AWFUL ANNOUNCING’s Drew Lerner wrote on Thursday, we heard directly from NBA Commissioner Adam Silver about the league’s ratings narratives in light of a 2% drop in season-long viewership this year. Silver said Thursday that the relatively small drop is “a victory these days, especially with declining television viewership from traditional television.” Lerner noted viewership post-trade deadline “increased by 16% versus viewership pre-deadline.” The trade deadline also “coincided with Nielsen’s expansion of out-of-home viewing measurements,” which “has lifted up all sports properties when it comes to viewership” (AWFUL ANNOUNCING, 4/17).
OPEN TO ANYTHING: PUCK’s John Ourand wrote MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has “made it perfectly clear” to teams that he “eventually wants to control their local streaming rights at the league level.” The problem is that many of the big-market teams “believe their local market rights are too valuable to cede to the league office.” At least one big-market team, though, has “bought into the idea.” Giants CEO Larry Baer said, “That’s something we’re very open to, and most teams are very open to.” Ourand noted the Giants own about a third of NBC Sports Bay Area, but even Baer “admitted that pro sports teams have more questions than answers about where local sports are headed” (PUCK, 4/17).
SHINE BRIGHT LIKE A DIAMOND: FloSports will debut its Wanda Diamond League coverage starting April 26, with an event from Xiamen, China, that will stream on the FloTrack platform. For the first time, fans will get a multi-stream experience, with four to five dedicated streams for every Diamond League event. Starting with the event in Qatar on May 16, FloTrack will also debut a personality-driven feed dubbed “The Athlete’s Lounge,” featuring former Olympians Matthew Centrowitz Jr., Trey Hardee, English Gardner and others throughout the season, joined by FloTrack personalities Demitra Carter and Nia Gibson (Austin Karp, SBJ).
CENTRAL TIME: In Chicago, Jeff Agrest talked to analyst Mark DeRosa of “MLB Central” as the show celebrates its 10th anniversary (the show also just received its first Sports Emmy nomination). DeRosa has co-hosted with Robert Flores and Lauren Shehadi since the start of the 2018 season. “The three of us have really good chemistry that’s been built over time,” he said. “We wanna laugh, we wanna tell the truth, but we are not there to hunt the negative. I wanted to create a show that I would watch if I played. It’s a fun, vibrant morning show” (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 4/17).
