Pure transparency around “High Noon’s” cancellation was too much to ask ESPN for but it’s easy to imagine. “It was no ratings disaster, but it was no ratings juggernaut either and you know, Bomani’s and Pablo’s contracts are up at the end of March and we’d like to keep them if we can but for less money! We can’t cancel pretty much our only studio show without at least one…
$40 Knockoff AirPods?
Pictured above left to right: ~a pair of 2.5 year old AirPods paired with my phone that I use for day-to-day podcast/audiobook consumption (whose batteries I’m grinding down to uselessness), a pair of 1.5 year old AirPods I’ve paired with the AppleTV that I use as “TV ears,” a pair of 4+ month old AirPods I use for travel & phone calls and rarely use (in order to preserve battery)…
The ESPN Daily Podcast, Greek Mythology & the New York Knicks
I really enjoy ESPN’s “ESPN Daily” podcast hosted by Mina Kimes and produced by some kind of cavalcade of all star producers. At 2X playback it’s only around a 10 minute commitment. Frequently I fall behind and binge a few of them at once to squeeze around a half hour of entertainment out of it. There’ve been plenty of topics like hockey dentists that wouldn’t have been anything I’d have…
The quest for meaning & NBA ratings
Because I’m a white guy of a certain age (old) and have managed to stay alive, at least once every couple of years I run into someone who regales me with a 25,000 word soliloquy on why Bruce Springsteen concerts are so great. At the end of the soliloquies I say something like “so, you think Bruce is an incredible performer and entertainer and he makes you very happy and…
Jay-Z & Jemele
Every now and then when Richard Deitsch does his “spend $100 million on a fancy new studio while laying 100 people off” thing I shake my fist at the clouds. I find the critique unfair because I don’t believe those things are linked. But I also understand both things happened and the appearances aren’t pretty. Sometimes I wonder how I might have been publicly critiqued for my handling of corporate responsibility the…
Billions of minutes of sports TV viewing: the numbers
Below is a table for the period of July 1, 2018-June 30, 2019 with a couple of slices of the billions of minutes of viewing . I’m with Fox Sports’ Michael Mulvihill in thinking minutes of viewing gives a much better idea of total engagement than average viewership. Disclaimers: 1. CBS Sports Network DOES NOT SUBSCRIBE TO NIELSEN MEASUREMENT. 2. I didn’t obtain any “sports, but not live events” (eg….
Billions of minutes and thinking about the TV business
“At least everyone knows and can agree on what a minute is!” – Some Guy Around this time 11 years ago in August of 2008 tvbythenumbers.com was still less than a year old. The Beijing Olympics had begun and NBC Sports PR had put out a release about ratings for the opening ceremonies that included streaming minutes. I don’t remember and could not easily dig up the specifics but to…
Episode 86: Tony Reali, ESPN
Tony Reali puts himself out there openly talking about life and dealing with anxiety. And he does it in an amazingly accessible way. I wanted to capture some of that experience on a podcast. Most of the podcast focuses on some of Tony’s struggles and thinking on eating and weight management. But there are stories, a very brief but very solid Wilbon imitation and we finish up with Tony talking…