Weekly Roundup – Week of April 24th, 2023

"When the Supreme Court legalized sports gambling in 2018, the N.F.L. rushed to embrace a lucrative line of business it had denounced for decades as bad for the sport. There was, after all, new money to be made. The consequences of that about-face are now coming due.

The league on Friday handed down some of the strictest penalties it has ever issued, banning three players for at least the 2023 season for betting on N.F.L. games and suspending two others for six games for other violations of the league’s betting policy. The scale of the latest scandal and the terse verdict from the league rekindles questions about the precarious line the N.F.L. is trying to walk on gambling.

The indefinite suspension of three players — receiver Quintez Cephus and safety C.J. Moore of the Detroit Lions and defensive end Shaka Toney of the Washington Commanders — means that five players in the last four years have received at least season-long bans for betting on N.F.L. games, after decades without any such punishments. This week’s investigation ended with two more Lions players, receivers Stanley Berryhill and Jameson Williams, suspended for six games for lesser gambling violations that did not include betting on N.F.L. games.

This kind of scandal may have been what the N.F.L. was guarding against during the 25 years it spent inveighing against legalized sports betting. “We should not gamble with our children’s heroes,” Paul Tagliabue, then the league’s commissioner, testified to Congress in 1991 in support of legislation that effectively banned sports betting nationwide. In 2012, it was Roger Goodell’s turn to take up the cause.

“The N.F.L. cannot be compensated in damages for the harm that sports gambling poses to the goodwill, character and integrity of N.F.L. football,” Goodell wrote in a declaration for a court case about sports betting."

"At 9 a.m. ET on Monday morning, the hammer fell at ESPN.

A memo from chairman Jimmy Pitaro informed employees that long-awaited layoffs would begin today at ESPN as part of the Walt Disney Co.’s strategy to slash 7,000 jobs and $5.5 billion in costs.

This week’s cuts could number over 100 employees, said sources. They’re expected to most impact management with on-air talents evaluated this summer.

“As Bob Iger previously said, Disney is reducing its workforce by approximately 7,000 jobs as part of a strategic and streamlined realignment. Today I am sharing the difficult news that we are beginning to notify ESPN employees whose positions are impacted, wrote Pitaro.

“As we advance as a core segment of Disney, with operational control and financial responsibility, we must further identify ways to be efficient and nimble. We will continue to focus our workforce on initiatives that are most closely aligned with our critical priorities and emphasize decision-making and responsibility deeper into the organization.""

"The world of regional sports networks, also known as RSNs has been in turmoil this year. Bally Sport’s parent company recently detailed bankruptcy. AT&T SportNets’ parent company Warner Bros. Discovery has announced plans to shut down their RSNs later this year.

Now NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has made it clear he is unhappy with the current RSN model. Now in a interview with the Sports Busniess Journals podcast he says its time to reimagines its relationship with RSNs.

According to Mr Silver this will include offering both a traditional cable subscription along with more in-market streaming options.

It has already been reported that the NBA has an out in its contract related to Bally Sports bankruptcy. NBA new streaming deal with Diamond Sports allows the NBA to take back its rights if Diamond Sports declares bankruptcy, according to Sports Business Journal. This would mean 16 NBA teams could start streaming their games in-market or resell the rights to a different company.

For now though the NBA has been willing to keep working with Sinclair’s Diamond Sports company the owner of Bally Sports."

"Following a steady increase in podcast listening over the past decade, podcasts have become a big part of the normal routine – and news diet – of many Americans, especially younger adults.

Roughly half of U.S. adults say they have listened to a podcast in the past year, according to a new Pew Research Center survey, including one-in-five who report listening to podcasts at least a few times a week. Among adults under 30, about a third listen to podcasts with such frequency.

Today’s podcast landscape is a sprawling one, featuring topics from sports and religion to politics and entertainment, and it attracts large numbers of listeners who turn to podcasts for a variety of reasons.

...

Key Takeaways:

Podcasts are popular: About half of Americans have listened to a podcast in the past year, and one-in-five of those listeners say they listen to a podcast nearly every day.
Listeners turn to podcasts for entertainment, learning, and simply to have something to listen to while doing something else.
Comedy, entertainment, and politics are at the top of the list of topics that podcast listeners say they regularly listen to.
Most podcast listeners say they hear news discussed on podcasts – however, just one-in-five listeners say they listen to a podcast that’s connected to a news organization."

"Tucker Carlson has parted ways with Fox News, the network said on Monday.

“We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor,” the network said in a statement.

Carlson’s last show was Friday, the network said.

Fox said it would air a new program called “Fox News Tonight” at 8 p.m. starting Monday evening as an interim show helmed by rotating Fox News personalities until a new host is named.

Carlson was Fox’s top-rated prime time host, netting an average of more than 3 million viewers per night, the most of any pundit on cable."

"Facebook, TikTok and Twitter seem to be increasingly connecting users with brands and influencers. To restore a sense of community, some users are trying smaller social networks.

...

Nearly two decades ago, Facebook exploded on college campuses as a site for students to stay in touch. Then came Twitter, where people posted about what they had for breakfast, and Instagram, where friends shared photos to keep up with one another.

Today, Instagram and Facebook feeds are full of ads and sponsored posts. TikTok and Snapchat are stuffed with videos from influencers promoting dish soaps and dating apps. And soon, Twitter posts that gain the most visibility will come mostly from subscribers who pay for the exposure and other perks.

Social media is, in many ways, becoming less social. The kinds of posts where people update friends and family about their lives have become harder to see over the years as the biggest sites have become increasingly “corporatized.” Instead of seeing messages and photos from friends and relatives about their holidays or fancy dinners, users of Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter and Snapchat now often view professionalized content from brands, influencers and others that pay for placement.

The change has implications for large social networking companies and how people interact with one another digitally. But it also raises questions about a core idea: the online platform. For years, the notion of a platform — an all-in-one, public-facing site where people spent most of their time — reigned supreme. But as big social networks made connecting people with brands a priority over connecting them with other people, some users have started seeking community-oriented sites and apps devoted to specific hobbies and issues."

Read Katie Miller's latest entry in HBG's Media Minute series, in which she tracks data on the in-car usage of streaming radio vs. over-the-air radio. She then provides five suggestions on how stations can act on these findings today.