Great to have Ryan back on the podcast. We talked Jamie Horowitz landing at DAZN and then had a more general conversation about DAZN (including Adnan Virk’s hiring), we spent several minutes on Ryan’s gambling habits, and then we talked Sinclair acquiring the Fox Sports RSNs that Disney/ESPN had to unload. We finished up talking about LeBron James’ absence from the playoffs impact on blog traffic and Ryan gives his…
Episode 79: Jorge Sedano, ESPN
Last week Jorge appeared on ESPN’s “Around the Horn” and a friend reached out with “Keep your eye on that guy, he’s an up and comer!” and I thought “He has a drive time radio show in the country’s 2nd-biggest market. He’s already here!” I was really curious about how Jorge experiences that phenomenon and I appreciate him humoring my curiosity (it’s very interesting to me!). We also discussed the…
Episode 78: James Andrew Miller on Robert Caro’s “Working”
Always a pleasure to talk to Jim but a note to the sports media lovers: we spent a few minutes on “will ABC get an NFL package?” during the last few minutes but this episode is for book lovers and primarily focused on author Robert Caro’s new book “Working.” You can find all of Robert Caro’s books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Robert-A.-Caro/e/B000AP80S4/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1 You can find all of Jim Miller’s books on Amazon…
Episode 77: Patrick Crakes, Media Consultant
Lots of Super Bowl ratings talk! If you’re enough of a TV ratings nerd to care how TV network executives think about and use the Super Bowl Nielsen TV ratings hopefully this will be a pretty good listen. We also had a good conversation about ESPN+ and Pat hammered the point that the death of legacy media when it comes to OTT services is greatly exaggerated. Plus some quick chat…
Tim Brando & I disagree about the CFP Championship game’s TV ratings
If I believed that the college football championship viewership should decisively be the second most-watched television program of the year every year I’d be right there with Tim. But I have trouble coming up with a reasonable basis for believing the CFP championship game should be the second most-watched program on TV. I also have no basis for knowing whether ESPN was promised better numbers than it’s getting and even…
Episode 76: Ryan Glasspiegel, The Big Lead
More “pre-holiday informal phone call” than “formal podcast” but it was fun and we talked NBA ratings & whether ESPN did a better job with the NBA schedule than Turner and whether Turner Sports’ star is fading more generally (Tiger/Phil, will it keep its MLB package?), also a little WWE and, of course, NFL ratings. Ryan on Twitter @sportsrapport Ryan’s archive on The Big Lead (including the Aaron Rodgers story…
Junk Science Charlatans
“My truth” is a baseball bat and I’m in the habit of clubbing people over the head with it. As you might’ve guessed, that’s not a particularly good delivery system for sending messages. Understandably, people are usually way too distracted by the “ouch! stop hitting me on the head with a baseball bat!” to even consider the message. My challenge is two-fold: 1. come up with a better…
Episode 75: Patrick Crakes on what happens with the Fox Sports RSNs
Two podcasts in a week? Yep. I didn’t see that coming either but opportunity with former Fox Sports exec turned media consultant Pat Crakes knocked so I answered. We mostly talked the fate of the 22 Fox Sports RSNs that Disney is acquiring in its deal with Fox that the regulators are requiring Disney to unload. We also talked a little NFL rights and NFL ratings and NFL vs….