John Kosner on the NHL in Lake Tahoe for Barrett Sports Media
Original Article: Barrett Sports Media, by Seth Everett, February 26th, 2021
Was the NHL’s great success also a great failure?
“You can’t have success if you don’t risk failure,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman commented to Mike Tirico on Saturday as the sun made the league’s most picturesque outdoor game unplayable.
Instead of a 3 pm eastern time NBC telecast, the last two periods of the game between the Colorado Avalanche and Vegas Golden Knights was moved off NBC to the lame-duck NBC Sports Network at midnight EST. Sunday’s game between the Boston Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers moved from 3 pm to 2 pm to then 7 pm and back to NBCSN.
“I still think it was a big success given how unique it was once the ice situation was squared away,” NESN announcer Billy Jaffe told me. “How majestic it was, is what made it successful.”
The pictures alone were breathtaking. I found myself glued to the television. Unlike the 31 previous outdoor games, no fans could attend. They didn’t even build stands. Television was the only way to expose that scene to the masses.
Saturday’s first period averaged 1.398 million viewers on NBC. The final two periods on NBCSN averaged 394,000 viewers. That’s more than a million fewer viewers after the delay.
“The sunny weather and its impact on the weather was a bad break for the NHL in terms of lost windows and audience on NBC,” said John Kosner, President Kosner Media and former head of digital media at ESPN. “However, the weekend was a spectacle, it generated tons of attention and coverage and did produce very big audiences for NBCSN.”
“I thought it was spectacular,” NHL Network senior reporter EJ Hradek told me. “I think every time they go play an outdoor game there are always risks. I’ve covered almost all of them. I was not at this one, unfortunately, because nobody was really at this one. I’ve been in situations where games are moved and changed.”
Going into the weekend, the NHL’s decision to try to play at Lake Tahoe was one of the more innovative ones I’d seen. Certainly, during the year-long pandemic, it’s one of the most out-of-the-box ideas from any sport. Still, if a million people could not see the end of the game, what was it all done for?
“People will always talk about the sunny weather that delayed the NHL in Lake Tahoe,” said Kosner. “That’s not all bad in my book!”
“We’re in such a crazy unique environment right now that I think anything different is good. It’s worth risk-taking, but it’s also gonna have challenges presented. But I think when it was all said and done, especially the Flyers and Bruins showed itself beautifully.”
The Sunday night game between the Flyers and Bruins averaged 1 million viewers. The afternoon NBC replaced the game with a Washington Capitals-New Jersey Devils that only averaged 750,000 viewers. The debate rages how many more people would have watched a Lake Tahoe afternoon game on that Sunday.
The NHL was being bold in designing this unique event. Previous NHL outdoor games have been held in football or baseball stadiums with over 50,000 people.
“I still enjoyed the pageantry,” Jaffe added. “The whole ‘Mystery, Alaska’ type thing about it. But on the business side, which I’m not really qualified to speak about. I’m sure it wasn’t as much of a success as it could have been.”
One other issue with the event. The Colorado Avalanche uniforms received tons of praise for their version of the “Reverse Retro” jersey that every team has. The Avs wore the logo of their previous incarnation, the Quebec Nordiques. The Nordiques left Quebec in 1995 and became the Avalanche, winning the Stanley Cup in their first season in Denver.
I think the decision to use that logo, and for NBC to put that logo in their graphics is a direct insult to the fans in Quebec. Their team was taken from them. That does not celebrate their history. It rubs salt in the wound.
The Avalanche are not the only team that uses a previous incarnation of the franchise. The Carolina Hurricanes are wearing the Hartford Whalers logo as their Reverse Retro jersey. One Hartford fan told me it reminds him of the departure, a wound that is not fully healed.
I suggested that if the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder wore Seattle SuperSonics uniforms for some kind of retro night, there would be a legitimate mutiny in the Pacific Northwest. Relocation is a sad story in sports, and celebrating it, sends the wrong message.
“I mean, it is the same franchise,” Hradek said. “The franchise was sold and moved. I didn’t live in Hartford. I didn’t live in Quebec City. I could only tell you as a hockey fan. I mean, I enjoy seeing those jerseys because I don’t take offense to them, but again, I can’t speak for a fan in Hartford or a fan in Quebec City.”
The Avalanche could have used the old Colorado Rockies, hockey team. That franchise played in Denver but left to go to New Jersey in 1982. The difference is that Denver got a new team. The Wild honor the North Stars, but again nobody is left in the cold.
All in all, I applaud the NHL for trying the Lake Tahoe experience. Unfortunately, it had to hurt to lose a million viewers. If a picture is worth a thousand words then Lake Tahoe can write its own novel.
John Kosner on the Clubhouse App with Sportico’s John Wall Street
Original Article: Sportico, by John Wall Street, February 8th, 2021
Back in late January, Clubhouse—an audio-based social networking startup—confirmed it had closed on a $100 million Series B round (led by Andreesen Horowitz), reportedly at a $1 billion valuation. However, despite the company’s newly minted unicorn status, the invite-only iPhone app remained largely under the radar outside of Silicon Valley circles. That changed on Jan. 31, when an unexpected conversation between Tesla founder Elon Musk and Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev brought Clubhouse into the mainstream lexicon, sparking a secondary market for invite codes in the process (each user receives a limited number of invitations to dole out during the pre-launch period). With the drop-in audio platform gaining momentum—roughly a third of the app’s 3.5 million-plus downloads came within the last week—it seemed like an opportune time to explore if/how Clubhouse is likely to affect the sports ecosystem (the company declined an opportunity to share its thoughts). Conversations with a tech-savvy venture capitalist and a sports media investor/adviser painted vastly differing views on the subject.
Our Take: Peter Rojas (partner, Betaworks Ventures) has long been a believer that social audio can play a prominent role within the existing media landscape. Back in 2015, he invested in a mobile voice-messaging app called Unmute that served a similar function (but was just a bit ahead of its time). He says the ease with which creators can produce audio-only content, and the ability for both the audience and creators to go in depth on topics, differentiates the platform from other creator-driven social networks in the marketplace. Of course, audio-only channels are well-suited for deep conversations because “it can be easier for audiences to listen in to longer, more nuanced conversations when they can do it in the background of something else they are doing, like driving or working out,” Rojas explained. By contrast, “You don’t necessarily want to sit and watch a two hour YouTube video of people discussing something,” he said.
Considering people love to talk about sports, one would think there is a use case for social audio. But John Kosner (founder, Kosner Media) remains skeptical that a drop-in audio app is the “best format” for fans to consume sports-talk programming:
““Podcasting is a more efficient way to find what you want to find out, when you want to find out, and there is virtually an unlimited supply of podcasts.””
Remember, Clubhouse conversations aren’t always going to be taking place at a convenient time, and you can’t fast-forward through them. Old-fashioned AM radio also still exists (the business remains healthier than one might think) and serves the older fans’ need for real-time, in-depth discussion. Kosner did acknowledge “Clubhouse is relatively new, so obviously it will add product features and capabilities.”
Rojas, on the other hand, doesn’t see Clubhouse as a competitor to existing media channels. He says podcasts, radio and social audio are not mutually exclusive, and each can serve a purpose. “Platforms that open [access] up to people who didn’t have the ability to participate before are expanding the media ecosystem. It’s a different audience and different dollars in a lot of cases; and I would never bet against people finding more time to consume the media content they love.”
While it remains to be seen if sports fan will regularly make the time for social audio consumption on top of everything else, Clubhouse does appear to be chasing different dollars than those playing in the podcasting or radio space. Unlike those advertising reliant businesses, Clubhouse plans to drive much of its revenue via subscriptions (presumably to schedule shows hosted by engaging voices) and ticketed events (think: Musk-Tenev chat). The company will retain a percentage of the revenue generated by their creators, no different than Patreon or Substack. The company’s latest round of funding will in part be used to establish a “creators fund”—money to entice talent to participate on the platform.
Reaching critical mass (think: 100 million active monthly users) will help Clubhouse retain creators once they are on the platform. But Kosner said: “It’s not clear how [the platform] scales or gets to a level that really makes it an important part of the sports ecosystem”—even with plans to make invites more widely available and introduce an Android app. The former EVP of digital at ESPN sees the transition from “digital in-crowd” to average Joe as a difficult one to make (there are also moderation issues that need to be addressed). “It’s more likely [the app] serves just a certain small segment of sports fans and is not a big factor in sports anytime soon,” he said.
Rojas balked at the suggestion Clubhouse’s current exclusive nature would be a long-term headwind for the company. “A lot of these [social networks] started as sort of insider, Silicon Valley [apps],” he said. “Twitter started out that way too. The audience ends up expanding.”
In addition, Rojas said, “The sense of proximity and immediacy offered by Clubhouse is really, really powerful.” But considering the rise of the social audio platform has come in the midst of a global pandemic (launched in April ’20), it’s fair to wonder—as Kosner did—“how much of the popularity is because we’re stuck in our homes and have time on our hands. When people are going back out and [regularly interacting with others] will something like [Clubhouse] be as popular?” The answer may determine whether the app will end up playing a prominent role in sports.
Considering the buzz around Clubhouse (see: Clubhouse Media Group, a totally unrelated company, saw its stock price rise as much as 117% on Feb. 1), it is no surprise there are “fast followers” positioning themselves as “Clubhouse for sports.” Even if social audio catches on in sports, it remains to been seen if whether it’s best suited to be verticalized around specific communities (like LockerRoom) or constructed as a broader platform where users can seek out the specific type of content or community they’re interested in (like Clubhouse). It’s possible both platforms could find a dedicated following—though Clubhouse undeniably has more momentum right now.
And as Rojas said, “Momentum has a way of compounding itself.”
A Trillion Hours! Why Community Is The Game Behind The Games
Original Article: Medium, by John Kosner and J Moses, February 7th, 2021
Tonight, again, will be the Tale of Two Rooms.
In our living rooms, we will watch the Super Bowl, while jury rigging together a Twitter/Zoom solution (laptop in front of the couch) so each of us can interact with our friends during the game. Given latency issues for sports broadcasts offered by multiple distributors, we will not all be watching the same feed at the same time. Some of us will see, say, Patrick Mahomes’ TD pass as much as 30-seconds in advance of others. We will not be able to buy a champion’s hat as part of our hacked-together digital viewing party.
Meanwhile, in their bedrooms, our 13-year-old sons will be playing video games on their big screens or laptops as part of a fully-integrated platform – maneuvering, plotting, yelling and screaming at each other in real-time. A true modern community experience made possible by the game’s publisher. To understand why gaming is ascendant in our culture, especially among the young, look no further.
In our first piece published on Jan. 1, 2021, we wrote that the world’s fastest-growing game is … TikTok, and how gaming mechanics is building the most popular media property for young audiences. This is part of our broader POV that there is much that Sports, Media, Investors … all of us in business … can learn from games.
In part II of our series, we explore a key feature of the popularity of games: how they naturally promote and benefit from super-engaged communities.
Super Bowl Sunday is perhaps the biggest community activity day in our country. John Ourand of Sports Business Journal estimates that tonight, CBS will get 95.1M TV-only viewers (before approximately 5MM out-of-home and streaming numbers are added).
And yet, the shared “Watch Party” technology available to us right now is inferior. The pay TV industry has not advanced “TV Everywhere.” As we see with Games, now is the perfect opportunity.
The Games business is differentiated:
It engages its community in real time;
It enables its community to share in bits and bytes;
It mines its community to create stupendous value in virtual goods.
Achieving these three should be possible for Sports and Entertainment too. But both industries must figure out how to do them effectively.
Games publishers are fully vertically-integrated from an ownership standpoint. They own the code, the data and, in most cases, the customer singularly. The result: an end-to-end experience that lets gamers pick and choose what they want, engage with each other as they want – all in real time all over the world. For gamers, it is easy to share clips, purchase virtual goods and interact with celebrity streamers.
The resulting participant numbers in Games are mind-boggling as are the revenues. On an average day, concurrent usage for gamers at peak times is approaching 100MM globally. Per Newzoo, in 2020, Gamers (between community and streaming):
generated practically a trillion hours of activity! One trillion hours.
spent an estimated $79B on the purchase of virtual goods and other merchandise — a category that is growing 8% a year.
That’s a stark contrast with Sports. The sports broadcast (even the Super Bowl) remains (like the linear world in which we grew up) a “push” experience where we watch the game and then talk about it afterwards. COVID has eliminated traditional “water cooler moments,” at least for the time being (few of us will be headed into an office tomorrow morning to chat up our colleagues). Yes, through second-screen experiences like Twitter, Zoom, iMessage, Verizon Mobile, we can all talk about the games globally and watch and share highlights, memes, etc.
But it’s all actually and structurally limited, especially compared to games. For Sports, it used to be that showing the game was community. Now it is enabling fans not just to watch in real time but to do whatever they would like, in whatever-size group. But leagues and rightsholders are not inclined to give their customers to third part social networks and messaging platforms. You can find NFL clips of J’s favorite Steelers WR JuJu Smith-Shuster on YouTube ... but you are not permitted to share them.
The limiter is the historical approach to granting rights. We appreciate the issues — both for rightsholders and licensees — many of whom have, or are negotiating currently, long-term agreements in a period of accelerating change especially with younger audiences. But think about: $79B in virtual goods sales annually for Games. Sports gets about $0. The total cost of U.S. sports rights this year is approximately 25B. We think loosening the reins on sharing activity at the expense of traditional “exclusivities” is actually a win/win. Using the Super Bowl as an example, the NFL could jumpstart a significant new revenue stream with virtual goods and live in-game activities for purchase; CBS would benefit from a much more engaged audience, probably larger at the younger end.
Lessons to take away:
Like game publishers, Rightsholders need to vastly improve their co-viewing and sharing experience. That is the way to own and mine your customer. To start, imagine tonight’s CBS viewing experience with a “+” button where you could easily add friends and then “share your screen” for the synched game telecast plus access to merch, prop betting and fantasy and other streamers. For the Super Bowl, the NFL should offer this and more as its own “Super Viewing” experience — every bit as compelling as what gamers can do right now on Fortnite, Minecraft or World of War Craft (now a $3B business on its own – for Activision Blizzard!). Efforts are underway at Yahoo and startups like Teleparty and LiveLike.
The same opportunity exists for Entertainment. For Disney+, for example, a truly dynamic Watch Party experience for the next installment of “The Mandalorian” opens many new options to surprise and delight an already passionate audience. Once you figure out your community, you can mine it.
And there is an investment thesis here too (elucidated in “The Content Trap” by Bharat Anand) – pay attention to activities and businesses that breed connections. For example, as the sports industry prioritizes betting, don’t forget about fantasy sports.
For sports fans, we believe true co-viewing is when not if. Cable TV pioneer Ted Turner recognized the power of distribution and (community) with the advent of satellites he introduced WTBS, our first nationally-distributed “superstation” in 1976. That caused lots of problems for rightsholders but we overcame them, before TBS became just another national cable network. In 1982, legendary advertising Hall of Famer George Lois famously coined the phrase “I want my MTV” to get carriage on the burgeoning cable distributors shortly after ... and we got our MTV. Forty years later, fans want community watching. We all win by giving them what they want!
John Kosner is President of Kosner Media (www.kosnermedia.com), a digital and media consultancy, and an investor and advisor in sports tech startups. He was the senior digital executive at ESPN for 20 years. J Moses has been in and around the Sports, Games, and Tech businesses for over 40 years. He has been a Director at T2 since 2007, and is currently an Executive Producer on a scripted Esports show for the CW (www.optinstudios.com). Both John and J are disciples of the legendary Roone Arledge of ABC Sports.
Netflix of Sports hasn’t arrived but…
Original Article: Sports Business Journal, by Ed Desser and John Kosner, January 18th, 2021
In the five years since Ed wrote “Handicapping the Netflix of sports” ( SBJ, 3/28/16 ), streaming has boomed: Disney+, HBO Max and Apple TV+ have joined Netflix and Amazon and “over-the-top” is now materially affecting traditional cable. As predicted for sports, BAM and Disney…
The Fourth Quarter of Sports Media, Part II with Ed Desser
Original Article: Sportico, by Ed Desser and John Kosner, January 15th, 2021
Last week, we wrote about electronic sports media heading into its “fourth quarter”—a new streaming epoch driven by developments in tech and entertainment. Today, we examine how the business will further evolve this decade.
We expect the incumbent sports networks to lock in historical advantages (existing rights, relationships, distribution, revenue and brand names) with expensive new NFL agreements, in time for a 17-game regular season.
However, sports will also start to make sense for entertainment streamers, because it offers compelling, day-to-day, original content that provides continuity to help businesses built around hit-driven binge viewing and shows to fit everyone’s filter bubble of taste. (Recall USA Network launched with entertainment—plus MLB, NBA and NHL). In fact, other than gaming and the occasional blockbuster movie, sports may be the last category with broad enough appeal to attract the remaining streaming holdouts. Sports is appointment viewing, an advertising magnet and a means of counter-programming against services with stronger libraries like Netflix. Managing churn is also likely to drive seasonal sports acquisitions (e.g., The Masters), particularly for non-football months.
To integrate sports successfully, entertainment streamers will have to upgrade their home-screen experiences originally designed for video-on-demand (VOD). They’ll also need to add live curated scheduling (as they do for shows/movies), and personalized real-time scores, stats and highlights, to serve sports fans.
The path to follow is fairly well worn. TNT grew quickly with just a half-season of NFL Sunday nights, NBA rights and the MGM library. Then Fox Broadcasting hit its stride with Married with Children, The Simpsons and Sunday afternoon NFL. The same process was reinvented over the past 20 years with HBO offering movies, boxing, The Sopranos and Game of Thrones to justify $15/month. Netflix did it, originally with movies and TV shows (delivered via mail!), and now on-demand streaming hits such as House of Cards and The Crown, a vast global library, and a content budget equivalent of everyone else’s combined. The profitable formula: Offer high-demand, exclusive, promotable content (such as sports) to attract new subscribers, multiply by a price increase, plus ad sales.
Major SVOD platforms are approaching critical mass distribution thresholds, thanks to U.S. broadband penetration that’s greater than conventional linear cable networks, enabling them to provide similar or superior exposure for sports. While Netflix and Apple have abstained thus far from live sports, focusing on long-tail evergreen content, will they reconsider? If these digital goliaths choose to invest, they will be able to pick off packages from traditional sports platforms while barely denting their earnings per share. They can justify outspending linear TV because of their scale, applications for data, and superior monetization capabilities. More commerce via Amazon, more engagement from Netflix, more services revenue for Apple. However, they don’t have to do any of this; they already possess billions of active customers.
And, as Lightshed’s Walt Piecyk points out, “The one thing you’re never going to disconnect is your cellphone.” That makes AT&T (177 MM subs), Verizon (120 MM), and T-Mobile (102 MM), potentially the “new bundle(s).” Do the carriers now move to acquire live rights themselves to motivate 5G upgrades and book sports subscriptions as their own “services” revenue?
Do players like Roku and Google’s Chromecast get into sports, with their combination of TV browsers and app stores, making them owners of exceptionally valuable home screens? Will retailers like Walmart and Target concede the combined retail/media field to Amazon alone?
The upshot: The bundle is melting, but there are more logical buyers of the resulting sports rights icebergs, with bigger balance sheets and loftier motivations.
This leads us to predict that the traditional bundle will morph into mini-bundles. Some sports including the NFL will remain mostly on conventional networks via multichannel video program distributors (MVPDs), while others will be streamed. Think ESPN+/Disney+/Hulu, which together account for more than 100 million U.S. subs, or perhaps Peacock, HBO Max and Paramount+ selling as a package.
Amazon already is its own 112-million-sub bundle, combining shipping, video, music and book content, and the Fire TV Stick, and it could use Twitch (the most popular free live-streaming service) as a modern alternative to national “broadcast” distribution with a much younger audience.
For rights holders to embrace streaming as a primary distribution platform, the magic “critical mass” number might be 50 million active subscribers. Here, growing direct-to-consumer services and mini-bundled subscriber bases begin to approach the shrinking pay TV universe size. And with the growing threat of piracy, rights holders will value partners like tech giants who can provide high-quality streaming.
Rather than buy a single pay TV bundle, future fans will likely subscribe to three or four streaming services that include sports, switching some of them out during off-seasons (especially football), making 12-month programming calendars critical. This is little different than those of us who still subscribe to a traditional MVPD, but also buy at least one streamer.
International streaming will also help justify the migration. Amazon, YouTube, Netflix and Apple all play well overseas, and Disney’s Star has significant penetration—and cricket rights—in Asia, potentially providing U.S.-based sports (think NFL, college, NASCAR) with wider worldwide exposure on prestige platforms than current small-dollar foreign syndication deals. It’s a backstop with a global backdrop.
Google’s YouTube is the biggest free video platform, and it’s still growing, while Facebook/Instagram has a huge user base. They can all easily play in sports that prioritize exposure, generating the bulk of their revenue from gate and sponsorship. They are also more focused on reaching younger viewers, which could birth new subscription models.
Thus, we do not anticipate one dominant sports player in the 2020s, but several: each platform with certain sports, with its own unique selling proposition, and major customization. Sports fans will no longer be forced to take all or none, as with cable, but rather will be able to select those of greatest interest.
This will present new challenges for sports owners. Leagues will struggle to replace the automatic inertia-viewing that linear networks historically provided. Meanwhile, services will compete to have their unique package of rights, much as networks have done in earlier quarters of the sports media game.
The new fourth-quarter world will call into question how rights are apportioned. Will league inner- (regional sports network) and outer- (national network) market rights continue to be sold separately? Will leagues choose to do several separate packages or combine rights to increase leverage across multiple services? Will digital companies choose to invest big bucks only if all rights (linear and digital worldwide) are available? Long underutilized, league libraries will become more attractive as the source for new sports documentaries and “inside access” shows to stream. Also look for ubiquitous use of world feeds for TV production.
For fans, who will no longer have automatic access to everything through a single subscription, progress will come at a cost. Gone are the days of TV Guide and newspaper listings; content discovery will be a curation sport unto itself. Leagues will align with the platforms able to pay them the most money while providing sufficient exposure (to grow their young fan base), an ominous development for legacy cable sports and broadcast networks that no longer deliver the massive promotion, huge audience and desirable demographics they once did.
It is unlikely to be cheaper in total for fans and may make some pine for the “good old days.” But ultimately the fourth quarter of sports media will bring true competition, with a greater diversity of offerings such as megacasts, group viewing, sub-second latency (true “live live”) betting, personalized highlights products—and better service for tomorrow’s sports fans.
We can’t wait!
Desser, a senior media executive at the NBA for 23 years, founded Desser Media, a sports media consultancy that provides valuation, negotiations and expert witness services. Kosner was the senior digital executive at ESPN for 20 years. In addition to managing Kosner Media, a digital and media consultancy, he is an investor and advisor in sports tech startups. Together, Desser and Kosner ran NBA Broadcasting in the 1980s and ’90s.
John Kosner Quoted in Sportico Regarding Dan Le Batard’s New Venture
Original Article: Sportico, by Eben Novy-Williams & Corey Leff, January 24th, 2021
The first priority for Dan Le Batard’s next media endeavor—a project he’s launching with his former boss, one-time ESPN president John Skipper—is to secure a distribution deal for his audio empire.
Those negotiations will likely be bolstered by something he took with him from ESPN. As part of his severance from the Disney unit, Le Batard negotiated for the RSS feed to his podcast, according to multiple people familiar with the talks. It’s allowed the talk show host to maintain continuity with his followers, without requiring them to re-subscribe to a new show.
Le Batard also negotiated the use of the oceanfront Miami Beach studio where he recorded for ESPN, the people said. A representative for ESPN declined to comment on the arrangement. Le Batard also declined to comment when reached by phone.
The RSS feed, in layman’s terms, is the podcast’s connection to its audience. When listeners subscribe to a podcast on iTunes or Spotify, they’re committing to have new shows delivered to their phones via the RSS feed. By retaining it, Le Batard was able to maintain his loyal—and sizeable—audience. He’s also kept the 23,000-plus reviews that give his podcast a valuable 4.8-star rating on iTunes.
While the specific terms of his negotiations with ESPN are unknown, having the pre-built audience and data associated with it should help as he begins talking to distribution partners. That said, it likely won’t make or break a deal, said John Kosner, a media consultant and former ESPN executive.
“Dan Le Batard is a very popular talent. He’s been on television and radio and podcasts for a long time,” Kosner said. “If he had no rights to anything, I still think he’d get a significant distribution deal. But this definitely strengthens his hand.”
ESPN theoretically could have kept the RSS feeds and used them to boost the following of another show. That would have run the risk of alienating Le Batard’s avid fans and potentially backfiring if listeners found themselves subscribed to a podcast they didn’t want.
Le Batard wasted little time putting the RSS feed to work. Just one day after his final ESPN show last week, he was posting new episodes of “The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz” to his existing subscribers. As of Thursday morning, the show was No. 1 on Apple’s sports podcast chart; a separate Le Batard offering is No. 10.
Skipper and Le Batard plan to build a new personality-driven media company that could cover a variety of topics, starting with sports, according to someone familiar with the plans. It’s unclear when exactly the venture will get off the ground, but Skipper will remain in his role as executive chairman of sports streaming service DAZN while working on the new venture.
A former Miami Herald columnist, Le Batard spent nearly a decade at ESPN, where he became one of the company’s most popular and visible personalities. He had a presence on ESPN’s TV, radio and podcast platforms, and at the time of his departure, he was making $3.5 million per year, according to Sportico sister publication Deadline.
Frequently outspoken, Le Batard clashed with his bosses toward the end of his tenure, first over the company’s policy not to directly address political matters, and later over the abrupt firing of his long-time radio producer. Both sides have described his departure as amicable.
Le Batard is the latest media personality to leave a major network and launch his own venture. Those hosts have more leverage now, Kosner said, because there are other ways for fans to interact with them.
“Modern talent negotiations are all skewed by the fact that powerful talent have their own independent social media following on places like Twitter and Instagram, and that’s their property not their employer’s,” Kosner said. “Whether you’re Stephen A. Smith, or Bill Simmons, or Dan Le Batard, that’s a valuable asset that you have going forward, and it weakens the positioning of your current employer.”
The Fourth Quarter of Sports Media, Part I
Original Article: John Wall Street, by Ed Desser and John Kosner, January 8th, 2021
The advent of electronic sports media’s “first quarter” started a century ago, first as radio game recreations from press reports in 1920, and then as live on-site play-by-play (boxing and Pirates-Phillies baseball) in 1921 on KDKA in Pittsburgh. In the second quarter, broadcast TV ascended, with live sports becoming national weekend daytime and local primetime TV staples in the 1960s and ’70s. The third quarter came via cable TV, adding huge programming volume and bringing to fruition in 1979 the previously unthinkable notion of a 24/7 sports network: ESPN.
Today, as platforms like Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon lead entertainment, and now have higher penetration of broadband than pay TV, we are entering the sports media’s “fourth quarter” and its impending inclusion into the new mainstream—emphasis on stream.
With the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) taking place virtually next week for the first time, we thought this would be the perfect opportunity to look out into the digital future and project what the next phase will look like. First, let’s recap the scores….
ESPN+ is the highest-profile sports streamer today. Amazon has invested in top brands like NFL and EPL rights. New streaming entrants FloSports and DAZN bought up niche sports and boxing, respectively, while fuboTV offers a streaming package of multiple linear sports and entertainment networks. However, none has yet become a true aggregator (think cable TV for the past 40 years), and we do not believe any single entity or platform will—at least for the next decade. Instead, we see a confluence of factors leading to a multiverse of sports viewing options for the remainder of the 2020s.
In entertainment, AT&T launched HBO Max, Comcast unfurled Peacock, and Disney has built the first true Netflix challenger with Disney+ (after consolidating Hulu and Star from Fox). CBS was early with All Access, but streaming remains a relatively small side business for CBS and Viacom, and essentially nonexistent at Fox. Meanwhile, Netflix expanded its domination during COVID and now claims 195 million non-sports global subscribers. Netflix has not only redefined the streaming viewer experience; critically, it has done so at price points that for now undercut the rest of the entertainment industry. Otherwise, it’s hard to imagine that Disney+ would price itself at $7.99 (as of this March), especially with first-run Disney movie content. Or that HBO Max would be bringing blockbuster Warner Bros. movies direct to subscribers in 2021 at no extra charge. Or that each of these services would be subsidized and magnified through wireless carrier bundles (T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T, respectively). The super low (to zero) prices for high-end entertainment fare create a significant challenge for high-priced sports content purchases by streamers going forward.
In sports, ESPN/ABC, Fox/FS1, Warner/Turner, CBS/CBSSN, and NBC and its cable channels still remain the kings of live major U.S. properties, holding the pay TV bundle together.
However, that bundle is fraying:
Cord-cutting continues unabated. Another 5 million subs exited in 2020;
More than one-third (37%) of the 121 million U.S. TV homes have cumulatively eschewed or abandoned traditional pay TV;
Cord-shaving, or cutting back on service, has further eroded the penetration of expensive top sports networks, shrinking available audiences;
Virtual MVPDs (like YouTube TV, fuboTV and Hulu Live) no longer pick up the slack;
COVID-19 stopped sports cold last spring and posed formidable challenges upon their return—no crowds, scrambled schedules and huge additional expenses (though with some production-efficiency savings);
According to Roku’s 2020 study, 28% of cord-cutter households ranked the loss of live televised sports as their top reason for cutting the cord;
Entertainment streaming services filled the void with extended free trials and special events such as Hamilton on Disney+ on July 4;
Perhaps most important, a generation of younger viewers who have grown up with smartphones (an entertainment ecosystem in their pocket) has accelerated the bundle’s decline by being “nevers”—new households that have never had linear pay TV.
Sports media’s third quarter is ending with a level of uncertainty we’ve never seen before. Besides the NFL, there are no sure things. Perhaps that is why we expect essentially one last “traditional” rights acquisition cycle, where the “surviving” sports TV networks reach for still-richer NFL agreements to maintain relevance and boost their own asset value, with consolidation likely to follow.
But in making bigger and bigger rights commitments, the leading networks will find themselves in a paradoxical trap. The digital platforms that command the most attention from young sports fans—YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Snap and increasingly TikTok—pay practically nothing in rights fees. None carry live games, and all flaunt fairly comprehensive highlights on their platforms (both through league deals and user-generated content). Going forward, those paying the most (ESPN, Fox, Warners, NBC and CBS) will have the least financial flexibility to invest in new approaches necessary to attract young audiences, who are less likely to watch live three-hour game “marathons.”
For over three decades, the traditional pay-TV bundle powered non-gate revenue growth for pro and college teams on a scale never before experienced. But on Dec. 10, 2020, at a four-hour Investor Day presentation, the biggest beneficiary of traditional bundle economics, the Walt Disney Co., laid out an unequivocal path forward: streaming. Disney is effectively betting a world-renowned $325 billion company on it. We may look back at that date as the demarcation between the old and the new sports media worlds.
In Part II of this series, we will look at what we expect the fourth quarter of sports media to look like. How will the MVPD bundle morph? What moves are the linear stalwarts of the industry likely to take in their next acquisitions? Will a new bundle emerge, or will the business further disaggregate? How will sports fans navigate the new world’s options and alternatives? What benefits are in store for tomorrow’s fan in return? Look for those answers here next Friday.
Desser, a senior media executive at the NBA for 23 years, founded Desser Media, a sports media consultancy that provides valuation, negotiations and expert witness services. Kosner was the senior digital executive at ESPN for 20 years. In addition to managing Kosner Media, a digital and media consultancy, he is an investor and advisor in sports tech startups. Together, Desser and Kosner ran NBA Broadcasting in the 1980s and ’90s.
The World’s Fastest Growing Game
Original Article: Medium, by John Kosner and J Moses, January 1st, 2021
Both of us are big NFL fans and fathers of 13-year-old boys. But on Sunday, when we watch our favorite teams – the Steelers and the Giants – play on CBS and Fox respectively, our boys will be in their bedrooms with mobile devices on their laps, connected to friends and playing Minecraft, Fortnite or TikTok while they track the NFL scores in real time on a gamecast app.
Yes, playing TikTok. It is the fastest growing game in the world, and our boys are part of an entire generation expecting game mechanics to power their preferred entertainment.
Considered by many the mobile YouTube, TikTok is the most intriguing and fastest growing media property in the world. Because, it was designed to be something else. TikTok is built on game mechanics. It is a game featuring content (which can be any content, far broader than just funny dance videos). TikTok rewards people for posting popular videos and watching them; in fact, it tells you how to do it. And it’s all easy. On TikTok, your video’s views are points. TikTok’ers are rewarded with TikTok’s they love. Users create their own individualized experience. It is addictive.
Also, it is not social media as we have traditionally defined it. Instead, it fits on a continuum as our social interactions become more digital and spread over more platforms especially messaging. TikTok is not centered on your friends, but rather Chinese parent company ByteDance’s nonpareil algorithm.
As Ben Thompson points out in his newsletter, Stratechery:
“The chances of your typical Facebook user having a network full of accomplished videographers is slim, and remember, when it comes to showing user-generated content, Facebook is constrained by who your friends are …
ByteDance’s 2016 launch of Douyin – the Chinese version of TikTok – revealed another, even more important benefit to relying purely on the algorithm: by expanding the library of available video from those made by your network to any video made by anyone on the service [emphasis: ours], Douyin/TikTok leverages the sheer scale of user-generated content to generate far more compelling content than professionals could ever generate, and relies on its algorithms to ensure that users are only seeing the cream of the crop.”
Now, it is true that you can follow celebrities and brands on Instagram, and the quality of their posts is often of higher quality. Nonetheless, TikTok is designed to give you the most compelling video at any given time. Turner Novak of early stage VC firm Gelt notes, “on TikTik, the best videos could instantly reach the entire user base.”
Last summer in Bloomberg Opinion, Tim Culpan described TikTok’s touted algorithm as its “secret sauce,” the mobile version of the “Colonel’s 11 secret herbs and spices.” But it’s more than that. Developed as well with ByteDance’s massively popular Chinese news site Toutiao, the TikTok algorithm generates personalization at unmatched scale. Per Novak: TikTok’s “hyper-personalized algorithm recommends content based on thousands of objects and tags analyzed in each individual video, along with an individual’s view history, re-watches, likes, comments, shares, and even post-view activity.”
That’s the very basis of connected game play too – whether it be Candy Crush or Fortnite – an algorithm. Like the leading games, TikTok is not static. Every single user has a unique experience every time and every keystroke builds the TikTok algorithm. Minecraft, Fortnite and Roblox (and World of Warcraft Online for that matter) are each closed platforms – they give players the tools to tailor how they want to play. By following the videographers they like most, TikTok gives viewers that same degree of customization. Dynamic, constantly adjusting to new preferences and signals (such as our sons in their bedrooms connected with their friends), TikTok has produced mesmerizing effects in the U.S. and around the world.
The game has changed the game.
Compare TikTok to Quibi:
Both started in the U.S. in 2018;
TikTok has game mechanics. A bottoms-up approach built around a constantly expanding and dynamically curated user generated content selection;
Quibi was the traditional, time-honored Hollywood media model. Top down. Expensive, professionally produced, high quality content with stars on both sides of the camera. No game mechanics.
Today: TikTok’s market cap is $60B (Parent ByteDance’s is 180B). Quibi is defunct.
Consider JuJu Smith-Schuster, the Steelers’ outstanding wide receiver and, perhaps, the most accomplished gamer and social media performer in sports. Last month, Smith-Schuster found himself under fire because of his viral videos showing him dancing on the logos of Pittsburgh’s opponents. As the Steelers lost three straight after an 11-0 start, he was accused, among other things, of having more posted TikToks than yards per game this season. JuJu says he’s done with the dances (at least for now) but he and other star athletes recognize the power of TikTok. The game has changed the games.
No doubt aided by its data collection and algorithm, TikTok management has also proven to be a quick study of the game business by identifying its audience, giving them what they want, and monetizing it:
TikTok built out its audience – by knowing where to buy it. Earlier this year, TikTok was Snap’s biggest advertiser. It’s the top brand to run app install ads on Snapchat after having been the top app installer on Facebook in early 2019. Per the Financial Times, TikTok has reached 1B users much faster than any other social media app;
In the same way that another fast-growing digital media company, Twitch (Amazon) has broadened beyond its gamer roots into several other content categories plus “Just Chatting” and “IRL” (“in real life”) channels, TikTok has evolved from silly dance videos. Per Tiffany Zhong of Zebra IQ, a Gen Z research company, TikTok is the biggest producer of short-form online video education (on a multitude of topics). And critically for a young, impatient audience, she says, “its videos are no longer than they have to be.” If a TikTok can tell a story in 21 seconds, it does so. Novak: “Short-form video reduces the friction of both creation and consumption. Most TikTok videos are produced by the creator alone, and many post multiple videos per day”;
While many linear TV networks rue not taking a financial position in the licensing businesses of the young, unknown talent they helped popularize (many of whom are now more popular than their sponsor networks), TikTok has been quick to launch its Tiktok Creator Marketplace (TCM). How big will this become? Two weeks ago, Walmart hosted the first-ever shoppable livestream on TikTok. That Walmart was aggressively pursuing TikTok as an owner last summer tells you everything about the audience.
If you are a media company without the benefit of Bytedance’s visionary engineers and world-changing algorithm, what to do?
Make TikTok’s approach a central strategy, not an “extension” of what you do.
Collect data and use it: When we watch the NFL games on Sunday, neither CBS nor Fox will get any data; their revenue is limited to retransmission consent and TV sponsorship advertising. That’s a problem. Creating systems, hiring data-focused executives (many of whom are young) moves companies to a place where they are using data to make decisions. Once you start you never turn back
Give the audience what they want: Sports leagues and other content companies should be more aggressive in allowing these connected audiences on TikTok to follow games in progress, including by putting real-time highlights onto the platform. Otherwise, its audience might not know the games are even happening! Content discovery is a growing challenge; you need to be where your audience is;
Monetize the audience: On Christmas Day, millions of people around the world watched Pixar’s “Soul” on Disney+. Disney has used informed research and data about its addressable audience to establish itself as a retail streaming channel. Now, its actual usage is powering how the service moves forward. Disney+ has also levitated the company’s stock.
Perhaps most important, media companies must heed what makes gaming such a compelling format: we each have our own customized experience, every time is different, and we and our friends are active participants.
John Kosner is President of Kosner Media (www.kosnermedia.com), a digital and media consultancy, and an investor and advisor in sports tech startups. He was the senior digital executive at ESPN for 20 years. J Moses has been in and around the Sports, Games, and Tech businesses for over 40 years. He has been a Director at T2 since 2007, and is currently an Executive Producer on a scripted Esports show for the CW (www.optinstudios.com). Both John and J are disciples of the legendary Roone Arledge of ABC Sports.
Marvel’s Avengers Lend Home to Kosner and Calemzuk for $250 Million SPAC Buildout
Original Article: Sportico, by Eben Novy-Williams, December 24th, 2020
Longtime media executives John Kosner and Emiliano Calemzuk are part of a group aiming to raise $250 million for a special purpose acquisition company.
The group’s filing says 890 5th Avenue Partners will look to invest in an area specific to the expertise of its management team, which includes veterans in media, technology and telecommunications. It specifically mentions sports media, sports betting, esports and fitness platforms as potential targets. The address is a reference to the fictional Avengers Mansion, where many of Stan Lee’s comic book characters lived.
“There are several market verticals we have identified which are undergoing unprecedented levels of disruption in an extraordinarily accelerated timeframe due to a variety of trends, making them attractive pools for business combination candidates,” the group said in a filing.
Those trends include the growing amount of time consumers spend on new platforms, the rush to create and distribute content at a faster rate and the myriad ways digital technology is upending social media, interactive entertainment, gaming and education. Earlier this month Kosner co-authored a Sportico op-ed that hit on some of these same themes.
The group’s filing says it is targeting companies with an enterprise value between $750 million and $2 billion. It says it doesn’t have a specific target, nor has it had any substantive discussion about any specific acquisitions.
This is the latest sports-adjacent SPAC to reveal its intentions to raise money and pursue an acquisition, a phenomenon that Sportico has tracked all year (click here for our SPAC Primer). There are at least 40 SPACs that are sports focused or led by sports executives, and collectively, they’ve raised or seek to raise over $16 billion in total capital.
The group’s executive chairman is Adam Rothstein, co-founder of Disruptive Technology Partners and Disruptive Growth, a pair of Israeli investment funds focused on technology. He is also a sponsor of Roth CH Acquisition I Co., a SPAC in the process of acquiring plastics recycling company PureCycle Technologies. Rothstein declined to comment.
Kosner led ESPN’s digital media from 2003 to 2017. After leaving ESPN he and NBA commissioner emeritus David Stern launched Micromanagement Ventures to invest in sports and technology start-ups. Kosner also runs his consultancy, Kosner Media.
Calemzuk, who will be the group’s CEO, spent 14 years at 21st Century Fox/News Corp, including leadership of the group’s scripted and non-scripted television shows and as president of the Fox Television Studios. Since leaving the company in 2012, he’s helped Time Inc. build its digital video strategy, participated in a $400 million SPAC led by Jeff Sagansky and Harry Sloan–the two investors who later took DraftKings public–and is currently an executive at ecommerce and payments platform MercadoLibre.
John Kosner on Sports Podcasts with Sportico’s John Wall Street
Original Article: Sportico, by John Wall Street, December 16th, 2020
SPORTS PODCASTING GENERATES INVESTOR INTEREST WHILE TURNING TO MONETIZATION QUESTIONS
Yesterday, Axios reported that Blue Wire, a sports podcasting network, had raised $5 million in Series A funding (the company did not respond to a request for insight on the valuation). The investment round, led by Dot Capital (Bettor Capital, Side Door Ventures and Forty5 Ventures also participated), comes just 10 months after Blue Wire announced it had closed on $1.2 million in seed money (that round was also led by Dot Capital).
Over the last twelve months, venture capital has been steadily flowing into the sports audio ecosystem (see: Spotify’s $196 million acquisition of The Ringer). But “there is much more attention [being paid by investors to the sports podcasting space] than there are revenues [being] generated against it,” cautioned Kosner Media president John Kosner, who wondered how investors plan to achieve a return on their investments. “There’s too much supply and too few buyers. [The space] feels overcrowded at the moment and other than Spotify, there aren’t any real confirmed [acquirers].” In addition to Blue Wire, Barstool Sports, The Ringer, ESPN, The Athletic and Sports Illustrated are all producing sports podcasts.
Our Take: Blue Wire is working to become the go-to platform for athletes (A Touch More with Megan Rapinoe & Sue Bird), teams (the Baltimore Ravens’ Black in the NFL) and sports media talent with a following (Haley O’Shaughnessy, formerly of The Ringer) to host and monetize their audio content. Its network currently includes 140 topical and regional podcasts designed for the next generation of sports fans. “We’re making a bet that the future is individual shows about individual teams a few times a week, not three hours [each day] of some 60-year old radio buffoon yelling about stuff they don’t even know about,” said Blue Wire CEO Kevin Jones.
As someone who started his career in sports radio—a notoriously underfunded business—it’s exciting to see so much investor enthusiasm for “sports radio 2.0” (as Jones called sports podcasting). But Kosner suggested the current boom is less about the demand for hyper-local sports programming and more about the greater technological shift occurring.
“You have this explosion of audio content [including podcasts, books, news articles, apps like Clubhouse] all being driven by the mass adoption of Apple’s AirPods and smart speakers from the likes of Amazon, Google and Apple,” he said.
For perspective: In 2019, Apple generated more revenue in AirPod sales than Twitter and Snapchat took in, combined.
While historically there hasn’t been much money within the sports radio business (at least relative to other media channels), Kosner believes that has more to do with the medium “never really being viewed as a premium buy compared to TV and the internet” than a lack of advertiser interest in the listener demographics. “There could be money made in sports podcasting if a new personalized, targeted advertising [market] were to take hold,” he said (think: what Facebook and Google do for mobile ads).
But Bettor Capital founder (and former Barstool Sports head of strategy & corporate development) David VanEgmond “fundamentally disagrees” an ad marketplace is needed for podcasting businesses to achieve meaningful revenues. “If you listen to [Barstool’s Pardon My Take, which is among Apple’s top podcasts], there is not one programmatic ad read,” he said. “It’s all organic. It’s all integrated. It’s all about execution. If [a podcast] can deliver for sponsors and make advertising feel a part of content as opposed to a break, then there is a strong ability to monetize.”
It should be noted that the average Blue Wire podcast listener listens for 45 minutes at a time. “The completion ratio for podcasting is really impressive,” Jones said, “and brands are starting to recognize it.”
VanEgmond acknowledged that the balance of Kosner’s concerns about the industry were valid, but he remains excited about the long-term opportunity sports audio presents.
““Podcasting as a medium is seeing significant growth in advertising dollars. I believe advertising in and around sports will continue to increase. [Blue Wire] has the infrastructure in place to go from 140 podcasts to thousands of podcasts. When you add up the collective scale, this is a business that can generate material advertising revenue. The backdrop of monetization here is very good.””
Kosner acknowledged that if the company develops a strong network of local market team podcasts it would be “a logical acquisition target for somebody—no question.”
Given its focus on local and regionalized content, VanEgmond called sports betting a “huge opportunity” for Blue Wire and the balance of the sports podcast business. “[Blue Wire has] two very strong Detroit Lions podcasts,” he said. “So when the Michigan market opens for sports betting, to think they would be very valuable assets for [sports betting operators within the state] is probably right.” Remember, sports-talk radio and sports podcasts have proven to be effective channels to market a sports betting product, and operators are only going to be spending more money. Added VanEgmond: “FanDuel and Draftkings spent [in the range] of $200 million each in the second half of this year, and fierce competition is beginning with BetMGM and other competitors beginning to grow their spend substantially as more states turn on.”
Monetizing the podcast network via advertising may be the lowest hanging fruit, even if podcast advertising remains in its nascent stages. But Jones sees the greatest upside for the business as developing original series—the plan is to do 8 to 10 a year—and the prospect of turning the storytelling into feature films, as Wondery has done: “Our bet is people are going to read less and listen to stories more over the next decade, and we’re going to build some of the best ones.”
John Kosner is quoted regarding the SEC’s decision to leave CBS for ESPN
Original Article: Alabama.com, by John Talty, December 10th, 2020
After being announced as the next Southeastern Conference commissioner in March 2015, Greg Sankey immediately started thinking about his conference’s next media rights deal.
ESPN had the majority of the SEC’s rights locked up through 2034, but the fate of the SEC on CBS package, considered the crown jewel of college football, had long been a source of intense speculation within the sports TV industry. For years, CBS benefited from one of the sweetest deals in sports TV, paying a mere $55 million annually to get the SEC’s weekly top game plus the SEC Championship.
After losing long-trusted TV advisor Chuck Gerber, who passed away that same year, Sankey opted to take his time and do his due diligence. In 2018, the SEC hired Evolution Media’s Alan Gold and CAA’s Nick Khan to guide the conference through the future media landscape. He consulted trusted deputies Charlie Hussey and Mark Womack as the senior SEC leadership weighed all of their options.
After years of consideration, Sankey and the SEC came to the conclusion it was time to go all-in with ESPN.
In a deal announced Thursday, though agreed to nearly a year ago, the premier package in college sports is leaving CBS for ESPN starting in 2024-25. Exact terms of the 10-year deal were not released though sources told AL.com the agreement is for upwards of $300 million annually, a massive increase from CBS’ price.
A key component of the deal will be a weekly SEC game on ABC, giving the league a much-desired broadcast platform once it leaves CBS. That will include a regular late afternoon kick like the SEC on CBS time slot but also the ability to feature the games in primetime for ABC’s Saturday Night Football. The strategy will be to “put the biggest games in the biggest places in front of the most people,” Burke Magnus, ESPN’s executive vice president of programming and scheduling, told AL.com in an interview.
RELATED: Winners and losers of SEC football leaving CBS
Magnus and his ESPN colleagues eyed the top SEC game package for years, waiting for their chance to pitch their plan to the SEC. Sources told AL.com last year landing the entire SEC inventory had long been a major priority for the company. Magnus had buy-in and support from his boss, ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro, and the big boss, former Disney CEO Bob Iger, to pursue a deal. When the conference indicated in 2019 it was ready to have that discussion, Magnus said, “We were ready when the phone call came.”
Beyond the massive cash component, a big selling point was the scheduling flexibility that would come with the SEC only having one scheduling partner. Magnus described it as a “one plus one equals three dynamic” where having every football game helped ESPN offer better distribution and exposure that no other entity could offer the SEC. One expected benefit is the league could schedule game times much further in advance without having to wait on CBS’ game of the week pick.
The opportunity to maintain a traditional broadcast spot plus the flexibility that comes with ESPN, the SEC Network and ESPN+ was too good for the SEC to pass up. Starting next year, ESPN+ can also air one non-conference game per school and up to two non-conference basketball games.
“All of those were important elements of this conversation and led us down the path to decide that the affiliation with the Disney brand, with ABC and ESPN, was going to be the right opportunity for our future,” Sankey told AL.com.
One of the looming questions over the deal will be if it will take until 2024 to go into effect. After ESPN closed in on acquiring the SEC rights last year, there was considerable industry speculation that it would also try to buy out CBS early from its contract with the SEC. According to sources, that desire hasn’t gone away, but no high-level discussions have taken place to this point. Magnus didn’t deny there was interest, though he pointed out it was “entirely outside of our control.”
“We’re not anticipating necessarily, but this partnership is so important to us that if there was an opportunity to discuss something in that regard, we’re open to that conversation,” Magnus said. “But only if it’s a positive development for all the parties.”
Sankey added, “CBS obviously continues to be an important relationship for the SEC and has been for many years, and even in this odd year of 2020, that remains. Our focus has been on the three years remaining in our agreements...and that’s really how we’ve looked at the situation, both at present and as we go forward.”
Once the deal goes into effect, it’ll be a significant financial boon for all 14 SEC schools. The SEC schools, which received more than $45 million last fiscal year, will receive at least an additional $15 million from this new deal alone. For ESPN, it will finally get the chance to televise every game it wants, from the Iron Bowl to Florida-Georgia, that CBS had picked for itself for the last two-plus decades.
“I think increasingly the media business is about must-have content,” John Kosner, president of Kosner Media and a former ESPN executive, told AL.com. “Not just having a lot of stuff, but having the stuff everyone wants to watch. The SEC games every week that CBS had are examples.”
John Talty is the sports editor and SEC Insider for Alabama Media Group. You can follow him on Twitter @JTalty.
John Kosner is quoted in SBJ profile of Bit Fry Founder & CEO Ben Freidlin
Original Article: Sports Business Journal, by Eric Prisbell, December 7th, 2020
The company’s first game brings athletes from multiple sports together on The Rink. Photo: Courtesy of Bit Fry Game Studios S even years ago, Ben Freidlin set about making an improbable vision a reality: trying to create an unlicensed baseball video game set in the 1920s…
Sports Will Rise Again in 2021 - If There’s Change
Original Article: Sportico, by Ed Desser & John Kosner, December 1st, 2020
The Netflix documentary, The Social Dilemma, demonstrates how social media has profited exponentially by aligning the population at different extremes—utilizing content we ourselves create online to divide us further. Pre-COVID-19, these divisive efforts had considerable momentum; the virus has only accelerated them.
If ever there were a moment that our country (in fact, the world) needed the unifying power of sports, it’s right now. Every month we spend in isolation turns us inward and reinforces the thought that engaging with the people around us is dangerous. Sports can help us not only overcome the anxiety of gathering in a group but also return us to the interactions that help us heal and grow together as a society. But sports has never faced the obstacles it does now. The industry must get to work.
When we grew up, following our local team was practically a shared civic duty. Kids and adults alike engaged in highly topical “water cooler” discussions. It was an era of media (bandwidth) scarcity; we watched and listened to the games, read about them in the newspaper (remember those?), saw highlights on the 11 p.m. local news, discussed them at meals and as a shared family experience on our living room couches. Very little of that “shared world” experience still exists today. Instead, everyone carries an entertainment ecosystem in their pocket.
And yet, in 2020, nothing unifies Pittsburgh like the undefeated Steelers. Even when, because of COVID, we can’t gather together as much as we long to.
That said, sports needs to update its user experience dramatically. As leaders, we must:
Reinvigorate sports’ place in the community. Tod Leiweke, one of the sports industry’s most accomplished executives, has made an impact in multiple leagues across North America, and the former Seahawks CEO is now back in Seattle with the NHL expansion Kraken. Back in 2010, when he was with the then-struggling Tampa Bay Lightning, Leiweke, his colleagues and team owner Jeff Vinik created a program that honored a local hero every game during the first timeout in the first period, including a $50,000 donation supporting the hero’s work. The Vinik family stepped up, providing $10 million in funding for the program, double what the staff originally requested. The program bound Tampa and the Lightning and is a powerful example of why our former boss, ex-NBA Commissioner David Stern, championed sports and community service—“doing well by doing good.” We need much more of this going forward.
Prioritize getting young fans back into our stadiums and arenas. Rich Luker, founder of the original ESPN Sports Poll (now the Luker on Trends Poll), makes the point that if children attend a major or minor league baseball game prior to age 5, they will go to 58% more games per year, for the rest of their lives,than fans who do not attend their first game until age 14. He says the same logic applies to the other major leagues. Waiting is not an option. The Sports Poll 2020 is replete with examples of how our youngest fans, ages 12 to 17, spend their time not involved with sports. In its IPO S-1, the startup Roblox, essentially a YouTube for Gaming, lists not only more daily active users (31 million) than any sports site but also a uniquely engaged audience (averaging a stunning 2.67 hours daily on their platform).
Revolutionize viewing of live game telecasts. Live events have traditionally commanded unmatched attention and escalating rights fees. They are the life blood of the industry. But, per the Sports Poll, live game viewing is no longer a priority for fans 12 to 34—simply unthinkable a generation ago. In fact, for the first time, sports is struggling to maintain relevance among young fans. Media companies and rightsholders must attack that directly. Using modern platforms like YouTubeTV, fuboTV and Twitch as examples, sports needs to embrace choice (announcers, themed feeds, packaging outside of the pay TV bundles, communal viewing, shorter formats) and make itself available on multiple devices. Sports should lead in innovation for large screen TV viewing (the recent quad screen viewing from the Masters on its own and the ESPN app is a recent example). Betting is a tactic here to lure adult fans,but not the all-in winning strategy to incubate grassroots fandom.
Bring sports to where its new fans are. Essentially, sports must drastically improve availability and ease of discovery. Before, just being on the right TV network was sufficient: Sports event audiences were funneled to the next live event via inertia. Among other things, access today to live games needs to be a click away or, in the case of Snap and others, a swipe up. This fall, Snap is running a trade campaign for advertisers: “Millions of NBA fans are on Snapchat every day.” These NBA fans must be able to access NBA games there, too. Discovery should extend broadly: Fans should be able to find out about live games and be able to watch and participate with them via links from Twitch, the various social media networks, Apple and Amazon, but also game “metaverses” like Fortnite and Roblox. And thinking more broadly, Zoom and Discord, too. Wherever fans are. Today, top players have more social media followers than their leagues do; these athletes too must step up and promote links to live games from their social handles. “Rent” (user acquisition) costs and performance marketing strategies will rise to the fore. A new startup called Buzzer is an early example of a service tackling the issue. Naturally this will require rethinking and readjusting business models, so expect change to be slower than optimal from the new audience’s standpoint.
According to the Sports Poll, as recently as 2007, fans got their sports information from three leading sources—online, TV and newspapers, each with about a 25% share. Today, online has accelerated to 69%; TV has shrunk to 17%, and newspapers have practically disappeared (5%). In 2011, men 18 to 34 occasionally went to Google for sports information (5%); today, it’s their most used sports news utility (23%). Fans move to the best experience available, and quickly. Sports needs similar urgency across the board.
The new presidential administration offers true opportunity. President-elect Biden can push sports to unify a fractured country. Biden has promised an organized national response to COVID-19 and will oversee the rollout of the first vaccines. This will speed the reopening of outdoor and, potentially, indoor venues. The leading sports leagues are national operations and need streamlined practical solutions to operate universally across state lines and welcome back fans. Some U.S. venues have hosted numerous events, under structured conditions, with no indication of virus spread. A nationally coordinated effort to apply lessons learned from successful events would inform reopening discussions at local health departments around the country. Perhaps some of the lessons could improve the safety of all indoor public spaces.
In 1963, President Kennedy established the President’s Council on Physical Fitness. Wouldn’t it be powerful if Biden created a President’s Council on Community Gathering, centered around sports, with the sports industry taking the lead?
Over the past 50 years, changes in the environment have almost completely benefited sports and fueled their growth. No longer. Whether it’s the mere act of gathering together, how we watch the games from home, or the manner in which we get news about our favorite teams and athletes, it’s now changed utterly. The internet-led disruption of myriad other industries has finally hit sports. We must respond now.
Ed Desser is president of Desser Media, Inc. (www.desser.tv), a sports media consultancy. He was the senior media executive at the NBA for 23 years. John Kosner is president of Kosner Media (www.kosnermedia.com), a digital and media consultancy and an investor and advisor in sports tech startups. He was the senior digital executive at ESPN for 20 years. Together they ran NBA Broadcasting in the ’80s and ’90s.
John Kosner joined Howard Lindzon for “Investing in Profit and Joy”
Original Article: Investing in Profit and Joy, by Bullish, November 10th, 2020
Listen in as Howard Lindzon and John Kosner discuss investing in sports, fitness, media, and technology!
The COVID-19 Halftime Report
Original Article: Sports Business Journal, by John Kosner and Ed Desser, October 26th, 2020
Sports will contiue to be larger than life as we navigate our way through 2020 and beyond. The Sports Glut hit this summer, but as we await COVID-19’s “Second (Sports) Wave,” we have reached one marjor conclusion: We predict more sports industry change will occur in this decade than in the previous five combined. Keep reading.
John Kosner Moderated the "New Normal Meets New Generation" Panel for Hashtag Sports
Original Article: Hashtag Sports 2020, October 20th-22nd, 2020
Building off the huge success of Hashtag Sports LIVE in June 2020, the Hashtag Sports 2020 virtual conference featured video conference-enabled facilitated meetings that are fueled by AI-driven matchmaking, enabling individuals across the sports, media & entertainment landscape to connect with one another at unparalleled scale in distributed and digitally interactive environments.
Hashtag Sports 2020 provides unrivaled & interactive access to the industry's brightest minds, forward-looking executives, and athletes & creators, bringing together the most influential names and next generation of talent in digital sports & entertainment media for creative exchange, inspiring talks, and actionable insights. Learn from fan engagement's leading experts how COVID-19 and brand purpose will continue to change day jobs moving forward while staying ahead of the latest trends in content creation, media, and monetization.
John Kosner Quoted About Sports Betting Integration on TV Broadcasts
Original Article: Front Office Sports, by Michael McCarthy, October 19th, 2020
The NBA doesn’t know yet when it will tip off its next season. But one thing is certain: TV networks and media companies will increasingly experiment with more “alternate” game telecasts focused on sports betting.
During the 2019-20 season, the league teamed with TNT, Bleacher Report, The Action Network, and Yahoo Sports to experiment with live game telecasts or streams that featured expert gambling analysis, betting lines, and discussion of the odds.
During TNT’s coverage of the NBA Western Conference Finals, the network offered betting-minded viewers an alternate livestream feed called “TNT Bets.” It was hosted by B/R’s Cabbie Richards, Kelly Stewart, and Tim Doyle. The sports betting-focused feed was available to cable and satellite subscribers through the Watch TNT website.
Meanwhile, NBA Digital offered fans a dozen “NBA BetStream” telecasts this August via NBA TV and NBA League Pass. Presenting partner BetMGM provided real-time betting lines and stats. Even if consumers didn’t have access to NBA TV through their cable providers, they were able to buy BetStream through a direct-to-consumer subscription on NBA.com.
Chad Millman, the chief content officer at The Action Network, said these alternate telecasts are “exactly” what leagues and TV networks should be testing as sports TV audiences continue to fragment.
“They should be thinking about alternative broadcasts. They should be thinking about hyper-focusing on very engaged audiences,” said the former ESPN executive. “It’s only going to be more relevant — regardless of the pandemic situation.”
Scott Kaufman-Ross, the NBA’s head of fantasy and gaming, said he wants to create a more integrated experience for fans interested in live, in-game wagering.
“We view these telecasts as a great way to engage on a deeper level with our fans who are watching the game through a sports betting lens. This was a beta test. We wanted to learn from it,” said Kaufman-Ross about the BetStream games.
“We also worked with different influencers across Bleacher Report, The Action Network, and Yahoo Sports to experiment with different approaches and different expertise to learn what works best,” he added. “That will help our strategy as we go forward.”
Other networks have previously tested gambling-driven telecasts. NBC Sports Philadelphia experimented with a 10-game “BetCast” slate of Philadelphia 76ers games during the early stages of the 2019-20 season.
Even if they’re not doing it yet, most networks believe sports betting will be an important part of their future programming mix, according to John Kosner, president of Kosner Media.
“You will certainly see the acceleration of second screen and second channel integration with betting information because there’s a point of view that it’s coming — and that’s what fans want.”
“You will certainly see the acceleration of second screen and second channel integration with betting information because there’s a point of view that it’s coming — and that’s what fans want,” Kosner said.
The COVID-19 pandemic is not over. As more U.S. states legalize mobile betting, and the weather turns colder, sports betting is poised to “accelerate” among locked-down consumers this fall, predicted Kaufman-Ross.
Especially if the state of New York — which has over 19 million residents — finally legalizes mobile betting, instead of forcing gamblers to travel across the Hudson River to neighboring New Jersey.
“We feel a lot of our fans are consuming NBA content through the lens of sports betting. So we want to make sure to engage our fans where they are,” he said.
“We’ve often said we see sports betting as more of a pull than a push,” he added. “So if fans want sports betting content, we want to give it to them. If they don’t, it’s not necessarily something we’ll force on them. We think an alternate telecast is a great example of how we can accomplish that.”
The NBA’s alternate media partners are waiting to hear when the next season will tip-off, with recent comments pointing to a January-March 2021 start time. Once that decision is made, they’re ready to roll with more alternate sports betting telecasts.
The Action Network’s BetStream experience “went really well,” Millman said. He’s looking forward to serving some of the NBA’s most rabid fans next season.
“If you’re betting on the NBA, you are watching the NBA. You know every player. You’re betting not just on totals but on quarters and halves and player props,” he said.
“There are literally dozens of markets that the folks who are watching these games are betting on,” Millman added. “It just brings a different level of drama and insight.”
A spokesman for B/R confirmed the media outfit is interested in working on more TNT Bets projects next season. “It is definitely a path we are pursuing for the future,” he said.
John Kosner Appeared on The Forbes School of Business & Technology Panel
Original Article: Forbes Thought Leader Summit, October 20th, 2020
John joined Amy Brooks from the NBA, David Katz from Fox Sports Digital, former Hulu chief Randy Freer, his colleague Ed Desser, Chris Dempsey from Altitude Sports, and Leonard Armato for the Forbes SBT event on October 20th, 2020. Watch the recap below.