (3.2 million). This weekend, Fox has already predicted a 40% increase over a normal MLB opening weekend. TBS also begins its coverage with Yankees-Nationals on Sunday (blacked out in the N.Y. and D.C. markets). The network will look to top its average of 347,000 viewers for all MLB games last season (which was +7% from 2018).
  
  
• This Twitter thread from Dan Shulman, who calls games on Sportsnet for the Blue Jays, is a good inside look at what viewers can expect this MLB season. Shulman: "Games may not always look and feel exactly like they do during a normal season, but thanks to a ton of hard work by our crew, and collaboration between all teams' crews, it's going to be pretty close. And hey, it's baseball on TV. Just happy it's back."

THE LAST WORD

• I will give the last word tonight to former ESPNer Amy Phillips, who is now working communications for Disney in London. Someone stole her bicycle on Sunday night, which led to this tale, which seems straight out of Dickens.
  
  
• “In the end, it’s just a bike. But it was a lovely bike, and it has been my sanity amid moving to London in lockdown. I had written it off as a loss when my colleague suggested I check Gumtree (a site similar to Craigslist), because her friend’s bike had been stolen and ended up there. Sure enough, a quick search for a Cannondale turned up my bike, posted two hours after it had been stolen, stripped of all identifying accessories.
  
  
• I called the police to tell them I was fairly certain that I’d found my bike. I asked if there was any chance an officer could help get it back. They told me that it will take a couple days to get someone assigned. Blah, blah, blah. That led me to call our head of security, Hamish Ainslie. Hamish is an ex-British Army major who had worked in counter-terrorism. I was hoping that maybe he could expedite the situation with the police. Instead, he said, 'Well I could go with you to meet the guy.'
  
  
• We set up a meeting at a tube stop south of the Thames. The guy showed up an hour late and let me take the bike for a test ride. I rode it around the corner so that I could check the serial number. It was a match, so I texted Hamish and said, 'It’s mine.' He responded, 'Just ride off. I’ve got this.'
  
  
• I wasn’t going to leave Hamish there, so I swung back around on the bike. Hamish said to the perp, 'Here’s the problem, mate. That’s a stolen bike. And it’s hers. And it’s been reported to the police. How do you want to handle this?' The guy looked at us and said, 'You can have it.' He then turned around and walked off one direction. We walked off the other direction, and I rode like the wind across Westminster Bridge. A win in the time of COVID.”

Phillips was able to get back a stolen bike in London with the help of an ex-British Army major

 ----- 2020 SBJ THOUGHT LEADERS RETREAT (VIRTUAL) ----- 

• Aug. 13, 2:00-7:00pm ET (by invitation only)
  
  
• The road ahead has never been more challenging -- and it has never been more important for executive leadership to pause, learn, reflect and relax in order to prepare themselves to step up and navigate what the future holds. This year, we are continuing the tradition of Thought Leaders, creating the industry’s most intimate, senior-level event with a virtual program.
  
  
• Content will include:
  
  
  • Mindful Leadership with Pandit Dasa
  • The C-Suite Imperative: Corporate Responsibility & Social Impact
  • The New Fan Experience: A 360-degree approach; a 365-day Journey
  • Reinvented: A Conversation with Agent Leigh Steinberg
  • Supporting Social Justice Reform: Backing Words with Action
  • Navigating the Road Ahead: Fundamental Shifts We Can Expect in the Sports Business (group discussions)
    
    
• In addition to the compelling content, we will have plenty of time for some of the best virtual networking activities of the year, including:
  
  
  • Jack Daniel’s whiskey tasting
    • Aquimo golf (live challenge)
    • Aquimo cornhole (live challenge)
    • Cooking demo with "Iron Chef" Marc Forgione
    • A private set from John Popper and Brian Wilson of Blues Traveler
    
    
• For more information please visit,www.Thought-Leaders-Retreat.com.

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Something on the Media beat catch your eye? Tell us about it. Reach out to either me (jourand@sportsbusinessjournal.com) or Austin Karp (akarp@sportsbusinessjournal.com) and we'll share the best of it. Also contributing to this newsletter is Thomas Leary (tleary@sportsbusinessdaily.com).