Good afternoon, here’s what we’re following at SBJ today:
- NBC upfront heavy on entertainment, but sports viewership continues to lead in 18-49
- Reflecting on Year 1 of SBJ Women’s Sports
- PWHL postpones Montreal-Minnesota Game 5 over player illness
- Plus: Sesame Street comes to World Cup, Bills’ new home getting national spotlight, Nebraska players suffer NIL setback and more
Start your morning with Buzzcast with Abe Madkour: George Pyne’s bet on global sports; the NFL’s media-balancing act; are fissures emerging on possible long-term Blazers deal? Listen >>
THE BIG STORY
NBC upfront heavy on entertainment, but sports viewership continues to lead in 18-49
Coming off a year in which NBC had the Super Bowl and Winter Olympics, it was natural for sports to be somewhat less prominent at the company’s upfront presentation. Yet the network emphasized how it’s started to own Sunday nights during the entire year with its lineup of NFL, NBA and MLB games, reports SBJ’s Austin Karp.
“Football Night in America” was where NBC specifically highlighted sports during the event at Radio City Music Hall, as Mike Tirico and Bob Costas welcomed the show’s newest analyst in former Steelers coach Mike Tomlin.
“SNF” has been the No. 1 show in prime time for 15 straight seasons, because, well, it’s the NFL. But numbers for the recent run of 10 prime-time NBA Playoff games on NBC (April 19-May 5) show that NBC averaged 4.75 million viewers and 1.57 million viewers among the advertiser-friendly adults 18-49 demo. “Sunday Night Basketball” averaged 823,000 viewers among adults 18-49, and even NBC’s lone “Sunday Night Baseball” game this season averaged 520,000 in the 18-49 demo.
5 STORIES WE’RE WATCHING
1. Reflecting on Year 1 of SBJ Women’s Sports: SBJ’s Rachel Axon looks back at the first year of our dedicated newsletter on women’s sports, focusing on the intense level of dealmaking and innovation as brands and leagues capitalize on the industry’s momentum.
2. PWHL postpones Montreal-Minnesota Game 5 over player illness: Game 5 of the PWHL Walter Cup Playoffs between the Minnesota Frost and Montréal Victoire will be played at 7pm ET Tuesday at Place Bell after the game, originally scheduled for Monday, was postponed due to player safety concerns related to illness.
3. Fox Sports bringing Sesame Street characters to World Cup coverage: Fox Sports and Sesame Street struck a deal around the FIFA World Cup, with Elmo, Cookie Monster, Big Bird and other characters set to appear on Fox programming and World Cup telecasts this summer.
4. Bills to debut new Highmark Stadium in Week 2 against the Lions on ‘TNF’: The Bills will hold their first regular-season game in their new Highmark Stadium against the Lions in Week 2 on Sept. 17, kicking off Amazon Prime Video’s “Thursday Night Football” schedule.
5. Nebraska football players lose case against CSC over NIL deals: Eighteen Nebraska football players lost their arbitration case against the College Sports Commission, which denied $1 million in NIL deals through the Cornhusker’s multimedia partner, Playfly Sports.
ON THE MOVE
- Fanatics Commerce named Jamie Gersch as CMO. Gersch most recently served as CMO at Rothy’s. Prior to that, she served as SVP and CMO at Old Navy (Fanatics Commerce).
- OVG Global Partnerships named Albert Powell as VP/National Sales where he will oversee sales for OVG’s Arena Alliance, Theater Alliance and OVG’s National Sales (Oak View Group).
- Strategy Red Sports announced the acquisition of boutique agency Big Fly Collective. As part of the acquisition, Big Fly Collective founder Chris Zoller will join Strategy Red full-time to lead the launch of the company’s Strategic Activation division. (Strategy Red Sports).
- Sports marketing and management agency Network named Tylene Braswell as VP/talent and operations and added former ESPN exec Sean Hanrahan to the company’s advisory board (Network).
NAMES IN THE NEWS
- René Cárdenas, the first Spanish-language broadcaster for the Dodgers, Astros and Rangers during a 60-year career, died at 96. The Astros on Monday said that Cárdenas “died Sunday at his home in Houston.” Cárdenas joined the Dodgers when they moved to L.A. in 1958. He was part of the first Spanish broadcast of the World Series in 1959 and the MLB All-Star Game two years later. The Astros, then known as the Colt .45s, hired Cárdenas in 1961 for their inaugural season of 1962, and he spent 14 seasons with the club. In 1981, Cárdenas became the first Spanish broadcaster for the Rangers (AP, 5/11).
- The Vikings unveiled Monday morning that they plan to induct retired NFL player Adrian Peterson into the team’s Ring of Honor (St. Paul PIONEER PRESS, 5/11)
- The Islanders announced Monday that D Matthew Schaefer and Northwell Health partnered, through a $150,000 gift from the Islanders Children’s Foundation, to “open the Jennifer Schaefer Child Support Center in October” (NEWSDAY, 5/11).
- Bills RB and kick returner Ray Davis’ journey in the foster care system is “barreling forward as a feature film” with Crossroad Production’s “Breakaway Ray,” with Gary Fleder directing (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 5/11).
HOT READS
The London INDEPENDENT went with the header, “The inside story of Ronda Rousey’s rise and fall: ‘It was constant insanity.’” In her prime, Rousey was “employing her Olympic medal-winning judo skills to ragdoll opponents and nearly break their arms.” But as she “filled an Australian stadium for her 2015 title defense against Holly Holm, in the biggest event in UFC history, her fighting career came crashing down.”
Also:
- College sports’ new enforcement entity remains on shaky ground despite a costly arbitration victory.
- Why tennis is becoming a casualty of college football and basketball’s insatiable budget.
- The Otis College of Art and Design students designing sportswear for the future.
- Meet the new women’s sports magazine that wants you to step away from the algorithm.