Media Notes: Best NFL preseason viewership since 2018
The NFL had its best preseason viewership since 2018, averaging 2.2 million viewers across NFL Network, NBC, CBS, ESPN and Fox. That’s up 17% from last year. NFL Network alone, which carried the bulk of live games, averaged 1.8 million for those telecasts, the network’s best figure on record for the...
‘Bussin’ With The Boys’ joining up with ESPN
“Bussin with the Boys,” the independent podcast hosted and owned by former NFLers Taylor Lewan and Will Compton, has a new deal with ESPN to appear across its platforms during the football season. Appearances will start Sept. 4 and largely be on “Get Up” alongside Mike Greenberg out of ESPN’s Manhat...
ESPN re-org has Scott Clark overseeing ‘SportsCenter’
ESPN is doing a re-org within the production group led by David Roberts, EVP & Executive Editor/Sports News & Entertainment.
Audience Analysis: IndyCar up 28% ahead of finale; CBS wraps record WNBA season
IndyCar will head into its championship race with viewership up 28% on Fox compared to the same point on NBCU networks last season. The 16 races on Fox/FS1 this season have averaged 1.38 million viewers, above the 1.07 million that NBC/USA/CNBC had. Fox drew 779,000 viewers on Sunday for the race fr...
ESPN sees Dublin college football game audience drop 20% from 2024
ESPN saw a 20% audience dip for the Aer Lingus College Football Classic on Saturday to open the season. Iowa State-Kansas State in Dublin, Ireland, drew 3.97 million viewers, well below what Georgia Tech-Florida State drew last year in the same game in the same window (4.99 million). That game also ...
DAZN sublicensing ESPN college football/basketball games in Europe, MENA
DAZN and ESPN have struck a multiyear sublicensing deal for college football and basketball content to be aired in a large number of countries across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. The deal covers up to 25 college football games per week during the regular season on DAZN, cover contests f...
The CW renews long-term with Pac-12, adding semis/final of women’s hoops tourney
The CW and Pac-12 are formally extending a media rights deal through the 2030-31 school year, with the deal beginning with the 2026-27 season. Financial terms were not available. The CW will get 13 regular-season football games per season, 35 regular-season men’s basketball games and 15 regular-seas...
‘Wake Up Barstool’ will be name of new FS1 show
“Wake Up Barstool” will be the name of the new morning show on FS1 done in conjunction with Barstool Sports. The two-hour show will debut Sept. 2 and air weekdays from 8-10am ET and feature personalities Dave Portnoy, Dan “Big Cat” Katz and Eric “PFT Commenter” Sollenberger, with T-Bob Hebert, Brand...
SBJ Media: Sports sails into Nielsen’s Big Data era
The August 25 edition of the Sports Business Journal Media newsletter reports on the implementation of "Big Data" by Nielsen to improve how it reports numbers for sports viewership, Tennis Channel Chair and CEO Jeff Blackburn's work to boost the network's profile, and what stories SBJ Media Writer A...
Jeff Blackburn pushing Tennis Channel into its next phase
Four months into his role as chair and CEO, Jeff Blackburn is putting his stamp on Tennis Channel after a long run at Amazon Studios.