SBJ Media: Ratings Drop For Most Sports

I experienced a first yesterday: I led a virtual cocktail session for SBJ’s Sports Facilities & Franchises event. Under the direction of Banners Kitchen & Tap Mixologist Jackson Cannon, I made an Old Fashioned. And then I took the rest of the day off.

CROWDED LANDSCAPE SHOWS ACCELERATION OF CORD-CUTTING

• There’s not a lot of good news when it comes to sports TV ratings these days. The NFL, across all networks, is down 7% through week 2, averaging 15.2 million viewers versus 16.3 at the same point last year (though the drop is only 6% when TV and digital are both factored into the rating). U.S. Open golf drew its lowest recorded final round viewership this past weekend on NBC, when 3.2 million viewers tuned in to see Bryson DeChambeau run away with the win. The previous low came six years ago, when Martin Kaymer won the tournament by eight strokes. The NBA and NHL playoffs are well down, too.
  
  
• In one respect, TV networks, though, seem unconcerned about these seemingly dire numbers, believing that the crowded marketplace is showing the strength of live sports. ESPN Senior Director of Strategic & Brand Insights Flora Kelly: “Despite 14% less sports events on broadcast and cable compared to the same weekend last year (Thu-Sun), Americans actually spent more hours watching sports events this weekend vs last year (P2+ 469M vs 465M).” More from Kelly: Of the top 25 telecasts among adults 18-49 last week, the NFL took up 12 spots and the NBA claimed six.
  
  
• But there are some subtle marketplace shifts that are drawing TV executives’ attention, particularly when it comes to the acceleration of cord-cutting. Take this week’s “MNF” game between the Saints and Raiders, for example. The game drew a bigger audience on ABC (7.984 million viewers) than ESPN (7.451 million viewers). ESPN’s has carried “MNF” for the past 15 seasons. But when ABC had a random one-off, it delivered a bigger audience. To some TV executives, that shows the growing power of broadcast TV and the continued softening of cable.
  
  
• According to the NFL, 29% of fans identify as cord cutters, and 38% of fans under the age of 35 say they are cord cutters. Those are numbers that everybody in the business expects to grow.

VARIETY, THR DEAL SHOCKS LONGTIME HOLLYWOOD TRADE STAFFERS

• I can’t think of a more surprising announcement than the one that crossed my desk this morning that Hollywood Reporter and Variety will have the same owner. Jay Penske will oversee the two titles, plus Deadline, Billboard and Rolling Stone. The titles will continue to operate independently, the official release said. But the image of these once bitter rivals working so closely together surprised many in the business.
  
  
• My SBJ colleague Dave Morgan worked at Hollywood Reporter for 20 years, from 1991 to 2011. I asked for his thoughts on this deal.
  
  
  • Morgan: “As an ink stained journo who was baptized into the trade wars at the Hollywood Reporter back in 1991, the news that Penske Media Group, the owner of our bitter rival Variety, would soon be the owner of both trades is other-worldly shocking. I learned of the deal early in the morning when I heard the wifely 'What!,' before my wife, also a THR alum, charged down the stairs with the news on her phone."
    
    
  • “How could this be? Variety was the enemy. We battled tooth and nail in the trenches against these guys for years, and now they are going to be teammates? My second thought was what would the impact be on my former colleagues and friends, many of whom are still at one trade or the other. Is this going to lead to another journalistic bloodletting? I hope not."
    
    
  • "Another question: How will it affect competition between the trades? The competition is what got our blood pumping every day. We all thrived in that loud, profane, aggressive environment. Ultimately, though, when it all sunk in, I just felt sad. It felt like the end of something that defined my career and in some respects my life.”

DAZN SELLS MAJORITY STAKES IN SOCCER-FOCUSED SITES

• DAZN sold a majority stake in three soccer-focused websites (Goal.com, Spox and Voetbalzone) to Integrated Media Co., as part of a deal that values the business at around $100 million. 
  
  
• With DAZN as a minority partner, IMC plans to grow the sites. But what’s more interesting to me is what this means to DAZN, which only two weeks ago laid off dozens of employees as part of a plan to roll its coming global service out to markets where DAZN hasn’t been able to establish a big foothold, like the U.S.
  
  
• DAZN has said that it plans to launch a global streaming service by Q4 that will rely on a small North American-based group. The new service will rely on fewer regional functions, which previously had come out of New York and Sao Paulo, where most of the employee cuts occurred. 

SPEED READS

• I asked CBS Sports executive Dan Weinberg about his network’s strategy when it comes to women’s sports. After all, CBS has amassed the rights to more than 100 live events of women’s sports, including women’s soccer (NWSL and UEFA Women’s Champions League), women’s basketball (WNBA and women’s college basketball) and even women’s bowling (PWBA and U.S. Women’s Open of Bowling). Weinberg: “Obviously they have a commonality in that they all feature women athletes, but they’re all different sports, they all have different fan bases and they’re all produced differently. We look at it under the umbrella of every partnership that we try and create. We want best-in-class marquee athletes. We want the highest level of competition within a sport. We want a dedicated, growing fan base.”
  
  
• UFC COO Lawrence Epstein told me this afternoon that he’s taken 35 COVID tests since March. “Right now we're at a cadence where I'm taking them twice a week,” he said, referencing tests he has to take to attend Dana White's contender series on Tuesday nights and a UFC fight on Saturday nights. I asked Epstein if the 30th test was any easier than the first. “No. It all comes down to the tester. There are those that are gentle, and there're those that are not gentle. I've certainly experienced both.”
  
  
• Sports media consultant Neal Pilson emailed me after reading SBJ’s story about NFL team sponsors upset that their logos on tarps are not getting much air time on TV. Pilson: “This was totally predictable. The networks don't normally shoot wide shots of the playing field and with empty stadiums, of course they will focus on the 22 players and not the empty stands or the tarps which have signage that the networks did not sell and which may compete with their own sponsors.”
  
  
• As CEO Jeff Shell reshapes NBCUniversal to “cope with cable TV cord-cutting and the rise of streaming video, he is centralizing decision-making -- from which shows get made to which networks those shows should run on -- and dramatically slimming down the cable unit in the process,” Wall Street Journal’s Lillian Rizzo & Joe Flint report. The future is also “dimming for sports networks like the Golf Channel and NBC Sports Network,” as sources say hockey and soccer games are “likely to appear more frequently on USA Network and Peacock” in the near future.
  
  
• Here’s a stat that cluttered my Twitter mentions today: the Washington Football Team’s local TV ratings are down considerably over the season’s first two weeks. Week 1’s DC DMA ratings dropped 24% from 2019 (19.0 for loss to the Eagles) to 2020 (14.3 for a win against the Eagles). Week 2’s rating dropped 10% from 2019 (18.3 for a loss to the Cowboys) to 2020 (16.5 for a loss to the Cardinals).
  
  
• RTG Features will co-produce a documentary on former Georgetown coach John Thompson. Kirk Fraser, who did the “Without Bias” ESPN 30-for-30, will direct and produce the film. Other producers include Thompson’s son Ronny Thompson and Jimmy Jenkins, who produced “Basketball County: In the Water” for Showtime).

• The Buccaneers announced today deals for the re-broadcast of games each week in the Tampa and Orlando markets. Replays of Bucs games will air in Tampa on WFLA’s sister station, WTTA-TV, on Tuesdays nights. The Fox Sports Sun RSN will broadcast a territory-restricted replay for viewers in both markets on Wednesdays.
  
  
• Jason Whitlock will be on Capitol Hill tomorrow afternoon testifying before the House Judiciary Committee, alongside actors Edward James Olmos, Daniel Kim and others. The hearing’s topic: Diversity in America: The Representation of People of Color in the Media.
  
  
• This video describing all the different streaming services that are out there, made me laugh. This is worth a click.

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