Post by Cliff's Notes on May 20, 2011 9:28:08 GMT -5
A few interesting things happening in TV for sports right now. I'm wondering if (hoping?) the combination will change sports for the better.
Comcast/NBC FINALLY kicks Dick Ebersol to the curb. Interesting article on his failures here: deadspin.com/5803550/deadspin-classic-dick-ebersol-is-the-biggest-failure-of-them-all.
I always got the sense that NBC Sports was incredibly elitist, from their coverage of Horse Racing and Notre Dame and Olympics, and more or less ignorance of anything that they weren't broadcasting. If you watched a Michigan-Notre Dame telecast, or a Nationally televised Red Wings game, or Sunday Night Football, I always felt they were talking down to me, and trying to say "YOU SHOULD ONLY BE INTERESTED IN WHAT WE TELECAST". There is no other college football program of importance besides Notre Dame. They fully targeted their Olympic coverage to women (and had tape-delays all the time). And they just didn't get it with their Sunday Night Football. They acted like their viewers had not seen any other football on Sunday. When, of course, most people had already seen a game or two, and sat through the talking heads and highlights on ESPN or CBS or FOX already.
I'm hopeful that with the loss of Ebersol , and the recent rebranding of Versus to NBC Sports and the increased coverage of the NHL that perhaps NBC can become a player in other sports. To challenge ESPN.
By the way, the bidding for the Olympics is soon; this may lead to ESPN taking over the coverage. I'll get to ESPN in a second, but I think they did a fantastic job with the World Cup, and from what I've seen, their production on the X Games is top notch, too. I'm sure they would be an improvement on NBC's past coverage.
On to ESPN... I'm curious to see if the new book shakes things up. There's a lot not to like about ESPN, and I think we had a thread about that a while ago. But if this book leads to them cleaning up their fraternity-like behavior, and dumping some raging asshole talking heads like Rob Parker, and wife beaters like Matthew Barnaby and Jay Mariotti, I think the product might improve. I think ESPN could go so far as to cut half of their on-air talent.... Do we really need more than two or three people for College Gameday or NFL Countdown or halftime shows? Not counting on it though.
Next, The Pac-10 and NHL just completed their latest TV contracts, and the money they recieved is up substantially.
Sports are obviously big properties, and I think that Execs and leagues are going to milk it for everything they are worth. What I think this will translate into is more coverage, more access, more options, and better games and schedules. As examples:
NBC Sports now has exclusive coverage of the second round of the NHL playoffs. While I'd rather watch Ken and Mick on FSD, I will get to see more NHL Playoff games. There's talk of a second outdoor hockey game event... either two on Jan 1, or perhaps adding one over Thanksgiving Weekend.
The Big Ten football access is improving in multiple ways. Beyond the benefits of adding a marquee brand in Nebraska, and the obvious establishment of The Big Ten Network. I've mentioned that they are staggering the start of their season. Instead of everyone starting Week Five (and yielding the worst Week Four schedule possible), we now have some decent Week Four game over the next few years. Additionally, the Big Ten will have 14 Prime Time games in September and October, which seems a lot higher than in previous years. Usually, we had only 1 or 2 time slots that were interesting. Finally, It's going to take a while (my guess is 6-8 years), but it appears that The Big Ten is seriously looking at adding a 9th conference game. This obviously eliminates the need for a much weaker non-conference opponent.
The final note for college football is that right now, it's "just about" at the tipping point where TV revenues for a marquee national game are equivalent to a home game for a marquee school. This is the reason that The UM-Alabama game at JerryWorld in Dallas got scheduled. If TV properties continue to inflate in value at these rates, this will mean that soon, it will be MORE LUCRATIVE for the top teams to play each other that to simply host a MAC/SunBelt/FCS school. Which hopefully means a much more loaded non-conference schedule.
The NFL is already talking about an 18 game regular season schedule. Whether or not this happens, I can see a couple of other things happening, too.
First is an added bye week. It's currently a 16-game season in 17 weeks. They can add a week of TV coverage simply by adding a Bye week, so it's 16 games in 18 weeks. If they do go to 18 games in 20 weeks, the fantasy football calender just increased by three weeks. Awesome.
Also, I can see the first round of the playoffs increasing. Currently 12 teams make the playoffs, and four get a first round bye, so there are four games the first weekend. I'm confident that they will make the move soon to 14 teams and only two get a first round bye, yielding 6 first round games.
We've already discussed the changes to the NCAA Tournament (for better or worse, there are more games and better coverage with TBS, although TruTV is ummm... yeah).
Also, Big Ten hockey, lacrosse, and baseball...
Opportunities for improvements ahead. I'm optimistic and curious to see how it shakes out.
Comcast/NBC FINALLY kicks Dick Ebersol to the curb. Interesting article on his failures here: deadspin.com/5803550/deadspin-classic-dick-ebersol-is-the-biggest-failure-of-them-all.
I always got the sense that NBC Sports was incredibly elitist, from their coverage of Horse Racing and Notre Dame and Olympics, and more or less ignorance of anything that they weren't broadcasting. If you watched a Michigan-Notre Dame telecast, or a Nationally televised Red Wings game, or Sunday Night Football, I always felt they were talking down to me, and trying to say "YOU SHOULD ONLY BE INTERESTED IN WHAT WE TELECAST". There is no other college football program of importance besides Notre Dame. They fully targeted their Olympic coverage to women (and had tape-delays all the time). And they just didn't get it with their Sunday Night Football. They acted like their viewers had not seen any other football on Sunday. When, of course, most people had already seen a game or two, and sat through the talking heads and highlights on ESPN or CBS or FOX already.
I'm hopeful that with the loss of Ebersol , and the recent rebranding of Versus to NBC Sports and the increased coverage of the NHL that perhaps NBC can become a player in other sports. To challenge ESPN.
By the way, the bidding for the Olympics is soon; this may lead to ESPN taking over the coverage. I'll get to ESPN in a second, but I think they did a fantastic job with the World Cup, and from what I've seen, their production on the X Games is top notch, too. I'm sure they would be an improvement on NBC's past coverage.
On to ESPN... I'm curious to see if the new book shakes things up. There's a lot not to like about ESPN, and I think we had a thread about that a while ago. But if this book leads to them cleaning up their fraternity-like behavior, and dumping some raging asshole talking heads like Rob Parker, and wife beaters like Matthew Barnaby and Jay Mariotti, I think the product might improve. I think ESPN could go so far as to cut half of their on-air talent.... Do we really need more than two or three people for College Gameday or NFL Countdown or halftime shows? Not counting on it though.
Next, The Pac-10 and NHL just completed their latest TV contracts, and the money they recieved is up substantially.
Sports are obviously big properties, and I think that Execs and leagues are going to milk it for everything they are worth. What I think this will translate into is more coverage, more access, more options, and better games and schedules. As examples:
NBC Sports now has exclusive coverage of the second round of the NHL playoffs. While I'd rather watch Ken and Mick on FSD, I will get to see more NHL Playoff games. There's talk of a second outdoor hockey game event... either two on Jan 1, or perhaps adding one over Thanksgiving Weekend.
The Big Ten football access is improving in multiple ways. Beyond the benefits of adding a marquee brand in Nebraska, and the obvious establishment of The Big Ten Network. I've mentioned that they are staggering the start of their season. Instead of everyone starting Week Five (and yielding the worst Week Four schedule possible), we now have some decent Week Four game over the next few years. Additionally, the Big Ten will have 14 Prime Time games in September and October, which seems a lot higher than in previous years. Usually, we had only 1 or 2 time slots that were interesting. Finally, It's going to take a while (my guess is 6-8 years), but it appears that The Big Ten is seriously looking at adding a 9th conference game. This obviously eliminates the need for a much weaker non-conference opponent.
The final note for college football is that right now, it's "just about" at the tipping point where TV revenues for a marquee national game are equivalent to a home game for a marquee school. This is the reason that The UM-Alabama game at JerryWorld in Dallas got scheduled. If TV properties continue to inflate in value at these rates, this will mean that soon, it will be MORE LUCRATIVE for the top teams to play each other that to simply host a MAC/SunBelt/FCS school. Which hopefully means a much more loaded non-conference schedule.
The NFL is already talking about an 18 game regular season schedule. Whether or not this happens, I can see a couple of other things happening, too.
First is an added bye week. It's currently a 16-game season in 17 weeks. They can add a week of TV coverage simply by adding a Bye week, so it's 16 games in 18 weeks. If they do go to 18 games in 20 weeks, the fantasy football calender just increased by three weeks. Awesome.
Also, I can see the first round of the playoffs increasing. Currently 12 teams make the playoffs, and four get a first round bye, so there are four games the first weekend. I'm confident that they will make the move soon to 14 teams and only two get a first round bye, yielding 6 first round games.
We've already discussed the changes to the NCAA Tournament (for better or worse, there are more games and better coverage with TBS, although TruTV is ummm... yeah).
Also, Big Ten hockey, lacrosse, and baseball...
Opportunities for improvements ahead. I'm optimistic and curious to see how it shakes out.