SBJ Media: Scripps Sports looks to continue local buildout

Telemundo has revised and restated some of its early FIFA World Cup viewership numbers. Sources tell me that figures from June 11-15 were inflated north of 35% in initial reporting by the network. Even with several corrections, Telemundo’s superlatives regarding most-watched Spanish-language World Cup games are sticking. The problem seems to have been with the streaming measurement around Peacock, sources added.

While any correction like this distract a bit from what Telemundo has done early on, the numbers are still strong. Monitor what the Spanish-language Mexico-South Korea number ends up, as sources said that game is likely to end up even higher than Mexico-South Africa at the start of the tourney.

With NBA and NHL teams now laser-focused on offseason business, Scripps Sports — with local rights to five hockey teams and one basketball team — is in acquisition mode. Scripps already locked up the Pistons last month and was in the running for the Heat.

“We have a business model that’s working really well for us ... in markets that we’re already doing business where we have typically an NBC, ABC, CBS or Fox station,” Scripps Sports President Brian Lawlor said. “We’re in 40-something markets. There’s still other NHL and other NBA markets that check that box, and we’ve gotten a lot of calls from other teams that aren’t in our in markets [where] we might own an ION but we don’t own like an ABC, NBC, CBS.”

However, just because Scripps doesn’t have a Big Four station in certain NBA or NHL markets looking for a solution doesn’t mean it can’t get one set up. “We’ve chosen not to yet,” Lawlor said. “We don’t have a news brand and a sales team and those relationships, and all of that is really important for us in being able to amplify and advance. But down the road — we’re clearly executing on sort of ‘Scripps Sports 1.0’ [right now] — maybe moving to 2.0 with some level of maturity that didn’t exist a couple years ago.”

Scripps does local game distribution for the Golden Knights (whose owner, Bill Foley, launched a bid for an NBA expansion team Monday afternoon), Mammoth, Predators, Lightning and Panthers. Lawlor said that, while many in the media and hockey business were cautious at first, those relationships have turned out to be fruitful.

“Our thesis that the teams were seeking reach and over-the-air broadcast could really dramatically extend their reach was spot on,” he said. “There were things that we believed early on that we got wrong, but we were able to then sort of tweak it and advance it. … We’ve opened up a lot of new sponsorship opportunities. … We’re able to just take a lot of those sponsors and sort of upsell them into sports, and then there’s a whole lot of other businesses that are not traditional advertisers but lean into sports.”

As the NBA and NHL both reportedly look to develop national solutions for local broadcasts, Lawlor, who said Scripps’ relationship with the NHL league office has been great, sees the company continuing to provide a crucial function.

“The NBA obviously floats it all the time that they want to consolidate their digital rights, but still be on linear or potentially down the road roll up on linear,” Lawlor said. “But we’ve proved in the NHL — these games on free, over-the-air television are really valuable and they reach a ton of fans, and that’s not going to be the case tucked behind a paywall.”

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Taylor Twellman is certainly making the rounds during this World Cup.

The voice of MLS on Apple TV isn’t calling World Cup games since Fox has those rights, but he’s been a soccer ambassador of sorts, popping up on programs like “SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt,” “The Rich Eisen Show,” “Today” or “Yahoo Sports Daily.”

“There’s a lot of freedom in the sense that I can kind of do everything,” Twellman told me.

But a big win for Twellman came Friday when he co-hosted “PTI” for the first time alongside Frank Isola. Twellman, who’s repped by Dan Segal at The Team, was a longtime ESPN employee and a frequent guest when Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon would host.

“That [“PTI”] staff — I just got to know really well and enjoyed their company and they were like, ‘Listen, Tony and Mike aren’t around. Can you squeeze it in?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I would absolutely love to,’” Twellman said. “If I’m not calling games or in studio for the broadcaster, then how do you grow the sport? There’s nothing better than a platform like that.”

Twellman gets El Trafico (LA Galaxy vs. LAFC on July 17) when Apple TV returns with MLS action after the World Cup, and he believes that, regardless of what happens with the USMNT from here, there will be some new energy from fans.

But what Twellman is more bullish on is the change of MLS’s calendar to match other major global leagues. “The change of schedule is going to be the fuel to the spaceship,” he said. “That’s going to motivate the owners and motivate the power brokers to say, ‘Let’s expand this.’”

The NBA is riding a wave of momentum heading into Tuesday night’s NBA Draft, which has one of the deepest classes in years. It’s being compared to the 2003 draft, which had the likes of LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade, as well as the 1996 draft, which featured Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, Stephon Marbury, Ray Allen, Antoine Walker, Peja Stojakovic, Steve Nash and Jermaine O’Neal.

I asked ESPN basketball analyst Jay Bilas which player from this year’s class will develop into a must-see TV attraction like some of those names above, especially with the Wizards, Jazz and Grizzlies having the first three picks. The top projected selections — BYU’s AJ Dybantsa, Kansas’ Darryn Peterson and Duke’s Cameron Boozer — obviously came up, but Bilas also mentioned North Carolina’s Caleb Wilson as “the most dynamic athlete in the draft.” Most mock drafts have Wilson going to the Bulls at No. 4, which could help Chicago with more national TV windows. Bilas added that Arkansas’ Darius Acuff Jr. “could wind up leading the NBA in scoring” one day, and he also talked about the abilities of Louisville’s Mikel Brown Jr.

Where Bilas sees real potential for players impacting TV is with good teams that are drafting later. “Because of the level of talent, you’re going to have guys who are going to be drafted further down that are going to be great,” he said. His prime example was two-time reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who was chosen No. 11 overall.

This is the third year in a row that the NBA Draft will take place over two nights. ESPN and ABC will carry the first night, with each having a distinct telecast. The first round last year averaged 3.8 million viewers, well below the 4.4 million in 2024.

The World Cup TV numbers in the U.S. for games featuring the USMNT and El Tri are crazy good. But look at what Brazil and Argentina delivered early on Fox — over 10 million for Brazil-Morocco and then 9.1 million for Leo Messi’s hat trick against Algeria. Those are the two best non-USMNT group stage games ever on English-language TV. The Argentina number in particular got me thinking again about what MLS could have drawn for many of Messi’s Inter Miami matches if they were exclusively on linear TV.

Kansas City has easily been the hottest market for Fox Sports’ World Cup matches with a 4.32 local rating, and the city, which is hosting six games during the tournament, has easily outpaced No. 2 Boston (3.53). Rounding out the top five markets for games that have aired on Fox/FS1 are Austin (3.34), Dallas-Fort Worth (3.24) and San Diego (3.23).

Nielsen had some interesting data around the top shows for the 2025-26 TV season. Even when looking at Live+7 data, which benefits entertainment programming, “Sunday Night Football” on NBC/Peacock was the leader at 23.5 million viewers, beating out Netflix’s “Stranger Things” by around 1 million viewers. “Monday Night Football” on ESPN/ABC/ESPN2 was No. 3 overall, followed by “Marshalls” (CBS/Paramount+) and “Tracker” (CBS/Paramount+). The only other sports show in the top 30 was ABC’s “Saturday Night Football,” which came in at No. 27, just above “Fallout” on Prime Video.

The NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships averaged 280,000 viewers this year (men and women), down 16% amid heavy competition from the FIFA World Cup after the first night on ESPN. Last year’s four nights averaged 334,000.

The UFC Freedom 250 from the White House’s South Lawn on June 14 delivered 7 million viewers on Paramount+, marking the first time Nielsen-measured figures have been released for a live event on the streaming platform.

• On the latest SBJ Sports Media Podcast, co-host Josh Carpenter and I dig into the big numbers to start the World Cup and how Fox has commercialized hydration breaks. We also discuss NBA and NHL ending their seasons with strong viewership for their championships and what to make of Fox’s purchase of Roku. I also interviewed Lance Fensterman, CEO of Fanatics Events, to talk about the upcoming Fanatics Fest.
• Bank of America Securities analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich upgraded Disney to a “buy” based on some factors surrounding the company’s fiscal Q3, including profitability inflection/growth in DTC, multiyear sports drivers like personalization, betting and multiscreen experiences that are “cementing ESPN’s role as the premium sports platform.” Two sports headwinds were the strong NBA Finals viewership being offset by only a five-game series and a continued blackout of NFL Network on certain distributors, like Comcast Xfinity.
• USA Sports President Matt Hong discusses how the network is growing its business beyond a traditional pay TV model in SBJ’s latest episode of “On My Mind.”
• ESPN is tapping Rece Davis of “College GameDay” as a studio host for its upcoming two weeks of Wimbledon coverage, continuing a year of shake-ups to the network’s talent lineup for tennis, reports SBJ’s Rob Schaefer. This is Davis’ first foray into tennis.
• NASCAR bankrolled a 30-minute film on Amazon Prime to promote the debut San Diego race, pitting fictional drivers head-to-head against the Navy in farcical events such as dodgeball. It also features a car-vs.-jet race. Concept80 put it together in two-and-a-half days, writes SBJ’s Tom Friend.