A confluence of factors this month has led to a situation in which FOX Sports has conveyed to us that yes, somebody can actually compete with ESPN. Make no mistake about it Bristol still has hegemony of sports media and they will for years to come, but FOX has displayed that they are a legitimate potential threat.
Due to the lack of sporting events available right now, FOX has most of the ones worth watching this month. In what they billed “the Summer of Soccer,” the network has all the soccer worth watching until mid August. Remember, broadcast rights to live sporting events are and always will be the primary criteria for defining success and failure in sports media.
Yes, having great studio shows and top notch production and on-air talent does matter, but that’s all ancillary to having the most important broadcast rights.
Live events drive ratings, and therefore the ad dollars which generate revenue. Since the NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Final ended, there hasn’t been much going on other than FOX’s self-proclaimed “Summer of Soccer.” It started with the Women’s World Cup, and continues now with the International Champions Cup, the Gold Cup, the MLS All-Star Game etc.
Yes, I know that interest in the Gold Cup and some of those preseason exhibition events is minimal, as it should be, but there just isn’t much else going on right now to compete against these events. July is the slowest month by far for sports media, and by this time of year, football, hockey, college sports and basketball fans are all extremely weary of this annual drought.
It’s interesting to see all the unique, outside-the-box events ESPN is doing to try and fill gaps during the sports media Sahara Desert. They are broadcasting “The Basketball Tournament” this weekend, but it’s highly debatable whether an event of that level deserves to be airing on television.
Also, ESPN’s reputation has suffered some PR damage lately due to
1.) the crass exploitation play they made by giving Caitlyn Jenner the Arthur Ashe courage award at the ESPYs. It was an obvious publicity stunt, and the evidence has emerged confirming this.
2.) the exodus of high profile talent (Bill Simmons, Keith Olbermann and Colin Cowherd) who were highly critical of the network, its relationship with the NFL or both. The persisting pattern here implies that if you’re too hard on the league(s) that your employer has broadcast deals with, you’re out.
That’s a dangerous precedent because this practice will define how much of a sports marketing and promotional company you are versus how much of a sports news company you are.
Regarding ESPNers ripping ESPN, well the empire is so vast that the best ESPN critique that you’ll find these days comes from within ESPN itself. It’s best for Bristol to keep those taking them to task in house.
It remains to be seen if any of these PR black eyes and/or loss of top tier talent will have any lingering effects. I’m guessing it won’t do any long term damage. And once NFL and NBA season get started, we’re back to everybody broadcasting all the big events again. So while late June and July have been the time for FOX Sports to shine, this period woen’t last long.
In World War II we had “The Big 3,” at the Yalta Conference with Sir Winston Churchill, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin. Here in the video below we have the sports media world’s “Big 4.”
In both cases, you have tremendous power and massive influence concentrated in one little place at one time. Mark Lazarus, Sean McManus, John Skipper, and Eric Shanks, the Heads of CBS Sports, ESPN, FOX Sports, and NBC Sports Group, discuss the future of broadcast sports in a session moderated by Richard Deitsch, Senior Editor, Sports Illustrated.
I warn you there is a lot of shop talk and soullessly corporate buzzwords.
Also, don’t play drinking games with the word “luddite” while watching this video either.
One exchange particularly caught my attention.
Deitsch asks Skipper if there was one event Shanks has the broadcast rights to, and Skipper could take it. He says without hesitation “World Cup.” That’s very telling as it’s further validation that soccer has finally arrived in America and is indeed the true growth sport of the future. World football has massive appeal to millenials because it moves fast and ends in two hours. The younger generation value activities that don’t consume a lot of time.
Thus, soccer will become a more valuable broadcast property as millenials grow up and gain earning (i.e. spending) power. FOX Sports has truly distinguished themselves within the beautiful game. They have the rights to Champions League, some MLS and they’re bringing over the Bundesliga next year.
Next year is also when NBC’s contract to broadcast the English Premier League expires. FOX Sports really needs to outspend NBC and snap that up. It would complete their footy profile.
FOX is the only one that has even a remote chance of ever posing a threat to the World Wide Leader. Bristol is The Empire and FOX Sports is could be the rebellion someday down the line. (ESPN HQ in Bristol is indeed the DeathStar too; with all the expensive, cutting edge, futuristic technology)
CBS, NBC, Turner et al are just the Ewoks in comparison to the big two. ESPN has a 15-20 year head start on everybody else and it shows. When summer ends, ESPN will go right back to being as dominant as they always have been.
What’s happened during the past six weeks, however, has shown that they do have some vulnerabilities.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is part of the FOX Sports Engage Network. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He also appears regularly on numerous talk radio stations all across the country.
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