- This week’s SBJ Sports Media Podcast features co-hosts Austin Karp and Josh Carpenter reflecting on the massive viewership around the World Cup quarterfinals as well as Bundesliga’s shift away from ESPN. They also examine Netflix’s debut production of MLB’s Home Run Derby. Later on, Chicago Sports Network President Mike McCarthy joins the show for RSN chatter.
- Mark Shapiro, the president and COO of TKO Group Holdings, hailed UFC Freedom 250 as a massive success. He’s also emphatic about the likelihood of a sequel event on the White House lawn: “We’re never doing that again,” writes SBJ’s Chris Smith.
- ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro was emphatic Thursday that his network would consider housing the NBA’s impending local streaming hub, after reading SBJ’s report this week that YouTube is already in substantive talks with the league, reports SBJ’s Tom Friend and Austin Karp.
- A day after SBJ reported that Adam Silver persuaded WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert to suspend Alyssa Thomas for putting a fist on Caitlin Clark’s throat, the NBA commissioner lamented that Clark has “become a bit of a political football in this country” and added, “I think it’s incredibly unfair to her,” writes SBJ’s Tom Friend.
- Sources also tell Karp that MLB’s Home Run Derby drew its lowest audience since 2003, with Netflix drawing just 5.3 million viewers for its debut with the tentpole event.
- Paramount Skydance says its streaming service averaged 6.1 million viewers, with a peak of 8.295 million, in the U.S. for the Saturday night card that featured Conor McGregor’s short-lived UFC return with an anticlimactic ending but big commercial metrics, reports SBJ’s Adam Stern.
- Knicks G Jalen Brunson said that he is “in the process” of building more of a media brand while discussing his off-court business at a Wall Street Journal Sports conference Thursday in N.Y., notes SBJ’s Joe Lemire.
- MLB officials said merch sales at the All-Star Village fan fest surpassed the previous high from the 2022 fan fest in L.A. by a double-digit percentage and a 45% increase from last year in Atlanta, writes SBJ’s Terry Lefton.
- Thursday’s op-ed contends that the next phase of growth in college athletics will come from universities operating more like integrated commercial ecosystems.
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