Home Blog Page 1684

‘MLB Tonight: Clubhouse Edition’ Returns for Jackie Robinson Day

BSM Staff
-
0
‘MLB Tonight: Clubhouse Edition’ Returns for Jackie Robinson Day

MLB Network has announced that its non-traditional game telecast series, MLB Tonight: Clubhouse Edition, will be returning for its fourth season on the air. The first edition of this broadcast will take place on Monday, April 15, coinciding with Jackie Robinson Day around Major League Baseball. Former American League Cy Young Award winner and 2009 World Series champion CC Sabathia will be back for the series. Additionally, MLB Network personalities including Adam Jones, Siera Santos and Chris Young will be returning.

The Clubhouse Edition broadcast will begin at 8 p.m. EST for a matchup between the Atlanta Braves and Houston Astros, two franchises that have both won World Series championships in the last three seasons. Commentary will include interviews, analysis and anecdotal storytelling as the group watches the game from inside Studio 21.

“The Clubhouse games have been a great way for me to stay involved in baseball, especially since I don’t have to wear a suit,” Sabathia said in a statement. “Giving the fans and players a different experience to watch a game is another important way to grow our sport. The conversation can go in any direction, which makes it fun. And for the first one of 2024 to be on Jackie Robinson Day is perfect.”

On the April 15 edition of the broadcast, MLB Tonight: Clubhouse Edition will exclusively reveal the rosters for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s Hall of Fame East-West Classic: A Tribute to the Negro Leagues All-Star Game. This event will occur on Saturday, May 25 at 1 p.m. EST from Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, N.Y., which will be covered by MLB Network. Sabathia and Young will serve as team captains for the game, and drafted players will be joining the Clubhouse broadcast. Hall of Fame members who are currently scheduled to be in uniform for the game include Ken Griffey Jr., Fred McGriff, Eddie Murray and Ozzie Smith.

Ahead of the Clubhouse broadcast, MLB Network afternoon program Off Base will make its season debut this Friday, April 12 at 4 p.m. EST. The program will be hosted by Lauren Gardner and feature panelists Yonder Alonso, Ariel Epstein and Xavier Scruggs. After Off Base concludes, Intentional Talk will be on the air from 5 to 6 p.m. EST before MLB Tonight at 6 p.m. EST. Later on, MLB Network will present a matchup between the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros at 8 p.m. EST from Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas.

The next MLB Network Showcase telecast will take place on Thursday, April 11 as the Baltimore Orioles and Boston Red Sox face off at Fenway Park in Boston, Ma. Matt Vasgersian will serve as the play-by-play announcer for the contest alongside analyst Tom Verducci and reporter Jon Morosi. Leading up to the game, MLB Tonight: On-Deck Circle will preview the action with Adnan Virk, Sean Casey and Ryan Dempster. Furthermore, the game could include at-bats from infielder and top prospect Jackson Holliday, who was officially called to the major leagues by the Baltimore Orioles earlier this week. Once the contest concludes, Greg Amsinger, Yonder Alonso and Harold Reynolds will take the air for MLB Tonight.

Cal Ripken Jr. to Serve as Executive Producer for New MoonBall Media Docuseries

BSM Staff
-
0

MoonBall Media has announced that National Baseball Hall of Fame member and legendary Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. will be serving as the executive producer for a new docuseries currently in development. The premiere episode of the series will highlight Ripken’s historic streak of playing in 2,632 consecutive Major League Baseball games. Additional episodes will highlight feats in sports featuring both legends and hidden superstars.

Ripken played 21 seasons in the major leagues with the Baltimore Orioles and earned the nickname “Iron Man” for his ability to suit up and consistently take the field. As a 19-time All-Star and two-time American League MVP, Ripken is one of ten players in MLB history to attain over 3,000 hits and 400 home runs. In 2007, he was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in his first year of eligibility, garnering a then-record 98.53% of the votes.

“I am excited to be part of this unscripted project,” Ripken said in a statement. “What the MoonBall team, led by Anthony [Seratelli] and Eric [Hosmer], have developed will give fans a unique perspective on some of the most memorable events in sports. I am honored that they have included me on the team and that my streak will be featured in the first episode.”

Former MLB first baseman and 2015 World Series champion Eric Hosmer launched MoonBall Media in February and introduced the Diggin’ Deep podcast. Additionally, former MLB second baseman and award-winning producer Anthony Seratelli is the co-founder and chief executive officer of the company. Both Hosmer and Seratelli are working to cultivate premium intellectual property to share untold stories catalyzed by emotion. Moreover, the player-owned media and production company continues to develop unscripted content and is continuing to disseminate social media content and upcoming free ad-supported television (FAST) channels as well.

“As a young shortstop growing up in the northeast, Cal was an idol of my childhood and future baseball career,” Seratelli said in a statement. “It’s been an unbelievable honor to connect and partner with him to bring great sports stories to the big screen.”

“They don’t come much more legendary than Cal Ripken Jr.,” Hosmer said in a statement. “It’s been exciting to team up with Cal and get this project underway.”

CBS Sports, WNBA Announce New Multi-Year Media Rights Agreement

BSM Staff
-
0
CBS Sports, WNBA Announce New Multi-Year Media Rights Agreement

CBS Sports and the WNBA have announced a multi-year agreement that will feature the largest slate of games broadcast by the network. As part of the deal, CBS Sports will be presenting eight regular-season games per year on the CBS Television Network starting with the 2024 season. The network’s first game of the year, a matchup between the New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx, will be broadcast on Saturday, May 25 at 1 p.m. EST on CBS and streaming live on Paramount+. Moreover, an additional 12 games will be televised on CBS Sports Network over the duration of the deal. CBS Sports Network will begin its live game broadcasts on the same day, Saturday, May 25, when the Connecticut Sun play the Chicago Sky at 8 p.m. EST.

“We’re thrilled to extend our strong partnership with the WNBA,” Dan Weinberg, executive vice president of programming of CBS Sports, said in a statement. “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.”

The new media rights agreement extends the five-year partnership between CBS Sports and the WNBA, which first came to terms on a multi-year deal with CBS Sports in 2019. The WNBA will feature several returning All-Stars and young phenoms throughout the year, such as Sabrina Ionescu, Caitlin Clark and A’ja Wilson. Combined viewership across the CBS Television Network and Disney-owned networks (ABC, ESPN) was up 8% over the 2022 season and averaged 505,000 viewers.

CBS Sports announced its full schedule of WNBA broadcasts as well, which includes a CBS doubleheader on Saturday, Aug. 17. The first game scheduled is a matchup between the Minnesota Lynx and Washington Mystics at 2 p.m. EST. Afterwards, the second game on the schedule features a rematch of the WNBA Finals when the New York Liberty visit the Las Vegas Aces. The Indiana Fever are featured three times on CBS and CBS Sports Network this season and are expected to select standout Iowa guard and NCAA all-time leading scorer Caitlin Clark with the first-overall pick in next week’s WNBA Draft.

Dan Bongino: NPR Has Constantly Been Lying About Amount of Federal Funding It Receives

BNM Staff
-
0
Dan Bongino: NPR Has Constantly Been Lying About Amount of Federal Funding It Receives

NPR is in the news after a controversial op-ed from one of its editors called into question the political bias of the network. Dan Bongino says there are other issues with the outlet.

Business editor Uri Berliner wrote a story criticizing the company he’s called home for 25 years yesterday, alleging political biases have tainted coverage at the public broadcaster. He alleged that while going through the political affiliations of senior editorial members at the outlet, he could not find one registered Republican among the top decision-makers at the company.

While discussing the situation, Dan Bongino took time to argue that NPR has lied about the level of funding it receives from the federal government.

“By the way, NPR loves to claim that it’s a small portion of government funding that goes into its coffers. That’s BS. It’s a large portion,” said Bongino. “A lot of it are projects and grants and things like that. And also contracts they have. Don’t believe it. A lot of your tax money goes to NPR.”

NPR claims less than 1% of its annual operating budget, on average, comes from Corporation for Public Broadcasting grants and federal agencies and departments.

ESPN Digital Attains Best February Performance on Record

BSM Staff
-
0
ESPN Digital Attains Best February Performance on Record

ESPN Digital garnered its strongest February performance on record by reaching 47% of all users in the U.S. sports category and 103.4 million unique visitors, based on recent data released by Comscore. The network’s digital platform has been at the top of the U.S. sports category for 24 consecutive months, and it has also been experiencing growth across the board. The ESPN App remained No. 1 in the mobile sports app category with 25.5 million unique users, continuing to serve as a reputable source of sports information, commentary and analysis. Moreover, the ESPN Fantasy App was the top fantasy application for the month and attracted 3.2 million unique users.

ESPN, in partnership with PENN Entertainment, released the ESPN BET app in November and was initially available in the 17 U.S. states where PENN is able to operate. The network released a new commercial featuring SportsCenter anchor and Monday Night Countdown host Scott Van Pelt on Tuesday ahead of the playoffs for the National Basketball Association and National Hockey League.

Growth of the network’s YouTube platform continued in February, which includes multifaceted offerings such as clips from studio programs, game highlights and exclusive content. ESPN on YouTube accrued 42.6 million unique viewers and 726 million total minutes, which is up 23% and 77% respectively.

ESPN on social media platforms – including Facebook, X, Instagram and TikTok – remained at the top of the sports category for the 32nd straight month. As a whole, the network’s platforms amassed more than 652 million engagements throughout the month. ESPN regularly posts sports-related content every day across several media verticals.

ESPN Digital is coming off of a robust 2023 performance in which it established a new all-time record with 111.4 million monthly unique visitors. The network’s YouTube channels had 25 billion views, which was up 18% year-over-year, and on social media, it continued to lead the sports category with 6 billion engagements, up 11% year-over-year.

ESPN Digital platforms reached 49% of all digital users within the U.S. sports category last year as well. Additionally, ESPN became the most-followed brand on TikTok with over 44 million followers. These figures are according to findings within Comscore’s U.S. Media Metrix multiplatform data.

Dave Ramsey: I’ve Had to Learn to Not Answer Questions That Weren’t Asked

BNM Staff
-
0

Dave Ramsey has made a living out of answering questions from people. But learning to not answer questions that weren’t asked was a bigger challenge.

During The Ramsey Show, the Ramsey Solutions founder shared that the lesson was a difficult, but important one to learn.

“You’re trying to change other people, and until they really want to change, you can’t do it. I do it for a living,” said Ramsey. “And I have had to learn that I don’t answer questions that aren’t asked. When you ask a question, I’m going to answer it. Because that’s my duty. But I’m not going to just walk up to people, start preaching at them, because that don’t do nothing.”

He went on to share an anecdote of a friend who leased a new car — which Dave Ramsey rails against — bringing it to his home to show it off.

“He knows I think leasing cars (is) stupid. And he drove it up in front of my house. So what am I gonna do? Go ‘You’re stupid’? No, I said ‘great car.’ He didn’t ask my opinion!”

Peacock to Serve as Exclusive Home of Friday Night NFL Opening Weekend Game from São Paulo, Brazil

BSM Staff
-
0
Peacock to Serve as Exclusive Home of Friday Night NFL Opening Weekend Game from São Paulo, Brazil

The National Football League has announced that Peacock will be the exclusive national home for the first-ever NFL game to take place in Brazil. On Friday, Sept. 6, the Green Bay Packers will take on the Philadelphia Eagles at Corinthians Arena in São Paulo, Brazil, a matchup between two NFC playoff teams from last season. This showdown will follow the Thursday night NFL Kickoff game broadcast on NBC and Peacock, marking the first Friday game on the league’s opening weekend slate since the 1970 season.

For NBCUniversal as a whole, its OTT streaming platform will present four consecutive nights of prime-time football in early September. After Thursday’s NFL Kickoff game and the Friday night matchup in Brazil, viewers will be able to stream the Big Ten Saturday Night football game on Peacock.

On Sunday, Sept. 8, the season premiere of Sunday Night Football will commence with a matchup to be determined at a later date. All Sunday Night Football games in 2024, including the playoffs and Football Night in America studio program, will be available to stream on Peacock. Following these games, the Peacock Sunday Night Football Final will return exclusive to the platform, bringing viewers expanded postgame coverage.

“It’s exciting for Peacock to exclusively showcase the NFL’s first-ever regular-season game in Brazil as part of NBC Sports’ unprecedented presentation of three primetime games on the NFL’s opening weekend,” Rick Cordella, president of NBC Sports, said in a statement. “Peacock continues to deliver the best experience in sports streaming, as this game will follow this summer’s Paris Olympics and Paralympics, which will have every event live streamed on this service.”

The Packers-Eagles game will mark the third exclusive NFL game on Peacock, which follows its broadcast of one of the AFC Wild Card games last season between the Miami Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs. Aside from being the coldest game played on record from GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, the matchup attained the largest streaming audience in U.S. history and accounted for 30% of total internet usage on that day. The Friday night matchup will also be broadcast on NBC stations within the teams’ home marketplaces and available through NFL+ on mobile devices.

“As media consumption habits evolve, the NFL continues to work with our partners to put our games on digital platforms where our fans are increasingly spending their time,” Hans Schroeder, NFL executive vice president of media distribution, said in a statement. “The historic Wild Card game on Peacock in January was a viewership success and we look forward to continuing our strong streaming distribution with the opening weekend game in Brazil on Peacock.”

RJ Choppy: “Next Year, the Women’s Tournament Will Not Have 10 Million People Watching”

BSM Staff
-
0
RJ Choppy: “Next Year, the Women’s Tournament Will Not Have 10 Million People Watching”

For the first time in its 42-year history, more people watched the women’s NCAA basketball final than watched the men’s final. Shan & RJ hosts Shan Shariff, RJ Choppy and Bobby Belt talked about the topic this morning on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas.

“The ratings came out for the Final Four, both men and women,” Choppy said. “Obviously the women had 18.7 million. The UConn-Alabama Final Four game had 14.8 million…the final game had just under 15 million. They didn’t win. You don’t win when you are on network TV and then the other one is on TBS, a network that has no people just there on it. This is the dumbest thing I have ever seen. The whole notion that the question is being asked…is the men’s game in trouble?…The men’s game destroyed the NBA finals and Major League Baseball’s World Series. The men’s game is just fine.”

Shariff added, “This doesn’t have to be an indictment on men’s basketball.”

“This is not men versus women,” Choppy said. “Next year, the women’s tournament will not have 10 million people watching it. It was Caitlin Clark. South Carolina is unwatchable. LSU, outside of Angel Reese, unwatchable. Cailtin Clark, not unwatchable, very watchable.”

Shariff looked at the big picture and said, “The fact that we are even having a discussion like this is a huge win for the women. Never thought we would ever have this conversation.”

Booby Belt mentioned the start time of the men’s game being an issue, as the fan bases of the two teams, UConn and Purdue, are in the eastern time zone where the game started around 9:30 p.m. Belt also pointed out that ABC, which showed the women’s final, reaches 305 million homes, whereas TBS reaches 71 million.

“You still had to make the choice to watch women’s basketball…it’s a huge win,” said Shariff.

Belt then talked about the narrative of the women’s game being close to the same popularity as the men’s game in the overall scheme of things. “It’s intellectually dishonest that people are trying to push it as ‘look at this, it’s just as popular.’ Ok then why is the revenue that the Final Four brought in for the women’s game $25 million and the men’s was $200 million…just talk about them within their own context and stop trying to make it so much about ‘women beat the men’…they want it to be the narrative so bad and that’s what I think is a little silly.”

Chris Cuomo: Political Diversity ‘A Big Reason I’m at NewsNation’

BNM Staff
-
0
Chris Cuomo: Political Diversity ‘A Big Reason I’m at NewsNation’

After an op-ed published by an NPR editor claiming the network is rife with political bias, many in the news media argued its time to take a look in the mirror. NewsNation host Chris Cuomo doesn’t believe that’s necessary at his network.

While discussing the essay and its ramifications, Cuomo argued Uri Berliner — the 25-year NPR business editor who penned the story — was well within his rights to call out his organization.

“Does he have a point? Yup. Do newsrooms lack diversity? Well, depends what boxes you want to check,” said Cuomo. “Political diversity? It’s a big reason I’m at NewsNation. We got all kinds here. The disagreement is organic, and so are the common concerns.”

Chris Cuomo went on to commend Berliner for having the courage to

“That was a brave thing he did, man. Your competition is your critic base in this business and you knew when you wrote this, you aren’t gonna get a chorus of amens, you’re gonna get people probably digging through your garbage and saying it’s not true,” continued Cuomo.

“And sure enough, colleagues came forward to do what you had to expect they were going to do which is say ‘We disagree.'”

Report: NBCUniversal Nearing Ad Sales Record for Paris Olympics

BSM Staff
-
0
Report: NBCUniversal Nearing Ad Sales Record for Paris Olympics

107 days out from the start of the Olympic Games in Paris, the Sports Business Journal is reporting NBCUniversal is nearing an ad sales record. According to a story from Rachel Axon, NBCU has $1.2B in ad sales for the Paris Olympics, and their record is $1.25B which came from the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

The report also states $350M of the sales has come from new advertisers and that ad spots have sold out for primetime as well as opening and closing ceremonies.

For the first time, Peacock will stream every event both live and on demand. With that, NBCU already set a record for digital ad revenue.

Dan Lovinger, President of Olympic & Paralympic Partnerships for NBCU told SBJ, “We’ve democratized the ability for advertisers to be part of the Olympics,” he said. “Now with the ability to market one to few instead of one to everyone, it opens up the aperture of how many advertisers can be part of the Olympic experience.”

The Olympics will be held from July 26 until August 11, with the Paralympic Games taking place from August 28 until September 6.

1...1,6831,6841,685...2,889Page 1,684 of 2,889