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Sports Media Reacts to NFL Toy Story Broadcast

BSM Staff
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Sports Media Reacts to NFL Toy Story Broadcast

The NFL held the first London game of the season on Sunday as the Jacksonville Jaguars took on the Atlanta Falcons. In addition to being the first ESPN+ exclusive game of the season, the game also featured a kid-focused, Toy Story-themed simulcast.

Similarly to how the NFL did their SpongeBob SquarePants simulcasts, trackers on all the players allowed for the game to be transformed into the world of the beloved Pixar film series.

ESPN had a similar simulcast earlier this year in its NHL coverage, having a game transformed into the Disney show Big City Greens.

Several across sports media had positive reactions to Sunday’s Toy Story Football.

While the majority of the reaction was overwhelmingly positive, there were some who didn’t care for the simulcast and how it was presented. Barstool’s Kevin Clancy was in that group.

NESN’s Kevin Youkilis Gives Emotional Tribute to Tim Wakefield

BSM Staff
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The baseball world was saddened on Sunday to learn that beloved former pitcher and humanitarian Tim Wakefield had passed away at the age of 57. NESN analyst Kevin Youkilis memorialized his former teammate on the air after the announcement of his death.

Wakefield was a two-time World Series champion with the Boston Red Sox known for his knuckleball. He also won the Roberto Clemente Award in 2010, given annually to the MLB player who best embodies community spirit.

Wakefield was also a studio analyst for NESN and had been in that role since 2012.

Kevin Youkilis on Sunday afternoon’s season finale broadcast in Baltimore reflected on the life of a wonderful person and teammate.

“He was a great competitor when he took that mound,” Youkilis said. “He was just a great teammate and just a great friend.”

“I had the luxury to play with him on the field, in the booth, and I’m just glad that I had the opportunity over the years to be alongside him,” he added. “And just an amazing husband, father, and a community leader. He really enjoyed people. He really enjoyed being around people, and today we lost one of the good ones.”

Broadcast partner Dave O’Brien concurred wholeheartedly.

“A very, very special guy,” he said. “He was just 57 years old. The condolences, of course, are pouring in. We thank all of you. And God bless the Wakefield family.”

MLB on FOX analyst and another former Red Sox teammate David Ortiz paid tribute to his former teammate on Instagram on Sunday, writing about how heartbroken he is.

“I can’t describe what you mean to me and my family,” Ortiz wrote. “My heart is broken right now because I will never be able to replace a brother and a friend like you.”

“Wake embodied true goodness; a devoted husband, father, and teammate, beloved broadcaster, and the ultimate community leader,” the Red Sox said in a statement. “He gave so much to the game and all of Red Sox Nation.”

With Nielsen, Is There Life After 54?

Dr. Ed Cohen
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With Nielsen, Is There Life After 54?

There’s been some discussion of late about whether it’s time to change the standard demos that Nielsen uses for reporting radio audiences. 

Dan Mason began the debate a couple of months back with an argument for three demos: 12-19, 20-40, and 41-64. Steve Allan at Research Director has added his thoughts with the suggestion that Nielsen drop persons 6-11 and 80+. Beyond the lack of buyer interest in these demos, he sees it as a backdoor way to increase the PPM sample. Perhaps because more discussion is a good thing, I’ll offer my two cents.

There is likely no way that Nielsen will ever remove the 6-11 and 80+ PPM panelists even though the data are essentially meaningless for radio. PPM is now used for both audio and video. In the latter, PPM measures out-of-home audiences for local TV in the metro areas of DMAs. Remember that TV measures down to the age of two and while Arbitron never dropped that low (can you imagine a three-year-old with a PPM?), the design was that PPM would measure both radio and television. Because video likes a big number, the 80+ issue is probably off the table as well.

Let’s move on to Dan Mason’s suggestions. Radio has been battling with the “you’re dead at 55” issue for decades. In the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, I was the operations manager of WSPA-FM in Spartanburg, South Carolina which ran the beautiful music/easy listening format. I clearly remember Ted Dorf at WGAY in Washington (same format) starting a 35-64 committee, the goal of which was to show the value of the older audience and bring dollars into that demo. That was more than 40 years ago and nothing much has changed. 

Even with the lack of dollars for older demos despite the incredible spending power of the boomer generation, why can’t Nielsen offer more “standard” demos? In the “old days”, there were limitations based on processing software and even the size of the printed ratings report (remember the horizontal Arbitron books?). Today, the E-book is barely used and processing power is essentially unlimited. 

The limitation may reside in the systems used by Nielsen to process the local markets. The old Arbitron processing systems were somewhat limited and rebuilding the system was usually behind other priorities. I do not know if Nielsen has updated the processing system, but if they have, it shouldn’t be hard to offer more “standard” demos, whether Dan Mason’s suggestions or others. If Nielsen has not updated the systems in the decade since the Arbitron acquisition, then we’re back to my recent column asking the paraphrased Ronald Reagan question of whether you’re better off now than you were ten years ago.

What about the third-party processors: other companies that use the Nielsen data, for example, agency buying systems? Nielsen can require certain data to be made available as part of the future licensing agreements for data access. Still, the companies would also have to make software changes that will take time.

Let’s make the generous assumption that these changes will take place. Who wins? It seems that most radio formats would do well if at least one buying demo went up to age 64. And yes, I know 35-64 has been available for decades, but let’s consider Dan’s 41-64 for the moment. News/talk will be helped along with classic rock (how many classic rock songs were recorded after the mid-80s?). 

Those of us who are older don’t act like our parents (full disclosure: I do not fall in any of Dan Mason’s new demos) so I can see Adult Contemporary, Country, Urban AC, and other formats doing well. Public radio has also been aging so it may be easier to sell underwriting and their outside offerings that can carry spots. The various commercial Christian formats should look good, too.

Where does this leave us? If the industry truly believes that Nielsen should offer more demos, it’s time to ask the relevant questions and get the answers. Assuming Nielsen can make the software changes in a reasonable period of time, it’s up to the industry to convince agencies and advertisers of the value of these new demos over the ones they’ve used literally for generations. That will be no easy task, but making the data easily and readily available will help.

Let’s meet again next week.

Jim Lampley Defends Max Kellerman Against Stephen A. Smith Criticism

BSM Staff
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Legendary boxing announcer Jim Lampley has largely avoided having a presence on any social media platform, but he’s heard what ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith had to say about his former First Take co-host Max Kellerman and isn’t a fan of airing things out publicly.

In an interview on Covino & Rich on FOX Sports Radio last week in Las Vegas, Lampley was asked if Stephen A. was being unfair in what he said on The Joe Budden Podcast about how their run on First Take came to an end.

“I hate the world of social media, and I’m not afraid to say it,” Lampley said prefacing his point about Smith. “I hate the degree to which personal conflicts have now risen to important public discussion and are a part of the business landscape and the editorial landscape of our lives.”

Jim Lampley and Max Kellerman worked together on boxing broadcasts at HBO for 11 years. Jim added that he has met Stephen A. Smith previously and hasn’t had a bad experience with him.

“I don’t have any particular ax to grind against him except to promote and publicize his professional antipathy for Max,” he said. “To me, it’s out of bounds, and I’m very disturbed at what happened to Max.”

Kellerman has remained out of the public eye since being announced as part of the mass layoffs over the summer at ESPN. In an interview with The Messenger, Jim Lampley said the whole thing, including Max’s departure from ESPN, hasn’t sat well with him.

“I have lost sleep about it,” Lampley said. “I have genuinely lost sleep about what has happened to Max and I can honestly say I don’t understand any of it. I never lost sleep over what happened to me but I have lost sleep about what has happened to Max. It’s not right.”

“I stayed away from ESPN and everything that has happened there leads me to believe that at least for my constitution and for my personal happiness, I made the right choice,” he added.

But with Steve Covino and Rich Davis, Lampley wished Smith had just kept his thoughts and feelings private.

“The world of the Stephen A. Smith’s and the people who are using social media and various other ancillary forms of dialogue to create and benefit from personal rivalries, I don’t like it,” he said.

Carlo Jiménez To Be Named New Radio Voice of the Los Angeles Clippers

BSM Staff
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Carlo Jiménez To Be Named New Radio Voice of the Los Angeles Clippers

Barrett Sports Media is first to report that Carlo Jiménez will soon be named the new radio play-by-play voice of the Los Angeles Clippers. BSM has confirmed the news through multiple sources.

Jiménez, 22, is a 2023 graduate from USC and a recipient of the Jim Nantz Award, given to the nation’s most outstanding collegiate sports broadcaster. He replaces Noah Eagle, who moved to NBC Sports in a full-time capacity this summer.

Jiménez follows in Eagle’s footsteps being hired right out of college to become the Clippers radio voice. The rising broadcasting star is not only considered a strong game caller but he also possesses a strong social media presence, with over 64,000 followers on TikTok. Much of what he shares socially includes behind-the-scenes content of life as a sports broadcaster.

The young, talented new voice of the Clippers has experience calling USC football, baseball and women’s basketball, contributing his voice to broadcasts on the Pac-12+ Network. While at USC, Jiménez served as the sports director and play-by-play broadcaster for the school’s radio station KXSC.

Jiménez is of Mexican heritage. It is believed his hiring makes him the only Hispanic radio play-by-play voice on American broadcasts in the NBA.

Dan Le Batard Mourns Damian Lillard Trade, Calls Dan Patrick a ‘Dirty Trickster’

BSM Staff
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Following a blockbuster trade that sent All-NBA guard Damian Lillard to the Milwaukee Bucks, The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz mourned that the Miami Heat had lost the sweepstakes for the superstar player. For much of the summer, reports had indicated that the Heat were the frontrunners for Lillard, considering that he reportedly had the team at the top of his wish list upon requesting a trade from the Portland Trail Blazers. Broadcasting the show from Miami, Fla. and growing up just outside of the city, Dan Le Batard was crestfallen that a deal never came to fruition. Moreover, he now had to address his discourse over the last few months on the hit digital program where he adumbrated that the Heat would end up with the guard.

Le Batard had appeared on The Dan Patrick Show earlier in the week and began his appearance with praise of Patrick, who is retiring upon the completion of a new four-year contract. The former ESPN SportsCenter anchor has had a long and distinguished career in sports media, highlighted by his choosing to leave the “Worldwide Leader” and build his own platform from scratch. While Le Batard admires what Patrick did, he emitted a much different tone to begin his abbreviated appearance on Friday.

“You are a dirty trickster that now, I resent deeply,” Le Batard said to Patrick. “….For 20 years basically, Dan Patrick – maybe not 20, but 15 years – he calls me when a [Miami] Dolphins offensive line coach does cocaine off his desk and sends a romantic video to an exotic worker in Las Vegas; or some such Miami calamity to talk about the Dolphins, usually only something they’ve done wrong. I go and I make a bunch of people at ESPN mad by never asking permission to go on your show and just doing it anyway.”

As he continued his soliloquy, Le Batard said that Patrick invited him on the show last week to discuss the Dolphins, who are 3-0 and considered a legitimate Super Bowl contender by many football experts. The interview was proceeding well until Patrick concluded by asking an unrelated question about another Miami sports team, the Heat, and their pursuit of Lillard.

“Dan Patrick calls me and tricks me into talking about the Dolphins for a while,” Le Batard said. “Then at the end, what does he do? He asks the question that makes me publicly a larger fool [and] more wrong than I’ve ever been about anything in front of a worldwide, intergalactic audience.”

Le Batard answered the question by guaranteeing that Lillard was coming to Miami, something that is partially true, according to Patrick. It is just that he will be visiting the city as a member of the Milwaukee Bucks rather than playing for the reigning Eastern Conference champion Heat. The entire occurrence has left Le Batard and the cast of his show moribund enough to hold a eulogy for the anticipation they had for Lillard to play alongside South Beach.

“I was wearing an actual Heat mouthpiece as I did so,” Le Batard said of his comments. “I was not expecting for people to say this is a journalistic, objective guarantee. You could barely understand me; I was muffling it through an actual Miami Heat mouthpiece.”

“You used to be a journalist; now you’re an entertainer,” Patrick replied. “You’re an entertainer.”

Le Batard did acknowledge that he is indeed an entertainer on his program and has had discussions about the role of genuine journalism in today’s sports media coverage with the cast of his show, along with ESPN featured commentator Stephen A. Smith.

“[I am] a sanctimonious, self-important entertainer who gets things profoundly wrong in a way that echoes from sea to shining sea,” Le Batard asserted.

“That should be the name of your show,” Patrick replied. “It’s a little wordy, but that should be the name of your show from now on.”

“Because of you, it’s going to be the thing on my tombstone,” Le Batard said.

Diamond Sports Group Reportedly Trying to Reach Rights Fee Discount with NBA, NHL

BSM Staff
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Diamond Sports Group Reportedly Trying to Reach Rights Fee Discount with NBA, NHL

As Diamond Sports Group seeks to emerge from Ch. 11 bankruptcy and nears a Saturday deadline to agree to a reorganization plan with its creditors, the regional sports network operator has reportedly made a final offer to the National Basketball Association and National Hockey League. With the start of the regular season approaching for both leagues, the company is looking to slash its local broadcast fees for NBA and NHL games by up to 20%, respectively, to avoid liquidation in today’s dynamic sports media ecosystem.

The Sinclair Broadcast Group subsidiary has $9 billion in debt and owns the broadcast rights to 27 teams across the two professional sports leagues, not to mention an additional 12 Major League Baseball teams. Earlier in the year, the company ceded rights for San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks games, which have been produced by MLB’s local media department over the last several months.

Diamond Sports Group pays the NBA approximately $600 million annually in broadcast rights, according to the report from the New York Post, while specific financial metrics pertaining to the NHL are unknown. Both leagues are reportedly inclined to take the deal, which would give the company the ability to avoid liquidity for another year, according to a source. Based on the intel, it seems the leagues are not prepared for the magnitude of this kind of shakeup, which could have resounding effects on competitive balance. After all, Major League Baseball paid both the Padres and Diamondbacks at least 80% of what was owed to them from the Diamond deals in order to maintain this ability.

Another source, however, emphasized that it believes the reorganization will ultimately result in the liquidation of Diamond Sports Group. Other sources concurred that Diamond will ultimately shutter, but not before making money from some of its more profitable contracts. The Milwaukee Bucks and New Orleans Pelicans received rights payments prior to the Sept. 1 deadline, and the company also recently inked a multi-year extension with the Los Angeles Kings.

Diamond Sports Group originally sought to institute a Nov. 9 deadline; however, that request was denied by a bankruptcy court. The NHL also asserted in August that it may look for emergency relief to forgo contracts if no plan is reached. While specific contingency plans for the NHL are largely unknown, the NBA is prepared to produce games for affected teams itself, along with assuming responsibility for negotiating linear distribution means and selling advertising.

The company had been in negotiations with Comcast that recently came to a close, ending in a one-year agreement between the two sides. Moreover, Diamond and DIRECTV have reportedly come to terms on a new deal before its cessation next month, which ensures that its users will still be able to access local broadcasts of their favorite teams. Significant carriage negotiations with Charter Communications are still forthcoming since the existing contract expires in February.

Diamond Sports Group is also suing its parent company, Sinclair, Inc., affirming that it received $1.5 billion because of misconduct. Sinclair, which reported its own 8% year-over-year (YoY) decline in revenue, insinuated that its subsidiary will not emerge from bankruptcy.

Boomer Esiason: ‘Don’t Know Why’ ESPN Reported Taylor Swift Would Be at ‘Sunday Night Football’

BSM Staff
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Over the course of the week, several reports have stated that Grammy Award-winning music superstar Taylor Swift is expected to be on hand to watch the Kansas City Chiefs play the New York Jets on Sunday Night Football at MetLife Stadium. Swift unexpectedly appeared at last week’s Chiefs home game from GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium against the Chicago Bears, and she was seen exiting the facility with star tight end Travis Kelce afterwards. In the ensuing weeks, there had been reports that she and Kelce were communicating and potentially exploring dating one another, noise that was only amplified after Sunday’s occurrence. Boomer & Gio have been on the case, discussing the topic several times this week.

WFAN morning co-host Boomer Esiason is infatuated by the situation, slipping in references to Swift songs throughout the week on the show. Conversely, his co-host, Gregg Giannotti, has had enough of the entire situation and wishes that everyone could just focus on football. Even so, NBC Sports is preparing a specialized broadcast open and will likely show her on camera, even though director Drew Esocoff would “bet the under” on doing so for a total of 22 times. Esiason, interested in the situation, decided to try to uncover information as to just what may be occurring at the stadium this weekend.

“There’s no official, ‘Taylor Swift is going to be at the game,’” Esiason revealed Friday morning on WFAN. “Everybody’s assuming, and I don’t know why ESPN went with this earlier in the week.”

Since reports of Swift’s attendance were released, ticket prices for the matchup have steeply risen with fans doing anything possible to get a glimpse of the superstar. While the logistics of such an appearance still seem to be in the process of being planned out, Esiason decided to try to figure out she could be sitting. Reviewing options from the visiting team suite to the New York Giants home suite, Giannotti interjected that the venue will find a place for her one way or another, even if it means displacing fans.

“They’ll definitely figure it out,” Esiason said. “Plus, obviously she just had her tour there, so they’re very tight with the stadium authority.”

Esiason’s daughter is a fan of the artist and has informed her father about the history behind her dating life. The information has led him to assert that her fans are happy that she is “actually dating a real man” this time around, with many “Swifties” hoping that it works out.

“I’m fascinated by the whole thing; you know that,” Esiason told Giannotti. “I don’t know why.”

YouTube TV Having ‘Incredible Growth’ From NFL Sunday Ticket

BSM Staff
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YouTube TV Having ‘Incredible Growth’ From NFL Sunday Ticket

NFL Sunday Ticket is in the midst of its first season being accessed through YouTube and YouTube TV as part of a 7-year deal worth a reported $14 billion. In being available on an over-the-top (OTT) streaming service, fans have had to adjust to new ways to sign up and find the content to watch on each Sunday. While feedback for the platform has been stellar across the board as it pertains to the user interface, latency levels and viewing options, one area that endured levels of sustained criticism was multiview functionality.

In the past, NFL Sunday Ticket users had the capability to fully customize their screen, placing the games they want to watch in different windows and customizing the order thereof. With the new iteration of the service though, users are subject to preset layouts of games compiled for viewing, essentially losing a sense of jurisdiction over the totality of their experience. In a recent interview with Deadline, YouTube Chief Business Officer Mary Ellen Coe commented on how the service plans to adapt going forward.

“That is a very hard thing to do technically,” Coe said. “Put it this way – the feedback is [that] we hear you loud and clear. We have a seven-year relationship and will be looking to innovate in the future, and one thing that we’re doing to address that is [in having] a lot of insights on the game combinations and what matchups fans are interested in. So, we can use those insights.”

Coe believes that an interminable number of combinations is superfluous for fans and that the company is instead basing their decisions from bonafide, quantifiable data. Through these metrics, NFL Sunday Ticket is able to appeal to the largest faction of viewers interested in engaging with a multiview combination.

“We actually will have insight into what are the games that are must-watches, and then we can preload those combinations,” Coe explained. “I think as you see the season goes on, the demand [for customization] will become less because people will see the combinations they want will be up.”

Within the Deadline interview, author Dade Hayes made a shrewd observation in that when The Walt Disney Company and Charter Communications were embroiled in a carriage dispute, both companies offered YouTube TV as potential viewing solutions. While a resolution was reached on the morning of the Week 1 broadcast of Monday Night Football and season debut of New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, YouTube as an entity has not yet extrapolated and bifurcated the data to see if there was any substantial effect therein.

“We’re having incredible growth because of the Sunday Ticket relationship with YouTube TV,” Coe said. “It is interesting that both Charter and Disney referred to YouTube TV as a place to go when they couldn’t get content. I think that’s an endorsement for the user experience on YouTube TV, which we appreciate.”

NBC to Capitalize on Taylor Swift for ‘Sunday Night Football’

BSM Staff
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The group behind Sunday Night Football, prime time television’s No. 1 program for 12 consecutive years, participated in a behind-the-scenes talkback session from The Paley Center for Media in New York, N.Y. on Thursday, during which they divulged details regarding what has become an even more highly-anticipated Sunday night broadcast. Since reports have been published stating that Grammy Award-winning music superstar Taylor Swift will be in attendance at MetLife Stadium, ticket prices have rapidly increased, concurrent with heightened interest in the game. Over the last several weeks, rumors have suggested that Swift is dating Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, especially since she attended his game last week from GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium unannounced.

FOX Sports announced an average of 24.3 million viewers for “America’s Game of the Week” and first-place finishes in key female demographics, and many people are anticipating NBC Sports to shatter expectations of the game. The matchup was slightly dampened upon the season-ending left Achilles injury to New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, but he may reportedly be in attendance anyway, presumably pending doctor approval to fly back to New Jersey.

Nonetheless, NBC Sports is embracing the opportunity that has been placed before them, even cutting a promo with Swift’s hit song, “Welcome to New York” in the background. The network is also in the midst of filming a Swift-themed broadcast open in Los Angeles, Calif. to air ahead of the game.

Savannah Guthrie, NBC Today co-anchor and chief legal correspondent, was on hand to moderate the panel, which featured coordinating producer Rob Hyland, director Drew Esocoff and broadcasters Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth and Melissa Stark. Guthrie gave each one of the participants bracelets at the start that read “SNF Swiftie,” and implored everyone to wear them on the air this Sunday. While it is unknown if her sports colleagues will follow through on this request, they do plan on incorporating the musical sensation into the presentation.

“If the Vegas line is 22 shots of Taylor during the game, bet the under,” Esocoff said, according to Paley Center curator Jason Lynch. The only exception to this rule would be if the game ends up being a blowout by the Chiefs. Football experts project the team to have a considerable advantage over the New York Jets, who are playing under third-year quarterback and projected backup Zach Wilson.

Swift and Kelce had reportedly hung out together multiple times over the last few months as fans are infatuated about their whereabouts and relationship status. Kelce rented out a popular restaurant in Kansas City following the Chiefs’ blowout win over the Chicago Bears last week, hosting Swift, his teammates and other family and friends for a private party.

Kelce addressed the matter on his podcast, New Heights, that he hosts with his brother, Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce and admitted that the superstar showing up to the game was a “ballsy move.” Additionally, he shared that increased scrutiny and attention has caused paparazzi to stage outside of his home and suggested that he wants to keep the matter as concealed as possible.

If Swift indeed shows up at MetLife Stadium, NBC Sports will surely have their cameras in the area where she is situated. Swift is currently taking a break as she prepares for an international run of the “Eras” Tour, showcasing her musical portfolio and vast discography. It is unknown if Swift will continue to regularly attend Kelce’s games, especially as her schedule becomes packed with tour dates in the coming weeks. Yet if she chooses to go to U.S. Bank Stadium to see the Chiefs play the Minnesota Vikings next week, she has an open invitation to call some plays on the Vikings’ radio broadcast.

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