My apologies on not updating the site as usual this week. Suffice to say that I’ve been away since last Saturday and unable to do my usual job. I’ll be back home on Friday and be back in my own bed, but know that I am keeping up to date on the latest sports media developments so I do know what’s going on.
I’ll provide a few thoughts so you have some fresh content here. As usual, it comes in bullet form.
- Whether or not you’re a fan of the Little League World Series, you’ll be amazed to learn that ESPN shells out an estimated $7.5 million annually for a contract that will expire in 2022. The previous deal paid Little League Baseball $30.5 million. I’m one who has soured on the LLWS feeling TV exploits the kids. All of the money goes to Little League Baseball and none to those playing the games.
Some of the contests even outrate MLB games nationally which is quite sad. ESPN feels the two week tournament fills programming holes in August and bridges a summer gap to football. Even so, the games do little more than to fill time.
- As the current NASCAR speeds towards the Chase for the Sprint Cup, Sports Business Journal’s Tripp Mickle and John Ourand report that ESPN and Turner are negotiating for an early exit out of their contracts. After both lost on renewing their rights to Fox and NBC, Turner and ESPN said they were looking forward to their final years of airing Sprint Cup races in 2014.
However, with ratings down for the sport this year, and the cost of producing the races getting prohibitive, ESPN and Turner are talking about selling back their rights to NASCAR. Both Fox and NBC are open to starting their new contracts a year early. There are a lot of hurdles to overcome for this to happen, but with all four parties discussing the matter and open to the idea, I’m willing to predict that this will come to fruition.
- Should it be surprising that ESPN pulled out of the PBS-Frontline documentary on NFL concussions? With the NFL being a $2 billion partner on Monday Night Football, one would think ESPN would give the league an open ear on stories that could be negative. And while we bemoan the loss of journalistic integrity with the Alleged Worldwide Leader, let us not forget that ESPN’s failure known as “Playmakers” was also dropped due to league pressure.
Both ESPN and the NFL can deny all they want, but the whole thing smacks of collusion and definitely not of a lack of branding. And I don’t see the other NFL TV partners stepping in to pick up ESPN’s slack. Not. At. All.
- I’ve enjoyed ESPN’s Nine for IX women’s sports documentaries. While they haven’t done well in the ratings, the subject matters have been quite compelling. Here’s hoping ESPN Films will come out with another batch of Nine for IX’s.
And that will do it.
