Instant Karma to Shine On For ESPN

The recent purchase of the largest ESPN Radio local stations by Good Karma Brands is reason to be curious as to where this fits with ESPN's strategy for the near future. Good Karma is now in the process of purchasing KSPN 710 Los Angeles, WEPN-AM 1050 New York, and WMVP 1000 in Chicago. The NYC purchase also includes continuing the existing LMA (local Marketing Agreement) for WEPN-FM 98.7.

 

What we don't know yet is if this is intended to bring millions of dollars in to ESPN at this point in time, or if it means that ESPN is no longer as bullish on its radio operation. Perhaps time will tell when the various pro league and collegiate broadcast rights come up for renewal. 

Although the preliminary word is that existing local contracts, such as KSPN having the Angels (among other local teams) and WMVP having the White Sox, will remain in place, it will be interesting to see how the funds received for these purchases will be used by ESPN.

Meanwhile, it is curious that Turner Sports appears to be taking the rest of 2021 off from national telecasts (after December 21st) as scheduled. (As of press time, NHL games were postponed through Christmas while the NBA games were still on.) This appears to be deliberate, considering that the typical five game NBA telecast schedule for Christmas Day this year is all to be shown by ESPN and ABC. In past years, TNT would usually have a doubleheader as their portion. Two of the games air on ESPN, two only on ABC, and the prime time Nets vs. Lakers tilt is scheduled to air simultaneously on both.

In its first year of its NHL contract, TNT had been scheduled to air Wednesday Night NHL in its bizarre time slot of 10 PM ET starts. (The scheduled Dec. 22 Edmonton vs. L.A. telecast was scratched, with the Dec. 29 Dallas vs. Colorado game still on as of press time.) Having a national telecast series in which the games run well past 10 PM in three time zones is strange enough. With so many fans home and/or available to watch during the holiday period, it's hard to believe that Turner Sports would be reducing its coverage of both sports.

Its NHL coverage, however, is scheduled to resume Wednesday night doubleheaders on Weds. Jan. 5th with the St. Louis vs. Pittsburgh telecast scheduled for 7:30 PM ET. TNT is also scheduled to air the New Year's Day "Winter Classic"between St. Louis and Minnesota. Amazingly, this year's event is scheduled for prime time, whereas NBC typically aired this game early afternoon on New Year's Day. You would think that TNT would want to be able to maximize the opportunity to promote the New Year's game, especially with the new time. Instead, they have fewer opportunities than ever.

 

 

 

 

Football Ratings Heading For A Big Score

Last weekend's SEC Championship Game telecast between Alabama and Georgia proved to be huge for CBS and its stations. With a peak of nearly 18 million viewers, this telecast became the highest rated conference championship telecast (any conference or network) since 2018. 

Overall college football season ratings were also good for CBS. The network finishes with the highest average viewers amount of any for college football. This becomes even more impressive when you factor in that ESPN and Fox share the highly rated Big 10 Conference package. For example, the impressive Alabama vs. Georgia numbers were slightly below last month's Michigan vs. Ohio State (regular season) showdown on Fox.

Adding to this is the consideration that the Michigan vs. Ohio State telecast was in the early window (Noon ET start), whereas the SEC Championship game was leading in to prime time in the Eastern Time zone. Because of this, the Big 10 Conference stands to do very well during 2022. Their deal with both Fox and ESPN expire at the end of the 2022 season. Could be quite the bidding war, especially if the Conference is willing to add a possible third TV partner.

On the NFL side, it appears that the surge by the New England Patriots is paying off in the TV ratings. The October Sunday Night Football game on NBC with the Patriots facing Tom Brady and the Bucs was among SNF's top three telecasts ever. Their recent Monday Night Football game vs. Buffalo wound up as the most watched MNF Week 13 telecast since 2013. This comes after Patriots ratings were reportedly down by more than 20% during the 2020 season. For this season, overall NFL telecast ratings are up more than 7% over last year.

 

Joe Davis and Kurt Warner will be calling the Saturday Dec. 18th  Las Vegas vs. Cleveland telecast and the Christmas Day Indianapolis vs. Arizona telecast, both of which will be only on NFL Network and in the local markets.

TNT should be getting concerned about disappointing ratings for its NHL telecasts over the first 1/3 of the regular season. The numbers are down significantly from what NBCSN had been doing for previous "comparable" telecasts. It's looking much better for ESPN's telecasts. 

PHOENIX: Baseball fans know the name Garigiola. Chris Garigiola, the grandson of NBC baseball voice Joe Garigiola and son of former Diamondbacks GM Joe Jr., has been named to host the pre-game and post-game shows on the Diamondbacks Radio Network. Chris had most recently been calling minor league games, such as Pensacola, the AA affiliate of the Marlins.

The Cost of Cancelation

As much as the sports fans' collective appetite for watching live sports continues to be strong, the growth on what it takes out of our wallets is also on the increase. Now comes word that Comcast, which is the nation's largest cable provider, is preparing still another round of price hikes for subscribers to start in January 2022. The big reason, according to sources in the know, is due to the increase in the costs for Comcast to carry channels, especially the sports channels.

Of course, these rising costs for cable and satellite are leading to cord-cutting, which is on the increase. A recent report by Leichtman Research Group which covers all of the larger cable/satellite groups around the country, there was a loss of approximately 650,000 subscribers during the 3rd quarter of 2021 alone. For comparison, the 3rd quarter subscriber losses for Q3 of 2020 (same length of time) was around 90,000.

You would think that the loss of this many subscribers would be cause for concern among the networks increasing their fees as well as for the providers. Instead, they all seem content with increasing the costs for the millions of us that keep paying up. It means that they have those of us that continue to spend the bigger bucks to watch these games are paying back the difference those who want to send a message by canceling are trying to send.

The ratings don't lie, however. This past Saturday's (11/27) Big Ten showdown between Ohio State and Michigan drew nearly 16 million viewers, making it the largest audience Fox Sports has ever had for a college football telecast. Keep in mind this game was at Noon ET and not in prime time. Adding to that was the more than 3,000,000 viewers reported for their morning pregame show. 

Even this past Monday Night Football game (11/29) drew nearly 11 million viewers for ESPN. What makes this viewing number significant is that the Seattle vs. Washington matchup was between two teams entering the game under .500. 

 

 If you are still wondering why so many of the TV sports networks are running so many more betting shows than ever before, the answer is in the opening paragraph above. It's more than the revenue generated for airing these shows. The more people are betting on these games, the higher the interest and the more than fans will want to watch them. At the rate things are going, some bettors may have the goal of trying to cover their cost for the next month of cable or satellite.

College football fans get a tough break for the coming Championship Saturday. Casual fans are not as familiar with the University of Cincinnati, which continues to contend for the final four and the championship games. This Saturday (12/4) has the Big 12 Championship at Noon ET (Baylor and OK State) on ABC, which leads in to the much anticipated Alabama vs. Georgia clash in the SEC Championship game on CBS at 4 PM ET. The Big 10 Championship battle between Michigan and Iowa follows at 8 PM ET on Fox.

Meanwhile, U. of Cincinnati's game vs. Houston for the American Conference Championship (also on ABC) also happens to get underway just after 4 PM ET. This puts it up against the Georgia vs. Alabama telecast. Put that together with the expected blowout by Cinci and it probably means that they could be the "least known" team to compete for a national championship.