Last month, CBS Sports and the WNBA announced a multi-year agreement featuring the largest slate of games broadcast by the network. Their first game is coming up this weekend with the New York Liberty at the Minnesota Lynx on CBS and Paramount+ on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. ET. Today, they announced the game announcers who will be providing coverage this season, including play-by-play announcers Lisa Byington and Jordan Kent.
Byington is the television play-by-play voice of the Milwaukee Bucks and does games for the Chicago Sky of the WNBA. Jordan Kent is a former NFL wide receiver who was a three-sport athlete in college which included playing basketball for his dad, former Oregon head coach Ernie Kent. He is also the former television play-by-play announcer for the Portland Trail Blazers.
“I am really excited to be a part of this team, can’t wait to showcase this league on another big stage, and it all starts this weekend!” said Byington on a social media post.
Julianne Viani, who has provided analysis for the Atlantic 10 Conference and YES Network’s coverage of the New York Liberty was named one of the game analysts. Another game analyst will be former Syracuse standout guard and Connecticut Sun color commentator Isis Young.
Sideline reporters include AJ Ross, Tiffany Blackmon, Emily Proud and Tina Cervasio.
“We’re thrilled to extend our strong partnership with the WNBA,” Dan Weinberg, executive vice president of programming of CBS Sports, said when the news was announced. “As the league continues to build momentum, this is a great opportunity to expand our broadcast presence and further lean into our commitment to providing a national platform for women’s sports.”
Many stories about the credibility of news media members in 2024 is about a decline. However, according to a new poll conducted by Morning Consult and The Hollywood Reporter, many news consumers still have faith in hosts like NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt.
In the study, Holt was listed as the most trusted man in television news, with 63% of respondents saying they had “a lot” or “some” trust in the NBC anchor. Lester Holt has served as the weekday anchor of NBC Nightly News since June 2015.
David Muir, who hosts ABC World News Tonight, wasn’t far behind Holt in the trust category. 63% of those surveyed said they had the trust in the anchor. Meanwhile, CBS Evening News host Norah O’Donnell lagged behind with 53% of those responding similarly.
In the cable news world, CNN saw the top two most trusted hosts and anchors. Both Anderson Cooper and Chris Wallace saw 60% of respondents say they had “a lot” or “some” trust in them.
At MSNBC, Ali Velshi earned 55% of those surveyed’s trust, while Rachel Maddox was at 51%.
Fox News host Harris Faulkner led the way for the conservative cable channel with 53% claiming to trust her. Sean Hannity, who is not a news anchor but an opinion host, only earned the trust of 38% participants.
NewsNation primetime anchor Dan Abrams, who, like Sean Hannity is an opinion host, saw a 48% rating on the trust scale.
Former Fox News hosts Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson, who are also commentators and not anchors, earned scores of 39% and 40%, respectively.
Adam Copeland has stepped away from his duties as program director of KNBR, KGO and KTCT in San Francisco, Barrett Sports Media has learned. In an internal memo obtained by Barrett Sports Media, Cumulus San Francisco regional vice president and market manager Larry Blumhagen divulged that Copeland will continue hosting his afternoon drive show, Tolbert and Copes, alongside Tom Tolbert.
“We have great momentum, thank you to everyone in the building for your work and passion keeps us pushing forward,” Blumhagen said in the note.
Copeland began working in the program director role last November while continuing his afternoon drive hosting obligations, a role he had held since 2022. He has been a member of KNBR since 2009, beginning as an intern in the promotions department before he was hired as a part-time board operator. Copeland previously produced KNBR Tonight and hosted The Leadoff Spot, while also producing and board operating for Murph and Mac. One month after he was named program director, KNBR cut several members of its staff, including hosts Paul McCaffrey and F.P. Santangelo.
A recent column by Barrett Media President Jason Barrett drew attention to Copeland’s questionable behavior on social media. The decision comes four days after the column was published on the BSM website.
This is a developing story. More information will be added as it is learned.
With news consumers continuing to lose faith in news outlets, WMAL host Vince Coglianese wonders why there hasn’t been a shift in strategy from some of the organizations that have seen dwindling audiences in recent years.
While discussing the coverage surrounding the trial of former President Donald Trump with NewsBusters Managing Editor Curtis Houck, the guest told Coglianese that NBC Nightly News has had the story as the lead 16 times. When The Vince Coglianese Show host heard that figure, he questioned why news organizations haven’t recognized the loss of credibility from their viewers.
“They’re just like the band on the Titanic. They’re just gonna keep playing the same song as the ship goes down. Why not change strategy? If I was running a news operation — if I was one of the broadcast networks, and I was watching my audience dwindle, and I was thinking of what can I do to change pace here and succeed as a business — I would think maybe start telling the truth would be a good way to do it,” said Coglianese. “Because then people would be like, ‘I have faith in that product,’ and my audience would grow. Maybe that’s an old fashioned notion.”
The criticism from Coglianese about the lack of changes from news media organizations coincides with recent reports that CNN’s primetime ratings have dropped to 30-year lows in the coveted Persons 25-54 demographic. CNN, like many other news outlets, has spent extensive time covering the court proceedings of the former President.
Throughout her broadcast career, Jules Breach has had a variety of opportunities to cover football (soccer) across various professional entities. As the lead reporter and presenter for TNT Sports in the United Kingdom, she is responsible for keeping viewers informed and entertained throughout the coverage of the game within a panoply of competitive fields such as the Premier League, Europa League and Champions League.
Breach will now have a new opportunity to demonstrate her football knowledge and media proficiency in the United States as the lead host for UEFA EURO Match Day, the FOX Sports studio show surrounding UEFA EURO 2024. The program will provide viewers with extensive pre-match and post-match coverage from the group stage to the championship round on FOX and FS1.
FOX Sports secured the media rights to the tournament through a six-year agreement with the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), which implements several championship matches and national team competitions. Coverage of UEFA EURO 2024 begins on Friday, June 14 at 3 p.m. EST when Germany opens group stage play against Scotland broadcast on the FOX television network. As a whole, the division will broadcast 46 UEFA 2024 and 32 CONMEBOL Copa América 2024 matches live on FOX, FS1 and FS2, and all matches will also be available to stream live on the FOX Sports app.
“It’s an absolute honor to be the lead host for FOX Sports’ coverage of the Euros this summer,” Breach said. “I’m absolutely buzzing. I am the biggest football fan, so to be hosting a tournament as big as this for a network as big as FOX is genuinely a dream come true.”
Breach articulated that she will bring the perspective of the fans to the airwaves while also being able to effectively contextualize the action through her previous experiences. At the same time, she possesses genuine excitement surrounding the sport and an inclination to align her colleagues with broadcast success.
Although the full roster of analysts has yet to be revealed, Breach hinted that it will include an array of different nationalities that will foster a congenial environment. One of the analysts joining Breach in studio is former center-back and Team Italy captain Giorgio Chiellini, someone from whom she will look to extrapolate perspectives pertaining to his team’s championship run in the 2020 iteration of the tournament.
“The analysts that we have – and we’ve got an amazing group of people that I’m going to be sat with every day – they bring the expertise,” Breach said. “They can tell us from their experiences of playing in these big matches what it’s like.”
"It can be done… it's not in our hands but the duty is on us" ????
Mikel Arteta issues a rallying cry to Arsenal players and supporters speaking to @julesbreach and Ally McCoist as they chase Premier League glory…
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) May 19, 2024
Breach has been on the air for several different events both at the local and national level during her career working in sports media. Aside from her occupation with TNT Sports, she is the host for Channel 4 coverage of England national football team matches in the United Kingdom.
Moreover, she has covered the UEFA EURO 2020 and two FIFA World Cup tournaments for Optus Sport Australia, along with reporting and hosting for coverage of the UEFA Champions League from CBS Sports. No matter the assignment, Breach finds there to be a catalyzing element to sports that ultimately promulgates fellowship and rapport amid a backdrop of competition, zeal and felicitation.
“We use sport as a way to escape and as a means of entertainment and fun, so I guess I like to bring that side because when I watch sport; when I watch football, that’s what I want to see,” Breach said. “I want to see people smiling and having fun and enjoying it, but obviously there’s also a serious side to sport at times as well, so it’s getting the right balance when you need to.”
During tournament play, FOX Sports will broadcast matchups featuring both established veterans and rising stars within the sport. Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappé, Luka Modrić and Warren Zaïre-Emery encompass some of the standout performers that will take part in the tournament proceedings. The popularity of football (soccer) continues to flourish globally, demonstrated by record-breaking television audiences, merchandise sales and a blend of domestic and international interest.
Viewership for UEFA EURO 2020, which was delayed by the global pandemic and played in June and July 2021, garnered a live match cumulative event audience of 5.23 billion viewers. Additionally, the live average match audiences for the tournament surpassed 100 million viewers.
“I love that there’s such a huge interest in the Euros,” Breach said. “Obviously this is the first time that FOX is showing the Euros as well, so it’s a really exciting thing for the network, and I’m excited that I can be part of that, but ultimately I think the sport will continue to grow in popularity in the States just because it’s a great sport to watch.”
The UEFA Euro Match Day program from FOX Sports will implement various elements to engage with younger audiences, including a travel series with mirthful and appealing pieces. Although the sport is perceived to be the most popular in the world, the program will aim to resonate with savants who possess a keen aptitude of the game on and off the pitch, along with novices inquisitive to delve deeper into the game. Broadcasts of the show will commence one hour before matches televised on FOX and FS1 throughout the month-long endeavor.
“We’re going to be bringing so much coverage,” Breach said. “There’s going to be our buildup into pretty much every single Euros game that we show, and we’ll make sure that we break things down so people are educated as well as entertained, and we’ll do that with the best analysts.”
Breach has covered the England national football team’s journey to UEFA EURO 2024 and UEFA Nations League campaign on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom and is grateful for the chance to continue following the club. Although she hopes that England will ultimately hoist the Henri Delaunay Trophy for the first time in tournament history, she is anticipating UEFA EURO 2024 in its totality and her new hosting role with FOX Sports. Breach will leverage her reporting acumen and conversations with players into her hosting obligations in addition to a broad, comprehensive discernment pertaining to individual and team odysseys towards the prestigious tournament.
“I love the fact that FOX has given me this opportunity, and hopefully I can continue to cover international tournaments for the network,” Breach said. “That’s the dream; that’s what I want to keep doing.”
The Republican Party Headquarters was evacuated earlier this week when some vials of blood were mailed to the location. SuperTalk 99.7 WTN morning host Dan Mandis shared similar stories.
Mandis, while joined by midday host Chris Hand on Nashville’s Morning News, said earlier in his radio career, someone sent some nefarious items to him at the station.
“What is the worst thing that you’ve received in the mail? Now, I’m going to tell you. I’ll tell you mine and you guys can think. We’ve received excrement,” Mandis shared. “Like a box full of it. Yeah. They put it in a plastic bag and sent it with the typical scrawl somebody would write about how we’re all, whatever.”
Dan Mandis continued by noting that he also had an anthrax scare in the early 2000s when many other entities experienced the same fears.
“When I worked for Dr. Laura, we had a white substance that was sent to the offices. And so the guy who was Dr. Laura’s right-hand man, this poor guy had to strip down,” Mandis shared. “He was in some sort of a circular thing. So he’s inside this circular thing so nobody can see him and they hossed him off. And it turned out to be like flour or something.”
Another day, another new possibility in the ongoing saga of the future NBA media rights packages. Yesterday, Sports Business Journal reported the NBA would soon formalize their agreements with The Walt Disney Company/ESPN, Comcast/NBCUniversal/NBC/Peacock and Amazon for rights which would begin after next season. There has been much speculation about the matching rights Warner Bros. Discovery has in their deal and most of the chatter has been related to them possibly trying to match NBC’s bid. A new report from CNBC’s Alex Sherman says it might be the Amazon package for Prime Video that NBC tries to match.
It is clear WBD prefers to keep a rights agreement with the NBA for TNT, a partnership which goes back nearly 40 years. However, as Sherman points out there is the matter of their $42 billion gross debt. This may be a big reason they might try and match the Amazon offer, believed to be worth $1.8 billion per year, whereas the NBC package is believed to be priced at $2.5 billion. WBD is reportedly paying $1.2 billion per year currently.
If and when those packages are signed, that is when the matching clause for WBD will come in to play, so they have not yet been forced to make a decision. Sherman reports they would have five days to match an offer according to someone familiar with the language of the deal.
Sherman says it is still possible WBD does not try and match either offer and brings up the possibility of the league carving out a fourth packages, however, it is unknown if the league would be able to consider such an idea based on having already created a third package.
WBD has the Max platform to use as a streaming service, but Sherman notes that service plans to tier its sports programming, something the NBA would not like compared to Prime Video’s plan of continuing their current price structure.
One other note from Sherman’s report says Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has told others he believes NBCUniversal is overpaying for the NBA based on their research.
As negotiations for media rights to the National Basketball Association continue throughout the postseason, there have been recent reports claiming that the league is formalizing deals with The Walt Disney Company, NBCUniversal and Amazon. The league ostensibly looks positioned to nearly triple its existing rights fee; however, the issue of Warner Bros. Discovery deciding to match an offer and the scope of such a right remains somewhat ambiguous. Nonetheless, many basketball fans are loathing a potential end to Inside the NBA, the Emmy Award-winning studio program within the NBA on TNT. Hall of Fame forward and studio analyst Charles Barkley recently appeared on the Dan Patrick Show to provide his perspective on the negotiations.
Barkley currently works alongside host Ernie Johnson and analysts Kenny “The Jet” Smith and Shaquille O’Neal on Inside the NBA, adeptly blending esoteric knowledge and lighthearted repartee to the set. The program is currently closing out its year covering the Western Conference Finals on location from Target Center in Minneapolis, Minn. while consistently receiving messages about its end. Patrick simply asked Barkley about the sentiment at the company, to which he gave a candid and straightforward response.
“Morale sucks – plain and simple,” Barkley said. “I just feel so bad for the people I work with, Dan. These people have families, and I just feel really bad for them right now, these people I work with. They screwed this thing up clearly. We don’t have zero idea what’s going to happen. I don’t feel good – I’m not going to lie – especially when they came out yesterday and said, ‘We bought college football.’ I was like, ‘Oh damn, they could have used that money to buy the NBA.’”
TNT Sports will be sublicensing College Football Playoff games from ESPN under a five-year agreement ahead of the tournament’s expansion to 12 teams. Under the deal, TNT Sports will broadcast two first-round College Football Playoff games during the 2024 and 2025 seasons, along with two additional quarterfinal games beginning in 2026 and ending in the 2028 season. As soon as the deal was closed, Barkley thought about how the money could have been allocated to fund a new NBA media rights deal. Warner Bros. Discovery entities – which began with TBS – have been broadcasting NBA games since the 1984-85 season, rendering the venture the longest-standing rightsholder.
Patrick then offered the idea of Barkley, Smith, Johnson and O’Neal to start a production company and continue to broadcast Inside the NBA in Atlanta, Ga. with the existing personnel. From there, the program could be licensed to NBC or Amazon while owning the production company itself. Barkley replied by stating that he had spoken to his colleagues about signing with his production company and would love to do it should TNT Sports lose the rights to the league. He first saw the suggestion on the internet and thought of it to be a great idea.
“My two favorite wines are Inglewood and Opus, and these clowns I work for, they’ve turned us into Ripple and Boone’s Farm and Thunderbird,” Barkley said. “We’ve got the best studio show. It’s so funny – we just won the [Sports Emmy for] ‘Best Studio Show’ – but these fools turn us from Inglenook and Opus into damn Boone’s Farm and Ripple. It’s crazy.”
Patrick perceived Barkley to be genuinely angry, a sentiment that he confirmed in his subsequent response. He reminisced about how he has seen the crew grow around Inside the NBA over his 24 years with the network and watching their children progress as they visit the studio. Barkley remembers meeting newborn children and seeing them years later as college graduates.
The familial relationship that has been formed around the show is something he evidently cherishes, and he would be disappointed to see the program end. It led Patrick to ponder over just how TNT Sports erred in the negotiations, leading Barkley to reference a previous comment made by David Zaslav, Warner Bros. Discovery president and chief executive officer, at an RBC investor conference in 2022.
“When we merged, that’s the first thing our boss said [was] ‘We don’t need the NBA,’” Barkley explained. “Well, he don’t need it, but the rest of the people – me, Kenny, Shaq and Ernie and the people who work there – we need it, so it just sucks right now.”
SiriusXM has reached a new, exclusive podcast agreement with Dirty Mo Media, the multimedia content platform founded by Hall of Fame NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. This new deal will provide exclusive advertising and distribution rights to Dirty Mo Media for its slate of programming on the SiriusXM Podcast Network, along with opportunities for crossover events between Dirty Mo Media and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Earnhardt Jr.’s podcast, the Dale Jr. Download, will also air twice per week on the SiriusXM NASCAR Radio channel beginning in early June. Both entities will collaborate on special event broadcasts during the year as well, including at the forthcoming Daytona 500.
“This is a great day for our company,” Earnhardt Jr. said in a statement. “This agreement allows us to continue producing the shows we want to produce and telling the stories we want to tell to an audience that values our brand of originality, passion and candor. This also brings my relationship with SiriusXM full circle. I first started hosting my own show nearly two decades ago on XM Satellite Radio. We did it for a couple years. Since then, nothing has changed other than I’m now a married father of two, I don’t race as much, XM is called SiriusXM, and I am bringing an entire media company back with me.”
Earnhardt Jr., along with executive producer Mike Davis, founded Dirty Mo Media in 2013 and has become an enduring, impactful platform in sports media. In addition to constructing its podcast network, Dirty Mo Media also created and produced a television series titled Lost Speedways where Earnhardt visited and explored several abandoned racetracks across the United States. The company is also working with Amazon’s Prime Video and Imagine Documentaries on a four-part documentary that will tell the story of his father, legendary racecar driver Dale Earnhardt Sr. Earnhardt Jr. will also serve as an analyst for coverage of NASCAR racing for Prime Video and TNT Sports beginning in 2025, concurrent with the start of its new seven-year media rights deal reportedly worth a total of $7.7 billion.
“One of our main areas of emphasis over the past year has been increasing our collaborations and expanding relationships,” Davis said in a statement. “A lot of that is simply knowing who we are, what we are trying to be and where we can be most effective. For Dirty Mo Media, we are a relatable, personality-driven brand of content creators and documentarians. Combine that with the reach, resources and credibility of SiriusXM, this relationship will produce fruit and serve our fans well.”
SiriusXM Media, the advertising division of the company, has gained exclusive global advertising sales rights to the Dirty Mo Media lineup of sports podcasts. These include the aforementioned Dale Jr. Download, Door Bumper Clear and Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin among others. The podcasts will join the SiriusXM Podcast Network, which the company states reaches one in two podcast listeners in the United States every month.
“We are very excited to team up with Dale Jr. and the team at Dirty Mo to bring several of the leading NASCAR podcasts into the SiriusXM Podcast Network,” Sarah Van Mosel, senior vice president of podcast strategy at SiriusXM, said in a statement. “This not only bolsters the strength of our podcast offerings, but the addition of the ‘Dale Jr. Download’ to the SiriusXM NASCAR Radio channel enhances the programming available to our SiriusXM subscribers. This is another great example of the unique ways SiriusXM and talented creators like Dale and his team can work together.”
The rise of Artificial Intelligence has been a hot-button topic in media circles. Now, the FCC is looking at requiring political advertising to disclose if a commercial utilized the technology.
The proposal from FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel would not prohibit the use of AI-generated content in political advertising. Instead, it would simply require the advertiser to use both on-air and written notification that the content was created by the technology.
Rosenworcel shared her thinking behind the proposal.
“As artificial intelligence tools become more accessible, the Commission wants to make sure consumers are fully informed when the technology is used,” she said. “Today, I’ve shared with my colleagues a proposal that makes clear consumers have a right to know when AI tools are being used in the political ads they see, and I hope they swiftly act on this issue.”
According to results from TechSurvey 2024 from Jacobs Media, 3/4 of respondents said they would support regulations of the technology, with another 39% saying they had major issues with AI-voiced spots.
FCC commissioners will vote on a proposal, and if enacted will allow public comment on any proposed regulations.
