Menu

SBJ Media: Masters Makes Right Call With Early Sunday Start


I first visited the Notre Dame in Paris in 1992 at the beginning of a two-month backpacking trip with my girlfriend, who soon afterwards became my wife. I have visited the cathedral a dozen times since, celebrating Christmas Eve Mass there in 1998. The pictures and video from today are beyond heartbreaking.

 

THE MASTERS GETS THE SUNDAY FINISH IT NEEDED

Many media execs feel Augusta National made the right call on Sunday's start times
  • Every media exec I spoke with today -- even ones without a stake in the Masters -- said Augusta National made a TV-friendly decision to move up Sunday’s tee times to avoid expected afternoon storms. “A decent Sunday is always better than a great Monday in TV terms,” one exec said, explaining that HUT levels -- the number of people who watch TV -- are much higher on Sunday than Monday. Augusta National execs took input from many of its partners and arrived at a decision on its own. The club had many considerations beyond TV, not the least of which were the fans, most of whom weren’t prepared to stay another day. That meant that the club wanted to do whatever it could to make sure that its tournament ended on Sunday.

  • CBS Sports Chair Sean McManus and President David Berson were in close contact with Augusta National about contingency plans. There was no question that golf would preempt CBS’ long-running Sunday morning schedule if the tee times were moved. The Masters is an important property for CBS (the network has carried it since 1956). CBS Sports Exec VP Dan Weinberg was the point person internally, talking with CBS News and CBS Entertainment execs about plans. Helping matters was the fact that acting CBS CEO Joe Ianniello was at the tournament in Augusta, which helped streamline some of the decision-making process.

  • The move worked. SBJ's Austin Karp noted today that while the overnight rating was down from last year's final round, it marked the best morning round of golf in at least 34 years (records date back to 1986 for CBS). Perhaps even more impressive -- the replay of the final round from 3:00-7:00pm ET yesterday drew a figure that is the third-best overnight for a golf telecast this year to date (behind only the Masters' live third and final round telecasts).  Viewership figures for the weekend rounds will not be available until tomorrow. 

  • The early finish to the event allowed for some pickup on the broadcast news shows last night. While the Masters encore preempted CBS' news program, ABC's "World News Tonight" teased Tiger's win in the open and then led the show with the news. NBC's "Nightly News" teased the win in its open and then aired a segment roughly 10 minutes into the program. Today, all three broadcast TV morning shows had Tiger news early. "CBS This Morning" led with Tiger, while NBC's "Today" and ABC's "GMA" each had stories around 15 minutes into their respective programs.


QUICK THOUGHTS ON THE MASTERS

  • At around 1:30pm yesterday, with just a handful of holes to play at a historic Masters, I had to drive my 14-yard daughter to a track meet. I turned on Westwood One’s radio broadcast and was surprised to hear Mike Tirico calling action from the 18th green. I called Tirico this afternoon and asked him how he ended up on the radio broadcast. Usually, Bob Papa sits on the 18th green for Westwood One during The Masters. This year, he committed to host the Western Intercollegiate, which starts today on Golf Channel. Westwood One executive producer Howard Deneroff -- a childhood friend of Tirico’s -- called and asked the announcer to fill in. After checking with his bosses, Tirico said yes. Tirico: “I was just thinking truly in a selfish way, I never get to sit at 18 and watch The Masters. I said it would be a blast just to have that experience. Luckily for me, it turned into one of the most memorable 18 holes in major championship golf history.”

  • I talked to Golf Channel President Mike McCarley to get an idea about how media companies can capitalize on the interest in Woods’ win. McCarley talked about how his channel doubled its amount of live news coverage to six hours today. “Morning Drive” expanded from two hours to four, and “Golf Central” moved from one hour to two. McCarley also talked about future storylines that involve Woods, the greatest ratings generator the sport has known. Woods still has his sights set on the record 18 major championships won by Jack Nicklaus. He also is one away from tying Sam Snead’s record 82 PGA Tour wins. McCarley: “We stay focused on that and have some plans in production for if and when that happens. As winter thaws and spring rolls in, it’s a shot in the arm that helps all parts of the game.”

  • The Masters has strict TV rules that seem outdated and behind the times. For me, the most aggravating is Augusta National’s insistence on not allowing TV to show early morning rounds. But there’s one old-fashioned rule that I wish others would follow -- Augusta National does not let TV networks clutter up the screen. There’s no bottom line crawl or network ID bugs. It was refreshing to see big, beautiful pictures on CBS over the weekend and ESPN before that. Every year, that gives The Masters a bigger look-and-feel than other golf tournaments. I know it’s not great for business, but as a viewer I loved the limited commercial breaks on Sunday, which let the storylines flow. Augusta National only allows limited commercial breaks for corporate sponsors, including Mercedes-Benz, IBM and AT&T.

  • The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch has a good column that goes behind the scenes in CBS’ production truck in Augusta. Last night, CBS' McManus talked to Variety and the AP.

 

STREAMING NOW AT THE CORE OF DISNEY PLANS

  • Lost amid the noise from Disney’s Investor Day last week were some ESPN+ stats that show how successful the first year has been for that platform. ESPN’s Burke Magnus has been signing a boatload of rights deals for the service -- so much so that many competitors privately have questioned whether ESPN+ ever can be profitable given its volume of deals. The message from Bob Iger is a resounding yes. During Thursday's Investor Day, Iger said that ESPN+ will be profitable by 2023, and by 2024 is projected to have 12 million subscribers. That’s a big jump from the 2 million subs it reported back in February.

  • Investor Day, which unveiled plans for the Disney+ platform, went as well as Disney execs could have hoped. Disney's stock had jumped 13% from the close of trading on Wednesday through today's close. Even a noted Disney skeptic, BTIG's Rich Greenfield, has been forced to change his position, upgrading Disney's stock. EMJ Capital's Eric Jackson also noted the huge volume of trading for Disney's stock today.

  • Iger’s interview with CNBC last week was fascinating, particularly when he defended the price that distributors pay for ESPN. “We were a convenient scapegoat,” he said. “I know that ESPN charged more per subscriber than a lot of the other channels. But I think you have to look at the value that was created there, both for the consumer and to the distributor. ... I don't think that ESPN should be blamed for what we’re seeing today. You have a different consumer today. And more choice that has entered the market.”

  • News on deadline -- AT&T has sold its 10% stake in Hulu back to Hulu in a deal that values the streaming service at $15 billion. Disney remains Hulu’s majority owner, and as Recode’s Peter Kafka tweeted, it now only needs to buy out Comcast -- which has a 30% stake -- to gain total control over it.



SPEED READS

  • Streaming looks like it will be the bulk of the business for DAZN going forward. The company has sold off Perform Group, which focused on video and data services, to Vista Equity Partners. Vista will merge Perform with Stats LLC going forward. Outlets like Goal.com and SportingNews.com look like they will remain with DAZN.

THIS WEEK IN SBJ

LET'S DO THE NUMBERS

  • $22.54 million -- Estimated brand value Nike received from Tiger Woods’ on-camera exposure during the final round of the Masters broadcast on CBS, per Apex Marketing. For a comparison, that easily beats the $1.62 million Nike scored from Adam Levine's shoes during the Super Bowl LIII halftime performance, which is the most-watched broadcast of any kind each year. Two years ago, Sergio Garcia for his Masters win earned $12 million in exposure for Adidas on the final round telecast.
  • 30 -- Number of episodes Peyton Manning has agreed to host for another ESPN+ program, this one set to debut in July. Based on a clip we saw at World Congress of Sports, "Peyton's Places" will be a lighter series that sees Manning travel the country to speak with key figures in football history as the league celebrates its 100th season. Still no word on whether Manning will join the "Monday Night Football" booth, but this new deal keeps him close to execs in Bristol and also gives the streaming platform more unique content.

 

Enjoying this newsletter? We've got more! Check out SBJ College with Michael Smith on Tuesdays and Thursdays for insights into all the latest news around the world of college sports.

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