ESPN’s John Skipper doesn’t see any benefits in new TV models – yet.
ESPN chief John Skipper is happy to talk to any of the so-called new over-the-top Web video players surfing around the fringes of the cable TV business. But he doesn’t see any major deals happening soon — if ever.
In a conversation with Reuters at this year’s cable show, Skipper was blunt about his skepticism over the idea his network – the best paid in the business according to SNL Kagan data — could work with a new Web partner, a tie-up that may in some way threaten the cozy $100 billion a year cable programmer-distributor relationship which feeds the entire industry.
“We have a significant stake in maintaining the current model. There’s no advantage to us in new models that undercut what we have today,” said Skipper, speaking from the NCTA Cable Show in Boston.
ESPN pays tens of billions of dollars every year in sports rights fees to major sports and college leagues — much of which is live programming that doesn’t lend itself naturally to the subscription video-on-demand model popularized by the likes of Netflix and Amazon, he points out.
The Disney-owned sports network is the envy of the cable television business, and several major rivals, like News Corp and Comcast Corp’s NBC Universal, would love to replicate its model.
Skipper was careful to play down recent bullish comments about ESPN’s strengths versus potential rivals. But he pointed out that, while he respects his rivals, it would be difficult for them to build a new sports network to the size, scale and fees that ESPN enjoys today.
He also disputed the idea that the rising cost of sports could one day see ESPN forced onto a sports tier.
NBC Universal creates new sports marketing agency
It’s no secret that sports has been the brightest star of broadcast television lately. It pulls big audiences, and those viewers watch live — a combination that advertisers drool over. So NBC Universal figured it was high time to make the most of its sports assets — soon to be coupled with those of Comcast – and today announced the creation of “NBC Sports Agency.”
The purpose of the group is to market NBC Sports, whether it’s their coverage of hockey, football, horse racing or the Olympics, and produce campaigns for advertisers or league partners like the NFL or the NHL. John Miller, credited for coming up with the “Must See TV” campaign for NBC’s primetime, will head up the effort. Many industry watchers had predicted that Comcast’s take over of NBC would see a push for more competition for sports rights with Disney’s ESPN powerhouse. Let the battle commence.
Here’s a video of Miller on his new role.
Researchers use Intel chips to build better football helmets
Football players infamously take a serious amount of punishment. Now, Intel is offering up a way to measure the extent of that pootential physical damage.
Intel is currently working with universities and a sports equipment maker to build an intelligent football helmet.
Researchers and helmet-maker Riddell are using clusters of computers powered by Intel chips to rapidly compute the risks and ways that a football player could be injured as he slams into a 220 lb linebacker and other typical head impacts.
And some of that data comes from real-life collisions as players suit up with helmets decked out with instruments to measure the forces involved.
Intel’s Atom processors, which are ubiquitous in PC netbooks, could eventually be embedded in helmets, letting doctors monitor the effect of massive and potentially health-endangering blows suffered by professional football players as they play.
Researchers from Texas State University, Dartmouth, University of Northern Colorado and other schools demonstrated their research at a supercomputing event in New Orleans on Monday.
Sports stadiums going green?
By Sarah McBride
Stadium owners dragging their heels on finding greener ways to power up their high-definition scoreboards and retractable roofs just got a kick in the pants from their league commissioners.
Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, and Major League Soccer have dished out letters to their teams and facilities asking them to embrace solar power.
Sports suck up a lot of energy—but exactly how much is unclear. A spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council, which is working with the professional sports leagues to encourage their teams and stadiums to go green, says offering an estimate “could be premature and misleading, because it varies from team to team, based on size, location/climate, efficiency and type (indoor vs. outdoor) of stadiums.”
Some venues already use solar power. At the Staples Center, home to the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team, solar panels provide around 5% of the venue’s total power. If all arenas and stadiums had solar installations equivalent to Staples, they would reduce carbon emissions by about 86.6 million pounds a year—the equivalent of taking about 8,000 cars off the roads, the NRDC says.
Along with the letter, all teams and venues received a guide prepared jointly by the NRDC and the Bonneville Environmental Foundation that outlines what each stadium needs to do to add on-site solar power generation to its facilities.
We use about 10,500,000 KWH a year in our ballpark. We are looking at a solar project that would produce about 68,000 KWH per year, slightly more than we use on a game day. Renewable energy combined with conservation efforts make good business sense. This is an opportunity for teams to leverage their brand to engage the public.
Thank you BEF and NRDC for encouraging teams to lead by example and promoting renewable energy.
It’s time for all of us to wake up and break our dependence on fossil fuels.
Time Warner Cable’s unique ESPN Web deal
Many media business journalists let out a collective sigh of relief at the news that Time Warner Cable had finally inked its deal with Walt Disney to keep carrying its programming, including ABC, Disney channels and various ESPN networks. The programming fee negotiations had gone late into the night past their Wednesday midnight deadline and hacks, who had seen this movie before, were just starting to tire of waiting for another midnight watch.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the deal is that Time Warner Cable’s ESPN customers will now have access to ESPN3.com, a website ESPN uses to show more than 3,500 live events, including matches from the World Cup this summer.
This is unlike other ESPN3 deals which have typically been tied to the cable operator’s Internet service provider. In those cases, ESPN3 would only be accessible to ISP customers of the cable operator.
Time Warner Cable’s deal comes under the auspices of TV Everywhere, the project that Time Warner Inc and Comcast Corp have been trying to convince the cable industry to support.
ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU will also be available online to authenticated Time Warner Cable customers as part of this deal.
“We wanted to make sure this was a product available to our video customers who get ESPN, and that they wouldn’t have to pay extra for it,” said Time Warner Cable spokesman Justin Venech.
(Photo: Reuters)
No Super Bowl blues; expect big TV ratings
The U.S. economy might be weak, but the Super Bowl still scores with consumers.
The CBS broadcast of the National Football League’s championship game on Feb. 7 between the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints should draw strong TV ratings, possibly challenging viewer levels not seen since the late 1990s.
“We’re looking at a big rating,” said Neal Pilson, former CBS Sports president and head of his own sports consulting firm. “The fact that the two conference championships got better than usual ratings usually indicates that there’s a lot of public interest.”
The NFC Championship game between New Orleans and the Minnesota Vikings drew 57.9 million viewers, ranking it as the most watched conference championship game since the 1981 contest between Dallas and San Francisco that featured “The Catch.” It was also the most heavily watched TV program, excluding Super Bowls, since the 1998 “Seinfeld” finale.
Meanwhile, the AFC final between Indianapolis and the New York Jets drew 46.9 million viewers, ranking it as the most watched AFC Championship in 24 years.
While a Super Bowl with popular Vikings quarterback Brett Favre might have scored a higher rating than the current matchup, the Saints are an exciting team that received a lot of exposure in the championship, Pilson said. It also helps that it’s the first NFL championship to feature both conferences’ No. 1 seeds since January 1994, when Dallas played Buffalo.
If the game remains close into the fourth quarter, he expects a rating of 43.0 or better. A ratings point is a percentage of U.S. television households that watched the game.
30-Seconds are the operative word here. Look, I am not a big fan of contact sports, look what it did to OJ, so forgive me for what I am about to say. This clone of British Rugby always makes me think that these hulks are gay Hell’s Angels bikers in tights that had their motorcycles repossessed but were allowed to keep their helmets as an occupational necessity. They run out of breath every two minutes and then perform YMCA moves. The US needs to learn to keep momentum. This stop-and-start foreign policy confuses people. Don’t take the foot off the gas-pedal, unless of course it is a Japanese vehicle.
from Summit Notebook:
ESPN: We all live in sports towns (And tell great jokes)
ESPN President George Bodenheimer has been at the business of TV sports, one way or another, for nearly three decades, starting in the mailroom and working his way up.
It's the classic media story -- and this one even involved a stint driving through nearly every little town in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Mississippi to sell this odd new 24-hour sports network to cable distributors.
Here's one thing he's learned: Every town thinks it's a sports town. Sort of like everybody thinks they have a good sense of humor.
As he said at the Global Media Summit:
Every town I pulled into, I was calling cable operators. They'd say 'Hey George, your idea is a little crazy. And we're glad you're here -- but this is a sports town.' I'm telling you from experience every town in the United States, and maybe the world, I don't think that's an overstatement, considers itself a sports town. People always said we're in a niche business. If we're in a niche, we're in a mighty big niche."
And that hasn't changed. Indeed, given the downturn in the economy, people may be more sports-crazed than ever, he said.
I think sports is a little bit of comfort food to people in the United States and indeed around the world. It's why there's a lot of fans. It takes you to a different place. There's a beginning, a middle and an end. You see an outcome. The value is only going to grow in the DVR world and the 'I gotta have everything in two minutes world.' I just think live sports are going to continue to be a bit of an oasis in be a good driver for the media business.
Tuesday media highlights
Here are some of the day’s stories about the media industry:
Amazon Patents Detail Kindle Advertising Model (Mediapost) Laurie Sullivan writes: “The patents clearly note that Amazon would insert advertisements throughout the ebooks, from the beginning to the end, between chapters or following every 10 pages, as well as in the margins.”
> In-Book Ads Coming to the Amazon Kindle? (Fast Company) > 6 Reasons Why Ads On The Kindle Don’t Work (Business Insider)
Deadline for Globe bids postponed (Boston Globe) “The New York Times Co. has postponed tomorrow’s deadline for prospective buyers of The Boston Globe to submit preliminary bids for the newspaper, people briefed on the sales process said. No new date has been set for the bids,” writes Robert Weisman.
ESPN to relaunch UK channel in August (Reuters) “The Walt Disney-owned (DIS.N) sports network ESPN said on Tuesday it would launch a new channel in Britain in August to show its 46 Premier League soccer matches and other international sports programming.”
NYC announces initiatives aimed at strengthening media industry (Romenesko) “One of Mayor Bloomberg’s eight initiatives: Establishing a Media and Tech Fellowship to be awarded to approximately 20 “rising star” media and technology entrepreneurs on an annual basis.”
Google’s Gmail says bye-bye beta (Reuters) Alexei Oreskovic writes: “The change is part of a broader move that Google announced on Tuesday involving Google Apps, the company’s suite of online software products that includes Google Docs and Google Calendar, among others.”
Fans still buying tickets, startup CEO says
So how’s the market for sports and concert tickets holding up, given the economic turmoil that has dominated the public imagination since last year? Better than you’d think, according to Mike Janes, the founder and CEO of FanSnap, a live-event ticket search engine that launched in March.
“People’s appetite for the shared experience of a game or show hasn’t changed. Their bank accounts may have changed, but not the desire,” Janes said.
The difficult economy has had the effect of bringing many ticket prices down, he said, meaning there are plenty of bargains out there. While there will always be insatiable demand for big-name performers or games (Springsteen; Yankees vs. Red Sox) keeping those ticket prices high, Janes said tix for your average major league baseball game can be had for below face value in some cases, as folks looking to resell tickets flood the market with supply. It’s a bit too early to see about NFL games, he said.
FanSnap, whose main investor is VC and private equity firm General Catalyst Partners, runs in a similar way Kayak does flight searches. Since there is so much variability in ticket prices (unlike in airline tickets) FanSnap’s search engine turns up seats within mere feet of each other — displayed on a nifty interactive map — but with very different asking prices. (Janes said the site aims to “make it really hard to overpay for tickets.”)
FanSnap has deals in place with dozens of vendors and re-sellers, including big names like StubHub and RazorGator, and is working to bring others into the fold.
The unemployment rate is very high, but the people that are working have increased their savings rate significantly. So those who are working do have money to spend.
Ticket prices used to be ridiculously high. As the economy drags down prices people with savings and money to spend can jump on bargains on lots of stuff. Prices are falling everywhere, so people that have savings can take advantage.
Football in 3D, coming to a theater near you
The first-ever 3D broadcast of an NFL game was rushed into movie theaters in three U.S. cities last night, kicking off what many hope could be a new way of generating revenue for theater operators.
We attended the event in Los Angeles, where a throng of football fans, reporters and Hollywood executives donned black plastic 3D glasses and crammed into a stadium-style theater for kickoff between the Oakland Raiders and the San Diego Chargers.
In an interview the day before the game, Michael Lewis, chief executive and co-founder of 3D system provider RealD 3D, said of the experience: “You feel like you are really on the field in the middle of the action,” and called the event “the dawn of live events at your local theater.”
For us, sitting in the theater, the 3D technology really did make it feel like we were right on the field at San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium. Most of the camera angles were field-level, which even in conventional “2D” broadcasts offer viewers a better sense of what it’s like for players than other angles.
The NFL Network cable network showed the same game in the conventional fashion as we saw it in 3D. There were different announcers for our game, because 3D production company 3ality Digital’s cameras followed the action differently as well as presenting it in three dimensions. The camera angles were closer to the action. We were surprised how realistic it was. It was not as if we were on the field with the players, but just like we were on the sideline with the coaches.
The announcers kept quiet for minutes at a time to allow the sounds of the game — players colliding, grunting and at times cursing. That enhanced the “being there” experience.
So what’s the catch? There were a few. First, though the visuals were top-notch for most of the game, there were times when the image, or parts of it, were fuzzy. These instances weren’t a huge distraction, and not long-lasting, but they did make your head hurt a little bit until the cameras cut to a clearer shot.
Hello Per Peterson. Yes yes yes the surfing and snowboarding footage was memorable. The flakes of snow after the snowboarder cut seemed like they were coming right at us. The 3D shots of objects (footballs, snow, surfers) coming right at the camera really brings out the advantages over “2D” video. Football is largely watched by people who either never played or never played beyond high school. I assume people active in a sport would be even more likely to support extra charges if there are any for 3D. There’s a huge audience of snowboarders and surfers who would love this. Also I assume that golf, because there are so many active golfers, will work. Golf for me on TV is boring but my friends who are golfers can watch it for hours and hours. But I digress. YES, way cool footage.
