On Sunday afternoon, the South Carolina Gamecocks defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes to win the NCAA Division I Women’s National Basketball Championship for the second time in three years. The team completed an undefeated, 39-0 season in which it was the No. 1 seed in the tournament and was able to advance throughout the competition. There have been several ratings triumphs throughout the tournament, including record viewership for ESPN coverage of the Elite Eight and Final Four.
In fact, the Final Four matchup between Iowa and UConn broke the record as the most-watched women’s basketball game in history with an average of 14.2 million viewers on ESPN. The game peaked at 17 million viewers and represented the network’s highest audience for any basketball game on record.
Throughout its coverage from Cleveland, Ohio this past weekend, ESPN featured several basketball luminaries offering their perspectives and promulgating aspects of the game. Among those analysts included former players Chiney Ogwumike and Andraya Carter, both of whom appeared on Monday morning’s edition of First Take on ESPN. Featured commentator and executive producer Stephen A. Smith divulged how important commentary is within the world of sports, mentioning heralded broadcasters such as Howard Cossell, Mike Breen and John Madden.
“I’m bringing all of that up to say that as great as this season was; as great at this NCAA tournament was, I had the pleasure of watching who I believe to be two of the best basketball analysts in America in Chiney Ogwumike and Andraya Carter,” Smith said.
For Sunday’s National Championship Game, Ogwumike and Carter were part of the NCAA Women’s Championship Special on ABC, ESPN+ and ESPN3. They worked alongside Elle Duncan, Carolyn Peck and Aliyah Boston ahead of the broadcast of the National Championship Game. After the conclusion of the matchup, they were on NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship Studio on ESPN and ESPN+.
“You guys were phenomenal, and a lot of things that have been done for the sport and them playing the way that they played, it was accentuated and illuminated by the way you two performed,” Smith said. “You were absolutely sensational. I can’t even tell you all how proud I am of the job you all did during this NCAA tournament.”
The Glenn Beck Program is one of the most popular and successful conservative talk shows in the nation. Its Program Director — Dom Theodore — has concerns about the future of radio and the media industry as a whole due to the power wielded by the wealthiest of investors.
Earlier this year, a fund created by billionaire George Soros — who is often criticized by conversation media figures for his political activism — became the largest shareholder in radio giant Audacy while it underwent pre-packaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The reaction to the news was mixed, with some sounding the alarm bells while others advised to pump the proverbial brakes before rushing to conclusions about what the acquisition would mean the future of the company’s limited conservative talk radio brands.
While Beck’s program is carried by more iHeartMedia and Cumulus-owned stations, Dom Theodore told Semfaor that the media should play a role in handcuffing the wealthy elite, rather than being a megaphone.
“In a healthy republic, the media is a ‘check-and-balance’ against those in power. But over the last few years, we’ve seen media outlets parroting talking points constructed by those in power, and over-consolidation of the media leading to censorship on an unprecedented scale by the elite,” Theodore said. “This should concern every American.”
Theodore continued by noting that he hopes that “new ownership would maintain the integrity of those brands as not to do so would be a major business mistake.”
Soros Fund Management acquired $415 million of Audacy’s debt in February, accounting for 40%, making it the single largest shareholder in the company.
When Darren Rovell departed the Action Network last year, there was considerable speculation and ambiguity surrounding his future. The veteran sports business reporter acknowledged rapid transition in the sports media industry and how he missed “the dollars and cents reporting” that captivated him to work in the business. Rovell will now be starting a new venture with the launch of CLLCT, a website targeted towards covering sports collectibles.
The venture has raised $4 million from a group that includes several firms, including Bolt Venture, Eberg Capital, Phoenix Capital Ventures, Amity Supply and Tailwoods Capital. Moreover, it also includes personal investments from Ted Leonsis, Zach Leonsis, Jason Stein and Andy Lansing.
“We think there are going to be a tremendous amount of revenue opportunities,” Rovell recently told Sportico. “We aren’t saying exactly what will be our biggest revenue source, but we’re going to be No. 1 from Day 1, and we think companies will flock to us because we will be the best option to promote and advertise… And we will uphold our journalism. If we don’t have integrity journalism-wise, then we’re dead.”
Former ESPN senior director of revenue partnerships Ted Bishop will serve as the company’s chief product officer. Kevin Jackson, who is a former executive with ESPN and FOX Sports, was named the chief content officer of the company. CLLCT will also introduce a television network, cllctv, which will be run by Matt Liberman. Will Stern is also joining the team as a reporter to cover the industry for the website. Various reporters from ESPN, FOX Sports and CNBC are also joining the new venture to contribute to coverage, which Rovell explained in his introductory article will span beyond sports.
“When COVID-19 hit and the collectible market exploded, memorabilia was suddenly being called a ‘true alt asset,’ as opposed to something that just fills a man cave,” Rovell wrote. “And as a journalist, I looked around and felt like I didn’t have an updated home. There were a few sites that catered to hard-core regulars, but nothing to reach the masses or offer in-depth storytelling and quality journalism. I believe collectors need a home to visit every day, with articles and video focused on this now-developed market.”
Rovell formerly covered the collectibles market during his time at ESPN while also reporting on other aspects of sports business. From there, he moved to CNBC where he had the chance to interview several athletes and executives while appearing across network programming., Prior to launching CLLCT, he most recently served as a senior executive producer at the Action Network.
Fox News anchor Bret Baier was inducted into the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans this weekend during a ceremony in Washington D.C.
During his acceptance speech, Bret Baier discussed his rise through the media ranks, beginning his career in small market TV in South Carolina, before stops in Rockford, Illinois; Raleigh; and with CBS in Florida before joining Fox News in 1998.
“Today, I’m the chief political anchor of FOX News Channel and the anchor and executive editor of Special Report with Bret Baier. And my success is really a blessing, but we went from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows,” said Baier.]
WATCH: Fox News’ @BretBaier talks about his family’s high and low points in emotional acceptance video for major award pic.twitter.com/vZcBUWw4lp
He then shared his perspective on life through the lens of dealing with his son’s birth with several heart defects, and how that shaped his view of not only life but also his career.
“When my son Paul was born, it was our first child and the cardiologist came and talked to us and said that he had five serious congenital heart defects. And if he didn’t have open heart surgery in the next few days, he would die. And that moment changes your life,” Baier admitted. “The small bickering up on Capitol Hill that you cover day to day goes away because there are much bigger things that people have to deal with. Everybody has something. This was our something.
“And getting through that, over that open heart surgery and three others, ten angioplasties — it was a big, big challenge. Today, his heart is pumping just like anybody else’s so we’re really blessed. You know, I’m really happiest walking with my wife, talking about our life and playing golf with my sons. Becoming a member of the Horatio Alger Association is a true, true honor and Linda Rabbitt exudes this wonderful spirit,” Baier continued. “And I’m really honored that she nominated me. If you think about how you can affect someone’s life from the beginning, sometimes it’s just one little thing that changes everything. Horatio Alger changed a lot of lives in forty years.”
Hallie Jackson made her debut as host of the Sunday edition of NBC Nightly News yesterday. She shared that she didn’t undertake the assignment alone, receiving guidance from Lester Holt along the way.
Jackson has worked at NBC News since 2014, rising through the ranks of the network after beginning as an embedded reporter with the presidential campaign of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). She eventually ascended to hosting programs on MSNBC and became NBC News’ chief White House correspondent.
However, anchoring NBC Nightly News felt like a different animal, she told People magazine, adding that Holt has been supportive as she prepared to take the anchor chair of the network news program.
“Lester is texting me words of wisdom and it’s great to feel that support and love,” Jackson said.
“The best advice I ever got was just: ‘Be yourself,'” she continued.
Hallie Jackson took over the anchor chair from Kate Snow, who departed the weekend edition of the news show in February. Lester Holt has been hosting the weekday edition of the show since 2015, after serving as the weekend host from 2007 until his promotion to the main anchor chair.
I don’t know Norby Williamson. We’ve never spoken let alone had an email exchange. I’ve tried reaching out a few times over the years, but never heard back. Though we had no relationship or interactions, I have a great deal of respect for his body of work. You don’t enjoy four decades of success at ESPN without doing many things right. Among them, figuring out how to survive numerous executive changes.
Which is why it’s strange that Williamson’s exit comes after not being able to find common ground with ESPN’s president of content Burke Magnus.
According to the New York Post, Magnus and Williamson did not share a vision that aligned with ESPN’s long-term strategy. The issue had to be big because networks don’t move on from skilled executives with four decades of experience, especially when they have contracts in place through 2027.
The Pat McAfee saga has come up a lot in recent days because of how much attention it produced for Williamson. Most of it, didn’t help him. But that was only one situation. It was a strange battle to pick because Williamson had to know that ESPN sank large dollars into McAfee, and were going to give him every chance to succeed. Maybe prior wins over other top stars gave Norby a false sense of security, but McAfee was a different animal. Bob Iger, Jimmy Pitaro, and Burke Magnus were all-in on him, and in a game of high-stakes Russian roulette, Norby wasn’t going to win.
I don’t know if Norby leaked information to the New York Post to make Pat McAfee look bad. It certainly looked that way, but it’d be unfair for me to say definitively that he did. Opinions of his style vary among talent, but that’s an issue most managers overcome. Executives and talent often have love-hate relationships.
However, when the executive who was promoted over you implements a plan, and you’re not on board with it, that becomes problematic. The McAfee move is the one situation we know there was disagreement on. How many others existed though? Disagreeing on talent, content, costs, etc. is fine, but once decisions are made, everyone has to buy in to move the company forward. Vision must be shared and embraced. Otherwise, workplace culture becomes compromised. When that happens, changes have to be made or further damage gets done.
I’ve gone through this situation myself. Once as a programmer, and once as a lead producer. It’s not fun being involved in a power struggle. Sometimes you have to let others know what will and won’t be tolerated. You also have to be a leader and make tough decisions. How you navigate complex matters speaks volumes about your leadership. Others internally take notice.
Magnus is well liked and respected by many I know in Bristol. Williamson has less fans but few argue with his credentials. If Norby wasn’t going to embrace Burke’s vision, then Magnus had to make this call. Pitaro and Iger did the right thing too by supporting it. They had to know this outcome was a possibility when they promoted Burke over Norby. There can’t be two top dogs pulling in opposite directions. That eventually creates internal chaos, and we already saw how that played out with the McAfee mess.
For McAfee, he comes out of this looking strong. Knowing his bosses had his back has to make him feel good about being in business with them. Hopefully he remembers that in the future if other situations arise. I’ve said before, Pat shouldn’t be taking on executives. He prevailed over Norby, and had a reason to defend his show and reputation, but these type of wars eventually have less favorable outcomes. Iger, Pitaro and Magnus are obviously invested in him and see him as a big part of ESPN’s future. Now it’s his turn to reward their faith.
More importantly, the entire company’s management team is now on notice. If Norby Williamson can be removed, so can others. Burke, Jimmy and Bob have a plan, and they’re going to do things a certain way. Anyone standing in the way of progress, won’t be part of the future. As I said earlier in this column, vision can’t be compromised. It’s hard enough to grow and win. Trying to do it with people on your team working against you affects morale and hitting your goals.
Only Burke, Norby and those close to the situation know how fractured this situation became. Regardless, ESPN is in better shape today than yesterday because there’s no longer a divide between two key executives. Now the question becomes, did they bet on the right horse, and was the right path taken? Given where the network is and wants to go, Iger and Pitaro made a smart bet. It’s now Burke’s job to prove them right.
WWE/Lee Fitting: I was in Philadelphia over the weekend for WrestleMania 40. Kudos to all involved with the company. They couldn’t have hit a bigger homerun. The only negative was the weather on Saturday night, and that was beyond their control.
If you haven’t watched the WWE in a minute, take another look. There’s improved video production, fresh camera angles, and just a better look and feel for the presentation. Fitting earned high praise for his work from Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque following WrestleMania, and rightfully so. The upgrades are noticeable, and the biggest winners are the viewers who are seeing what a strong, creative approach can do for visual storytelling.
Paul “Triple H” Levesque puts over Head of Media & Production, Lee Fitting.
From a production standpoint, he says that he sees everyone’s reaction and their love for the changes that have been made – but says there is more to come. Levesque says he loves working w/Fitting, and… pic.twitter.com/Z3jT4VrmpO
Ariel Helwani: Great interviewers understand the importance of asking short, open-ended questions, listening to the answers for key follow ups, and finding common ground with those they speak with. Helwani is extremely skilled in these areas. He advances conversations, often resulting in news. Dan Patrick, Howard Stern and Bob Costas are frequently mentioned as great interviewers. If Helwani keeps executing at a high level, he could one day join that group.
Dan Zaksheske: The former ESPN producer turned Outkick writer asked South Carolina Women’s Head Basketball Coach Dawn Staley if transgendered women should be able to play women’s college basketball. The clip has been viewed nearly twenty seven million times at the time of my writing this. It’s also been replayed across other media outlets. You can agree or disagree with Staley’s opinion. I’m more impressed by Zaksheske asking a tough question at a press conference. More times than not, pressers lack these type of moments.
I asked South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley if she supports transgender women (biological males) playing women's college basketball.
"If you consider yourself a woman and you want to play sports or vice versa, you should be able to play." pic.twitter.com/SEQCsNiFvm
Infinity Sports Network: Rather than use BetQL, which made more sense, Audacy and Westwood One chose a name that means little to its talent, affiliates, listeners, and advertisers. CBS Sports Radio wasn’t perfect but the CBS name was known and respected. It was a better identity for a network than Infinity Sports. Giving affiliates less than two weeks to inform listeners, advertisers, and rebrand isn’t great either. Clearly the CBS partnership changed, making this situation necessary. However, it looks rushed, and feels like a temporary fix more than a long-term plan.
NFL Network: First came issues with Good Morning Football. Then last week, the network cut Melissa Stark, James Palmer, Andrew Siciliano, and Will Selva. The PR hits keep coming, and you have to assume there’s a plan in place to turn this around before next season. Whether it’s a good one or not, time will tell. For now, there’s little reason to trust or be excited about the league’s television network.
After a 38-year stretch televising National Football League games, CBS lost its television broadcasting rights to the property in 1993. The palpable loss reverberated throughout the network as FOX bid $1.58 billion over four years and established its own sports division, which included several on-air talents that had previously been on CBS. From the moment Sean McManus joined CBS Sports approximately three years later, he was obsessed with finding a way to rekindle a media rights deal with the NFL. At the same time, he was working to bolster the quality of the company’s productions and assimilating into the role of working as president of the division.
Shortly after CBS lost broadcast rights to the NFL, Major League Baseball began a joint broadcasting venture with ABC and NBC called The Baseball Network, in which it would produce the telecasts independently and engage in revenue sharing. Although the undertaking rendered itself evanescent after nearly a year-and-a-half, it ended the contract with CBS, which then tried to land National Hockey League rights. FOX ended up outbidding CBS again and started presenting regular-season matchups, Conference Finals and Stanley Cup Final matchups. CBS suddenly fell from the top-ranked network in prime-time television to No. 3 overall in the category, representing a challenge for McManus and CBS network president Peter Lund.
“The odds were really stacked against us,” McManus said. “Nobody thought we were going to be able to pull it off because everybody had seen what happened to CBS when they lost the NFL, and in my mind, nobody wanted to go through that again because it was just a devastating loss to the network.”
Over the ensuing weeks and months leading up to negotiations, McManus understood that the network was perceived as a longshot to reacquire broadcasting rights to the league. Throughout his early tenure with the company, he made a concerted effort to interact with NFL owners, such as Robert Tisch, Jerry Jones and Robert Kraft. Additionally, McManus spent considerable time with league commissioner Paul Tagliabue and outlined a plan implementing various programming, production and financial elements that he believed would benefit the NFL.
“We were fortunate in that NBC was focused more on prime time and we were focused just on the AFC package, and we spent enough money and spent enough time with the league and the owners to convince them that our deal was the best one for the AFC,” McManus said. “We paid a lot of money and a lot of people thought we were going to lose a lot of money, but we ended up making money every year of the deal despite the $4 billion price tag for the eight years.”
History in Las Vegas
Twenty-six years later, McManus was in Las Vegas, ahead of Super Bowl LVIII for the final time as chairman of CBS Sports. Over his time leading the company’s sports division, he retained the NFL during every rights negotiation, serving in a pivotal role as it built its NFL on CBS property and broadcast eight Super Bowl matchups. The ninth Super Bowl under his leadership ended up being an all-time classic that resulted in the Kansas City Chiefs defeating the San Francisco 49ers, garnering a total audience delivery of 123.4 million viewers across all platforms, including CBS, Paramount+, Univision and various digital properties.
The quantitative triumph represents the most-watched telecast ever recorded by Nielsen Media Research and was also the most-streamed Super Bowl in history as well. In addition to the traditional telecast, Paramount Global offered an alternate broadcast on Nickelodeon featuring characters from the original animated series, SpongeBob SquarePants. The first-of-its-kind Super Bowl secondary presentation implemented augmented reality and other related content throughout the week. Successfully executing both broadcasts and exhibiting the breadth of the Paramount Global portfolio required collaboration, foresight and adaptability.
“All the Super Bowls we’ve done have been amazing projects,” McManus said. “This one, we put more resources and more effort into it than ever before. We started promoting it on the Paramount platforms literally the day after Super Bowl LVII. We had weekly meetings for more than a year on everything from the production plan, the creation of our sets at the Bellagio – literally in the Bellagio Fountains – to graphics to marketing to communications. It was a division-wide, and in many ways, a company-wide initiative for more than a year.”
Throughout the week in Las Vegas, Paramount implemented several divisions of the company and presented select programming on-site ahead of the game as part of its residency. For example, Inside Edition and The Talk were in the city, along with The Drew Barrymore Show and Entertainment Tonight. Additionally, CBS Mornings and CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell also broadcast from Las Vegas and presented stories related to the marquee event. McManus previously led the CBS News division for five years while continuing to oversee sports, which made him just the second person in history to hold both division titles simultaneously.
For its broadcast of the championship game itself, CBS Sports utilized 165 total cameras and 19 television mobile units. The company also introduced ‘doink’ cameras located inside of the uprights, giving viewers a unique view of field goal attempts and other moments from the program. Augmented reality elements, drones and 4K zoom extraction cameras were also equipped for the game, showcasing innovation and emerging technologies that contributed to the record-breaking night.
“We far exceeded our sales expectations and budgets,” McManus said. “The number that’s been written is $700 million, and we exceeded that – obviously the overtime helped – but I think from the time we came on the air at 11:30 with the Nickelodeon Slimetime show until we went off the air at approximately 10:30, it was an unqualified success in every way. The most-watched television program ever; maybe the best Super Bowl ever in terms of the quality.”
Beginnings in Sports Media
McManus grew up around sports television, frequently attending events with his father, sports broadcaster and ABC Wide World of Sports host Jim McKay. From being around the business, he quickly developed a predilection and verve towards producing and directing these games and began to pursue such a career path. While McManus attended high school and during his years at Duke University as an undergraduate student, he performed freelance work for ABC Sports and was hired by the company out of college.
“It was my father who taught me so much about the quality of broadcasting and the importance of storytelling,” McManus said. “He was one of the best storytellers of all time, and he really laid the foundation. He also would often say to me, ‘Your word is your bond, and if you have a handshake deal, you have a deal whether it’s been signed or not,’ and so the importance of integrity and morality and all that was really instilled in me by my father.”
After working as a production assistant and associate producer for two years alongside industry veterans such as Roone Arledge, Chuck Howard and Dennis Lewin, McManus decided that it would be better to work at a network without his father. As a result, he landed a job with NBC Sports as an associate producer where he contributed to broadcasts of the NFL, PGA TOUR, and Wimbledon among other events. Three years later, he became the youngest vice president in network history, responsible for overseeing program planning and development at the age of 27.
“I was a little bit scared to be honest with you because I knew that I was going to be in situations and in meetings where I was the most inexperienced person in the room, but I’ve always worked really hard,” McManus said. “I’ve always prided myself on turning the lights on in the morning and turning the lights off in the office, and I just doubled down and worked incredibly hard.”
McManus had the backing of several bosses, including division president Arthur Watson and executive producer Don Ohlmeyer. NBC was broadcasting MLB games, including the World Series every other year, and was part of the Super Bowl rotation with its lead announcing team of Dick Enberg, Merlin Olsen and Bill Macatee. Throughout his time with the company, he was part of key rights negotiations while also remaining involved in managing productions.
“Since I had grown up watching what all the networks were doing and I was so familiar with the programming schedules at the different networks, it wasn’t as challenging as I thought it was going to be,” McManus said, “and I found out that I had a knack of programming and negotiating deals, which I thoroughly enjoyed.”
Mark McCormack, founder and chairman of International Management Group (IMG) asked McManus to join his company in the midst of sustained growth to help run the television division as its senior vice president of U.S. television sales and programming. The sports marketing firm provided him with the chance to work with athletes and gain more knowledge surrounding sales in the industry.
One day outside of a restaurant in New York City, McManus happened to run into CBS network president Peter Lund and had a conversation that later resulted in a job offer to serve as president of the company’s sports division. Shortly after he accepted the role, he immediately got to work in focusing on production quality, relationships with rightsholders and reacquiring the NFL.
A Changing Media Landscape
Twenty-five years later as signs of change permeated within the television industry, McManus was involved in negotiating a new deal with the NFL to continue broadcasting games. Conversations surrounding the endeavor included Paramount Global president and chief executive officer Bob Bakish, along with CBS president and chief executive officer George Cheeks.
“It was critical to the network to retain the NFL,” McManus said. “In many ways, sports, and specifically the NFL, are really holding the traditional bundle together, and without the NFL, striking deals with the distributors would have been, if not impossible, very, very difficult, so it was even more important during this last deal; even more so probably than 1998, that we retain the rights to the NFL. There’s no higher priority or no more important partner in all of Paramount – I won’t just say CBS, but all of Paramount Global – than the NFL.”
Although CBS is an over-the-air network, Paramount Global has felt the effects of hastened cord-cutting rates and altered consumption trends over the last several years. Approximately 73.9 million U.S. households were recorded as not having cable, satellite or telcoTV service in 2023, according to recent data from nScreenMedia, leading media conglomerates to innovate and build means of digital distribution.
Nielsen Media Research measurements attributed 93 of last year’s 100 most-watched television broadcasts to the National Football League, including 48 out of the top 50. While the Super Bowl ranked No. 1 overall, the NFL playoffs proved to be a ratings success with an average of 38.5 million viewers across the wild card, divisional and championship rounds with a 53.3% share. CBS Sports collected an average of 45.6 million viewers for its slate of playoff games ahead of the Super Bowl, one of which was the AFC Championship Game between the Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs. The matchup ended up being the most-watched iteration of the matchup in history with an average of 55.473 million viewers.
“There’s nothing that comes close to it in terms of consumption or in terms of television viewership, and that’s true on direct to consumer also,” McManus said. “It’s one of, if not the largest driver of new subscriptions and retention at Paramount+, so it’s important not just to the linear network, but it’s important also to the direct to consumer. It’s vitally important and critical that we retain this.”
Peacock served as the exclusive streaming home of an NFL Wild Card game between the Miami Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs that amassed an average minute audience of 23 million viewers, making it the most-streamed matchup in NFL history. The coldest game in the history of GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, which ended in a 26-7 victory for the Chiefs, also drove 30% of internet traffic on the day and attained the largest single-day performance in audience usage, engagement and time spent. Comcast paid a reported $110 million for rights to the game and recently surpassed 30 million total subscriptions.
Amazon Prime Video will reportedly pay $150 million to exclusively stream an NFL Wild Card Game next season. The OTT platform is coming off a sophomore season where it registered viewership gains across the board and introduced a Black Friday Football contest. While users can watch the NFL on CBS live on Paramount+, it has yet to serve as the standalone home to a primary game telecast, something McManus does not see changing any time soon.
“I think we’re committed to broadcasting the NFL on the widest possible platforms at Paramount Global,” McManus explained, “so we are not at the moment pursuing that opportunity.”
NFL on CBS
Then-named ViacomCBS reached an 11-year, multiplatform agreement with the NFL in March 2021 worth a reported $2.8 billion. This past season, CBS broadcast 10 games within the 4:25 p.m. EST national window, which averaged 24.637 million viewers. CBS Sports realized its most-watched regular season since reacquiring NFL broadcasting rights in 1998 with an average of 19.345 million viewers, up 5% from the previous year. The Washington Commanders’ Thanksgiving Day matchup against the Dallas Cowboys finished as the most-watched game of the season with an average of 41.672 million viewers and presented three games within the top-five of average viewership on the year.
“I think the NFL will be every bit as or more important two years from now and five years from now as it is today,” McManus said. “The NFL really believes in broad distribution, and you only get broad distribution really on the broadcast networks, so I think the future of the NFL on broadcast television is very, very encouraging and very, very positive going forward. I feel nothing but optimism for the NFL, and quite frankly nothing but optimism for CBS Sports in the future.”
Play-by-play announcer Jim Nantz acknowledged McManus’ forthcoming retirement during the third quarter of the game as he was calling his seventh Super Bowl in the CBS broadcast booth. Over the years, Nantz has been a preeminent voice of the sports division in broadcasting the Final Four and National Championship Game within the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament, along with hosting its coverage of The Masters Tournament. He has been the play-by-play announcer in the lead NFL on CBS broadcast booth since the 2004 season where he has called countless thrilling finishes and seminal moments in league history.
“When you watch an event that Jim Nantz is doing, it is automatically a really big and important event,” McManus said. “Nobody’s better at play-by-play than Jim is, whether it’s football or basketball, which he just departed, or golf certainly. I think he’s the best in the industry, and he has a presence and a likability that is impossible to teach. EIther you have it or you don’t, and nobody will ever outwork him. I think he’s the best in the industry, and I think he will be for a long time to come.”
Before Nantz was the lead play-by-play announcer for the NFL on CBS, he served as the studio host for The NFL Today when the network resumed its NFL broadcasts in 1998. He and other program hosts, including Brent Musburger, Greg Gumbel and current show host James Brown, took part in a one-hour special documenting the history of the prestigious studio program. Yet next year’s cast could look different, as contracts for Bill Cowher, Boomer Esiason and Phil Simms all reportedly expired after the Super Bowl.
“I think there’s a great legacy and tradition there, and I think that’s going to continue,” McManus said. “We’re looking at exactly what the format of the show is going to be going forward, but I think we have a lot of momentum, and I think the show is going to continue to be really well received and universally respected as a really good and very watchable pregame show.”
Nantz ended his run calling college basketball last year after broadcasting 31 National Championship games and almost 400 March Madness matchups. Ian Eagle was announced as his successor in the role as the lead play-by-play announcer for the property for coverage from CBS Sports and TNT Sports. Outside of this role, Eagle calls NFL games for CBS, national NBA games for TNT and local Brooklyn Nets contests for the YES Network. He will be joined by analysts Bill Raftery and Grant Hill and reporter Tracy Wolfson for his first National Championship Game on Monday night, a matchup between the Purdue Boilermakers and defending champion UConn Huskies.
“I think Jim’s legacy is very, very secure, and the iconic calls he’s made on the tournament will live on forever,” McManus said. “Now that Jim has decided to step back, I think Ian Eagle is the perfect successor. He’s universally respected and loved, he’s done 600 games with his current partner Bill Raftery and he’s great with Grant Hill, so I think he’s poised for a couple of decades of outstanding work being the lead play-by-play man for CBS Sports.”
Nantz continues to work in the lead broadcasting booth for the NFL on CBS where Wolfson is the lead reporter. For the first thirteen seasons, Phil Simms was the lead color commentator for these games, but he moved to become a studio analyst on The NFL Today ahead of the 2017 season. CBS Sports inked former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo to a deal to serve as the lead analyst, and he was extended for a reported value of $180 million over 10 years.
There has been considerable discussion from fans about Romo’s viability as a lead analyst in recent years and rumors of interventions and meetings as well. For example, after Nantz’s call of the Chiefs’ overtime victory to win the Super Bowl in which he recited, “Jackpot, Kansas City!,” media professionals and consumers called out Romo for analyzing the play instead of deferring to the ambient sound.
“I think a lot of the criticism has been very unfair and been the result of social media ganging up on somebody, but I feel very good about Tony and Jim,” McManus said. “I think their chemistry is really good, and I think they work well together.”
New Leadership at CBS Sports
McManus will retire from CBS Sports this month, prompting David Berson to officially take over as the president and chief executive officer of the company. Over the last decade, Berson has been in several meetings and every negotiation that McManus has had.
With the NFL, Big Ten Conference, UEFA Champions League and additional properties in tow, plus a cable television network (CBS Sports Network) and various studio programming, the company will look to continue leveraging its assets while keeping an eye towards the future. McManus does not feel there will be much of a transition despite his departure and is excited to watch the next chapter of CBS Sports unfold.
“I think David’s going to do an amazing job,” McManus said. “He has an incredible talent for programming and production and rights negotiation and marketing and communications. I think he’s going to do an amazing job, and I think the momentum we have is going to continue for many, many years to come.”
AI, or artificial intelligence, has already become a ‘thing’ in media. It’s been a topic with people wondering what the future holds and whether or not it will take away jobs. Which of course means someday we might see a headline like, “iHeartMedia Lays Off 200 Robots,” if it doesn’t work. Don’t think it can’t happen.
Again, when I’ve heard most people bring up the topic, the concern is usually about people who have jobs who could get replaced. And I get it. I’m pro-job.
With that said, if someone can figure out how to enhance my sports viewing with artificial intelligence, I’m all for it.
I used to think play-by-play announcers and color analysts didn’t matter that much. I thought they were somewhat interchangeable. But then something interesting happened. We started losing some of those voices. Some retired and some are no longer with us.
I started thinking about this topic as I’m forced to deal with the reality that Verne Lundquist is working his final Masters. Golf seems like the absolute perfect place to test out some new AI. Don’t let someone else ever call the 16th hole at Augusta, let ‘Uncle Verne’ live there forever through artificial intelligence.
Think about this for a second. It’s Thanksgiving and you are over at the in-law’s house next November. You plop down to watch the Cowboys and Giants and BOOM! Summerall and Madden are calling the game through AI.
Give me Sunday Night Baseball with Jon Miller and Joe Morgan. Heck, I love Joe Buck and Troy Aikman on Monday Night Football. But imagine for a moment if ESPN 2 has the ManningCast while ESPN News has…Howard Cosell, Frank Gifford and Don Meredith! Or what if the next big fight in boxing (is there a next big fight in boxing?), had Cosell on the call. Heck, with AI we can mix people. Can someone get me Cossel, Jim Lampley and Burt Sugar together calling a fight?
I’m smiling just thinking about how cool it could be. I mean we have some networks showing games being played by cartoon characters. Certainly, we can take the recordings of broadcasters and create a way for them to still be heard calling games, right?
Just think if you could watch college football on Saturdays and choose Keith Jackson and Bob Griese or Dan Fouts as your broadcast crew? ‘Whoa, Nellie!’ indeed.
I’m from St. Louis and I would give anything to flip on the radio and hear Jack Buck and Mike Shannon, in their prime, calling Cardinals games or the late, great, Dan Kelly calling hockey. Speaking of Buck, how about listening to a Monday Night Football game on radio and having the option on one channel to listen to Kevin Harlan and Kurt Warner and then on another channel you can hear Jack Buck and Hank Stram?
Heck, I’d watch a Cubs game if you told me the voices I was going to hear would be Harry Caray and Steve Stone. It would take me back to my childhood, when I would come home from school after finally getting cable television and sitting on the floor watching Cubs games in the afternoon.
I can think of a bunch of others. Dick Enberg, Billy Packer and Al McGuire calling college basketball (Dick Enberg calling just about anything works for me). Joe Garagiola and Tony Kubek doing a baseball game. Brent Musburger calling big football games.
What if forever we could hear NBC’s “Roundball Rock” theme song (cap tip to John Tesh) and a modern NBA game is being called by the voices of Marv Albert, Steve ‘Snapper’ Jones and Mike Fratello or Bob Costas is throwing it over to Ahmad Rashad for a sideline report?
If you asked me to watch bowling these days, I would laugh in your face. If you asked me to watch bowling and said, ‘by the way, the announcing will be done through AI, and it will be Chris Schenkel and Nelson Burton Jr. on the call,’ well that’s a different story.
Kind of cool to think about. Alternate broadcasts are becoming hip these days and we are now even seeing local broadcasts do it.
Would I be excited if we can figure out through artificial intelligence how to continue to hear some of these historic voices? As Verne Lundquist once famously said, “Yes sir!”
Yep, I said what I said a few weeks ago. Charles Barkley is not very good on the NCAA Tournament coverage (I didn’t say he was ‘turrible,’ just that he’s not very good). He is, however, great on the NBA and quite possibly the best sports radio guest in the country.
He proved it again this week on The Dan Patrick Show. He talked about how the NBA is just a 3-point shooting contest, a little bit about Zach Edey and DJ Burns Jr., watching women’s college basketball and the term “sports experts.”
He had a few classic lines including, “As much as I am a gambling degenerate, I have actually never bet on a woman’s sport.” He called people who act like they know every sport when they talk on TV, “idiots and fools,” and he also said this about that word experts:
“There is no such thing, it’s just somebody’s opinion. I hate when they say, ‘ he’s an expert’ and I say, ‘no he’s not he’s just some fool giving his opinion.’”
I brought back the Seller to Seller feature this week on BSM and had a great chat with Beasley Media Group Boston Director of Sales Brian Schneekloth. I really enjoy talking to other sales-minded folks and learning about their best practices. Brian gave some great advice about how they have been handling recruitment in Boston that if you’re not doing already, you may want to think about.
I point this out mainly to ask those managers who might be reading to feel free to forward me a name if you have an outstanding sports seller who we should profile. I will talk to sellers and managers and am looking for people who are really doing unique things to find new business or getting super creative to get and keep clients. Email me at davegreene34@gmail.com if you have any suggestions.
8 countries. 9 time zones. 4 different languages. Media Strategist David G. Hall is excited — even at 5 AM — to start working.
“I love what I do. I absolutely love what I do. This is the first time in my whole career where I’m really happy and rewarded and satisfied doing what I’m doing,” he told Barrett News Media over a Zoom call.
Since he was 10 years old, David G. Hall wanted to be in radio. Two years later, he got his first gig. “When I was 12, I thought, ‘What am I doing? Wasting my time not doing anything about it.’ So I called up my favorite station that I listen to all the time in Sacramento and asked for a tour. I went down there, saw interns working — kids like high school and college — and I was like ‘I’m in high school’, even though I was in the seventh grade.”
His first job was a call screener taking requests for DJs and doing some call-out research. Hall hasn’t left the industry since.
Over the years he has seen a lot of change. Most notably, the dwindling of the “farm system.”
“When I started, it was 1978. And in the late 70s — and then through the 80s — so many people wanted to be in radio. It was tough to move up to bigger cities. It was tough to get promoted to bigger jobs. There was always competition. Now, it’s not like that.”
Today, Hall believes stations are lucky to have a reporter in their budget.
Hall added there is a growing need in the industry for good people. “In my role now as a consultant, I talk to different people. The news directors, program directors that I work with and that I don’t work with are calling me all the time saying, ‘Hey, I need a news anchor. I need a talk show host. I need this, I need that,’ and it’s tough. It’s tough out there to even find somebody. That farm system is just not there like it used to be.”
The radio veteran does believe social media may be helping keep radio alive.
“When I was growing up in the business, I’d be on the radio and I would touch somebody once in the 10 or 15 minutes that they would happen to be in their car and happen to hear me on the radio. And that was it for the whole day.” He went on to say, “Now, with social media, we can touch people all day long because we are sharing with them and they have a place to come and find things with our stories and about us. So I think social media has been huge for radio, just as a marketing platform.”
Additionally, David G. Hall says there is another important part of social media. “Our audience has an audience. They have their own audience now.”
He went on to give an example. “So you follow me. I’m on the radio, you follow me, and you have 800 followers. When you share something that I share with you, I’m reaching 500 or 1000 people that I would not have otherwise reached that I can’t otherwise wise reach without you.”
However, Hall is not convinced all modern technology will help radio stations be more innovative, including the use of Artificial Intelligence.
“I think it can be dangerous because I know a lot of stations are already using AI to create newscasts and things like that. But there’s something inside me, maybe it’s the little kid who started in the 70s, but AI seems like it could be a slippery slope.”
He went on to add there are some positives of AI. “I’ll tell you that in my business consulting, where I work with stations all over the world and in different languages, AI is really critical to my business because I use it for translation. I use it to record stations because of the time difference. I use it in a lot of different ways, and it’s really critical to my business.
“But for a radio station now, I could see how it could be very helpful. But I could also see how it could be, abused, taken advantage of to a degree where it becomes just too risky and dangerous for a radio station.”
David G. Hall says his perspective is unique because he is involved with so many stations in varying areas. “What I see is that all of the consolidation that happened in the United States over the last 25 years did not happen in other places. In other places, there sometimes are still smaller operators. There’s more, investing in the audience, there’s more marketing, there’s more audience research.”
He gave examples of how Latin America relies more heavily on radio than the U.S. or Europe because streaming a podcast is expensive. Conversely, he said, “In Europe, it’s even cheaper than it is here [to stream a podcast]. So they rely on data-based things and digital products more and it’s just really interesting.”
Meanwhile, he believes American radio is “the future in terms of new things” because they are experimenting with AI the most.
For those looking to follow in his footsteps, Hall’s advice is simple.
“Do a podcast. Just do a podcast. Maybe it’s a podcast where you’re kind of reporting, telling stories, whatever stories interest you. Maybe it’s a podcast where sharing your opinion, or maybe it’s a podcast where you’re interviewing people. Either way, you’re developing the skills that will make you great, either in bigger podcasts, or in radio, or both. And you are really our farm system now.”
What comes next for David G. Hall is simple.
“Not retiring.”
He said, “I don’t look at any next step. My entire career, I was so ambitious. So when I was a reporter, I wanted to be an editor so that I could control more than my little 42-second space. Then I wanted to be a news anchor, and then I wanted to be a news director, and then I wanted to be a program director, and then I wanted to be like a group program director with a group of stations. I’ve done all of those things.
“In this job, I’m just enjoying going around the world, talking to different people. It’s rewarding and it’s inspiring. So this is the first time in my whole career I’m not looking at the next step. What I’m looking at is just being able to do what I do for as long as I can.”
As you probably know by now, I read way too much radio and television trade press. Perhaps you have the same vice, but if not, you might have missed two related items in a recent edition of Cynopsis.
The first one noted that what was referred to as “The US Joint Industry Committee” released a statement about their role versus the role of the Media Rating Council. I’ve mentioned this JIC before which is really The US Joint Video Industry Committee because, to the best of my knowledge, it does not deal with any sort of audio measurement.
Regardless, the JIC says they’re focused on “…evaluating the transactional readiness of national, cross-platform, measurement solutions…” while the “MRC goes much further in conducting intensive audits of measurement methodology”.
Meanwhile, the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM), which is now part of the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF), detailed some priorities for the first half of the year. They plan to:
Support innovations and improvements in measurement and currency development
Help buyers to navigate changes in current and measurement
Build trust quality and transparency and collaboration in identity resolution
Developing best practices for new ecosystems
Building capabilities and strategic resources for content measurement
That’s what video is doing at an industry level. And speaking of ARF, their recent Audience xScience 2024 event was held in New York last month.While I did not attend, a review of the agenda listed 54 different sessions (many run concurrently). I counted three that were dedicated to audio and one more that had an audio person on the panel.
All three audio panels were under the heading of “Traditional Media: Outside of Video” and ran concurrently with other subjects (“Audience Diversity: State of Inclusive Advertising” and “Attention and Impression Quality: Ad Experience, Impact, and Media Planning”).
If you’re putting a number against that, audio/radio was 5.6% of the panel topics. To add insult to injury, the moderator for the “traditional media” sessions was from CIMM, which as best I can tell, doesn’t have much to do with audio or out-of-home.
If you review CIMM’s membership on their website, you won’t find any radio companies. You will find the TVB and the IAB, but not the RAB. Nielsen is involved, of course, as is Numeris, their Canadian counterpart, both of which measure radio, but also have a much greater interest in video. You won’t find iHeart, Audacy, Cumulus, Westwood One, Premiere, or any other “audio first” company.
What to do about this situation? The ARF knows where their support comes from. When I was much younger, radio played an important role in the various ARF conferences, but no longer.
Meanwhile, Steve Goldstein’s latest blog (dated March 31 even though it arrived in my inbox on April 1 so I assume Steve did not want it seen as some sort of April Fool’s entry) ran a partial transcription of a panel he chaired at the recent Podcast Movement Evolutions conference. One set of comments really struck home.
Drew Marcus, who has covered the media industry for years and is now a senior advisor at Guggenheim Securities, made a couple of key points. Here are quotes (italics mine) that I’ve lifted from Steve’s blog (which you should sign up for at www.amplifimedia.com if you don’t already receive it):
“The future of media is streaming. The stock market is supposed to be an efficient predictive entity. In the past year, Spotify stock has doubled, iHeart stock has been cut in half, Netflix stock has doubled, and Warner/Discovery stock has approximately been cut in half. Media executives are obviously very cognizant of this, so they’re leaning into digital strategies, with podcasting being one of them. Podcast listenership is going up. Radio listenership is going down. In the past five years, time spent listening to radio is down about 25%.”
And “The tech giants have a lot of resources. To put things in scale, the seven largest tech companies have net about $700 Billion in cash. The ten largest media companies have about $200 Billion in debt. The tech companies are the innovators. They are the disruptors with the pristine balance sheets and resources. When they put their mind to it, they can build without buying.”
Drew is a Michigan alum and while that’s a negative in my MSU green and white book, he crystallized the issues facing radio in just a few sentences.
What do we do? How do we change our medium to adapt to this new reality? Something for everyone in the business to think about.
