Weekly Roundup – Week of August 29, 2022
Sports Media & Sports Betting News
Sports Streaming Is Starting To Feel Harder To Navigate Than Cable
“It’s been 20 years since the sports industry’s streaming debut, and in that time, streaming has evolved from a nascent experiment to a crowded field.
Why it matters: Sports streaming was supposed to make it easier for fans to follow the leagues and teams they love. But with so many options, it’s starting to feel even more difficult to navigate than cable.
The backdrop: MLB.TV kicked things off in 2002 as the first professional league to live-stream a regular-season game, setting the stage for the sports streaming boom to come.
MLB’s main differentiator was betting big on technology, creating a small division called BAMTech that powered what was then one of the most sophisticated streaming experiences in sports.
In fact, it still is: In 2017, MLB sold a majority stake in BAMTech to Disney, and that technology now powers ESPN+.
MLB is also now considering complementing its service with one that would allow fans to watch local games even without having cable.”
Latest Sports Rights Deals Will Come At Viewers’ Expense
“The recent announced increases for TV and streaming rights for the Big Ten Conference and UEFA Champions League are just the latest in a long line of eyewatering upticks in the cost for networks and streaming services to air live sports.
College Football’s Big Ten Conference saw annual rights increase from an estimated $440M to $1.07B, a ratcheting of 143.5%. The Champions League’s English-language U.S. rights are now worth $250M a year, up by 150% from their prior level of $100M.
As VIP+ noted in our “Fading Ratings” special report, sports remains a key draw for live audiences. Yet viewer loyalty is being punished by both the networks and streaming services airing games, and the leagues that seek ever-increasing fees for their rights.
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TV networks are not charities. They will pass along the increased costs of sports rights to consumers, whether directly via subscription increases or indirectly through either bumped-up marketing costs (which in turn will be passed on by firms to the consumer) or by having to cut back on content spend for other genres.”
Group That Includes Nike, Trail Blazers Pushes For Oregon Sports Betting Expansion
“At least one group with some big names behind it — including Nike — are looking to push past the DraftKings monopoly on Oregon sports betting.
During the Oregon Joint Interim Committee on Gambling Regulation meeting Friday, representatives from Sport Oregon advocated for the expansion of Oregon sports betting. DraftKings runs the Oregon Lottery’s sports betting efforts after taking over for the SBTech-powered Scoreboard in January.
“[The monopoly model] is outdated and shortchanges the state in millions of dollars of revenue each and every year,” said Nathan Nayman, Sport Oregon external affairs and special projects specialist.
Sport Oregon is an economic development organization made up of members like Nike, Adidas and the Portland Trail Blazers. Nayman laid out the ways Oregon is missing out through its inefficient sports betting model.”
Read more on LegalSportsReport
Politics + Media + Radio News
Republicans Poised For Smaller Gains In House, Poll Suggests
“Democratic prospects in the November midterms might not be as bad as predicted earlier in the year, with Republicans’ projected gains shrinking in the House of Representatives, according to a CBS News poll released Sunday.
Republicans are still poised to win back a majority in the House, but their predicted lead is down to 226 seats, a 12-seat gain. In July, CBS News’ election tracker predicted Republicans could win 230 seats, and some Republicans through the year have suggested the GOP could end up with 240 seats or more.
“That momentum is real,” Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison said Sunday on CBS’ “Face The Nation.”
However, keeping Democratic prospects strong until November is far from guaranteed. The president’s party typically loses seats in Congress in the midterms: 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018 saw huge gains for the opposition party. Also, redistricting has likely put some seats out of the reach of Democrats.”
Where’s Podcasting’s Revenue Growth Coming From? Look To The Long Tail
“The economy may be throwing a few speedbumps in front of podcasters but estimates the industry will reach $2 billion of revenue this year continue to hold, albeit with a bit less certainty in the voices of those that repeat the forecasts. Where will the next billion dollars of revenue come from was the focus of a conversation at last week’s Podcast Movement, with an eye toward the thousands of shows that currently make little to nothing.
They are focused on the so-called “long tail of podcasting,” which Signal Hill Insights President Jeff Vidler says their research with Triton Digital shows stretches far. As part of the Podcast Metrics data collection, between third quarter of last year and second quarter of this year, the 12,269 podcast listeners they surveyed mentioned listening to 12,235 different podcasts. “That means the average listener who says they listened to three podcasts in the last month, added one more podcast to that long tail,” he explained. “It is not about the hits. The top 200 only represent a little over one-third of survey mentions because there is a lot of engagement with listeners out in the long tail.””
Teens, Social Media And Technology
“The landscape of social media is ever-changing, especially among teens who often are on the leading edge of this space. A new Pew Research Center survey of American teenagers ages 13 to 17 finds TikTok has rocketed in popularity since its North American debut several years ago and now is a top social media platform for teens among the platforms covered in this survey. Some 67% of teens say they ever use TikTok, with 16% of all teens saying they use it almost constantly. Meanwhile, the share of teens who say they use Facebook, a dominant social media platform among teens in the Center’s 2014-15 survey, has plummeted from 71% then to 32% today.
YouTube tops the 2022 teen online landscape among the platforms covered in the Center’s new survey, as it is used by 95% of teens. TikTok is next on the list of platforms that were asked about in this survey (67%), followed by Instagram and Snapchat, which are both used by about six-in-ten teens. After those platforms come Facebook with 32% and smaller shares who use Twitter, Twitch, WhatsApp, Reddit and Tumblr.”
Recent Blogs on HarkerBos.com
HBG Media Minute: Radio Presets Are Alive and Well
In the latest installment of the Harker Bos Group Media Minute, Sean dives into recent research exploring the current use of radio presets in cars.
