ESPN extends with USTA and touts new features and products; Paralympics begin; Netflix promotes NBA docuseries.
SBJ Morning Buzzcast
SBJ Morning Buzzcast: August 29, 2024
Good morning and welcome to the morning buzzcaps on this Thursday, August 29. I'm SPJ Senior Writer Joe Lemire, filling in behind the mic today and tomorrow, taking you to the Labor Day weekend. It's back to school season when primary school children pose with first day of school signs. My 7-year-old will start 2nd grade next week, and in the corner of the side, it will say that he is in the high school class of 2035. An impossibly far away timeline, and yet we learned yesterday that the US Open will still be on ESPN, all the way through 2037, in fact. The USDA and ESPN cite a 12-year extension atop of its existing 11-year deal that will expire after next year's 2025 edition of the tournament. The current rates arrangement is for $77 million annually in terms of the new deal or not immediately available. I&G represented the USDA and the negotiations. This means ESPN is the undisputed leader of Anslam Tennis coverage for quite a while now, with rights to the Australian Open through 2031, Wimbledon through 2036, and now the US Open through 2037. Only the French Open is carried elsewhere, with Warner Brothers' discovery displacing NBC Sports next year. Among the new provisions to the deal are an expansion of streaming and fan week coverage rights, fan week of course is that week prior to the tournament, largely free for on-ground access with qualifiers and other events. And a new whip-around show to AR on ESPN+, ABC network coverage on both Sundays of the tournament in the middle as well as the finals, as well as more Spanish language rights on ESPN to Portes, and an expansion to Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada through TSN and RDS. There is also a provision for a limited amount of sublicensing rights, although Rosalind Durant, ESPN's VP of programming and acquisitions, told SBJ's Molly Cahillie that it would be thoughtful and judicious about exercising that. It's not a direct comparison, of course, but ESPN did opt to sublicence some of its college football playoff rights recently, extending those to TNT Sports. We'll see if that happens in this case at all. For the USDA, this continues to good vibes and solve financial foundation that has in place to support American tennis development. The US Open continues to be a wildly successful event, and one that has grown its reach this year is a man court discussed on the bus gas recently. The landmark US Open right still is the biggest headline of a Newsy Day in Bristol, where ESPN hosts to SBJ and other reporters for the day. Some of the more notable remarks from Jimmy Futara and the rest of the executives include with the potential of carrying local sports rights, utilizing AI for personalized sports centers, including a fan-friendly where-to-watch functionality in the app and on its website, and signing Bill Belichick to even more media appearances. "AI is not," Futara said, "the awful, terrible disruptor than many people think it will be." The most attention-grabbing idea is catering sports-centered content to a viewer's interest in the forthcoming ESPN direct-to-consumer streaming product, or presumably some of its other digital offerings. What he described conjures a super-sized version of what companies like WSC Sports currently provide, automated highlights and other content. It's executives at WSC Sports, which is a partner of ESPN through its Innovation Center. However described taking video on demand and turning it into video on command, giving even more ownership to the fan. A broadcaster with a wide expanse of rights, such as ESPN, would certainly have a very compelling product to offer in this scenario. I'm sure the concept is only in the early R&D at this juncture, and hopefully a setting remains for accidental discovery. Maybe I'm dating myself, but there was a real thrill in childhood when stumbling upon an unexpected clip-on-sports center that grabbed my attention rather than the just-seen coverage of my favorite teams. His Diamond Sports returned to the headlines this week with a preservation of his local NBA and NHL rights deals, but as our Tom Friend of Ford of the apparent loss of a $115 million capital infusion from Amazon. The challenges of R&D's remains topical, and it was noteworthy that Pataa revealed that he had been in contact with League's and other properties to offer ESPN's streaming product as a carrier for local sports coverage. He was clear that ESPN would not begin bidding and buying to be the exclusive holder of local rights, but the geotargeting abilities of the Disney streamers would certainly be a tried-and-true method of delivery to those who needed help with infrastructure. Belichick, meanwhile, continues to be highly sought-after media guest. He'll appear on the CW's Inside the NFL program, as has been previously announced. He will host and co-produce a show on the underdog network and will make weekly appearances on ESPN's The Pat McAfee show. Belichick also has signed on for weekly ESPN manning cast appearances this fall, and now will also join Peyton Manning for a new show called The Breakdown with Peyton and Belichick. That will debut on September 6th on ESPN Plus, a layer of Fridays that precede a Monday night football manning cast. There are 11 of those in all, and it will be a 30-minute exes and o's show with analysis of the upcoming primetime game. Also of note in Bristol is that the Pataa spoke publicly about the preliminary injunction against venue sports, saying that he couldn't expound much because of pending litigation, but did say that Disney respectfully disagrees with the court's decision and added, "We believe that venue is a pro-competitive service. It is pro-consumer, pro-sports fan, and we believe it's giving the sports fan another option, and it's primarily directed at sports fans that are on the sidelines today, whether they're on the sidelines because they've cut the court or they've never subscribed to the traditional ecosystem." In other news, the Paralympics began in Paris yesterday with the opening ceremony, and today seized the start of competition. As our Rachel Axton wrote previously, the progression of NBC's coverage of the Paralympics is astounding. 6 hours for London in 2012, 17 in Rio 2016, a combined 1,400 hours on NBC and Peacock in Tokyo, and now more than 1,600 hours of Paralympics network and streaming coverage this summer. Much of that, and improved athlete support, is due to a rise in brand sponsorship of Paralympic athletes. Toyota, City, and Bridgestone are among the brands to do so. A few other headlines to share, that looks officially unveiled its upcoming docu-series called Starting Five, a deep look at the lives and careers of five stars in the NBA recorded during the 2023/24 season. The participating players of the Lakers LeBron James, the Celtics Jason Tatum, the Timberwolves Anthony Edwards, the Heat's Jimmy Butler, and the Kings, Dolontus Sibonis. Some of the executive producers are some very bold-faced names, Barack and Michelle Obama, through their production company, Iron Ground, Peyton Manning, through Omaha Productions, in uninterrupted Maverick Carter, who of course co-founded that company with LeBron himself. The NBA and NFL are, for the first time this fall, collaborating on Election Day messaging. Our Tom and Friend wrote about how their social responsibility campaigns are non-partisan efforts to recruit poll workers and encourage everyone to be active participants in democracy. They are coordinating some of that messaging this fall. And lastly, I'd be remiss not to wish for my parents a happy 54th wedding anniversary today. Their first date was the trip to Fenway Park to see the Red Sox play during the 1967 possible dream season. Congrats mom and dad. And that's all for this August 29th Buzzcast, I'll be back tomorrow, have a great Thursday. [MUSIC]