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Barstool Sports Ready To Launch on SiriusXM

BSM Staff
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Barstool Sports Ready To Launch on SiriusXM

Starting Wednesday January 17th, Barstool Sports takes the plunge into becoming full time radio operators. The entertaining sports media brand will officially launch their own 24-hour radio channel on SiriusXM Power 85 by featuring live programming from 7a-7p ET.

In a post on Barstool’s website, “El Presidente” Dave Portnoy confirmed that the company is working on adding other shows which could lead to future lineup adjustments. For now though, the opening day/week lineup is set.

Among the notable additions helping launch the channel tomorrow are Willie Colon and Liz Gonzales. It’s been previously reported that Portnoy has talked to former WFAN morning host Craig Carton about joining the lineup. The company also employs other high profile talent such as Michael Rapaport, Dallas Braden and PFT Commenter. Whether or not they’ll be part of the channel’s future plans is unclear at this time.

7a-9a – Barstool Breakfast featuring Julie Stewart Binks, Willie Colon, Francis

10a-12p – Pat McAfee Show

12p-1p – Heartland Radio

1p- 2p – Chicks in the Office featuring Fran and Ria

4p-6p – Barstool Radio featuring KFC, Pres and Liz Gonzales

6p-7p – Evening Yak featuring Big Cat, Rone and Carrabis

Cubs Remain Determined To Launch TV Network

BSM Staff
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Cubs Remain Determined To Launch TV Network

In recent years, Cubs’ owners, the Ricketts family, have raised ticket prices, added large video boards to Wrigley Field to capitalize on advertising revenue, and next up for the 2016 World Champions might be their own television network.

The Cubs’ current contracts with NBC Sports Chicago, ABC-7 and WGN-9 expire after the 2019 season. Since purchasing the franchise in 2009, the Ricketts family has looked toward the 2020 season as a target for launching their own TV network.

“We have a big passion for controlling our own destiny,” said Crane Kenney, the Cubs president of business operations. “It’s sort of like conversations in the real estate market. We like controlling our own destiny. You start adding partners and it becomes a lot more complicated.”

Some fans may not be excited about the need to purchase a more premium cable package to access Cubs games when they get their own network, but a TV network deal could potentially fund the player payroll and allow GM Theo Epstein to compete with the likes of the Yankees and Dodgers for premium free agents.

“(Bulls and White Sox Chairman) Jerry Reinsdorf has been an amazing partner, as has Comcast,” Kenney said. “It’s been a very successful thing. If it made the ultimate sense, it would (make sense to stay). But I’d say at the moment we’re 80 percent inclined to do it on our own.”  In their current contract, the Cubs own a 20% stake in NBC Sports Chicago, formerly Comcast Sportsnet Chicago.

This past season the Cubs also streamed four games on Facebook and are not opposed to a deal with a digital company. Considering the Facebook broadcasts were not heavily promoted, the Cubs were very satisfied with the results.

“These are conversations we’re having today, that’s the next phase of the test,” said Kenney. “One of the questions we’ve been asking is, what if you sold OTT rights separate from your linear package?”

With the growth of digital media companies, and their willingness to invest in sports programming, the Cubs see potential in a partnership with Facebook, Amazon, Twitter and others.

“There’s a strategy where widely distributed over-the-air television broadcasters can reach an incremental audience by distributing on a platform like Facebook,” said Dan Reed, Facebook’s head of global sports partnerships. “Facebook reaches a different audience. It’s an audience that’s on the go and accustomed to spending more time on their phones.”

The Cubs are locked into their current TV contracts for 2018 and 2019, but for a major market franchise as popular as they are, it ‘s logical for them to control their TV rights on their own network in the future.

Brandon Contes is a freelance writer for BSM. He can be found on Twitter @BrandonContes. To reach him by email click here.

Chris Berman and Tom Jackson Reunite on ESPN

BSM Staff
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After numerous layoffs and program restructuring during the course of the last 12 months, the face of ESPN and their NFL coverage since 1987, Chris Berman, was left without a role. This past weekend, however, ESPN announced Chris Berman will return for a Sunday night edition of NFL PrimeTime following the Conference Championship games this weekend.

“Just mentioned on @ESPNNFL: Chris Berman and [Tom Jackson] will reunite on NFL PrimeTime [with Keyshawn Johnson] after the Conference Championship games next Sunday,” tweeted Bill Hofheimer, Senior Director of Communications for ESPN.

Still employed by ESPN, Boomer provided play-by-play for the early round of the Major League Baseball Playoffs on ESPN Radio, but needed to adjust to having so much free time in the fall. Berman was invited by friends to their annual golf trip in Ireland near the beginning of the NFL season.

“They said, ‘Are you interested?'” Berman said in a September interview with NFL.com. “I said, ‘I can’t even compute the question. I worked 40 Septembers in a row. I don’t even know what you’re asking.’ It’s really not about me dealing with withdrawal. It’s just a coincidence that it was the first Sunday of the season.”

As Hofheimer tweeted, Berman will be joined by longtime ESPN partner Tom Jackson who retired from ESPN in 2016. Boomer and Jackson were on NFL PrimeTime from 1987-2005 as well as ESPN pregame shows, Sunday NFL Countdown and Monday Night Countdown until 2016.

Keyshawn Johnson, who hosts a morning radio show on ESPN Los Angeles, will also be a part of Sunday night’s NFL PrimeTime. Johnson joined ESPN in 2007 and left Sunday NFL Countdown in 2016.

No word as to whether or not the Championship Sunday edition of NFL Primetime could be  a precursor to more NFL coverage from Berman and Jackson in the two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl.

Brandon Contes is a freelance writer for BSM. He can be found on Twitter @BrandonContes. To reach him by email click here.

Championship Sunday Presents Ratings Test For The NFL

Jason Barrett
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Championship Sunday Presents Ratings Test For The NFL

Usually the AFC and NFC Championship games are saved for the elite quarterbacks. The NFL is used to seeing Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson and Ben Roethlisberger on Championship Sunday, but with three of the final four quarterbacks being Case Keenum, Nick Foles and Blake Bortles, what will that do for the league’s television ratings?

Entering the divisional round of the playoffs, the NFL had a chance to see Matt Ryan vs Drew Brees and Tom Brady vs Ben Roethlisberger on Championship Sunday. While the league enjoyed the exciting finishes the games provided, they have to be concerned with what the end results mean for next week’s ratings.

With a significant decline in television ratings for two consecutive years, Championship Weekend and the Super Bowl provide a chance for the NFL to rebound and reaffirm its popularity. For the NFC Championship, the Minnesota Vikings and Philadelphia Eagles bring with them the 15th and 4th largest local television markets respectively, according to Nielsen estimates. However, in terms of the larger audience, the quarterback matchup between Case Keenum and Nick Foles is one of the least attractive championship games the league has seen in recent years regarding their national popularity.

For the AFC game, New England and Jacksonville’s local markets are the 9th and 42nd largest in the country. The NFL is grateful to have the love ‘em or hate ‘em New England Patriots led by Tom Brady still playing and needs the polarizing franchise in the Super Bowl for all of their provided story lines.

Richard Deitsch of SI provided ratings from the previous six Championship Sundays in yesterday’s Media Circus article.

Date: Jan. 22, 2017
Early game: Falcons-Packers (Fox): 46.3 million viewers
Late game: Patriots-Steelers (CBS): 48.0 million viewers
Average viewership: 46.903 million

Date: Jan. 24, 2016
Early game: Broncos-Patriots (CBS): 53.3 million viewers
Late game: Panthers-Cardinals (Fox) 45.7 million viewers
Average viewership: 49.700 million

Date: Jan. 18 2015
Early game: Seahawks-Packers (Fox): 49.84 million viewers
Late game: Patriots-Colts (CBS): 42.14 million viewers
Average viewership: 46.151 million

Date: Jan. 19, 2014
Early game: Broncos-Patriots (CBS): 51.3 million viewers
Late game: Seahawks-Niners (Fox): 55.9 million viewers
Average viewership: 53.697 million

Date: Jan. 20, 2013
Early game: Niners-Falcons (Fox): 42.0 million viewers
Late game: Ravens-Patriots (CBS): 47.1 million viewers
Average viewership: 44.824 million

Date: Jan. 22, 2012
Early game: Patriots-Ravens (CBS): 48.7 million viewers
Late game: Giants-Niners (Fox): 57.6 million
Average viewership: 53.976 million

There is no consistent decline with these ratings, the numbers change based on the teams/markets involved and how close the game is late. The highest rated game was between two large markets, New York and San Francisco, a game that went into overtime. One of the lowest rated games had the Patriots and Colts, a blowout between the 9th and 28th largest television markets.

Last week Commissioner Roger Goodell said he wasn’t concerned about their ratings decline.

“We always want ratings to go up, but we’re 37 of the top 50 shows, which is higher than ever,” said Goodell . “We’re likely to be the No. 1 show on Fox — excuse me on all of television, the Fox Sunday afternoon game. Sunday night, prime time is for the seventh year in a row the No. 1 show. Thursday Night Football is No. 2. I think dominance of the NFL in television is still very clear.”

The league still generates higher ratings than other sports and television shows, but that doesn’t mean they’re not experiencing a decline that’s cause for concern. According to Sports Business Daily, the Wild Card Games had a double digit decrease from the previous year’s television ratings.

Early returns for the Divisional Round games showed a continued dip. Sportstvratings.com reported a 17.4 rating for the Falcons Eagles game, down from an 18.2 last season. Last year’s Packers Cowboys game was the highest rated divisional game ever, even with the fantastic finish to last night’s Vikings-Saints game the ratings are expected to show a large drop based on the teams’ national following.

The AFC Championship game between the Patriots and Jaguars on CBS has a 3:05 start time, with the FOX broadcast of Vikings vs Eagles getting the late window at 6:40pm ET.

Brandon Contes is a freelance writer for BSM. He can be found on Twitter @BrandonContes. To reach him by email click here.

ABC Could Bid For Thursday Night Football

Jason Barrett
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According to John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal, ABC is likely to place a bid for the NFL’s Thursday Night Football broadcast rights.

After being the first network to move the NFL into primetime with Monday Night Football, ABC is currently the only one of the four major broadcast networks that doesn’t own an NFL package. From 1970 to 2005 ABC televised Monday Night Football before the program moved to ESPN and ABC Sports became ESPN on ABC.

The previous contract for Thursday Night Football was split between CBS and NBC. A 450 million dollar contract, each network paid $45 million per game. In December, Ourand reported the NFL is open to changing the “TNF” broadcast and how it’s delivered to consumers. In addition to CBS and NBC televising “TNF,” it was also streamed on Amazon this past season.

Amazon paid $50 million for the rights to stream 11 NFL games, after Twitter paid $10 million for the same rights the year before. Yahoo also streamed NFL games this year, including the divisional round of the playoffs and will stream Championship Sunday and the Super Bowl.

ESPN, who still has not named a president since John Skipper resigned in December, pays $2 billion for their Monday Night Football package. Their MNF contract with the NFL expires in 2021 and reports in the fall had some questioning whether or not the NFL was getting too expensive for ESPN. It would be a surprise if ABC, which owns ESPN, wanted to take on an additional NFL expense with a Thursday Night Football package.

Brandon Contes is a freelance writer for BSM. He can be found on Twitter @BrandonContes. To reach him by email click here.

104.5 The Zone Expands Its Local Weekday Programming

Jason Barrett
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104.5 The Zone Expands Its Local Weekday Programming

104.5 The Zone in Nashville is expanding its local sports coverage starting Monday January 15, 2018. The announcement was made today live from Providence, Rhode Island where the station is broadcasting remotely prior to this Sunday’s Patriots-Titans game.

The particulars include an extra hour being given to the Midday 180 which features Jonathan Hutton, Paul Kuharsky and Chad Withrow. The show will now air weekdays from 10am-2pm CT. Additionally, the station’s popular afternoon program 3HL with Brent Dougherty, Mickey Ryan and Dawn Davenport will also add an hour and begin broadcasting weekdays from 2p–6p CT. No changes are necessary for the station’s morning show, The Wake Up Zone. To expand the local programs The Zone eliminates The Dan Patrick Show which had been airing weekdays from 10a-12p CT.

Along with the news of expanding two of the station’s three local programs, The Zone revealed that all three hosts of the Midday 180 had agreed to new multi-year contracts with the radio station.

“104.5 The Zone has long been Nashville’s pre-eminent sports station, and in an effort to devote more time to Nashville’s continually evolving sports landscape, we feel like it’s time that we are all local, all day long, said Brad Willis, Program Director of 104.5 The Zone. “I look forward to having our team cover the teams and sports that are important to Nashville, non-stop from 6am till 6pm every weekday.”

Midday 180 hosts Chad Withrow, Jonathan Hutton and Paul Kuharsky noted: “There have been plenty of days when we’ve signed off at 3pm saying, ‘We had more.’ We’re grateful that Cumulus and 104.5 The Zone are now giving us time to get to all of it. We look forward to loading up with even more great interviews with important people, giving you more commentary on the local teams and the issues of the day and spending additional time making each other — and hopefully our audience — laugh. Our commitment to you remains the same: In and out of season, we will crush on a daily basis.”

3HL hosts Brent Dougherty, Mickey Ryan and Dawn Davenport added: “Nashville sports fans are the best in the country and we are excited about the opportunity to spend more time with them. During that time we plan to continue to focus heavily on the sports and story lines that are most important to our listeners.”

Amazon Satisfied With Their First NFL Season

Jason Barrett
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As Amazon looks to broaden their offering of live sports content, the tech giant says they’re satisfied with their first season carrying NFL games.

“We’re just in the early stages here. We were definitely pleased with the way things played out,” said Jim DeLorenzo, the head of Amazon Sports. “It was great to partner with the NFL on this and we were really happy with how our customers reacted to it. But it’s too soon to say this impacts our strategy going forward.”

Amazon, paid $50 million to the NFL for the right to live stream 11 games, a large increase from the $10 million paid by Twitter for the same rights one year prior. Amazon built on Twitter’s audience, averaging 310,000 viewers per minute, a 17 percent jump from consumers watching on Twitter last season.

CBS and NBC which split the Thursday Night Football package, paid $45 million per game compared to the $50 million spent by Amazon for 11 games. The networks, however, averaged an audience size of more than 10 million. Next season’s Thursday Night Football broadcast package is up for grabs, with candidates submitting bids this month. According to a Sports Business Daily report last month, the NFL isn’t opposed to changes regarding how TNF is delivered to consumers.

In addition to the NFL, Amazon has also streamed tennis matches, college basketball and according to a recent Bloomberg report, they’re preparing a bid for the Premier League. DeLorenzo would not say how aggressive the company plans to get in terms of future spending on live sports content.

“This was really our first step into distributing live sporting events at scale on a global basis,” DeLorenzo said. “Of course there was learning. Because we’re so early on in that process of distributing this kind of content to our customers, there are a number of things we can look at along the way.”

Brandon Contes is a freelance writer for BSM. He can be found on Twitter @BrandonContes. To reach him by email click here.

Dallas Braden Replaces Mark Mulder on A’s Broadcasts

Jason Barrett
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Earlier in the week former Oakland Athletics pitcher, Mark Mulder, confirmed via “The Damon Bruce Show” on 95.7 The Game, he will not be back in the broadcast booth for any A’s telecasts this season. Previously, Mulder would fill in for color analyst Ray Fosse, joining play-by-play announcer Glen Kuiper.

“A little over a month ago, I suppose, and said, ‘we’re going to go in a different direction.’ So while unfortunate, I appreciate the time I had in those clubhouses and out on the field and talking baseball for the A’s fans,” Mulder told Bruce.

Yesterday, The Mercury News reported another former A’s pitcher, Dallas Braden, will be replacing Mulder. Braden will join the NBC Sports California broadcast team for a total of 89 A’s games, 35 in the booth and 54 games as a field analyst. Braden, who worked for ESPN from 2014-2017, will also be a studio analyst for NBC Sports California. On ESPN, Braden was one of the analysts on Baseball Tonight, but fell victim to the network’s layoffs last April.

“Dallas’ presence at nearly every home game in this newly created role will provide a dynamic perspective that fans have not seen before. We are excited to welcome a lifelong A to the broadcast team,” A’s President Dave Kaval said in the news release.

Mulder was a part-time color commentator for the A’s during the last two seasons, but the field analyst position that Braden will also fill during 54 games is the “newly created role” Kaval is referring to.

“Thank you for all the support [and] well wishes. I am EXTREMELY excited for 2018 [and] can’t wait to catch some A’s baseball with you folks,” Braden posted on Twitter

Brandon Contes is a freelance writer for BSM. He can be found on Twitter @BrandonContes. To reach him by email click here.

Mark Silverman Named President of Fox Sports

Jason Barrett
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Mark Silverman was named President of National Networks for Fox Sports, a position held by Jamie Horowitz for two years prior to his firing in July amid sexual harassment allegations. During the interim, Los Angeles based Fox Sports president Eric Shanks filled the position.

“Mark is an excellent, creative executive who has been in the FOX Sports family for over 11 years with great success,” said Shanks who announced the news yesterday. “We couldn’t be more thrilled he has chosen to take this new role on our team.”

Silverman joined Fox as president of the Big Ten Network during its inception in 2007, a position he still holds. With Silverman at the helm, the Big Ten Network has experienced great success, having over 60 million subscribers and an expanded digital platform thanks to BTN2Go and BTN Plus which enable streaming of live games and content.

“Mark’s been a creative and trusted leader at BTN for more than a decade,” said Jim Delany, Commissioner, Big Ten Conference. “I have no doubt that FOX Sports’ national networks will all benefit as a result of Mark’s special combination of executive skills. We look forward to continue to work with him in this new role.”

Prior to joining the Big Ten Network, Silverman had a 13-year tenure with The Walt Disney Company filling different executive positions including Senior Vice President and General Manager of the ABC Networks Group.

Silverman will begin his new role with Fox Sports beginning January 16th, overseeing all programming, production, marketing and digital for Fox, FS1 and FS2 as well as continuing his current role has president of the Big Ten Network.

“I have greatly enjoyed leading BTN for the past 11 years,” said Silverman. “I now look forward to joining the FOX Sports leadership team and working with some of the top brands and executives in the industry.”

Brandon Contes is a freelance writer for BSM. He can be found on Twitter @BrandonContes. To reach him by email click here.

Jalen and Jacoby Earn Daytime Slot on ESPN2

Jason Barrett
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Jalen & Jacoby are taking over the 2pm ET slot on ESPN2 starting today. The former NBA star and ESPN television producer recently brought back their popular podcast and now have a new daytime television show to go along with it.

“Jalen and Jacoby are truly two of the most unique voices in sports, and the connection fans have with them is something they’ve continued to expand throughout the seven years of their podcast,” said Richelle Markazene, coordinating producer for Jalen & Jacoby. “It seems only natural that what began as a podcast has organically grown and developed into a television show that really speaks to their diverse audience.”

Since teaming up seven years ago, the two men have formed a unique chemistry which has helped them rise up the ESPN ranks. Their podcast initially put them on the map and they’ve since gone on to add a YouTube show, ESPN Radio evening program and late-night TV show.

“I am truly excited and grateful for this wonderful opportunity so we can continue to ‘Give The People What They Want,’” said Rose. “I’m bringing back the bat and Jacoby promises to whiten his teeth.”

Added Jacoby: “I am honored and flattered about the decision that the executives at ESPN have made to feature Jalen & Jacoby in the afternoon on ESPN2. Working with Jalen and the staff on this show everyday has been the most challenging and enjoyable period of my long career at this company. My only concern about the new timeslot is it now gives those same executives an opportunity to actually watch the show and realize that they have made a huge mistake.”

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