TelevisaUnivision said it made a new deal with Major League Baseball that adds more of TelevisaUnivision’s Spanish-language networks to the MLB lineup starting later this month.

TelevisaUnivision’s networks will air regular-season baseball games, postseason games and Game 1 of the World Series.

The company’s UniMás network will launch a new weekly two-hour whip-around show called MLB En Vivo that will feature live look-ins, highlights and recaps of up to 15 games each Tuesday. 

Another weekly show, MLB Esta Semana, will air during the regular season on Saturdays on UniMás.

“Baseball is engrained in Latin culture,” said Marco Liceaga, senior VP of sports rights acquisitions and commercial partnerships at Televisa Univision. “With Hispanic players making up more than 30% of the league, this first-time partnership deal will undoubtedly bring a new wave of pride, influence and sense of community, providing Spanish-speaking fans with in-language coverage of the game they love.“

TelevisaUnivision will have the exclusive Spanish-language rights in the U.S. to the 2024 American League Division Series presented by Booking.com and the American League Championship Series presented by loanDepot, which will air on UniMás and simulcast on TUDN, with select games on Univision. Additionally, Game 1 of the 2024 World Series presented by Capital One will be broadcast on Univision, in conjunction with Fox Sports and Fox Deportes.

“Major League Baseball is truly excited for the launch of this new partnership, as it provides a valuable opportunity to increase exposure for our great game across the formidable reach of TelevisaUnivision’s unmatched domestic platform,” Kenny Gersh, executive VP, media and business for Major League Baseball, said. “Communicating authentically with our robust Spanish-speaking fanbase is a priority for Baseball and this partnership will allow us to connect them more directly to our brand, our clubs, and the growing number of dynamic Latino stars represented in the game today."

TelevisaUnivision’was already the official national Spanish-language audio partner for MLB in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. TUDN Radio broadcasts each Sunday Night Baseball game, July 4 games, the MLB All-Star Game presented by Mastercard, Labor Day games, the MLB Postseason and the World Series. 

NBCUniversal’s deal with Major League Baseball to show the Sunday Leadoff live games package on Peacock expired last season, and Roku is in the race to take it over, according to a Wall Street Journal reporter. 

Asked to confirm or comment on this, a Roku rep told Next TV, “We have nothing to share at this time.” 

Peacock carried Sunday Leadoff for the last two seasons, paying a reported $30 million each year (paltry, by live sports standards), exclusively televising 18 live MLB games at either 11:30 a.m. or noontime ET. 

Just shy of a month into the 2024 MLB campaign, NBCU hasn’t reached an agreement to renew the package. 

Roku ended 2023 with 80 million active accounts, but the Roku Channel FAST is widely distributed beyond the Roku platform, with the app also available on popular rival TVOS device systems including Amazon Fire TV and Google TV/Android TV. Roku Channel is also accessible via the open internet. 

According to Nielsen, Roku Channel accounted for 1.3% of all U.S. traditional TV viewing (i.e. watching not on computers or mobile devices) in March. That's the same level of market share that Peacock pulled in last month. 

The Roku Sunday Leadoff report comes amid a push by the larger FASTs to get into the live sports business. On Wednesday morning, for example, Fox announced that it is bringing live MMA and women’s soccer to Tubi via a new arrangement with DAZN. 

Major League Baseball enjoyed a resurgent regular season, with overall linear TV viewership up 26% through the first three months of the 2023 campaign and full-season ballpark attendance enjoying its biggest year-over-year spike ever (9.6%) to over 70.7 million ticket buyers. 

Meanwhile, the league also said that MLB.TV enjoyed its most streamed season in its 21-year history, with engagement increasing 9% to 12.7 billion viewing minutes and the number of users up 14%. 

But this resurgence, fueled by the new “pitch-clock” rules, baseball experts speculate, has not carried into the post-season, which this year returned a relatively new format that started last season. 

Total viewing across ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 for last week's MLB "wild card round" was down 18%, according to Nielsen data, with four two-game sweeps averaging 2.25 million viewers vs. 2.73 million last season. 

Meanwhile, through Tuesday, the four MLB Division Series on TBS, truTV, Fox and FS1 are collectively down 15% in viewership, averaging 2.78 million viewers vs. 3.28 million for the comparable first 10 games of the 2022 divisional round, according to Nielsen data compiled by Sports Media Watch. 

Three of the four divisional-round series have already ended in three-game sweeps, with the only competitive matchup, the Philadelphia Phillies's defeat of the Atlanta Braves in four games, scoring the largest TV audience, 4.05 million viewers through Tuesday, up 19% over Turner's comparable audience in 2022. 

Sports media pundits don't expect the news to get any better for the upcoming American and National League championship series, not to mention the World Series.

The upcoming ALCS between the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers (Fox, FS1) seems confined to intense but limited regional appeal. Pundits don't seem too impressed by the audience potential of an NLCS (TBS) pitting the up-and-coming Arizona Diamondbacks against the Philadelphia Phillies, either. 

Meanwhile, the big-market draws like the New York Yankees, who didn't make the playoffs, and Los Angeles Dodgers, who meekly succumbed to the Diamondbacks Wednesday evening, are not in the forward-looking playoff picture. 

Notably, a very possible rematch of last year’s World Series (Fox), which saw the Astros defeat the Phillies in six games, would probably not be, er, boffo. The 2022 iteration averaged 12.03 million viewers across Fox, Fox Deportes and streaming, making it the second least-watched Fall Classic ever. 

Major League Baseball announced that it was taking over the production and distribution of local-market San Diego Padres games after Diamond Sports Group declined to provide funds to pay the team to televise the games on Bally Sports San Diego.

The first telecast under the regime will air Wednesday, when the Padres play the Miami Marlins.

Games will continue to be available to subscribers of cable MSOs Cox Communications and Charter Communications, satellite-TV provider DirecTV, AT&T U-Verse TV and streaming service Fubo on new channels marked “San Diego Padres.”

The games will also be available via streaming on MLB.TV. MLB.TV is offering fans a free seven-day trial, after which the streaming service will cost $19.99 a month or $74.99 for the rest of the season. Only viewers in the Padres’ home market can take advantage of the offer. 

Padres games on MLB.com, as is the case with other teams, had previously been blacked out in the local market. MLB said that under the new system, the games will be available to 2 million additional homes in the Padres’ home territory, an 189% increase in reach for the team.

By offering a direct-to-consumer streaming option on MLB.TV in Padres territory for the first time, MLB is lifting the blackout for Padres games previously distributed on Bally Sports San Diego, MLB said.

Major League Baseball brags about being the first professional sports league to live-stream a regular-season game back in 2002. Since then, its geographic restrictions have frustrated fans unable to watch their favorite teams online. Being forced by a crisis to open the streaming floodgates could accelerate the move of sports to streaming, even as broadcasters circle to bring local games to over-the-air TV.

Also Read: NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights Bolt AT&T SportsNet, Will Air Games on Scripps Local Broadcast

“We have been preparing for this groundbreaking moment,” Padres CEO Erik Greupner said in a statement. “The Padres are excited to be the first team to partner with Major League Baseball to offer a direct-to-consumer streaming option through MLB.TV without blackouts while preserving our in-market distribution through traditional cable and satellite television providers.  Our fans will now have unprecedented access to Padres games through both digital and traditional platforms throughout San Diego and beyond.”

Even before Diamond Sports Group, a subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group, appeared headed for bankruptcy, MLB has been putting together plans to broadcast teams local games on its own.

“As Commissioner [Rob] Manfred previously stated, Major League Baseball is ready to produce and distribute Padres games to fans throughout Padres territory,” said Noah Garden, MLB chief revenue officer, said.  “While we’re disappointed that Diamond Sports Group failed to live up to their contractual agreement with the Club, we are taking this opportunity to reimagine the distribution model, remove blackouts on local games, improve the telecast, and expand the reach of Padres games by more than 2 million homes.”

Don Orsillo, Mark Grant, and Bob Scanlan will remain the key broadcasters for Padres games.

Diamond Sports Group, the Sinclair Broadcast Group unit that runs the Bally regional sports networks, said it won’t pay the San Diego Padres for its TV rights and will no longer televise the team’s games on Bally Sports San Diego.

Major League Baseball plans to continue to make the games available to fans, producing the games with the team and distributing them through their current outlets including Spectrum, Cox Communications, DirecTV and Fubo, with addition streaming options available, according to a source familiar with the situation.

The expected announcement follows Diamond Sports decision in March to file for bankruptcy court protection while it tries to renegotiate the approximately $8 billion in debt Sinclair took on to buy the RSNs from The Walt Disney Co. in 2019.

The Bally RSNs have been televising Major League Baseball games since the start of the season, often paying fees after they were due but before the end of their contractual grace period. In this case Diamond Sports declined to send funds to pay for the rights fees to Bally Sports San Diego, a joint venture between Diamond and the Padres, which in turn would have paid the Padres.

Also Read: Diamond Coughs Up Bally Sports Rights Payments to the Reds, Keeps Team From Launching Its Own RSN

In a statement Diamond blamed Major League Baseball for the impending blackout.

“While DSG has significant liquidity and has been making rights payments to teams, the economics of the Padres’ contract were not aligned with market realities,” Diamond said. “ MLB has forced our hand by its continued refusal to negotiate direct-to-consumer (DTC) streaming rights for all teams in our portfolio despite our proposal to pay every team in full in exchange for those rights. We are continuing to broadcast games for teams under our contracts.”

Major League Baseball has said it has the wherewithal to make broadcast of teams games available to fans in the event Diamond refuses to pay for the TV rights.

Also Read: MLB Hires Regional Sports Net Execs To Start Local Media Unit

The San Diego Union-Tribune also reported that the Padres broadcasters are team employees and likely to continue in their current jobs. The team also owns production facilities.

The Padres are scheduled to play the Marlins in Florida on Wednesday and Thursday before a weekend homestand with the Seattle Mariners.

It was unclear if Bally Sports San Diego would continue to operate or what it would show in place of Padres games.

The regional sports network business is under pressure from cord cutting, which is eroding subscribers and viewers and increasing costs for rights fees. Diamond has sought to generate additional revenue via a Bally Sports Plus, a direct-to-consumer app. But baseball has been making securing streaming rights to games difficult.

Broadcasters have been circling the RSN mess, looking to put games on their over-the-air stations. The Phoenix Suns reached a deal to move its games to Gray Television, but Diamond sued and the deal was blocked by the bankruptcy court.

While opting out of televising Padres games, Diamond has made rights payments to teams where televising games is more profitable.

Diamond is also hoping to be able to use the bankruptcy process to renegotiate its right deal. The court ordered Diamond to pay the Twins, Rangers, Guardians and Diamondbacks half of what it owes until a restructuring can be worked out. 

Diamond and Major League Baseball are scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday. MLB is expected to argue that its teams should receive full payment for the rights to air games.

MLB contends the rights to the games are as valuable as ever and that Diamond is having financial difficulties because of mismanagement, including losing distribution from Dish and YouTube TV, according to a source familiar with the situation.

Prime Video will chronicle the career and legacy of Major League Baseball Hall Of Famer Reggie Jackson in a new documentary debuting March 24.

The documentary, Reggie, will provide a follow the career of the five-time World Series Champion and one of the league’s most influential superstars, said Prime Video. As part of the documentary, Jackson contemplates his legacy as a trailblazing Black athlete fighting for respect throughout his barrier-breaking career, including his start with the Oakland A’s through his legendary run as a member of the New York Yankees.

Jackson also sits down with other sports legends including NBA great Julius Erving and MLB Hall of Famers Hank Aaron and Derek Jeter to discuss their own career and life experiences in their respective sports, said the streaming service.

Reggie is executive produced by Brenda Gilbert, Aaron Gilbert, Josh Miller, Kim Carsten, Zoe Morrison, Jason Cloth and Suraj Maraboyina.■

Major League Baseball said it hired Sinclair Broadcast Group regional sports network executive Billy Chambers as executive VP, media and business development.

In his newly created role, Chambers will oversee the management and distribution of MLB’s local media rights, working closely with the league’s 30 teams.

The move comes as MLB and Sinclair’s Bally Sports Networks have wrestled over local streaming and direct-to-consumer rights.

With cord-cutting eroding cable and satellite subscribers, regional sports networks have been getting squeezed and are seen as unlikely to be able to continue to pay the big bucks they’ve been spending on local TV rights to baseball games.

Sinclair ran up about $9 billion in debt buying the 21 Fox Sports RSNs from The Walt Disney Co. The RSNs -- rebranded as Bally Sports Network -- are now operated by Sinclair’s Diamond Sports Group unit, which has been separated from the main company financially.

Diamond Sports also last year named a new CEO, former ESPN and NBC Sports executive David Preschlack, in a bid to build better relationships with rights holders including MLB.

Chambers was chief financial officer and chief operations officer for the Bally Sports RSNs. He was with them when they were acquired by Sinclair and assisted Disney in making the sale. (Disney acquired the Fox RSNs when it acquired 21st Century Fox.)

Chambers spent 20 years with Fox Sports Media Group, where he was CFO, overseeing Fox Sports, the RSNs, FS1, FS2, Big Ten Network and Fox Deportes. He negotiated rights deals with MLB, the NBA and the NHL, as well as team rights.

“Billy is an important addition to Major League Baseball and will play an integral role in how we navigate the rapidly evolving local media landscape in the future,” baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said. “Billy’s extensive knowledge and experience in all areas of regional sports network operations will help us maximize the reach of our game in the clubs’ local markets.”

MLB also promoted Kenny Gersh to executive VP, media and business development.

Chambers will work closely with Gersh, whose role has expanded to include oversight of all of MLB’s national and international media rights, distribution, and production.

Gersh joined MLB in 2006 as an executive at MLB Advanced Media, the interactive media company of MLB.

Chambers and Gersh report to MLB CRO Noah Garden. ■

Below is a snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of October 31 through November 6, highlighting the most-watched shows and networks using glass-level data from Vizio's Inscape, and network and show TV ad impressions insights via iSpot.tv.

Most-Watched Shows and Networks

Via Inscape, Vizio’s TV data product with glass-level insights from a panel of more than 19 million active and opted-in smart TVs. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

Sports continue to reign supreme, taking four of the top five spots for the most-watched programming during the week. NFL games accounted for 5.56% of minutes watched, down slightly from the previous week's 5.89%. On the other hand, college football saw an increase in watch-time, up to 4.70% from 3.95% previously.

Some additional insights about the top programming on TV:

• After six games, the Houston Astros defeated the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series, which accounted for 3.12% of watch-time during the week.
• Chicago P.D. makes a notable jump up the chart, moving to No. 12 from No. 23, fueled by reruns on ION and USA Network, as well as a new episode that premiered on NBC on Nov. 2.
• Fox News programs America's Newsroom and America Reports both move slightly up the chart, to No. 14 and No. 16, respectively.
• Week-over-week newcomers include Chicago Fire (0.39%) and The First 48 (0.39%), shifting into the No. 20 and No. 24 chart positions, respectively.

On the network side of things, CBS is in first place, thanks in part to NFL and college football, with 9.04% of minutes watched (up from 7.32% the previous week). 

Additional insights around the most-watched networks from October 31 through November 6:

• Fox, benefiting primarily from the World Series, edges out NBC to take second place with 8.01% of watch-time.
• Although Fox News Channel, ESPN and Hallmark Channel all retain their chart positions week-over-week, each saw a slight uptick in minutes watched.
• Newcomers that didn't appear on the previous week's ranking include ESPN2, up from No. 27 to No. 22, and Paramount Network, up to No. 23 from No. 38.
• Paramount's notable jump came from a Yellowstone marathon over the weekend — the network's hit show, which returns for season five on November 13 — accounted for over 40% of Paramount Network's total watch-time for the week.

Top Shows and Networks by TV Ad Impressions

Via iSpot.tv, the real-time TV measurement company. Rankings are by share of TV ad impressions, for new episodes only. 

The NFL remains in first place, but saw a slight decrease in share of TV ad impressions, to 11.57% from 12.29% the previous week. College football is steady at No. 2 with an impressions share of 7.62%.

More insights about the top programs by TV ad impressions:

• Although the World Series stays in third place week-over-week, it saw a notable increase in share of TV ad impressions (up to 5.41% from 3.09% previously), with a nearly 75% jump in total TV impressions compared to the week before.
• The Voice, which premiered two of its three "The Knockouts" episodes during the week, moves into eleventh place with 1.02% share of impressions, up from 0.94% last time.
• ABC World News Tonight with David Muir moves up one place, from No. 18 to No. 17 (from 0.55% share of impressions to 0.87%), while Fox & Friends remains in 10th but with a slight impressions increase (from 1.06% to 1.07%).
• Daytime soap opera General Hospital jumps up the ranking to No. 18 from No. 22 previously, increasing its share of impressions from 0.70% to 0.80%.

CBS takes first place in the network ranking, with a week-over-week increase in TV ad impressions share — up to 17.71% from 14.92%. NBC takes second place, with impressions fueled by NFL games, Today and The Voice.

Additional insights around the top networks by impressions share:

• ABC moves into third place, albeit with a slight week-over-week decrease in impressions (down to 10.84% from 11.55% previously).
• Discovery and The CW both have notable upward movement, from No. 22 to No. 17 and from No. 23 to No. 18, respectively. Street Outlaws, Gold Rush and Moonshiners delivered top impression counts for Discovery, while The CW benefited from Stargirl, Walker and Family Feud.
• Food Network moves up the chart from No. 24 to No. 20, with seasonal programming including Holiday Wars, Halloween Baking Championship and Christmas Cookie Challenge generating top impression counts.
• With a 0.44% share of impressions, History Channel was the sole week-over-week newcomer, landing at No. 24 from its previous place at No. 26.

Below is a snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of October 24-30, highlighting the most-watched shows and networks using glass-level data from Vizio's Inscape, and network and show TV ad impressions insights via iSpot.tv.

Most-Watched Shows and Networks

Via Inscape, Vizio's TV data product with glass-level insights from a panel of more than 19 million active and opted-in smart TVs. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

Football season is in full swing and nothing can unseat the NFL when it comes to viewership: Games accounted for 5.89% of all minutes watched from October 24-30, up slightly from the previous week's 5.34%.

Some additional insights about the top programming on TV:

• College football moves up a notch to second place from third the previous week, increasing its share of watch-time from 3.48% to 3.95%.
• The 2022 World Series takes third place over NBA games, with 1.35% and 1.10% of minutes watch, respectively.
• Two and a Half Men makes a notable jump up the chart, moving to No. 18 from No. 24 the previous week, fueled by reruns across TV Land, Paramount Network and IFC.
• Week-over-week newcomers include NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt (0.37%) and Hannity (0.36%), moving into the No. 24 and No. 25 chart positions, respectively.

With assists from NFL games, the World Series and college football, Fox scores a home run as the top network with 8.64% of minutes watched, unseating CBS, which had taken first place for weeks. 

Additional insights around the most-watched networks from October 24-30:

• There's incremental movement within the middle ranks compared to the previous week, with Hallmark Channel (2.58% of minutes watched), Ion (1.82%) and HGTV (1.64%), among others, rising to new heights.
• Speaking of Hallmark, the network continues its early Christmas obsession, with movies including Jolly Good Christmas, A Cozy Christmas Inn and Ghosts of Christmas Always among its top programming for the week. And that's not all: Sister network Hallmark Movies & Mysteries catapults into the ranking at No. 19 (1.09% of watch-time), also fueled by holiday content.
• Cable news saw a week-over-week increase, with MSNBC moving into 10th place from No. 13 with 1.50% of minutes watched, and CNN jumping from No. 15 to No. 11 (1.44%).
• Discovery was another week-over-week newcomer, capturing 0.86% of watch-time and landing at No. 25.

Top Shows and Networks by TV Ad Impressions

Via iSpot.tv, the real-time TV measurement company. Rankings are by share of TV ad impressions, for new episodes only.

Once again the NFL takes first place with a 12.29% share of TV ad impressions, an increase from the previous week's 10.09%. College football marches up the field with an impressions SOV of 7.94%, while the MLB World Series takes third place (3.09%). 

More insights about the top programs by TV ad impressions:

• Good Morning America overtakes the NBA for fourth place, with 1.48% and 1.46% share of impressions, respectively.
• With Election Day rapidly approaching, various news programs saw week-over-week increases, including Fox & Friends (up from 0.90% share of impressions to 1.60%), NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt (from 0.77% to 0.95%), ABC World News Tonight With David Muir (from 0.55% to 0.77%), Jesse Watters Primetime (from 0.63% to 0.71%) and America Reports, which wasn’t on the previous week’s ranking but comes in at No. 25 with 0.60% share of impressions, up from 0.52%.
• Thanks to back-to-back nights of episodes, Bachelor in Paradise moves up the ranking from No. 18 to No. 17, with a 0.79% share of TV ad impressions.
• Programs maintaining their ranking spot week-over-week but seeing an increase in share of impressions include Today (up from 1.31% to 1.35%), SportsCenter (from 1.23% to 1.31%), The Price Is Right (from 1.11% to1.27%) and The Young and the Restless (from 1.04% to 1.10%).

CBS once again takes first place in our top-networks-by-impressions ranking, with a slight week-over-week increase in TV ad impression share -- up to 14.92% from 14.36%. Fox jumps into second place with a nearly 30% increase in total impressions week-over-week, thanks in part to the 2022 World Series. 

Additional insights around the top networks by impressions:

• NBC scored a slightly higher share of TV ad impressions than ABC -- 11.55% vs. 11.41% -- with over a quarter of its total impressions coming from NFL games. ABC was buoyed by college football, which accounted for 18% of the network’s total impressions.
• Spanish-language networks Univision, Telemundo and UniMás all rise up the ranking with week-over-week share of impressions increases, with Telemundo having the largest (from 1.40% to 2.31%).
• The CW arrives in our ranking at No. 23 (up from No. 27 previously) with All American, Stargirl and All American: Homecoming as its top three impressions-driving shows.
• SEC Network was another week-over-week newcomer, landing at No. 19 with 0.59% impressions share, up from 0.36% the previous week.

Below is a snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of October 17-23, highlighting the most-watched shows and networks using glass-level data from Vizio's Inscape, and network and show TV ad impressions insights via iSpot.tv.

Most-Watched Shows and Networks

Via Inscape, Vizio's TV data product with glass-level insights from a panel of more than 19 million active and opted-in smart TVs. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

The NFL continues to score with watch-time, accounting for 5.34% of minutes watched from October 17-23, down slightly from the previous week's 6.83%.

Some additional insights about the top programming on TV:

• Major League Baseball moves up a notch to second place from third the previous week, although it had a slight decline in watch-time (down to 3.67% from 3.71%).
• The first games of the new National Basketball Association season racked up 1.60% of minutes watched, placing the NBA at No. 4 and making the top four programs by watch-time all sports.
• Week-over-week newcomers include NFL RedZone (0.38%) and Paw Patrol (0.35%), moving into the No. 20 and No. 25 chart positions, respectively.
• Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D. both jump up the chart, fueled by new episodes as well as reruns on Ion.

Yet again CBS is the most-watched network, with NFL and college football combined delivering 14.49% of its total watch-time.

Additional insights around the most-watched networks from October 17-23:

• TNT has the most notable week-over-week rank increase, moving up to No. 9 from No. 22, with NBA games accounting for nearly half (45.51%) of minutes watched on the network.
• Fox moves from No. 4 to No. 3, with watch-time increasing by 1%, up to 6.94%. Over a third of the network’s minutes watched came from NFL and college football.
• Hallmark Channel, which has already started airing holiday and Christmas movies in earnest, moves into eighth place from No. 13, with 2.10% of watch-time (up from 1.60% the previous week).
• Bravo is the sole week-over-week newcomer to the chart, inching up to No. 24 from No. 26 previously.

Top Shows and Networks by TV Ad Impressions

Via iSpot.tv, the real-time TV measurement company. Rankings are by share of TV ad impressions, for new episodes only.

The NFL's winning streak continues as it again takes first place for share of TV ad impressions (10.09%), a slight decrease from the previous week's 12.92%. MLB and college football retain their positions at second (8.07%) and third place (6.60%), respectively.

More insights about the top programs by TV ad impressions:

• NBA action jumps into the top five with a 1.97% share of impressions, but still lags behind football and baseball.
• Although The Voice maintained its 0.95% impressions share, it falls to No. 10 from No. 8 the previous week, while The Young and the Restless remains at No. 9 but had a slight increase in impressions share (from 0.91% to 1.04%).
• The Bold and The Beautiful moves up from No. 33 to No. 25 week-over-week, having increased its impressions share from 0.45% to 0.55%.
• Morning shows Good Morning America, Today and CBS Mornings each had modest impressions share increases from the previous week, and although Today moves into sixth place from seventh last time, GMA falls to fifth from fourth in the ranking. CBS Mornings stays at No. 15.

For the fifth week in a row, CBS takes first place for TV ad impressions share, although it saw a slight decrease week-over-week, falling to 14.36% from 18.49%. 

Additional insights around the top networks by impressions:

• ABC moves into second place with an 11.58% impressions share, fueled in part by a 41.1% week-over-week impressions increase from college football.
• Thanks in part to the doubling of NFL impressions week-over-week, Fox also jumps up a spot, landing at No. 4 with a 9.29% impressions share, up from 6.81% the previous week.
• TNT vaults into the ranking at No. 12, up from No. 54 the previous week, propelled by the new NBA season, which had a 79.7% impressions share on the network.
• Hallmark Channel also had an increase in impressions share, up to 0.94% from 0.46% previously, driven by the premieres of three new Christmas movies.

Below is a snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of October 10-16, highlighting the most-watched shows and networks using glass-level data from Vizio’s Inscape, and network and show TV ad impressions insights via iSpot.tv.

Most-Watched Shows and Networks

Via Inscape, Vizio’s TV data product with glass-level insights from a panel of more than 19 million active and opted-in smart TVs. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

Once again the NFL is dominating watch-time, accounting for 6.83% of minutes watched from October 10-16, up slightly from the previous week’s 6.31%. 

Some additional insights about the top programming on TV:

• The top 10 programs all retain their positions week-over-week, although NFL and MLB were the only two that saw increased watch-time, with baseball being boosted by the division series.
• Murder, She Wrote jumps into the ranking as Hallmark Movies & Mysteries aired additional episodes in tribute to Angela Lansbury, who died on October 11 at the age of 96. The show captured over 41% of the network’s watch-time for the week.
• The only other week-over-week newcomer to our top 25 is The First 48, moving from No. 26 to No. 19.
• Blue Bloods, which recently kicked off season 13, moves up a spot to No. 11, although total watch-time had a slight decline (0.51% to 0.49%).

CBS continues to lead our network ranking, thanks mostly to football. NFL and college football combined for over 36% of the total watch-time on CBS, up from 19% combined the previous week.

Additional insights around the most-watched networks from October 10-16:

• Fox Sports 1 rockets from No. 31 to No. 8 week-over-week, thanks in part to MLB games and the pre/post-game coverage.
• Other top 25 newcomers include TNT (from No. 27 to No. 22) and Discovery Channel (No. 26 to No. 24).
• TBS jumps up to No. 7 from No. 16, with MLB games delivering over 68% of the watch-time.
• Although TLC and TV Land both move up a spot, they had modest decreases in week-over-week watch-time (from 1.08% to 1.04% and 1.06% to 1.01%, respectively).

Top Shows and Networks by TV Ad Impressions

Via iSpot.tv, the real-time TV measurement company. Rankings are by share of TV ad impressions, for new episodes only. 

The NFL maintains its upward trajectory, delivering the highest share of TV ad impressions (12.88%), a slight increase from the previous week's 12.51%. MLB overtakes college football, with 8.32% and 7.25% share in impressions, respectively. 

More insights about the top programs by TV ad impressions:

• Although The Price Is Right maintained its 1.15% share of impressions from last week, it moves up to No. 5 (from No. 8 previously).
• News- and talk-related programs sit in 13 of the 25 spots in our ranking, led by Good Morning America at No. 4.
• General Hospital increased its ad impressions week-over-week, from 0.64% to 0.68%.
• Both ABC World News Tonight With David Muir and NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt increased their share of impressions and move up the ranking compared with the previous week.

CBS is No. 1 in ranking of networks by share of TV ad impressions for the fourth week in a row. The network delivered 18.6% on TV ad impressions from October 10-16, up from 16.1% the previous week. 

Additional insights around the top networks by impressions:

• TBS and Fox Deportes are new week-over-week arrivals in our ranking, with ad impression increases driven by MLB games.
• Speaking of MLB, Fox Sports 1 grew its share of TV ad impressions from 1.57% to 3.79%, thanks in large part to baseball games.
• Hallmark saw a slight increase in impressions share, up to 0.46% from 0.42% the previous week, as it continued to lean into fall-themed programming.
• Bravo also grew its share of TV ad impressions from 0.67% to 0.70%, driven in part by new episodes of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and Below Deck Mediterranean.

Below is a snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of Oct. 3-9, highlighting the most-watched shows and networks using glass-level data from Vizio's Inscape, and network and show TV ad impressions insights via iSpot.tv.

Most-Watched Shows and Networks

Via Inscape, Vizio's TV data product with glass-level insights from a panel of more than 19 million active and opted-in smart TVs. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

The NFL is atop our watch-time ranking for the fifth straight week. NFL games accounted for 6.31% of minutes watched from Oct. 3-9, down slightly from 6.97% the previous week.

Some additional insights about the top programming on TV:

• MLB's new wildcard round helped boost baseball's minutes watched week-over-week from 0.65% to 1.82%.
• Blue Bloods' season 13 premiere helped drive the show from No. 24 to No. 12 by watch-time week-over-week.
• Syndicated sitcoms like Two and a Half Men (from No. 26 to No. 17) and The Golden Girls (No. 23 to No. 20) make week-over-week gains in our ranking.
• Other week-over-week newcomers to our top 25 include Ridiculousness (No. 21), Family Feud (No. 22), Tucker Carlson Tonight (No. 23), Love It or List It (No. 24) and The Voice (No. 31).

CBS is No. 1 on our list of most-watched networks for the second consecutive week, thanks in large part to football. College football and the NFL combined for over 19% of watch-time on CBS, with the Alabama vs. Texas A&M thriller catching a larger share of minutes watched than the network’s NFL games.

Additional insights around the most-watched networks from Oct. 3-9:

• ION's slate of syndicated procedurals helped fuel a week-over-week jump from No. 11 to No. 7.
• ESPN2 vaults up to No. 14 (from No. 31 the previous week), as college football and MLB Playoff games pushed the network's watch-time up week-over-week.
• Additional week-over-week newcomers in our top 25 include History (from No. 27 to No. 24) and Bravo (from No. 28 to No. 25).
• Hallmark hops from No. 13 to No. 10 by minutes watched, as the network leaned into a combination of syndicated sitcoms and fall-focused seasonal movies.

Top Shows and Networks by TV Ad Impressions

Via iSpot.tv, the real-time TV measurement company. Rankings are by TV ad impressions, for new episodes only.

The NFL delivered the highest share of TV ad impressions once again, with 12.51% from Oct. 3-9. That's down from 14.45% the previous week as the MLB Playoffs helped baseball grab a larger share of the weekend's live sports audience (and impressions).

More insights about the top programs by TV ad impressions:

• Speaking of MLB action, the weekend's wildcard round was a big part of why baseball nearly doubled its share of ad impressions week-over-week, from 0.89% to 1.84%.
• Bachelor in Paradise's two-night format on ABC helped fuel a week-over-week jump in TV ad impressions – from 0.44% to 0.94%.
• Univision's Los Ricos También Lloran reboot increased its ad impressions week-over-week – from 0.38% to 0.72%.
• The View is one of several news- and talk-focused programs to grow its week-over-week impressions – by 30%.

CBS is No. 1 in our TV-ad-impressions-by-network ranking for a third straight week. The network delivered 16.1% of TV ad impressions from Oct. 3-9, which is down from 18.1% the previous week.

Additional insights around the top networks by impressions:

• Hallmark and Food Network are new week-over-week arrivals in our ranking, as both have been leaning into Halloween and fall-centric programs.
• Bravo TV ad impressions increased by 39% week-over-week, thanks to its typical slate of reality programming (including the season premiere of Real Housewives of Potomac).
• The top three Spanish-language networks (Telemundo, Univision, UniMás) all rise in our week-over-week, led by Univision, which moves from No. 10 to No. 8.
• Despite maintaining its No. 5 ranking week-over-week, Fox grew its share of TV ad impressions from 5.5% to 8.1% (with more than half of impressions coming from Sunday afternoon's NFL doubleheader).

ESPN hit a ratings home run in primetime last week, bolstered by its Major League Baseball postseason coverage.

The sports network averaged 3.2 million viewers in primetime during the week of October 3 to October 9, topping all cable networks, according to Nielsen. ESPN was led by the nearly 3 million viewers on average that watched its coverage of baseball’s Wild Card playoff round. 

ESPN2 also benefited from telecasting several of baseball’s opening-round postseason games, finishing fourth for the week with an average of 815,000 viewers. 

Cable-news networks rounded out the top three most watched networks for the week, with Fox News Channel finishing second with 2.2 million viewers, followed by MSNBC’s 1.2 million watchers. HGTV pulled into fifth place with 787,000.

Hallmark Channel was sixth with 777,000 viewers, followed by TLC (704,000 viewers), INSP (640,000), Discovery Channel (637,000) and CNN (631,000). 

Fox News was dominant on the total-day charts, averaging 1.4 million viewers to top all cable networks for the 40th straight week, followed by ESPN (1 million viewers), MSNBC (746,000 viewers), CNN (530,000) and Hallmark Channel (449,000), Nielsen reported. ■ 

Major League Baseball will launch its first ever Wild Card Series round of postseason games Friday, with ESPN, ABC and ESPN2 airing all games from four, best-of-three game series.

The new format, which added new Wild Card teams in both the American and National Leagues, debuts October 7 with first games of four three-game series: Cleveland Guardians-Tampa Bay Rays on ESPN; St. Louis Cardinals-Philadelphia Phillies on ABC; Toronto Blue Jays-Seattle Mariners on ESPN; and New York Mets-San Diego Padres on ESPN, according to network officials. 

Saturday's games include Tampa Bay-Cleveland (ESPN2), Seattle-Toronto (ESPN), San Diego-Mets (ESPN) and Philadelphia-St. Louis (ESPN2). 

If necessary, Sunday’s games start with Seattle-Toronto (ABC), Tampa Bay-Cleveland (ESPN), San Diego-Mets (ESPN) and Philadelphia-St. Louis (ESPN2).

The winners of the two American League Wild Card Series will play the two highest-seed division champions, the New York Yankees and Houston Astros, while the National League Wild Card series winners will face the top-seeded division champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Atlanta Braves. ■ 

The first full weekend of the college football season highlights a busy Labor Day weekend of live sports programming on linear TV channels and streaming services.

Several of college football’s Top 10 teams will be in action Saturday, beginning with No. 1 Alabama, who will open the season against Utah State on the SEC Network. Second-ranked Ohio State travels to No. 5 Notre Dame in a primetime ABC-televised game, while No. 3 Georgia battles 11th-ranked Oregon, also on ABC. 

Other games on Saturday include No. 6 Texas A&M-Sam Houston (SEC Network), No. 7 Utah-Florida (ESPN), No. 8 Michigan-Colorado State (ABC), No. 9 Oklahoma-UTEP (Fox) and No. 10 Baylor-Albany (ESPN Plus).

Also: Heavyweights Take Over Fall PPV Boxing Schedule 

On Monday, fourth-ranked Clemson meets Georgia Tech on ESPN. 

On the tennis court, ESPN and ESPN2 will offer continuing coverage of the U.S. Open Grand Slam tennis tournament from New York. The biggest story of the early rounds has been the success of tennis legend Serena Williams, who announced last month  that the US Open will serve as her last major tennis tournament competition. If Williams wins her third U.S. Open match on Friday night against Ajla Tomljanovic, she would compete Sunday in the fourth round of the women’s singles division. 

The WNBA playoffs continue with game three coverage of the semifinal series between Chicago Sky and the Connecticut Sun (ESPN2) as well as the Las Vegas Aces and Seattle Storm (ABC). 

Major League Baseball moves into the final full month of its regular season with Sunday coverage on Peacock featuring the Toronto Blue Jays and the Pittsburgh Pirates, and Sunday Night Baseball coverage on ESPN showcasing the San Diego Padres-Los Angeles Dodgers game. 

NBC on Sunday will offer IndyCar coverage from the Grand Prix of Portland, while USA Network will air live the NASCAR Cup Cook Out Southern 500 race and ESPN televises the Formula One Dutch Grand Prix event. 

In the ring, Fox Sports on Sunday will distribute a pay-per-view boxing card featuring a main event fight between heavyweights Andy Ruiz and Luis Ortiz. ■

Below is a snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of July 25-31, highlighting the most-watched shows and networks using glass-level data from Vizio’s Inscape, and network and show TV ad impressions insights via iSpot.tv.

Most-Watched Shows and Networks

Via Inscape, Vizio’s TV data product with glass-level insights from a panel of more than 19 million active and opted-in smart TVs. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

Syndicated Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episodes hopped from No. 4 to No. 1 by TV watch-time week-over-week. From July 25-31, the show collected 1.39% of minutes watched, up from 0.83% the previous week.

Some additional insights about the top programming on TV:

• Crime-related programming peppers our ranking, as eight of the top 25 shows are crime-focused procedural dramas.
• Speaking of, Law & Order is a big week-over-week mover in our ranking, up from No. 35 to No. 20 by minutes watched.
• HGTV’s Love It or List It also makes a significant move week-over-week, from No. 33 to No. 17 in our ranking.
• The Rocket Mortgage Classic carries the PGA Tour from No. 12 to No. 8 week-over-week by watch-time.

Golf is a big part of why CBS sits atop our list of most-watched networks for the second consecutive week. CBS increased watch-time from 6.03% to 6.24% week-over-week.

Additional insights around the most-watched networks from July 25-31:

• With a full slate of Shark Week content, Discovery swims from No. 18 to No. 11 in our ranking, increasing minutes watched from 1.29% to 1.77%.
• NBC stays at No. 3 week-over-week in our ranking, but increases watch-time from 5.55% to 5.84%.
• INSP hops from No. 26 to No. 25 week-over-week, thanks in large part to Gunsmoke syndicated airings (which account for nearly 38% of watch-time on the network).
• TV Land makes its own subtle week-over-week move from No. 21 to No. 20 in our ranking, as audiences tuned into Everybody Loves Raymond and The Andy Griffith Show reruns.

Top Shows and Networks by TV Ad Impressions

Via iSpot.tv, the always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company. Rankings are by TV ad impressions, for new episodes only. 

Good Morning America moves up one spot to No. 1 by TV ad impressions week-over-week, delivering 2.37% (down slightly from 2.40% the previous week) from July 25-31.

More data about the top programs by TV ad impressions:

• News-related programs dominate, accounting for six of the top 10 spots — and 16 of the top 25 programs — by impressions.
• Reality shows make up three of the top 25 in our ranking, led by La casa de los famosos (the Spanish-language version of Celebrity Big Brother) at No. 14.
• Even without the previous week’s All-Star Game, Major League Baseball games stayed among the top five programs by impressions delivered, at 1.89%.
• The PGA Tour leaps from No. 16 to No. 9 week-over-week, as the Rocket Mortgage Classic served up 1.33% of TV ad impressions.

Fox News is parked at No. 1 in our ad-impressions-by-network ranking for the fifth straight week, delivering 13.55% of impressions (up from 12.71% the previous week).

Additional insights around the top networks by impressions:

• Shark Week helped fuel Discovery Channel’s migration from No. 13 to No. 10 by share of TV ad impressions week-over-week.
• A full week of games and the looming trade deadline boosted MLB Network’s share of TV ad impressions week-over-week, from 1.14% to 1.88%.
• Fox Sports 1 moves from No. 20 to No. 17 in our ranking, thanks in part to baseball and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.
• Summer heat waves warm up TV ad impressions for The Weather Channel, which makes a modest climb from No. 27 to No. 25 week-over-week in our ranking.

Below is a snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of July 18-24, highlighting the most-watched shows and networks using glass-level data from Vizio’s Inscape, and network and show TV ad impressions insights via iSpot.tv.

Most-Watched Shows and Networks

Via Inscape, Vizio’s TV data product with glass-level insights from a panel of more than 19 million active and opted-in smart TVs. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game fueled the sport to the No. 1 spot by watch-time during the week of July 18-24. Between late-week regular season games and Tuesday night’s all-star event, MLB collected 1.14% of minutes watched -- with half of that total attributable to the All-Star Game.

Some additional insights about the top programming on TV:

• Not included in those MLB totals is the Home Run Derby, which adds another 0.36% of watch-time.
• A lack of much live sports on the week gave rise to procedurals, which occupy five of the top 10 spots, led by NCIS at No. 2.
• Speaking of crime-related shows, Forensic Files soars week-over-week from No. 35 to No. 11 by minutes watched.
• Syndicated sitcoms also continue to be staples for audiences, with four such programs in our ranking this week, including week-over-week top 25 newcomer The Big Bang Theory (up from no. 36 to No. 23).

CBS leaps from No. 3 to No. 1 in our list of most-watched networks, thanks in part to the return of PGA action after a one-week hiatus. The network increased watch-time from 5.75% to 6.03% week-over-week, which was enough to retake the top spot.

Additional insights around the most-watched networks from the week:

• While SportsCenter made up over 24% of minutes watched on ESPN, it’s the MLB Home Run Derby’s one-off appearance that fueled much of the network’s week-over-week climb from No. 14 to No. 10 in our ranking.
• Hallmark Channel moves from No. 8 to No. 7 in our ranking week-over-week, as audiences tuned into syndicated airings of programs like The Golden Girls, Reba and Frasier (among others).
• TNT is the lone week-over-week newcomer in our ranking, via NCIS: New Orleans and a steady slate of superhero movies coinciding with San Diego Comic-Con over the weekend.
• Day One (Sunday) of Shark Week helped drive Discovery Channel up from No. 22 to No. 18 week-over-week, as audiences bit into the network’s shark-focused specials.

Top Shows and Networks by TV Ad Impressions

Via iSpot.tv, the always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company. Rankings are by TV ad impressions, for new episodes only. 

Even with fewer games on national TV for the All-Star Break, MLB action still increased impressions by nearly 41% week-over-week. Including the All-Star Game, baseball served up 2.72% of TV ad impressions from July 18-24 to lead all programs.

More data about the top programs by TV ad impressions:

• News accounts for six of the top 10 programs by share of impressions delivered during the week, led by Good Morning America at 2.40%.
• La casa de los famosos shifts from No. 14 to No. 12 by share of impressions, as the Spanish-language version of Celebrity Big Brother nears the conclusion of season two.
• Impressions climbed almost 20% week-over-week for daytime soap The Young and the Restless, which remains a staple among the top 10 programs in our ranking.
• Jesse Watters Primetime (which technically airs an hour before primetime at 7 p.m. ET) has quietly become the top Fox News evening program for impressions in recent weeks, sitting at No. 20 for July 18-24.

Fox News occupies the No.1 spot in our ad-impressions-by-network ranking for the fourth consecutive week, delivering 12.71% of impressions (up from 12.55% the previous week).

Additional insights around the top networks by impressions:

• Thanks in part to its broadcast of the PGA Tour’s 3M Open, CBS hops from No. 4 to No. 2 in our ranking week-over-week, with its share of impressions rising from 10.54% to 11.87%.
• Tuesday’s MLB All-Star Game broadcast helped Fox’s share of impressions more than double week-over-week, from 1.49% to 3.51%.
• Advertisers benefitted from early Shark Week specials on Discovery Channel, as the network grew share of impressions week-over-week from 0.99% to 1.47%.
• HGTV climbs from No. 16 to No. 14 in our ranking with new episodes of shows like Good Bones (13.3% of the network’s impressions), Bargain Block (12.8%) and No Demo Reno (11.3%), among others.

ESPN is entering the hot summer months with some ratings momentum fueled by year-to-year audience increases from its NBA Finals and NHL Stanley Cup Finals coverage on broadcast network ABC and its coverage of the Wimbledon tennis tournament.

ABC’s June coverage of the six-game Golden State Warriors-Boston Celtics NBA Finals averaged 12.4 million viewers, up 22% from last year’s COVID-delayed Milwaukee Bucks-Phoenix Suns finasl and the most-watched NBA Finals in three years, according to Nielsen. ABC’s Colorado Avalanche-Tampa Bay Lightning Stanley Cup Final last month averaged 4.6 million viewers, posting an 84% average viewership increase from NBC’s July 2021 Lightning-Montreal Canadiens final. 

Heading into Wimbledon’s finals weekend, ESPN was averaging nearly 620,000 viewers across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, up 41% from 2021’s coverage of the Grand Slam tournament. 

With Major League Baseball’s Home Run Derby, the WNBA’s postseason and the start of the 2022 college football campaign, ESPN is bullish about its summer ratings run, according to network senior VP of programming and planning Freddy Rolón, who recently spoke to Multichannel News. An edited version of the interview appears below: 

MCN: Do the strong ratings gains for the NHL and NBA Finals signal that the TV sports industry has returned to normal two years after the pandemic? 

Freddy Rolón: I feel like what we're seeing is the steady comeback of sports and sports viewership. There's a tendency to talk about pre-pandemic versus today, but it still feels like we’re in the pandemic. We were able to get through the [NBA and NHL] finals, but it’s easy to forget how a few months ago the NHL’s scheduled Olympic break became a COVID break. So we're still dealing with some of the effects of COVID even though we were lucky enough to kind of keep both seasons on track in terms of where they fell on the schedule. I think we as fans — both as viewers and as programmers — are still trying to deal with getting back to normal. Thinking through 2020, it seems like centuries away but we’re still coming out of it. We're getting there, but I think we may have a little short term memory on how close we are to it still. 

MCN: Having said that, were you surprised at the ratings performance for both the NBA and NHL postseason?

FR: Honestly, I would say surprised and very pleased. The playoff runs for the NHL and NBA helped fuel ESPN’s second-quarter ratings, which were up 22% in primetime — the best since 2014. We topped cable viewers 18-49 for total day, and a lot of that was driven up not only by the live playoff games, but the studio shows which gave us a lift. The ability to talk about what was happening in games allows us to continue the conversation with fans beyond the live games throughout the quarter. 

MCN: How do the ratings for the two finals bode for the importance of live sports programming on linear TV? 

FR: It shows that there is an audience that is seeking this content on linear platforms. With the NHL especially, all of the games were available across platforms, but live sports has been a driver for us consistently on linear. We can point to our success in college sports this past season, which were up consistently across the board on our linear platforms. Just in the second quarter alone, WNBA games were up 15% year to year; the NBA Draft was up 28%; and PGA Championship golf coverage was up 12%. Our Formula One races on ESPN were up 11%. Our women’s softball coverage had its best ratings since 2011 and the men’s baseball playoffs were up 20%. There’s a consistent story that we have to share of how sports are consistently drawing bigger audiences. 

MCN: How do you then balance your success on the linear side with reaching fans with live sports content on the digital platform?

FR: [ESPN president] Jimmy Pitaro says it really well with regards to operating on parallel paths here — growing one does not have to come at the expense of the other. There’s nothing that stops us from growing both businesses and working with audiences across those platforms. The strategy for those platforms differs sport by sport. With Wimbledon, for example, the Centre Court matches are on ESPN, and ESPN Plus covers the matches on the other courts. That expands our coverage of the event. We’re able to deliver more sports content through ESPN Plus that gives fans a deeper dive into the sports that they love that might not be available on ESPN. So from my standpoint, there’s room for both. They’re not necessarily competitive, but additive for us.

MCN: How do you see the network continuing to build its ratings momentum throughout the rest of the summer? 

FR: We’ve had great ratings for Wimbledon and I’m excited to see how [baseball's] Home Run Derby does. We’re also looking forward to the college football season, which is just around the corner — I think that’s going to help us continue the trend.  ■

Peacock said Jason Benetti will be the play-by-play voice for MLB Sunday Leadoff, the streaming service's weekly package of early baseball games.

Benetti, who does White Sox games on NBC Sports Chicago, will be joined by a local analyst during each game. 

“Jason is one of the best baseball announcers in the business,” said Sam Flood, NBC Sports executive producer. “We’re excited to expand his role within the NBC Sports family with a new national MLB platform to complement his role as the voice of the White Sox for NBC Sports Chicago.”

The first MLB Sunday Leadoff game on Peacock will be May 8 when the White Sox play the Red Sox at Fenway Park. The telecast will start at 11:30 a.m. ET and Peacock’s coverage will be simulcast on NBC.

“I am simply ecstatic to be a part of MLB Sunday Leadoff,” Benetti said. “One of the true joys of calling games is knowing that each partner I work with provides a new perspective, energy and personality to the telecast. To get to start the baseball day on Sunday every week with analysts who are so knowledgeable about their teams and distinct as people will be an absolute pleasure.”

Sports is becoming an increasingly important piece of ammunition in the streaming wars. Apple TV Plus also has a deal with MLB to stream national doubleheaders on Friday nights and Amazon, a part owner of the YES Network, will stream Yankees games in a TV package local to the New York City market.

Benetti has been calling MLB games nationally on ESPN and ESPN Radio since 2011. Last summer Benetti was NBC Sports' lead baseball play-by-play announcer during the Tokyo Olympics. 

Peacock's package will have it airing baseball for 18 consecutive weeks. The first six games start at 11:30 a.m. ET. The following 12 will start at noon.

Each game will be surrounded with pre-game and post-game shows produced by NBC Sports on Peacock. Ahmed Fareed is the host of MLB Sunday Leadoff. ■

YouTube said it renewed its deal with Major League Baseball and will be streaming its MLB Game of the Week Live on YouTube for a fourth season.

This season YouTube will stream 15 regular season games for free, starting May 5 with the Washington Nationals playing the Colorado Rockies.

The games are available to fans in 182 countries.

YouTube has been streaming MLB content since 2019 and it has generated .5.4 million views and 425 hours of watching. Half of the YouTube baseball audience is under 35 years old.

The game broadcasts are produced by MLB Network and will feature play-by-play announcer Scott Braun and analyst Yonder Alonso. A YouTube pregame show is hosted by Siera Santos of the MLB Network.

MLB previously announced new deals this season to present streaming games on Friday nights on Apple TV Plus and Sundays on Comcast NBCUniversal’s Peacock. ■

Tiger Woods’ return to PGA tournament competition leads this weekend’s list of televised sports events.

Woods is competing in this weekend’s Masters tournament less than 17 months after suffering severe leg injuries in a horrific car crash. The tournament, which airs live on CBS, is the first major PGA event for Woods since playing in the 2020 Masters tournament.

Also: Tiger Woods' Comeback Gives ESPN Masters Coverage 21% Boost in Viewers

On the diamond, Major League Baseball’s opening weekend showcases five live games on MLB Network, concluding with ESPN’s first Sunday Night Baseball telecast featuring a game between heated rivals the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. 

In the ring, DAZN will feature the International Boxing Federation middleweight title fight between champion Gennady Golovkin and challenger Ryota Murata. Showtime will feature a main event bout between junior middleweights Erickson Lubin and Sebastian Fundora. 

ESPN Plus will enter the octagon Saturday with the UFC 273 pay-per-view event featuring a main event featherweight championship matchup between titleholder Alexander Volkanovski and Chan Sung Jung.

On the ice, ABC Saturday will air the Washington Capitals-Pittsburgh Penguins NHL game, while on Sunday TNT will air a doubleheader featuring the Boston Bruins-Washington Capitals and the Nashville Predators-Penguins game. 

The NBA enters the final weekend of its regular season with Sunday games on ESPN (Indiana Pacers-Brooklyn Nets) and TNT (Boston Bruins-Memphis Grizzlies and Golden State Warriors-New Orleans Pelicans.)

USA, NBC and Peacock will feature more than nine Premier League games combined on Saturday and Sunday. ESPN and FS1 will feature Major League Soccer games over the weekend. NBC will feature the IndyCar Grand Prix of Long Beach auto race. ■    

Comcast NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service confirmed that it will stream a package of 18 Sunday morning Major League Baseball games starting in May.

The games will be surrounded by a pre-game and post-game show, all produced by NBC Sports, which first broadcast baseball games in 1939.

The move comes as sports is becoming an increasingly important piece of ammunition in the streaming wars. Apple TV Plus also has a deal with MLB to stream doubleheaders on Friday nights and Amazon, a part owner of the YES Network, will stream Yankees games.

Peacock’s games will start at a new time of 11:30 a.m. for the first six weeks and at noon the following 12 weeks. The early start time gives Peacock an exclusive window when no other MLB teams will be playing, a move designed to maximize Peacock’s audiences size and ad revenues.

Also: Tradition-Bound Baseball is Streaming Into the Future

"We are excited to announce this multi-year partnership with Major League Baseball, which will exclusively offer Peacock subscribers a premium property in a unique time slot for the sport, while continuing NBC Sports’ rich baseball history,” said Pete Bevacqua, chairman, NBC Sports.

The first Peacock game will feature the Chicago White Sox playing the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on May 8. It will be simulcast on NBC.

“As consumption habits continue to evolve, it is important for us to provide new ways for fans who are outside the cable bundle to watch MLB games,” said Noah Garden, MLB chief revenue officer. “This agreement marks an exciting new chapter to the extensive history of innovation between MLB and NBC Sports in delivering exciting baseball action to our fans.”

Peacock has been increasing the amount of sports it carries. In February it had the Olympics and the Super Bowl. It also has Premier League soccer, Notre Dame football, the NTT IndyCar racing series, and WWE wrestling. ■

Major League Baseball, which nearly knocked itself down and out with an unpopular labor lockout that threatened to delay or cancel the season, is dusting itself off and taking swings at streaming, rounding the technology bases and heading for home before most of the other major sports.

To some extent, the deals are a money grab, with baseball re-slicing its national TV pie to generate more revenue from streaming services desperate for fresh content. But they are also an attempt to adopt changes in technology to attract a new, younger audience with an aggressiveness the often-sleepy sport has not displayed. 

Even before Major League Baseball last week reached its new collective bargaining agreement, clearing the way for a full 162-game season, Apple said it had a deal to stream exclusive baseball doubleheaders on Friday nights.

Also: ESPN Changes ‘Sunday Night Baseball’ Lineup, Gives A-Rod a Manning-Like Telecast

“We’re really excited about this,” said Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, America’s most valuable company. “This is going to be the best way to watch baseball on your iPhone, iPad, Mac and anywhere that Apple TV Plus is available.”

Apple will have a pre-game and post-game show on Fridays. It will also be streaming MLB Big Inning, a live show featuring highlights and look-ins every weeknight during the season. 

“Apple TV Plus offers an exciting new platform to fans that allows a wider audience to connect with the game,” said Noah Garden, MLB’s chief revenue officer.

Reports also surfaced that MLB was talking to NBC Sports about putting games on streaming service Peacock, and to a lesser extent on NBC. Early reports indicated Peacock would stream games on Monday and Wednesday night (games ESPN used to televise before it cut back on its commitment to baseball). Later stories said indicated Peacock would get a new set of 18 early Sunday games —  11:30 a.m. ET — that were created as part of the new MLB contract with baseball players.

The money is pretty good. According to Forbes, Apple annually is paying a $55 million rights fee and agreeing to buy $30 million worth of advertising. while Peacock is hocking up $30 million a year.

The two streaming deals increase MLB’s annual national TV money by 26% to $1.96 billion, which will pay for a lot of pine tar.

The deals could also be good for baseball by giving the growing number of cord-cutters access to baseball's field of dreams. Those cord-cutters tend to be the kind of younger viewers baseball needs to stay relevant. Streaming also gives those younger viewers more access to interactive features–stats and games–and increasingly betting.

In addition to its national deals, baseball action might also be getting streamed at the local and regional level this season.

Baseball will continue to be seen nationally on traditional TV via Fox, ESPN and Turner Sports.

Sinclair Broadcast Group’s Bally Sports regional sports networks are rushing to put out a new direct-to-consumer product by the end of the second quarter, coinciding with the start of baseball season. Sinclair said it has rights to go direct-to-consumer with four baseball teams it currently telecasts. Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred has brushed back Sinclair, saying the broadcaster didn’t necessarily have enough rights to start a streaming service. There were also reports MLB was considering creating its own streaming service that would handle regional and local games.

Comcast NBCU’s regional sports networks also announced plans for a direct-to-consumer product, but quickly returned to first base, calling its announcement inadvertent and misleading.

Amazon, which owns a piece of the YES Network, is also again streaming some Yankee games and there were reports that Sinclair and the Cubs, which have a joint venture with The Marquee Network, were also talking about a streaming direct-to-consumer service.

Streaming baseball games locally has been problematic because of complicated claims about where local markets start and end, making it difficult for fans of a team close enough to listen to a game on a full-powered radio station to legally watch a game online.

Those problems are a bit ironic because baseball was an early leader in creating streaming technology and consumer apps with Major League Baseball Advanced Media, which was formed in 2000. It launched a streaming service, MLB.TV, in 2003. 

Also: Sinclair Reportedly in Talks With the Chicago Cubs for DTC Service

MLB Advanced Media spun off its streaming technology business as BAMTech in 2015. It is now owned by The Walt Disney Co. and serves as the backbone for Disney Plus and ESPN Plus.

Sports is becoming an increasingly important piece of ammunition in the media’s streaming wars. NBCUniversal’s Peacock streamed the Olympics and Super Bowl and Paramount’s Paramount Plus streams its NFL regular season and playoff games. ESPN added streaming content in last year’s deals with the NFL and National Hockey League. Soccer and MMA are also draws for streaming services.

To top it all off, Amazon this season will be streaming  the exclusive national telecasts of Thursday Night Football. Amazon is staffing up with on-air talent, but reportedly did not bid enough for Fox’s top team of Troy Aikman and Joe Buck. Buck and Aikman are reportedly headed for Disney’s ESPN, where they’d broadcast the 2026 and 2030 Super Bowls, which are expected to be on ESPN, ABC and streaming. An ESPN spokesman had no comment.

It’s a brave new world for sports, and by going with its fastball, instead of a knuckleball, baseball may be leading the way. ■

Comcast’s NBC Sports reportedly has made a deal to televise Major League Baseball games, mostly on its Peacock streaming service.

According to Forbes, the $30-million deal covers the Monday and Wednesday night games that ESPN aired under its previous deal with MLB. A handful of games might appear on NBC.

Comcast NBCU has seen sports as a way to jump start Peacock, which has gotten off sluggishly in the competition among streaming services to grab subscribers. Peacock streamed the Olympics and the Super Bowl.

Also: NBC Reportedly in Talks To Put MLB Games on Peacock

The Peacock deal follows Tuesday's announcement that Apple TV Plus will air Friday night baseball doubleheaders. 

Forbes said that deal called for Apple to pay a $55-million rights fee and buy $30 million worth of advertising.

The lucrative new television deals come as the Major League Baseball team owners negotiate with the MLB Players Association, whose members have been locked out by management, possibly delaying the start of the season. 

The new deals will kick in when and if the 2022 season starts. ■

Apple said it reached an agreement with Major League Baseball to begin airing weekly Friday Night Baseball double headers, a big swing into sports for Apple TV Plus.

The schedule will start as soon as baseball’s season begins. The season at this point is delayed by a lockout by owners negotiating a new labor deal with the players association.

Sports is becoming a big ticket for streaming services. Comcast's NBCUniversal had also reportedly been in talks to stream baseball via its Peacock direct-to-consumer platform. Amazon will exclusively stream Thursday Night Football. And Apple is reportedly talking With the NFL About Sunday Ticket and taking a stake in NFL Media. 

“Just like all baseball fans, we can’t wait for the season to open,” said Peter Stern, Apple’s VP of services. “Baseball has a special place in the heart of so many Apple customers — not just in the United States, but in many countries around the world. We’re proud to make Apple TV Plus the home for great baseball moments throughout the season.”

Apple’s games will be surrounded by a pre-game and post-game show. 

Apple will also be streaming MLB Big Inning, a live show featuring highlights and look-ins every weeknight during the season. 

“Apple is the ideal partner to bring ‘Friday Night Baseball’ to fans around the world,” said Noah Garden, MLB’s chief revenue officer. “Following milestones like the launch of At Bat on day one of the App Store in 2008 to the integration of Apple technology in ballparks across the country, this robust new game package is the perfect next collaboration in our long history of offering quality and innovative content to our fans. With national availability and international reach, MLB on Apple TV Plus offers an exciting new platform to fans that allows a wider audience to connect with the game.”

Friday Night Baseball will be available on Apple TV Plus in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico, South Korea, and the United Kingdom, and will expand to additional countries at a later date. ■

NBC Sports is talking to Major League Baseball about bringing some of its games to its Peacock streaming service, according to the New York Post.

Apple is also in talks to stream games, the paper said.

If NBC Sports is able to make a deal, some games would be broadcast on NBC, but the majority would appear on Peacock, which could use the kind of boost that sports programming could provide.

Also: NBCU Will Stream All Winter Olympic Coverage on Peacock

NBC Sports had no comment.

Rights to the games would cost about $100 million to $150 million of they get played. Baseball owners have locked out the MLB Players Association and have said they will shorten the season if an agreement isn’t struck by Monday.

MLB baseball games are currently televised by Fox, Turner Sports and ESPN, but ESPN has cut back on the number of games it carries, leaving room for another carrier. ■

ESPN said it was shaking up its baseball announcing lineup and setting up an alternative game broadcast on ESPN2 featuring former highest-paid player Alex Rodriguez.

Former New York Mets, Kansas City Royals and New York Yankees pitcher David Cone will be joining ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball booth alongside play-by-play man Karl Ravech and analyst Eduardo Perez.

The changes come as ESPN begins a new rights deal with Major League Baseball.

Rodriguez will be joined by YES Network’s Michael Kay eight games this season for a special presentation dubbed Sunday Night Baseball with Kay-Rod.

The alternative broadcast is modeled on ESPN’s successful “ManningCast,” which successfully launched on ESPN2 this season, with former NFL quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning providing alternative commentary opposite Monday Night Football.

The Kay-Rod games will feature top matchups — Yankees-Red Sox — as well as fantasy baseball, predictive analysis and special guests, ESPN said. 

Also: ESPN To Close Out NFL Season with New Saturday Doubleheader

“As we begin our next chapter of baseball coverage, we aim to maximize the value of this new rights agreement by prioritizing innovation and compelling storytelling,” said Norby Williamson, ESPN executive VP and executive editor, production.

“We welcome David Cone to ESPN and believe he and Eduardo Perez will offer a master class in contemporary analysis, including Statcast-driven data and discussion,” Williamson said. ”Karl Ravech, who has been our ‘Mr. Baseball’ for three decades, will lead the booth with the command and credibility that he’s displayed throughout his career.

“I’m equally excited for the duo of Alex Rodriguez and Michael Kay to team up and offer fans a new, engaging experience,” he added. ”The innovative Sunday Night Baseball with Kay-Rod presentations will be informative and entertaining and play a crucial role in our overall Sunday Night Baseball content offerings. We’re grateful for the collaboration with the YES Network and look forward to starting the 2022 season.”

If the MLB Wild Card Series returns in 2022, the event will be fully exclusive to ESPN platforms and both new commentator teams will contribute to coverage. ■ 

Sinclair Broadcast Group CEO Chris Ripley tried to deflect attention away from the mastodon in the room during an earnings conference call with analysts on Wednesday, telling them that although the broadcaster has secured direct-to-consumer rights with just four Major League Baseball teams less than six months before it is supposed to launch a DTC service, it will have the necessary deals in hand in time. 

“We do think we have critical mass in terms of rights to launch a product,” Ripley said on the earnings call. “And that’s what we intend to do.”

Maybe he‘s right. Maybe Sinclair will craft renewal deals with 10 other baseball teams over the course of the next 20 weeks that include DTC, linear and authenticated rights for more money. 

Maybe the teams, anxious to keep the money spigot from the linear RSNs flowing, will work out some kind of deal for DTC rights that will be beneficial for all, instead of taking advantage of Sinclair's desperation and make them pay through the nose. Maybe the teams, which though the league has hinted that it may keep DTC rights for itself, have changed their minds.

And then again, maybe not.

After months of telling investors and analysts not to be concerned about their ability to secure the necessary rights for its 2022 direct-to-consumer service, it came as a bit of a shock when Ripley said it only had secured those rights with four baseball teams. The Sinclair CEO said that in the past the company has obtained those rights as part of larger carriage negotiations. Ripley didn’t say which 10 baseball teams it needed to obtain rights from — some outlets have speculated the teams Sinclair does have deals with are the Detroit Tigers (77-85), Kansas City Royals (74-88), Milwaukee Brewers (95-67) and Miami Marlins (67-95), all but one with losing regular season records in 2021 —  or when it expected to reach those deals. Sinclair has said it will launch the DTC service in the first half of 2022, likely around April, the start of the MLB regular season. 

The revelation also seems to contradict Ripley’s earlier comments when he said during a Q1 earnings conference call that the company had DTC deals with the “vast majority” of its teams. In hindsight, it appears that Ripley was mainly talking about linear rights with all its teams — baseball, basketball, hockey and whatnot — and not DTC rights.

LightShed Partners principal Rich Greenfield, a vocal critic of Sinclair’s RSN strategy, wasn’t amused.

“Amazing how many times Chris Ripley has misled investors publicly,” Greenfield said in a tweet Wednesday. Later, he expressed doubt that Sinclair will be able to secure DTC rights with teams as they re-up their linear deals, adding that he believes teams are “moving in a different direction.”  

Sinclair’s RSN dilemma comes a few weeks after Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred told an audience at the CAA World Congress of Sports that the broadcaster not only didn’t have sufficient rights to launch its own DTC service, it didn’t have gambling rights from the teams. And Manfred didn’t seem to want to give either of those rights up too easily.  

”We’ve been very clear with them from the beginning that we see both those sets of rights as extraordinarily valuable to baseball, and we're not just going to throw them in to help Sinclair out,” Manfred said at the conference, according to Sports Business Journal.

Gambling rights are an important component of Sinclair’s future RSN success, and maybe Manfred’s comments are merely a negotiating ploy on behalf of the league. But not everybody thinks so.

In the Q3 conference call, Ripley seemed to brush off any notion that the league may be positioning itself to launch its own direct-to-consumer product, adding that the RSNs have linear and authenticated digital deals with teams that would make such an endeavor highly unattractive. 

“What’s important to note is that we have exclusive local rights for our teams,” Ripley said on the conference call. “And those rights cannot be infringed upon by any other party to launch a direct-to-consumer product without significant ramifications. So we continue to negotiate in good faith with all interested parties to make direct-to-consumer a reality.”     

Sports consultant Lee Berke, president and CEO of LHB Sports, Entertainment & Media, said that isn’t so cut and dried because generally team deals are subject to league policies.

That could be as simple as striking a deal with teams to show 140 games on a regional basis, but a league agreement takes that down to 120 games nationally. So it is unclear whether Sinclair’s current deals would prevent teams from launching a regional DTC service but allow a national one. 

“Those are the sorts of things that do happen,” Berke said, adding the same holds true for the NHL and NBA. “It has to, because you are striking a balance between what you can sell nationally and what you can sell locally. So, for them to say, ‘We have a critical mass of rights,’ that’s subject to what the league wants you to have.”

Also read: Sinclair RSNs: Timing is Everything 

Adding to the uncertainty is the obvious animosity between MLB and Sinclair. Berke and other sports executives have said that Manfred’s scathing public criticism of the broadcaster was unprecedented and points to a relationship where the owner of the content has little incentive to help out its distributor.

Even NBA commissioner Adam Silver, who has been generally mum about rights deals in the past, seemed to lash out at Sinclair at the Oct. 12 CAA conference, telling the audience that he believed the RSNs are probably worth half of what the company paid for them two years ago.

“They paid $10 billion, it’s not clear it’s a good deal with $5 billion,” Silver said of the Sinclair RSNs at the conference, according to The Streamable. The Sinclair RSNs are also in negotiations for rights with 16 NBA teams. 

Manfred also criticized Sinclair for publicly airing its debt issues with the entity that holds its RSNs, Diamond Sports Group. Diamond Sports has been trying for months to restructure its $8 billion in debt, and in September said it was seeking another $600 million in financing from its bondholders for the DTC launch.  At the CAA World Congress of Sports, Manfred said Sinclair’s debt issues have cast a negative pall on the RSN space. 

During Wednesday’s conference call with analysts, Ripley said Diamond Sports has “ample” liquidity for the next 12 months, and that it is in “discussions with various commercial partners regarding financing.”

And when asked if MLB’s biggest concern with Diamond Sports is its debt, and could be solved by cleaning up its balance sheet, Ripley agreed. 

“I think getting additional financing would be helpful for all parties,” Ripley said. “I mean, that’s sort of undeniably true. And I think you’re spot on in that observation.” 

And then there is the question of whether Sinclair will be able to hammer out 10 rights deals with 10 different teams in time to launch the DTC network. Ripley didn’t say when those deals would come up for renewal.

According to one sports executive who asked not to be named, it is highly unlikely that renewals for all 10 remaining MLB teams were set to expire between now and April, so that means Sinclair will have to renegotiate existing pacts with the teams. 

“The teams have all the leverage,” the sports executive said, adding that clubs don’t have much incentive to open up existing agreements to negotiate DTC rights before they come due. “Why would they do that? What are they getting?”

The executive added that even if Sinclair agreed to terms that were highly favorable to the teams, the sheer number of deals to be done could pose its own problems.  

“That’s an incredibly ambitious task,” the sports executive said of trying to negotiate 10 rights deals by April 1.  

While Ripley appears confident those deals will be reached quickly, negotiations with Dish Network for Sinclair’s TV stations and RSNs continue to drag on. Dish’s carriage deal originally expired in August, was extended to September and currently is in the midst of a long line of one-week extensions as the parties have failed to reach a compromise. Many analysts believe that Dish has had the upper hand in talks since the beginning, and is in no hurry to reach a deal unless the terms are extremely favorable to the satellite TV giant. So, to believe that MLB teams that essentially hold the key to Sinclair’s DTC streaming future will rush to complete a deal to help out the broadcaster may be a bit naïve. 

But talks with Dish are apparently ongoing. Ripley said Sinclair and Dish are in “very short-term renewals at this point,” adding that the company does not comment on “live negotiations.”

Dish Network is scheduled to hold a conference call with analysts at noon Nov. 4 to discuss Q3 results. Perhaps it will add some further clarity to those negotiations.   

However, as part of its Q3 results, Sinclair reduced Diamond Sports’ full-year cash flow guidance by 12%, a move that some analysts took to mean they don’t think they’ll be able to reach a Dish agreement this year.  

And though Cahall agreed that with about $476 million in cash, Diamond Sports has enough liquidity to last 12 months, he added it is going to be a tight next few months for RSN business. 

About half of that cash will be tied up in sports rights payments, bond interest payments and distributor rebates in the first half of 2022, Cahall wrote in a research note, adding that the “real crunch” will occur in Q4 2022. In the meantime, Cahall wrote that Diamond Sports’ unsecured bonds are trading at about 26 cents on the dollar. 

The analyst wrote that investors, once most concerned about the debt restructuring, are now hyper-focused on direct-to-consumer streaming rights. 

“We think it's too close to call,” Cahall wrote, adding that without a direct-to-consumer product, “it's tough for us to see a financial future for Diamond.” 

Berke added that despite Sinclair’s RSN difficulties, the value of sports content remains high, which could raise optimism that a deal can eventually be done. But there will also have to be some changes. The sports business isn’t what it used to be. 

“This is not a crisis of the value of the content — ratings still do well,” Berke said. “But it’s a crisis of the distribution of the content. It’s a fact that the business model is outmoded. All of that needs to be addressed. The easier path is to negotiate this out. But it has been two years, and they have yet to work it out.”

After throwing cold water on regional sports network owner Sinclair Broadcast Group’s plans for a direct-to-consumer service that would show games, Major League Baseball is reportedly in talks about launching a streaming service that would let fans watch their local teams without subscribing to cable.

The MLB over-the-top service would cost between $10 and $20 a month, depending on the market, and could be up to bat as early as the 2023 season, according to the New York Post.

Local games would also continue to be on cable, but the new service would be designed to appeal to younger fans who have already cut the cord.

Sinclair bought the Fox regional sports networks for $9 billion and rebranded them as Bally Sports. The deal left Sinclair with a lot of debt and shrinking subscriber numbers. The company has been talking about raising $250 million to build the new venture.

Speaking last week at a conference, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred disputed Sinclair’s contention that it has digital rights to launch a direct-to-consumer service. 

"We've been very clear with them from the beginning that we see both those sets of rights as extraordinarily valuable to baseball, and we're not just going to throw them in to help Sinclair out,” Manfred said.

“We believe those digital rights are crucial, “ the commissioner said. “And we want to own and control the platform on which they’re delivered, we may have partners in that process.”

Sinclair had no comment on Manfred’s comments.

The NBA and the NHL are considering working with MLB on the streaming service, the Post report said. 

MLB’s streaming service would pay individual teams based on viewership in their local markets, the report said. Meanwhile, without the streaming rights, the cable TV rights to games could drop in price, relieving some pressure on the RSNs, which are already being dropped by some distributors because of their big league price tags.

There’s a new purpose-built Major League Baseball field in Dyersville, Iowa, set to host the first MLB game ever in the state, on the farm where the 1989 movie Field of Dreams was shot. The game is on Thursday, Aug. 12, between the New York Yankees and the Chicago White Sox. The ballpark is surrounded by 159 acres of corn and there's a corn maze beyond the right field fence, near the Field of Dreams Movie Site. The teams will wear special uniforms inspired by what their predecessors wore in the early 20th Century. 

So it’s been built. Will a big nationwide audience tune in when this experiment in sports and cinema nostalgia gets underway with pre-game hoopla starting at 6 p.m. ET on Fox?

Fox and MLB obviously hope so. Planning took about two years, interrupted by the COVID pandemic that kiboshed efforts to stage the game in 2020 (the movie’s 30th anniversary). Fox is showing the game in 4K HDR, using aerial production drones for the first time at an MLB game along with two wireless “Megalodon” cameras for up-close angles and a cabled Flycam that can travel from the movie set to the ballpark. 

“We're excited,” Fox Sports Media Group senior VP of production Judy Boyd told B+C last week. “And figuring out how we capture this magical feel with the Yankees and White Sox, but also keeping the essence of the film and what this film means to a lot of families, and fathers and sons, and mothers and sons, and fathers and daughters, et cetera, just how it impacted everybody. … It's a generational sport that many families watch together, and we hope to capture that.”

“We’re trying to find that line of, are you watching a movie, are you watching a ballgame?” Boyd said. “And that’s a line that we’re still trying to toe and figure out a little bit. We definitely have lots of the movie interspersed in, whether it’s with hopefully some of the actors from the film there, or clips from the film, as well as shots of families watching the game or the house and the film field. And then whatever storylines we have within the game from the two teams.” 

Also read: Peacock Orders 'Field of Dreams' Series

The Yankees manager, Aaron Boone, for example, is part of a famous baseball family, with his grandfather Ray, his father Bob and his brother Bret and himself all having played in the major leagues successfully, Boyd noted. Several current MLB stars had famous dads who played the game, including Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Fernando Tatis Jr. Families and baseball go together, which was a big theme of the movie, starring Kevin Costner, Ray Liotta, James Earl Jones and Amy Madigan. (Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella, played by Costner, a husband and father, is tending his cornfield when he hears a voice say: “If you build it, he will come.” When Kinsella builds a ballfield, ghosts of famous players from the past, including “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, come out of the corn to play ball.) 

Other nods to a bygone era of baseball will include new graphics, Boyd said. “We redesigned our ‘Fox Box’ to look more like an old-school scoreboard, where the numbers are flipping like they would at Fenway or Wrigley,” she said. Real GEICO ad signs will be brought out onto the field and hung up behind the plate, instead of the green-screen virtual ads normally there.

Challenges include “broadcasting from a cornfield in Iowa,” with no stadium fiber for connectivity, she noted. “It’s been difficult, not impossible just hard, in figuring out how to do that the right way without sacrificing our quality and what we want to do.”

They couldn’t build it in 2020, but it’s ready now, and Fox and MLB are hoping other external events will cooperate, including the weather. “Fingers crossed,” Boyd said. (The forecast looked fairly good as of Tuesday night.)

MLB Network showed the movie, which was nominated for a best-picture Oscar in 1990, this past weekend, and the network’s Intentional Talk program will air live from Field of Dreams on Wednesday and Thursday (Aug. 11 and 12) at 5 p.m. ET. A teaser promo that has been airing on MLB Network is here. Actors Dwier Brown and Kevin Costner have been confirmed to attend the game in Dyersville, as well. 

Joe Buck and John Smoltz will call the game on Fox, with Ken Rosenthal and Tom Verducci working the news on the sidelines at the new ballpark. The Fox Deportes production will feature Adrian Garcia Marquez, Carlos Alvarez and Edgar Gonzalez. 

The Walt Disney Co. and Major League Baseball said they reached a new seven-year rights deal that will keep baseball on ESPN and provides extensive streaming rights to simulcast games and stream other content on ESPN Plus.

The deal continues Disney’s push to get streaming rights for sports. It got expanded streaming rights in its recent deals with the National Football League and the National Hockey League.

Read Also: Disney in 'Conversations' About NFL Sunday Ticket

ESPN Plus will also continue to televise a Major League Baseball game nearly every day of the regular season, subject to local blackout restrictions, as well as select spring training coverage.

ESPN will be exclusively televise 30 exclusive regular season games per year, including 25 editions of Sunday Night Baseball and an opening day contest. ESPN may also get an expanded wild card playoff series beginning in 2022. Under the new deal, it will not air weekday games.

The deal includes increased highlight rights for ESPN platforms.

Read Also: Big Four Are Sports TV's Comeback Kids

“ESPN has been one of MLB’s longest and most important partners,” said baseball commissioner Rob Manfred.

“This extension continues the evolution of our relationship with a focus on utilizing ESPN’s extensive assets to shine a spotlight on key match-ups throughout the year. With reach across broadcast, cable, streaming, and social, ESPN is able to deliver MLB action to our broad fan base across multiple platforms. As the way in which fans consume baseball continues to change, this partnership provides expanded opportunities for fans to engage with our content and we are excited to present those new opportunities,” Manfred said.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“ESPN’s long standing relationship with Major League Baseball has been a driver of innovation for three decades,” said Jimmy Pitaro, chairman of ESPN and sports content for Disney.

“This agreement solidifies Baseball’s ubiquitous presence across ESPN platforms, including ESPN Plus. The impactful collection of exclusive content, including Sunday Night Baseball which has served as the signature MLB series for more than 30 years, will be amplified by the surrounding rights we have to make these live events even bigger. We thank commissioner Manfred and the MLB ownership group for their partnership and commitment as we collectively uncover new ways to serve fans,” Pitaro said. 

One month after the 2021 Major League Baseball regular season threw out its first pitch, virtual multichannel video programming distributors YouTube TV, Hulu Plus Live TV and Fubo TV are still without Sinclair Broadcast Group’s regional sports networks.

About 19 of Sinclair’s RSNs, rebranded under the Bally Sports Networks name this month, went dark to YouTube TV and Hulu Plus Live TV customers in the fall (Fubo TV dropped the channels in January 2020), but there were hopes that the networks would return in time for opening day of the Major League Baseball regular season. That didn’t happen. 

Pricing appears to be the reason for the decision to do without the channels, and apparently there has been little movement on either side regarding negotiations. 

In addition to the Bally Sports channels, YouTube and Hulu also passed on carriage for another RSN in which Sinclair owns a minority interest -- YES Network, TV home of the New York Yankees. Marquee Sports Network, owned by the Chicago Cubs and also minority-owned by Sinclair, reached a carriage deal with Fubo TV on March 31, but still doesn’t have a deal with YouTube TV and Hulu. 

Despite the impasse, the networks have enjoyed strong ratings, according to people familiar with the channels. The YES Network, which launched a new authenticated app in March, said its opening week TV audience was its largest in nine years.

YouTube dropped the Sinclair RSNs in September, Hulu in October and Fubo TV in January 2020. Back in March, Sinclair said that it was working toward an agreement with the streamers, but so far that hasn’t been successful. Sinclair did not return a request for comment. 

Sinclair is scheduled to release its Q1 financial results on May 5, so they are likely to field a few questions about the dispute on its quarterly conference call with analysts. 

According to sources familiar with the negotiations, Sinclair and the streamers haven’t met for months. And as the impasse continues, the prospect that a deal will be reached this baseball season, seems farther from reality. 

At the beginning of the month, sports consultant Lee Berke, CEO of LHB Media & Entertainment, guessed that maybe one of the streamers would reach a deal with the Sinclair RSNs, but not all of them. His reason: streamers just don’t see sports as the glue that holds the bundle together, like traditional distributors do. 

At the time, Berke said that regular season baseball would be the litmus test for the streamers. If their subscriber rolls weren’t materially affected by the loss of games, then they probably could do without the channels all-together.   

“It’s difficult to see all three of them coming back in,” Berke said a month ago. 

Today, his mind hasn’t changed. 

“I don't think it’s a good sign for the RSNs,” Berke said Friday (April 30) of the continued impasse. “That being said I don’t think a month alone will do it,” adding that baseball fans get more engaged later in the season as pennant races heat up. So there is still some time left to figure out the true impact of not carrying the networks. 

YouTube TV, Hulu and Fubo TV are not devoid of sports without the Sinclair RSNs. The vMVPDs carry ESPN and MLB Network, TBS and TNT that carry national baseball games. They just don’t have all the games of all the local professional teams, which are primarily carried on RSNs.

“They [the vMVPDs] are trying to see if that allows them to skate by,” Berke said. “You’ve got large numbers of younger fans that want to see these games through their virtual MVPDs. But if it’s not in numbers large enough or compelling enough to make them change their strategy then they are going to continue to go forward with it. The crunch point is going to be in the next couple of months.”

Sinclair purchased the RSNs in 2019 from The Walt Disney Co. for about $10 billion. Dish dropped the Sinclair RSNs in July 2019, shortly before it closed the Disney deal, and since then pay TV distributors have increasingly resisted big price increases from RSNs.  Although Sinclair has carriage deals for the RSNs with most major traditional distributors, the streaming channels, which have a younger audience, are starting to fight back.

Also Read: Sinclair RSNs Face ‘Tumultuous Period, Analyst Says 

YouTube TV has been in the news lately for a different battle with streaming box maker Roku. Today (April 30), YouTube let its Roku deal expire. 

Current YouTube TV customers would continue to be able to access their subscription via the Roku device. They just won’t be able to download the YouTube TV app from the Roku store, which would prevent new customers from signing up via Roku. Access to the free YouTube internet app would be unaffected. 

Also Read: Who Needs Roku? YouTube Already Dominates Worldwide Video 

Some fans have taken to social media to voice their displeasure, with several tweeting that the Roku impasse, coupled with dropping the RSNs could be the last straw. 

“Between this and losing the regional sports channels you used to have, and that I wouldn't have switched to you if you didn't have - Fix these problems or I'm gone,” said one YouTube TV user. 

So far, Sinclair doesn’t seem to have taken the usual path of a programmer in similar disputes -- asking fans to put pressure on the distributor either by calling and emailing the distributor or switching providers. The Bally Sports Twitter feeds are mainly focused on game highlights, although Sinclair did set up a dedicated microsite -- www.getmyhometeams.com -- in December that directs fans to other providers like AT&T TV, DirecTV, and Spectrum (depending on the market) to get access to the RSNs. Sinclair has had a reputation of being an aggressive adversary in distribution disputes -- look back on any of its major retrans battles for proof of that -- so its current stance is a bit unusual. 

Whether the current battle escalates or not, Berke said a lot of the controversies that have surrounded Sinclair and other RSNs are missing the larger point, which is the erosion of the current RSN model.

“The RSN model works extremely well when cable pay TV penetration is growing or is at least stable,“ Berke said. “But it was not set up to profitably handle the retrenchment of pay TV penetration. That is what needs to be addressed. And you address that by offering up your networks to as many platforms as possible. That’s easier said than done, but it’s imperative.”

Hidden amid the flurry of praise that surrounded AT&T over its relatively strong first quarter performance, mainly for growing its streaming business, was a sentence from one analyst report that kind of brought the whole media transformation narrative home for me in a compact 23 words: “If DirecTV continues to bleed subs at its average pace over the last year, there will be no subs left in 5 years.”

Now, at the risk of showing my age, after reading that sentence, all I could think about was Ziggy Stardust. 

But then again, a lot can happen in five years.

What was almost a throwaway line in Bernstein media analyst Peter Supino’s report on AT&T, a line that would have seemed impossible to utter 10 or 15 years ago when DirecTV was still considered to be the gold standard for pay TV, is now considered to be even a little conservative. Now, even after attracting a new investor in TPG Capital -- which arguably gets an interest in the satellite company at a bargain price -- DirecTV, in many minds, has been relegated to little more than a cash flow play. 

Also Read: AT&T and TPG: There is No Why

And what’s more, no one seems to care. Cable operators gave up on video growth years ago. Consumers just want to stream now and once old folks who cling to their pricey cable TV subscriptions, like me, begin to smarten up or die off, there won’t be anyone left to pay for so-called traditional TV.

Supino, in an email message, clarified his take on DirecTV, which he said was a “uniquely bad story,” adding that Bernstein believes that “the NFL inclusion of the broadcast associated streaming channels in the league’s new TV deals is a harbinger of accelerated change. As such rights move to streaming, soon there will be no reason to receive TV in a scheduled, broadcast format. In this context we think the broadcast networks and general interest cable channels, which commonly benefit from real estate in the legacy TV bundle that helps them monetize marginal programming and sub-scale channels, had better take more risk with the amount of programming they invest in their streaming ventures.”

I’ve written a lot about AT&T’s approach to distribution, so I won’t bore you with those details again. But one interesting note from the Supino report -- of the 2.7 million HBO Max additions in Q1, about 1 million to 1.5 million of them were likely people who are receiving the service via AT&T Mobility and/or Fiber bundles. In other words, they are getting HBO Max for free.    

But it is becoming pretty evident that the industry is moving toward  an app based future that doesn’t include a traditional pay TV relationship. That shouldn’t really come as a surprise, except for the speed at which it is happening.

Earlier this month, at a conference run by Fierce Video, Major League Baseball chief operations and strategy officer Chris Marinak said he  was encouraging teams and regional sports networks to accelerate their plans to go direct-to-consumer. A lot are already doing it. Bally Sports Networks -- formerly Fox Sports RSNs -- have said they plan to offer a DTC option next year. YES Network, home of the New York Yankees and partially owned by Sinclair and Amazon, launched their authenticated app this season, but it could easily accommodate a DTC offering when the team deems to do so. 

Also Read: Sports and OTT: Streaming Could Squeeze the Last Vestige of Appointment TV

The idea is that the RSNs would eventually offer a hybrid -- linear distribution as well as DTC. But in the end, it’s likely that the model will shift entirely to DTC after awhile, and that would be the final nail in Pay TV’s coffin. Sports, especially exclusive sports, has been the glue that held the pay TV bundle together. Without that, and with ESPN Plus and Fox Sports Go and the like already available via app, the reasons to hold on to a traditional pay TV subscription are quickly fading.   

DirecTV lost 620,000 subscribers in Q1, and since Q4 2018 it has shed about 7.1 million. Once the largest pay TV company in the country with 20 million customers, DirecTV now has about 13 million. The pace of those losses has picked up over the past 12 months to about 2.5 million a year, so yes, Supino is right, at that rate there will be no subscribers left by this time in 2026. Dish Network, which has about 8.8 million satellite TV subs, loses about 1.5 million TV customers per year, so using that math it won’t have any subscribers in about the same time frame, five years. 

Now, I’m not so sure that pay TV is going to disappear in five or 10 years, but it definitely won’t look the same. It’s not like all those subscribers will suddenly just stop watching TV, but they will find another way to watch it. DirecTV and Dish aren’t strictly satellite companies either. AT&T has an IP video offering, (AT&T TV), a streaming option (AT&T TV Now, formerly DirecTV Now, but they aren’t taking any new customers). Dish has an OTT service with around  2.5 million customers, Sling TV. 

And the rest of the industry isn’t immune to cord cutting either. Cable operators have seen their video dominance erode greatly over the past decade. And that got me thinking as to how much time cable has left. 

While the narrative in the cable industry has shifted dramatically in the past couple of years toward broadband, the fact is that cable is losing video customers too at a pretty high rate. In the past two years, according to MoffettNathanson, cable companies shed 4 million customers as their collective hold on the industry fell from 51 million in 2018 to 47 million in 2020. At that pace, 2 million lost cable subscribers per year, the industry will have 0 video customers by 2045. 

Also Read: Verizon FiosTV Subs Drop Back to 2011 Levels

But chances are it happens a lot faster than that.

“The old adage in tech is that things change less in five years, and more in ten, than anyone could ever imagine,” Moffett said in an email message.  “I think that’s the rule that will apply here.  Will there still be a linear video business in five years?  Absolutely.  Will there still be one in ten?  I’m not so sure.”

Moffett added that waiting for pay TV subscribers to totally disappear isn’t the way to gauge the industry either. 

“I don’t think extrapolating current trends all the way to zero is the right way to think about it,” Moffett continued.  “That might be the way the demand side works – a gradual decline in the number of older ‘traditionalists’ might translate to a similarly gradual decline in demand for linear video – but it’s not the way the supply side will work.”

Moffett said there already is evidence that both broadcast and cable networks are “strip-mining” their channels for fodder for their streaming services. Just look at the most recent National Football League rights deal for evidence of that. 

“There will be a point of no return when the whole linear ecosystem simply unravels, and it will be supply rather than demand that unravels it,” Moffett said. “That’s more than five years away, but it may be less than ten.”

So distributors won’t kill cable, networks will. That seems right. When it really comes down to it, any video distribution service is only as good as its programming. Satellite used to claim better pictures and superior programming to cable and they were right. Then, when it launched Sunday Ticket out-of-market NFL packages, it one-upped cable sports offerings and customer growth soared.  Now, some pundits are predicting that with DirecTV’s customer base declining rapidly, Sunday Ticket could go to another distributor, perhaps Comcast or its streaming service Peacock. 

With every programmer either with an app or planning one, a future where all programming is obtained via some direct-to-consumer relationship is not so far-fetched. In fact, distributors may prefer it that way. 

Because while juggling separate subscriptions to Netflix and Disney Plus and HBO Max and Amazon Prime and Paramount Plus and Discovery Plus all may be fairly manageable to the average consumer now, once every channel goes the DTC route, it could quickly become a nightmare.

Having cable operators serve as “app aggregators,” bundling different programming apps based on genres or prices or something else, while they are selling broadband, would seem to solve a couple of problems. Content companies could stick to what they know best -- creating programming -- while leaving the nuts and bolts of distribution -- billing and customer service -- to the segment that counts those functions as key components of their respective wheelhouses. 

Cable operators could bundle apps in packages for consumers reminiscent of the way C-band satellite programming used to be sold, moving the charges collected -- minus a little fee off the top -- to the respective programmers. Practically every analyst I’ve spoken to over the past few years thinks this is the direction the industry is heading. When I proposed the same scenario to one long-time cable guy about a year ago he had one caveat: “It won’t be a little off the top.”

It’s just that now it may happen sooner, rather than later.  

Moving into the second week of Major League Baseball’s 2021 regular season, Bally Sports Networks still hasn’t reached a carriage deal with three top streaming services. 

YouTube TV, Hulu Live Plus TV and FuboTV still refuse to carry the channels, which were purchased by Sinclair Broadcast Group in 2019. The former Fox Sports channels were rebranded as Bally Sports Networks on March 31, part of the 10-year, $88 million agreement between Sinclair and the casino owner. 

While the streamers have been without the networks for months — Hulu and FuboTV dropped the 21 channels in January 2020, with YouTube TV shedding the networks in October — the hope was that they could reach a deal by Opening Day, April 1.

That was not to be. As of press time, the channels were still dark to the streamers. FuboTV did reach an agreement with Marquee Sports Network, in which Sinclair has a minority interest, on April 1. 

Rob Weisbord, president of broadcast and chief revenue officer at Sinclair, told B+C/Multichannel News on April 1 Sinclair’s distribution team is in talks with MVPDs “trying to figure out how to get to a deal.”

Bally Sports has carriage deals with most of the traditional MVPDs across the country, except for RSN-averse Dish Network, which dropped the channels in 2019. But the lack of carriage from the streaming services, which have more younger viewers coveted by advertisers, has cast a pall on the channels.

Sports consultant Lee Berke, president and CEO of LHB Media & Entertainment, said it is possible the streamers are “trying to see if they can get by without the RSNs,” but added that the standoff highlights the growing need for RSNs to have a direct-to-consumer component to their offerings. 

Jon Lafayette contributed to this report.

The final rounds of the March Madness men's and women's college basketball tournaments and the return of Major League Baseball highlight the first full weekend of April.

The four remaining teams in the men’s college basketball tournament will face off Saturday night on CBS. Houston will face Baylor in the first matchup, with UCLA battling top-seeded Gonzaga in the second game. The winners will face each other in the finals on Monday night on CBS. 

ESPN on Sunday will televise the women’s college basketball tournament championship game pitting Arizona against Stanford.

Major League Baseball will take the field for the first weekend of its 2021 regular season with national games Saturday on MLB Network (Toronto vs. New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox vs LA Angels), as well as FS1 (Atlanta vs Philadelphia and LA Dodgers vs Colorado). On Sunday, ESPN will carry the Atlanta vs Philadelphia and Chicago White Sox vs LA Angels games, while MLB Network airs the Arizona vs San Diego contest.

On the NBA front, the LA Clippers-LA Lakers will continue their intra-city rivalry Sunday on ABC, while on the NHL ice NBC will telecast the Detroit-Tampa Bay contest. High school basketball will also be in play Sunday as CBS airs the Slam Dunk & 3-Point championship event.

Also on Sunday, NBC and the Golf Channel will team to carry the final round of the  PGA Texas Open golf tournament, while FS1 will air the finals of the Pro Bowling Association’s USBC Masters tournament. 

With the baseball regular season fast approaching -- Opening Day is officially April 1 -- several regional sports networks are facing deadlines to hammer out deals with over-the-top players and streaming services, but according to some observers, they shouldn’t hold out too much hope of landing a deal by the first pitch. 

Satellite TV giant Dish Network and its OTT arm Sling TV, have set an April 1 deadline for dropping three NBC Sports RSNs --  NBC Sports California, NBC Sports Washington and NBC Sports and NBC Sports Bay Area. Dish already dropped the remaining NBC Sports channels -- NBC Sports Chicago and networks in Philadelphia, Boston, and the Pacific Northwest -- in 2019. If the recent blackout threat holds, Dish and Sling TV customers will miss baseball from the San Francisco Giants and Oakland A’s, hockey from the Washington Capitals and San Jose Sharks, and basketball from the Golden State Warriors and Washington Wizards. 

“As of 4/1/2021, NBC Regional Sports Networks will no longer be on SLING. We are committed to providing the best value with the flexibility our customers deserve and, unfortunately, we were unable to come to an agreement on those terms,” Dish said in an email to customers, according to The Streamable. 

Also Read: Sports and OTT: Streaming Could Squeeze the Last Vestige of Appointment TV 

Pricing is the main culprit in the failure to reach a Dish deal. Dish Network chairman Charlie Ergen has battled with programmers -- particularly sports programmers - for years over what he believes are exorbitant fees. If Dish drops the NBC Sports networks it will be totally devoid of RSNs, having dropped others like MSG Network decades ago.    

Ergen has said he has nothing against sports, but it’s evident that most pay TV customers don’t watch them and in turn don’t want to pay for them.

“I think you’ve got to change that model,” Ergen said of RSNs on Dish’s Q3 earnings call in November, adding that the value of regional sports to his customers was “overrated.”  

Also Read: Comcast’s Xfinity Flex Adds MLB.TV

While most RSNs have managed to hammer out agreements over the past couple of years with traditional distributors, the failure to launch with streamers should be especially troubling. RSNs like YES Network and Sinclair Broadcasting Group’s Fox Sports Networks (rebranding as Bally Sports on March 31) still don’t have deals with the likes of Sling TV, FuboTV, Hulu Live + TV and YouTube TV (although YES recently agreed to stream 21 Yankees games on Amazon Prime Video). Streaming services are supposed to be the future -- it’s the way all the kids are watching content today -- and failure to land carriage could hurt the networks in the long run. 

According to The Streamable, AT&T TV is the only OTT service provider that offers access to every RSN. But AT&T TV is priced at about $84.99 per month, making it eerily close to the traditional TV package that most youngsters abhor.

While distributors are trying to find programming that people are compelled to watch, and sports is still a ratings grabber, it doesn’t always justify the cost. RSNs have been under fire for their pricey affiliate fees and operators have begun to push back.

Also Read: Pluto TV Winds Up to Launch MLB Channel

Sports consultant Lee Berke, president and CEO of LHB Media & Entertainment, said the current stance by streamers harkens back to their early days. When streamers like Hulu Live and YouTube TV launched, they avoided RSNs because of their high price. The turning point was in 2016 when Sling TV agreed to carry some Fox RSNs. 

Now that most of the vMVPDs have national deals with sports networks like ESPN and FS1, local broadcast deals that also include games and out-of-market packages with several leagues, the strategy has shifted. 

“I think they are trying to see if they can get by without the RSNs,” Berke said of the streaming services, adding that the start of the MLB season could be the moment of truth. 

“That’s the crunch point,” Berke said. “Will the overwhelming number of games that are being offered up by the league cause enough grief with the streamers to say they’ll come back in and strike a deal.” 

In the past many of these deals with traditional MVPDs were done literally seconds before the first pitch of the regular season, mainly because ultimately those distributors realized that sports was the glue that held the bundle together. Streamers don’t feel the same way.

“Maybe one of them will,” Berke said on the possibility of a last-minute streaming RSN deal. “It’s difficult to see all three of them coming back in.” 

Unlike the dynamic between MVPDs and RSNs, streamers seem to hold the advantage, at least for the short term. Berke pointed to Minnesota Twins president Dave St. Peter, who complained recently that fans on his Twitter feed are frustrated they can’t see games on Fox Sports North because the RSN doesn’t have a streaming deal, over which the team has no control. The RSN is available through a traditional pay TV subscription. 

"I don't enjoy going to my Twitter account as often as I used to because there are some people who are taking it out on me," St. Peter told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. "That's OK. I've got a thick skin. Look, life is hard in a lot of cases and people want to be able to watch their teams. I don't think that is an unrealistic or unfair expectation from our fans." 

That should be a wake-up call to both streamers and traditional MVPDs.

“People who are on his [St. Peter’s] Twitter feed are relatively younger and tech savvy,” Berke said. “They could watch Twins games on Comcast or Spectrum or whatever on a linear pay TV service, but that’s not part of who they are anymore. They stream. So if they’re not getting it as part of Hulu or YouTube TV, from their standpoint they can’t see those games.” 

While Berke added that a big enough drop in subscribers could force the streamers to the table, eventually the model will have to shift to direct-to-consumer. Already a few RSNs have set the stage for such an offering. Earlier this month, YES Network debuted a dedicated streaming app that offers a 24/7 feed of the network, including live games from the New York Yankees, Brooklyn Nets, NYFC and New York Liberty. Viewers still need to authenticate through their pay TV subscription to see the programming, but that could easily change in the future. Sinclair has said it plans to launch a DTC app next year. 

Berke added that direct-to-consumer should be the goal for RSNs and distributors alike.

"From a streamers standpoint, from a network standpoint from an RSN standpoint, you have to be able to say, 'I’m going direct-to-consumer,'" Berke said. “And by the way, when you’re negotiating with Comcast, they’re going direct-to-consumer as well. We’re trying to defend the bundle, meanwhile we’re doing everything possible to undercut it. But that’s fair enough, that’s what they should be doing. That’s the way media technology works.”

He added that the shift to streaming is in part being done because of necessity. Pay TV subscribers are declining at an accelerated rate that doesn’t seem to be slowing. 

“There’s a reckoning that is coming to pass for every network,” Berke said. “You’re seeing the strategies being laid out with all the streamers and how they are laying out programming, how they're categorizing it, how they’re pricing it, how they’re producing content, sports entertainment and news. But when it comes to sports in particular, when it comes to the RSNs in particular, they are going to have to make those moves in the next few years, and they are going to have to start preparing for it now.”

The YES Network said Wednesday they have agreed to stream 21 New York Yankees games on Amazon Prime Video this year at no extra charge to Amazon Prime subscribers.

The games will be available in the Yankees’ home-team footprint, which includes New York state, Connecticut, northeast Pennsylvania, and north and central New Jersey, and will be simulcasts of games produced by YES airing on PIX11 and other over-the-air partners for Yankees telecasts. Fans can watch in or outside the home on hundreds of compatible Android, iOS mobile and Fire TV devices. They can also access the games by streaming from the web or by using the Prime Video app on smartphones, tablets, set-top boxes, game consoles, and select smart TVs. A list of compatible devices is available here.

The first game will air on April 28, when the team takes on the Tampa Bay Rays.  

The streamed games will feature X-Ray, the Amazon Prime Video feature that allows viewers streaming on Android, iOS mobile, and Fire TV devices to access live  in-game stats, real-time play-by-play information and more. Prime Video also will air a 15-minute pre-game show featuring YES Network on-air talent for the broadcasts. 

Schedule of Yankees games on Prime Video

Sunday, April 18             vs. Tampa Bay – 1:00pm

Friday, April 23               @ Cleveland – 7:00pm

Tuesday, April 27           @ Baltimore – 6:30pm

Friday, May 14               @ Baltimore – 7:00pm

Friday, May 21               vs. Chicago White Sox – 7:00pm

Saturday, May 29           @ Detroit – 4:00pm

Sunday, May 30             @ Detroit – 1:00pm

Saturday, June 12          @ Philadelphia – 4:00pm

Sunday, June 20            vs. Oakland – 1:00pm       

Friday, July 2                 vs. New York Mets – 7:00pm

Sunday, July 11             @ Houston – 2:00pm

Friday, July 23               @ Boston – 7:00pm

Tuesday, July 27            @ Tampa Bay – 7:00pm

Friday, July 30               @ Miami – 7:00pm

Sunday, Aug. 15            @ Chicago White Sox – 2:00pm

Tuesday, Aug. 17           vs. Boston – 7:00pm

Sunday, Aug. 22            vs. Minnesota – TBD

Saturday, Aug. 28          @ Oakland – 4:00pm

Friday, Sept. 17             vs. Cleveland – 7:00pm

Friday, Sept. 24              @ Boston – 7:00pm

Wednesday, Sept. 29     @ Toronto – 7:00pm

All game times ET.  Schedule subject to change.

Pluto TV said it is launching a new channel with Major League Baseball featuring historic games and highlights.

Opening day for the MLB Channel will be March 2. It will stream over 200 hours of classic content from the Major League Baseball Film & Video Archive. The content will be refreshed quarterly.

“Building out a library of top-quality sports content is a huge priority for Pluto TV, and to be able to add a Major League Baseball channel for the first time is a landmark event both for us and for baseball fans who are always looking to watch more of their favorite sport,” said Will Gurman, VP, global content partnerships at Pluto TV, owned by ViacomCBS. "As a lifelong baseball fan, I am excited that we are able to bring the best of MLB to viewers everywhere and add a beloved American institution to our continually expanding sports programming."

Also Read: Pluto to Stream New CBS Original Series for Two Weeks

Pluto TV also has sports channels featuring the NFL, Major League Soccer, the PGA Tour, and the Pac-12 conference.

Fox News’ coverage of the Republican and Democratic National Conventions helped the news network finish August as the most watched network in both primetime and total day, according to Nielsen.

Fox News averaged a network 3.6 million viewers in primetime for the period of July 27 to Aug. 30 to top all networks for the eighth consecutive month, according to Nielsen. MSNBC averaged 2.1 million viewers to finish second followed by CNN with 1.6 million viewers. 

HGTV was the most watched entertainment-based network during the month with 1.3 million viewers, followed by TLC with 1.2 million watchers. TNT and ESPN -- boosted by the return of live Major League Baseball and National Basketball Association games -- finished sixth and seventh respectively, followed by Hallmark Channel (889,000 viewers), TBS (861,000) and History (789,000), said Nielsen. 

On the total day front, Fox News topped the charts for the 50th straight month, averaging 1.7 million viewers and topping in order MSNBC, CNN, HGTV, and TNT, said Nielsen.  

Even the return of baseball can’t stop the momentum toward streaming becoming America's video pastime, according to new stats from Roku.

Roku, based on its internal data, said that about 70% of households that watched baseball in 2019  on linear TV did not watch a single minute of baseball on linear TV during 2020’s delayed opening weekend.

Even among baseball “super fans” – defined as those who watched more than 34 hours of MLB on linear TV last year a third did not watch a single minute of baseball on linear TV during opening week this year, Roku said.

That assertion comes as ESPN reported record ratings for its first televised games and Fox reported viewership nearly doubling.

Roku said that the “massive drop off in audience” is the result of people shifting from pay TV to streaming. 

The loss of sports was the top reason why 1 in 4 cord cutters said they dropped their pay-TV subscriptions. Roku said that in a recent survey, fewer than 1 in 5 users who cut the cord said they would think about returning to cable if sports came back. Those who cut the cord are now happy with their decision, with 92% saying their are very satisfied, according to Roku.

Sports overall are still popular with streamers, even if baseball isn’t.

Comparing opening weekend 2020 to the same weekend in 2019 the amount of sports being streamed increased 49%. 

“The return of MLB was a swing and a miss when it comes to viewership for traditional linear TV as less than one third of baseball’s 2019 household audience tuned in to watch any of the opening week games on linear television,” said Gaurav Shirole, director of audience measurement at Roku,

“A recent consumer survey found that the loss of live sports was a key driver of cord cutting in 2020 which led to nearly 1 in 3 houses in the United States no longer subscribing to a linear cable package," Shirole said. "And now, as sports begin to come back we see those audiences have moved on and found new ways to access their favorite sporting content through streaming.”

Highlighting the risks involved in restarting live sports, Monday’s home opener for the Miami Marlins against the Baltimore Orioles has been postponed as Marlin players have tested positive for COVID-19, according to published reports.

Also postponed was the New York Yankees game in Philadelphia, where the Marlins played.

The Miami game was set to be broadcast by Sinclair Broadcast Group’s Fox Sports Florida.

The Marlins played Sunday in Philadelphia despite positive tests by some of the Marlins players. When more players tested positive, Monday’s game was canceled and the team stayed in its Philadelphia hotel.

That raised questions about whether tonight’s New York Yankees game in Philadelphia against the Phillies could be played because of concerns that the virus might still be active in the visiting team's facilities at the ballpark. The game was ultimately postpones so that lockers and other stadium venues could be cleaned.

Fox and ESPN, which carry baseball nationally, said that advertisers have returned to sponsor baseball games because they believed that the leagues could safely play games and complete the schedule. It was unclear what would happen to those ad dollars if MLB is forecast to cancel more games or curtail the season.

ESPN had a record 4 million viewers for its first baseball game on Thursday. 

Baseball is back and the fans returned to their televisions.

With the start of the season delayed by COVID-19, the first game of ESPN’s opening day doubleheader drew 4 million viewers, an opening night record, as the Yankees beat the World Champion Nationals Thursday.

It was the most-watched regular season Major League Baseball game on any network since 2011, based on fast national ratings from Nielsen and up 232% from last season’s opener.

The second half of the double header, with the Giants and the Dodger was ESPN’s most-watched regular season late night game ever. 

The 10 p.m. ET game drew 2.8 million viewers. 

The early game drew an 8.4 rating in Washington and a 7.8 ratings in New York.

The late game had a 6.9 rating in San Francisco and a 6.8 in L.A.

Major League Baseball Thursday threw a post-season fastball prior to the first pitch of its truncated 2020 season, announcing that it is expanding the league’s playoff teams to 16 from eight.

The league, which Thursday launched its 60-game regular season three months after its scheduled start due to the coronavirus pandemic, will expand its playoff teams to include the champions and the second place finishers in each of the six divisions, as well as two wild card teams and two teams with the best record among the rest of the league, according to MLB officials.

League owners and the Major League Players Association hammered out the deal prior to the New York Yankees-Washington Nationals opening day game.

“This season will be a sprint to a new format that will allow more fans to experience playoff baseball,” said baseball commissioner Robert Manfred in a statement. 

In addition ESPN announced it will televise seven of the eight new first round series -- including exclusively all four National League first round series -- across a four-day period from Sept. 29 through Oct. 2.

“This is an exciting opportunity for ESPN and Major League Baseball to deliver a new, compelling live sports experience to fans. Innovation has been a cornerstone of our 30-plus year relationship with MLB, and that will be on display as we showcase these decisive games,” said Jimmy Pitaro, ESPN president and co-chair, Disney Media Networks in a statement. “We know fans have been craving live baseball and we’re proud to work with our friends at MLB to offer what will be a special four days this fall.” 

With umpires about to shout “play ball” and start a delayed Major League Baseball season Thursday, advertisers have been rushing to buy commercials.

Seth Winter, executive VP of sports sales at Fox, said that its regular season MLB games are nearly sold out, with revenue 25% higher than the network had anticipated.

The Walt Disney Co. also said ESPN was seeing high demand for baseball and was sold out for the opening week and the rest of the regular season.  

Live sports have been one of the casualties of the COVID-19 pandemic. Just like sports fans, who are champing at the bit to watch live games, advertisers crave the large, engaged audiences sports attract.

“There’s been an amazing influx of interest over the last 10 days,” Winter said. "The ad community and the client community just wants so certainty around the ability of these sports to compete. We saw it with NASCAR. We saw it with Major League Soccer. Now we’re seeing it with Major League Baseball.”

Most of the inventory went to baseball advertisers that had signed up during the 2019-20 upfront. Earlier this week, Fox said baseball inventory was 90% sold out, but there was a significant influx of additional advertisers who wanted to get their money down, Winter said. 

In the last minute rush, prices rose by double digits, compared to a year ago, he said.

A lot of the ads were bought by official MLB sponsors, but new advertisers have jumped in as well.

Disney Advertising Sales said financial services, alcoholic beverages and insurance have a large presence in its opening week games. For the entire regular season, strong categories include automotive, insurance, quick-serve restaurants and alcoholic beverages. 

Fox will kick off its broadcast season with four consecutive games on Saturday, something the network has never done before.  

“We’ve got a great day with some fantastic teams, including the World Champion Washington Nationals taking on the Yankees. I think people realize that there’s going to be a lot of interest. People are going to be watching.”

With interest in sports in general and baseball in particular heating up, Fox will soon start selling World Series inventory.

“We wanted to get our arms around the regular season first,” Winter said “Advertisers realize its in their best interest to do so, so we’ll engage pretty quickly. Forgive the baseball allusion, but we’re thinking that’s going to be a home run as well.” 

Winter said that Fox and its clients haven’t made specific contractual arrangements in case the season can’t be concluded.

Winter said that just as Fox worked with its partners when the season was originally postponed, it will work with them again should there be another disruption. “We’re all in this together. We’re going to watch out for each other and we’ll address it as it comes. We’re not going to do anything to damage their business and vice versa,” he said.

Shortly after baseball throws out its first pitch, the National Basketball Association plans to tip off in its Orlando bubble and the National Hockey League will drop the puck on its Stanley Cup playoffs. On the horizon is the most powerful sports programming, the National Football League.

“We’ve done some football business, very much account by account. But I will say this without going into too much detail, momentum is clearly picking up,” Winter said.

“As we get closer to each season and our clients and partners are comfortable that we can get a product on the field the conversations accelerate,” he said. “What we're seeing now is very encouraging in terms of the health of the Investments and the belief that having learned so much over the last four to five months around safety and health protocols that we can get a product on the field.”

As Major League Baseball and its players argue over the economic health of the game during a pandemic, the league is near a lucrative new agreement to televise games with AT&T’s Turner Sports.

Under the new deal Turner will pay MLB an average of about $470 million per year from 2022 through 2023, according to Sports Business Daily. That would be up about 40% from the $325 million Turner pays under its current deal.

Fox agreed to a similar percentage increase in 2018.

Turner will continue to televise some MLB post-season games, including a league championship series, two division series and one wild-card game. Turner will be changing what it does during the regular season, exchanging its low-rated Sunday afternoon game to a Tuesday night game in primetime, according to Sports Business Daily. 

When the deal was first reported by The New York Post, it appeared to undercut some of the arguments team owners have been making about baseball’s financial health. The beginning of the season was postponed by the Coronavirus and the players union and management have been squabbling over how much players will get paid during a shortened 2020 season.

“But baseball is dying!” Phillies outfielder Andrew McCutchen tweeted sarcastically.

Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford added in a similar tone, “The industry isn’t that profitable,” just a few days after Cardinals owner Bill DeWitt Jr. said that in an interview.

Sinclair Broadcast Group shares were up more than 10% in early trading Monday after reports that its Chicago-area regional sports network was close to a carriage deal with Comcast.

Comcast, the largest cable operator in the Chicago region had been slow to reach a carriage agreement with Sinclair’s Marquee Sports Network, the RSN it jointly owns with the Chicago Cubs Major League Baseball team. But reports over the weekend that the two may be close to a deal helped goose the stock.

Sinclair stock was priced as high as $17.54 each on May 18, up 12.6%, or $1.96 per share. The stock was priced at $17.41 as of 2:03 p.m., up 11.8%.

According to reports, Cubs president of business operations Crane Kenney told season ticket holders in a conference call that a Comcast deal would be signed shortly after MLB play resumes. While the league hasn’t said anything official yet, according to reports it has proposed resuming games in July, playing an abbreviated 82-game season. That proposal would have to be approved by the MLB Players Association before it would become reality. Baseball’s regular season was suspended in late March because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Comcast officials did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Marquee Sports Network launched in February. Sinclair has secured deals with distributors representing about half of the homes in the Chicago area, including Hulu and DirecTV. According to reports, Kenney said Comcast and MSN were close to signing a deal on March 12, but that was shelved as the pandemic took hold. Every major professional sports league has suspended their regular seasons as a result of the outbreak.

Comcast and Sinclair have reportedly been at odds for months over the price of the Marquee Sports Network, which by some estimates is as high as $6 per subscriber per month. While other distributors have balked at paying increasingly higher prices for RSNs, some pundits believe that the lack of live sports, scripted and unscripted programming during the pandemic has made it more critical for pay TV providers to have access to games once they resume. 

Sinclair Broadcast Group shares were up more than 10% in early trading Monday after reports that its Chicago-area regional sports network was close to a carriage deal with Comcast.

Comcast, the largest cable operator in the Chicago region had been slow to reach a carriage agreement with Sinclair’s Marquee Sports Network, the RSN it jointly owns with the Chicago Cubs Major League Baseball team. But reports over the weekend that the two may be close to a deal helped goose the stock.

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Sinclair stock was priced as high as $17.54 each on May 18, up 12.6%, or $1.96 per share. The stock was priced at $17.41 as of 2:03 p.m., up 11.8%.

According to reports, Cubs president of business operations Crane Kenney told season ticket holders in a conference call that a Comcast deal would be signed shortly after MLB play resumes. While the league hasn’t said anything official yet, according to reports it has proposed resuming games in July, playing an abbreviated 82-game season. That proposal would have to be approved by the MLB Players Association before it would become reality. Baseball’s regular season was suspended in late March because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Comcast officials did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Marquee Sports Network launched in February. Sinclair has secured deals with distributors representing about half of the homes in the Chicago area, including Hulu and DirecTV. According to reports, Kenney said Comcast and MSN were close to signing a deal on March 12, but that was shelved as the pandemic took hold. Every major professional sports league has suspended their regular seasons as a result of the outbreak.

Comcast and Sinclair have reportedly been at odds for months over the price of the Marquee Sports Network, which by some estimates is as high as $6 per subscriber per month. While other distributors have balked at paying increasingly higher prices for RSNs, some pundits believe that the lack of live sports, scripted and unscripted programming during the pandemic has made it more critical for pay TV providers to have access to games once they resume. 

Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of about 21 regional sports networks across the country, offered analysts a sliver of insight into its sports rights deals Thursday, adding that it could expect some rebates from leagues for undelivered live games during the COVID-19 pandemic, but that they would probably be small and wouldn’t come until at least next year.

Sinclair, which acquired 21 RSNs from The Walt Disney Co. last year and has interests in Marquee Sports Network (the Chicago Cubs RSN), The YES Network (with the New York Yankees) and smaller sports-centric channels like The Tennis Channel, told analysts during its Q1 earnings conference call Thursday that any rate relief would be based on individual rights deals.

On the call, Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley said the rights agreements between its RSNs and various leagues typically include a minimum game delivery obligation and that the RSN would receive a rebate if a respective league falls short of that obligation. Without specifying what those game delivery minimums are, Ripley said that the NBA and NHL, which were pretty much finished their regular seasons when they suspended play in March, have likely met their minimum requirements. And any refund, if warranted, would be determined at the end of the year.

Related: Want Sports Rate Relief? Not So Fast

“The mechanism for truing up for any content not received under our sports rights agreements or not delivered under our affiliation agreements generally takes place at the end of the season or calendar year,” Ripley said on the call. “While we believe that sports will come back this year and be in high demand, at this time the leagues have not indicated when games will resume. Therefore, we do not know where we will end up in relation to the game delivery minimum. Keep in mind that the NHL and NBA regular seasons were almost complete when the seasons were suspended, so shortfalls in those weeks if any should be minor.”

But Ripley added he expected at least some leagues to fail to deliver the required games, which would require a rebate of a portion of their fees. He just said it is impossible to determine how much that would be at this time.

“We think we're likely going to be headed into a situation where there [are] rebates,” Ripley said on the call. “We won't know the magnitude of those until we get more clarity on when the games will be played and how many will be played. What we will do is update our guidance once we have a clear picture -- my guess is that will be the next quarter -- and from there you'll be able to tell what the impact is.”

There has been an outcry lately from consumers and legislators angry that pay TV customers still pay high sports fees for networks that aren’t showing live games during the pandemic. Three of the four major sports leagues -- the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League and Major League Baseball -- suspended their regular seasons in March, and haven’t played live games since. With sports fees accounting for more than half of some pay TV distributors’ total programming costs, cable, satellite and telco TV providers have said if they receive any rate relief from sports programmers, they will pass the savings on to customers.

New York State Attorney General Letitia James fired off letters to pay TV distributors in her state last month calling for them to voluntarily provide “appropriate refunds” to consumers for lost games. But distributors have argued that they are the last link in the chain -- they can’t provide rebates until they receive them from programmers, which can’t give refunds until they receive them from the leagues.

Baseball is the remaining wildcard, because it hasn’t played any games yet. While each agreement is different, according to Sports Business Journal, some contracts call for MLB to deliver between 120 and 150 games per season. That could get tricky as the pandemic continues to keep Americans in lock down. The MLB season is 162 games long, so some pundits warn that to avoid any rights deal problems, regular season play would have to start soon.

According to ESPN, MLB is expected to offer its proposal on resuming games in about a week. ESPN said that one offer on the table is resuming spring training on June 10, with the season to start on July 1, meaning that  about 80 to 100 regular season games would be played. Earlier during the pandemic, there was a proposal to play all games in the Phoenix, Arizona area -- which has 10 stadiums within a 50-mile radius -- but more recent offers call for most games being played in teams’ home stadiums. 

 Chicago White Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito is on the mound, preparing to pitch to Tampa Bay Rays slugger Ji-Man Choi in the first inning of an April 23 baseball contest. Choi rips the first pitch from Giolito over the right field wall for a two-run home run, setting the table for the Rays’ 9-2 victory.

The scenario sounds like one from a typical Major League Baseball game. Except in this case, it took place on a computer screen rather than a baseball diamond. Giolito and Rays superstar Blake Snell were competing in a MLB The Show 20 Players League video game tournament, televised recently on ESPN2.

With all major pro sports events on hiatus for the foreseeable future due to the COVID-19 pandemic, networks such as ESPN, Fox Sports and NBCSN
have turned to esports to help fill the void created by the loss of live action. While the audience for a virtual baseball game will never rival the ratings for a real one, executives said that video game-driven content has served up a scheduling option for networks looking to fill a sizable void due to the loss of live sports.

“Depending on how these things are being presented, they can have a certain energy and excitement, and viewers are looking for that,” media consultant Bill Carroll said. “If this were normal times, this might be a different conversation, but in the current environment the sports networks are looking for every reasonable opportunity that they can pursue.”

Already in the Mix

While mostly featured on streaming sites like Twitch, esports programming is no stranger to linear television channels. As early as 2006, USA Network aired gameplay for such video games as Halo from esports company Major League Gaming. But for the most part, the genre is considered niche TV programming, although growing in overall popularity. A McKinsey & Co. report from last August identified some 21 million esports fans in the U.S., 10% of whom watch more than 20 hours of streaming esports programming per week.

“Esports has been out there for years, but because of live sports, there weren’t any opportunities to take more chances and see what people connected with,” Brad Zager, executive producer, executive VP and head of production and operations at Fox Sports, said. “There was no proof that esports would either do well or not so well. Now that live sports has disappeared, we have an opportunity to find out.”

Manny Anekal, an esports analyst and founder of esports website The Next Level, said the dearth of live sports programming has forced some sports networks to turn to the genre in an effort to satisfy fans who miss watching games. He counted more than 50 esports events covered by sports networks in the past 45 days.

“People want to watch something fresh, so in the near-term, it is serving as a pretty good filler for live sports programming,” Anekal said.

Some of those events — like Fox Sports’s NASCAR iRacing events — have garnered ratings surpassing the other programs sports networks have leaned on during the pandemic, such as replays of classic games and talk shows, he said.

Welcome Race Fans — and Others

Fox and FS1’s weekly iRacing telecasts, created after NASCAR shut down in March, have built a following among stock-car racing fans and casual viewers alike. More than 25% of viewers for FS1’s March 22 iRacing telecast were non-NASCAR fans, according to Nielsen.

The races — in which current and retired drivers sit in virtual cars with standard steering wheels and screens that replicate the feel of driving on a real track — have provided much needed inventory and new, unseen programming, as well as a powerful viewership punch to Fox and FS1. The April 26 iRacing event, simulating the experience at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama, averaged 1.2 million viewers on Fox, second only to the 1.3 million viewers that tuned into the March 29 event from virtual Texas Motor Speedway, according to Nielsen (see chart).

Zager said the telecasts are treated much like live NASCAR events, with celebrity singers such as actress and COVID-19 survivor Rita Wilson performing the national anthem, right down to simulated military aircraft flying over the track and Fox announcers calling the race. The additional touches give race fans something resembling a real NASCAR viewing experience.

“We wanted to give people a sense of normalcy when people tune into a NASCAR race, so doing an anthem before a NASCAR race provides a sense of normalcy,” Zager said. “Hearing someone say, ‘Gentlemen, start your engines,’ provides a sense of normalcy. It really goes back to people gravitating to engaging content.”

ESPN and NBC are among the outlets televising professional athletes playing their specialty sport — except with a video game controller instead of a bat or a ball.

Esports Take the Field, Court

ESPN has stepped into the esports ring in a major way, televising tournaments based on video gameplay of popular National Basketball Association, National Football League and Major League Baseball video games by current players representing their respective teams. From the network’s five-day NBA 2K20 tournament telecasts in early April, featuring such NBA stars as Kevin Durant, Trae Young, Donovan Mitchell and Devin Booker playing the 2K sports-produced NBA 2K20 video game, to the just completed MLB The Show Players League Tournament, in which players from all 30 MLB teams battled head-to-head via Sony Interactive Entertainment’s baseball video game, the network has fully embraced the esports genre, ESPN VP of digital programming John Lasker said.

“The circumstances surrounding the pandemic created a unique challenge and opportunity, in the absence of most live sports, to serve sports fans of all kinds with the best possible content available,” Lasker said. “We are fortunate to have existing and long-term relationships in the games and esports space, which has allowed us to execute some terrific programming.”

ESPN has been pleased with both the audience engagement and quality of its esports presentations, Lasker said. The network’s NBA 2K20 Pro Tournament, for example, averaged 201,000 viewers across four nights in April.

It’s not only the sports-focused leagues playing on the virtual competition field. NBC this past Saturday (May 1) aired a Kentucky Derby: Triple Crown virtual horse race from a simulated Churchill Downs, in which 13 past Triple Crown winners competed to determine the greatest of all time, per the network.

The race follows NBCSN’s April 26 coverage of the ePremier League Invitational Tournament finals, with English Premier League stars playing on EA Sports’s FIFA 20 soccer video game, as well as the April 6-9 eSports Short Track iRacing Challenge, featuring drivers such drivers as Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin competing on virtual versions of popular racetracks.

“With no live sports and under social distancing guidelines, these events have provided viewers a way to experience live action surrounding the sports they love,” NBC Sports said in a statement. “We look forward to the return of live sports, and will continue to evaluate where eSports best fit on our platforms.”

Fox Sports last month launched an eMLS Tournament involving such Major League Soccer players as Paul Arriola, Adama Diomande and Tyler Miller.

Esports content is not only serving the needs of sports fans, but also the athletes themselves, Fox Sports’s Zager said.

“They need a release while their sports are off, and esports have given them that competitiveness, which for a professional athlete is really important during this time,” he said.

Esports events deliver a younger-than-average audience. Fox Sports reported that its iRacing content dropped its average viewership age by three years compared to live NASCAR telecasts, while the NBA reported that 48% of viewers for ESPN’s four-day NBA 2K20 tournament telecasts were under 45.

“These events are driving a newer and younger audience,” Anekal said. “We’ll see if that translates over into the real world when live sports come back.”

Also still to be determined is the advertising support for esports content. Though ad revenue for live sports programming dwarfs what esports content is currently generating, according to industry observers, the genre has drawn its fair share of blue-chip advertisers. Companies such as IBM, Verizon, FedEx and Progressive have purchased ads in Fox’s iRacing events.

“As the television industry adjusts to the current environment, advertisers have to look for the opportunities that exist, and certainly esports would fall into that category, especially since live sports events are not likely to happen in the immediate future,” Carroll said. “The normal esports audience looks to fall in line with the demographics of many advertisers who are normally in regular sports would be looking for.”

As for the genre’s future once live sports returns, Anekal said that the esports platforms that can appeal to viewers beyond the traditional on the field play could exist side-by-side with live events.

Added Zager, “When sports comes back we’ll see what survives in this world and what we can build on.” 

Sports rights are expected to go higher in the next three years despite pressure from COVID-19, possibly driving increased retransmission-consent fees and pushing poorer homes out of the pay TV bundle.

The National Football League, Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League will have national TV-rights deals up for renewal in the next three years. The National Basketball Association, which suspended its season in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, doesn’t come up for renewal until 2024. Some are trying to find ways to salvage their postponed seasons, such as MLB games in Arizona in empty stadiums. And most are expected to get big increases, according to MoffettNathanson media analyst Michael Nathanson.

The NHL also suspended its regular season in March. The NFL, which doesn’t start its season until September, hasn’t made any decision regarding suspensions, and most are hopeful the lockdowns currently associated with the COVID-19 outbreak will be lifted before then.

A Spike in NFL Rights

So it shouldn’t be any surprise that Nathanson believes the NFL will have the biggest increases in rights fees — as much as 75% for Sunday games aired by the three broadcast networks (NBC, CBS and Fox) when they come up for renewal in 2022, he wrote.

The NFL has renegotiated its collective bargaining agreement with the NFL Players Association, agreeing to increase players’ share of revenue from 47% to a minimum of 48% beginning in 2021. At the same time, the league has increased the number of regularseason games to 17 from 16 and changed its playoff format. The league will now send seven teams to the playoffs, up from the previous six.

The extra games should boost league fees come renewal time. In a separate research report, Barclays Global media analyst Kannan Venkateshwar wrote that rights fees could rise even higher than 75%.

In his note, Venkateshwar said players’ shares reach 48.5% if TV revenue rises by 60% and hit 48.8% if revenue increases by 120%.

“Based on our conversations, the higher end of this range (+60% to 120%) isn’t too far off from current Street expectations for rights increases when the NFL’s deals come up for renewal in 2021 and 2022,” he wrote.

The question for cable networks and broadcasters is where those fees will come from. Nathanson believes that with the COVID-19 pandemic pressuring ad sales, programmers — especially smaller ones — will be forced to dip into the retransmission-consent and affiliate-fee well more deeply than ever. “In all, the combination of COVID-19 economic fallout and sharply higher cash payments for sports should pressure free cash flows of the smaller ViacomCBS and Fox forcing them to push for higher retrans and reverse retrans while pressuring their non-sports programming investments,” Nathanson wrote.

ViacomCBS’s sports rights costs would increase from $1.7 billion in 2019 to $2.2 billion (up 30%) in 2024, Nathanson estimated, while affiliate fees (revenue) will rise 75% from $2 billion to $3.5 billion. Fox, which has restructured its business to focus mostly on live news and sports, will see affiliate fees rise 50% from $3.2 billion in 2019 to $4.8 billion, while sports rights costs will increase from $3.3 billion to $4.4 billion (up 33%) by the end of 2024.

Not all of those affiliate-fee increases will be due to sports costs, but Nathanson pointed out that for both large and small programmers, sports accounts for between 60% and 90% of the total affiliate-fee haul.

The analyst wondered if higher sports fees could start a chain reaction: higher retrans fees could mean higher pay TV bills, possibly pushing poorer homes and non-sports watchers out of the bundle and leading to even higher pass-alongs to offset customer declines.

“In the long run, we think this will create a world where the traditional bundle serves only wealthier sports fans while non-sports fans seek OTT options like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu Disney+ and HBO Max,” Nathanson wrote.

At Kagan, a unit of S&P Global Market Intelligence, sports business analyst Adam Gajo said that sharp divide doesn’t yet exist but it could happen, especially as traditional pay TV continues to lose subscribers and streaming services offer more customized packages.

“With the next round of sports rights renewals coming up, the bidders will have to be aware of the market value, and make sure that they are able to pass the sports rights payments through to reach the subscribers,” Gajo said. “If — when — the price for sports continues to go up, with less people paying into it, I think we could get to the point where interested households can’t afford it.”