SBJ Media: Networks At Odds Over New Overnight Ratings

Hello from Nationals Park, where Mad Max Scherzer is trying to stave off playoff elimination for the hometown nine.


NIELSEN CHANGES SEE NETWORKS TAKE DIFFERENT APPROACHES

• TV network disagreements are like catnip to me. The networks are fighting about a relatively dry topic -- the change in how Nielsen reports its metered market ratings, also known as overnights. “This is a pretty wonky topic,” said Fox Sports Exec VP and Head of Strategy & Analytics Mike Mulvihill. ESPN and Fox, most notably, have found themselves on opposite sides of the issue.
  
  
• Here’s the background: Some network execs hate overnight ratings, which provide the earliest hint at how a show or a game performs on TV. Overnights were wrong just enough to make them unreliable, they say. Sometimes overnights would be down, and then national numbers that come later would be up -- or vice versa. It was like an arms race. Every network used them -- they were too scared not to -- and we reported them because they were numbers that networks and ad buyers used. Last week, Nielsen’s overnight changes took effect and, according to all involved, they will become even less predictive. The changes cut the number of metered markets that make up the overnight ratings from 56 to 44. Network research departments held several conference calls in recent months to try and forge an agreement on how they should handle these new overnights. ESPN execs led the charge to ignore the new overnights en masse -- so much so that ESPN VP/Corporate Communications Mike Soltys tweeted out a eulogy to the overnights on Friday. “We wish them well,” he said.
  
  
• Now that we’re through the first weekend of overnights, each network appears to be taking different approaches, with ESPN and Fox settling on the two extremes. ESPN will not use them at all. Fox will use them just as they did last year. ESPN says Nielsen’s changes in the number of metered markets make any comparisons to last year useless. ESPN also believes that overnights do not accurately predict the final ratings for a show or game.
  
  
• Fox Senior VP/Communications Andrew Fegyveresi and Mulvihill disagree and decided that comparisons still hold. “Those 12 markets that dropped out of the overnights represent less than 10% of the population that previously had been covered by the overnights,” Mulvihill said. “Our ability to use the overnights as a predictor of what the national stories will be is really good.” As an example, Mulvihill pointed to last week’s “Thursday Night Football” game -- its first with the new overnights. The national rating was an 8.2, which was down 17% from the initial overnight rating, which was a 10.2. That 17% drop that is consistent with "TNF" ratings last year before the changes, Mulvihill said. “Fundamentally, our job is to put these numbers in context. The entire reason that we’re here is to take this data and put it into some kind of context that makes sense to people. I would rather use the data and try to put it into context than just punt and say, ‘Well, we can’t use it at all. We’re incapable of putting it into the proper context.'"

NBA-CHINA STORY DRIVES NEWS COVERAGE

Daryl Morey's tweet about Hong Kong put the NBA and its business in China in the spotlight

• The story of the NBA’s problems in China ballooned beyond sports media last night and continued on through today, and that attracted the interest of everyone from politicians to general news programs. Seemingly everyone offering an opinion on Rockets GM Daryl Morey’s tweet in support of Hong Kong protesters and his subsequent apology. Predictably, it was a topic on general news programs like “CBS This Morning” (18 minutes into its telecast) and ABC’s “GMA” (55 minutes in).
  
  
• NBC did not address the issue this morning on “Today,” but before you think that the network that will carry the 2022 Olympics from Beijing was going soft on China, it should be noted that CNBC played the story up big on shows like “Squawk Box” and “Squawk on the Street,” which interviewed Warriors President & COO Rick Welts, who presumably was scheduled to discuss the Chase Center opening. It didn’t take long for the conversation to turn to China. Welts admitted that Morey’s tweets have caused “economic repercussions.” But he added that it’s “not going to erase the decades of work that myself and everyone else in the NBA has put into building a tremendous base for basketball in China and I think this will pass and I do think our future in China is probably pretty remarkable.”
  
  
• Sports media spent a lot of airtime covering the issue, with Bill Simmons calling it the "most fascinating NBA story in a couple of years, maybe since (Donald Sterling).” On “Golic & Wingo,” ESPN's Mike Golic Jr., said: “It did make me wonder if Daryl Morey was James Harden in this situation, and had said this, would the reception have been what it is now?” ESPN’s “The Jump” will have live segments tomorrow from Shanghai. The network has said that it plans to report on the Morey tweets during that telecast.

TALKING BASEBALL WITH BOB COSTAS

• With Bob Costas on the call for this afternoon’s Astros-Rays ALDS Game 3, I checked in with the lifelong baseball fan to get his opinion on some of MLB’s hot-button issues. What follows is an edited Q&A from our talk late last week.
  
  
• Why were there so many home runs this year?
  • "It’s clear that there’s something not right with the baseball. Everyone in baseball says it. The players say it. The pitchers say it. I think the ball is the primary reason. Then you have a difference in approach with more players and hitting coaches emphasizing the launch angle. Plus, as we have seen now for two generations -- even if it’s all completely legitimate -- guys with greater strength and baseball-specific training. You have fitter, stronger players with an emphasis on launch angles and a baseball that is flying like a golf ball. That gives you home runs."
    
    
• The defensive shift: yay or nay?
  • "There’s a radical idea -- I’m not sure I support it, but it’s worthy of consideration -- which is to mandate that you have to have two infielders on either side of second base. There are certain set-ups that aren’t allowed in basketball -- you can’t hang around in the lane forever. There are also certain formations that aren’t allowed in football. I’m always loath to think that baseball should take its cues from other sports, because baseball is unique. I’m not advocating this. But in the present circumstance, it’s something that they ought to study and think about. It’s taking away from baseball plays. It’s taking away from runners on base, which create interesting baseball situations."
    
    
• Are games too long?
  • "Everyone in the game, including the commissioner’s office, understands that this is a concern. When you answer that question honestly, it can then be depicted that I don’t like baseball. I love baseball. I might tinker with it here and there. I might have certain concerns. But that doesn’t mean that it’s not my favorite sport."

SPEED READS

• The PGA Tour is in the market for a new media rights deal, and in March, it will use its marquee event, the Players Championship, to showcase just how much content it can really produce from a tournament. Using 120 cameras at TPC Sawgrass, the Tour will stream every shot live from all 144 players in all four rounds via PGA Tour Live on NBC Sports Gold or Amazon’s Prime Video. Each player group will have its own dedicated livestream.
  
  
• ESPN will take “College GameDay” to Ireland next August, as Dublin is hosting Notre Dame-Navy to start the college football season. The game on Aug. 29 will be the first under the network's new AAC media-rights contract.
  
  
• Peter King brought in his former Sports Illustrated colleague Rick Reilly for the parting shot in his weekly NBCSports.com column. Reilly: “So what happened to this Sports Illustrated thing? The internet. Apple. ESPN. People forgot how to savor. After a while, young people only knew us for the swimsuit issue.”
  
  
• Networks are bullish on the coming NBA season, and TNT in particular is not messing around. On Oct. 22, the net will give viewers a first look at Zion Williamson and the Pelicans against the reigning champion Raptors, followed by LeBron James and Anthony Davis taking on Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers. Why the push? Last season, in part to LeBron's move out west, TNT got off to its slowest start in at least a decade. But strong viewership is likely in play this year thanks to dominant offseason storylines and no prohibitive favorite for the title.
  
  
• SBJ's Adam Stern has an interesting look at Overwatch League's media rights negotiations. Sources say that the property has several options developing as its deals with ABC/ESPN (linear) and Twitch (digital) are set to expire.
  
  
• Over the weekend, New York City named a public school in Queens-Jackson Heights after Ivan Lafayette, who served as an assemblyman for 30 years. Lafayette’s son, Jon, has been a mainstay on the media beat for years; he’s currently writing for Broadcasting & Cable. Jon emailed: “He was a big supporter of early education, and finding locations and funds to build schools in that very diverse community was one of his priorities. That school, which goes from preschool through 2nd grade, was one of the ones he helped get built. It’s a few blocks from where we lived and I grew up."

NYC recently named a public school after Ivan Lafayette, an assemblyman for 30 years

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