It’s going to be a busy Thursday night for sports. ABC, ESPN and the NFL Network will carry what should be a solid audience for the first round of the NFL Draft (especially with the large-market N.Y. Giants having two picks in the top 10). It’s a busy night in N.Y. alone, as Knicks-Hawks is one of three Prime Video NBA first-round playoff games that night. Fox has Yankees-Red Sox. TNT/TBS/truTV are airing three NHL first-round playoff games (no worries about the N.Y. market there, as the Devils, Rangers and Islanders all missed the postseason). And for those looking to scratch the college football itch, the reigning national champion Indiana Hoosiers have their spring game in prime time on Big Ten Network.
I’m keeping my eye on who might become the next commissioner of the Big East now that Val Ackerman is retiring after this school year. But media rights won’t be an immediate need for the conference, which just started six-year pacts with Fox, NBC and TNT Sports. ESPN+ also got a small sliver of the media pie.
At last week’s CAA World Congress of Sports, Fox Sports’ Eric Shanks gave a shoutout to RedBird Capital’s Gerry Cardinale for making the connection with Zlatan Ibrahimović, who will be an analyst for the FIFA World Cup. Cardinale also owns AC Milan, where Ibrahimović played from 2010-12 and 2019-23.
It’s a small feature, but shoutout to ESPN and producer Phil Orlins for highlighting announcers’ names when they are speaking during UFL broadcasts. This is something ESPN launched during “MNF Playbook with Next Gen Stats” at the end of last season. I found this to be helpful while tuning into the UFL for a little bit, as there are a lot of additional voices/audio feeds on those broadcasts.
