The NFL discusses early media rights negotiations; ESPN DTC celebrates one year as \u201c[a]round 80% of\u201d subscribers reportedly access through trio bundle; and Charter closes its merger with Cox. Plus news on Altitude TV, MLB on ESPN, NBC Sports and Damon Amendolara.<\/p>\n
NFL: Nothing has changed with outlook on early media rights negotiations<\/p>\n
NFL EVP\/media distribution Hans Schroeder said on a call with reporters Thursday that \u201cnothing has changed\u201d regarding the league\u2019s effort to renegotiate its media rights deals ahead of schedule, despite no apparent progress having been made toward new deals. League commissioner Roger Goodell had told<\/a> CNBC last September that discussions about new rights agreements could happen \u201cas early as\u201d this year, and John Ourand of Puck reported<\/a> in March that the league wanted new deals done by the start of the coming season in September.<\/p>\n Thus far, the league\u2019s only publicly-reported rights discussions have been with Paramount, whose deal the NFL is allowed to reopen due to a reported change-of-control provision in its contract by the company\u2019s acquisition by Skydance last year. That negotiation has since been paused as Paramount focuses on the lawsuit seeking to block its proposed $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, per a report by Hannah Miller<\/a> of Bloomberg. It remains unclear if the league has actually activated the change-of-control provision, which per Alex Sherman<\/a> of CNBC would allow the league to exit its CBS deal by next year.<\/p>\n Fox Corporation CEO Lachlan Murdoch recently said that the company would not renegotiate its NFL media rights deal early, instead opting to wait until closer to the opt-out period. When asked about the league\u2019s reaction to those comments, Schroeder said that it was \u201ca question for [Fox]\u201d and that he did not \u201chave anything to add to that.\u201d<\/p>\n Earlier in the year, Joe Flint, Dana Mattioli, Josh Dawsey and Andrew Beaton of The Wall Street Journal reported<\/a> that Fox Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch voiced concerns over NFL streaming deals directly to White House officials. The league is reportedly under federal investigation pertaining to<\/a> its rights deals with streaming platforms.<\/p>\n ESPN Unlimited marks one year, \u201c[a]round 80% of\u201d subs reportedly access through trio bundle<\/p>\n About four in five subscribers to ESPN Unlimited access the direct-to-consumer service through the so-called Disney bundle, which also includes Disney+ and Hulu, according to Sara Fischer of Axios<\/a>. The in-house bundle is just one of several that include ESPN Unlimited, including one with NFL+ Premium and another with Fox One.<\/p>\n \u201cBundling and add-on options remain central to our goal of maximizing value and choice,\u201d ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro said in a memo to staff commemorating the one-year anniversary of the ESPN Unlimited launch.<\/p>\n The ESPN streaming service falls under Disney\u2019s sports segment, OI for which fell 17% YoY to $858 million due to \u201chigher programming and production costs.\u201d Disney+, which is preparing to add more college football simulcasts this season, contributed to Q3 entertainment segment operating income of $712 million, up 116.4% year-over-year.<\/p>\n ESPN, as noted above, marked the one-year anniversary of its direct-to-subscriber launch this week, with Pitaro describing the company as being in the \u201cearly innings\u201d of its \u201cdirect-to-consumer journey,\u201d per the memo obtained by Sports Media Watch. Pitaro: \u201c[O]ne year after the launch of ESPN DTC, we move forward with absolute confidence in where we are headed.\u201d<\/p>\n Charter, Cox complete $34.5 billion merger<\/p>\n Charter Communications has officially acquired Cox Communications and Liberty Broadband Corporation, moving forward with a $34.5 billion transaction amid receiving the necessary regulatory approval. The deal, which had been initially announced last May, brings together two cable companies that combine for approximately 37 million subscribers. The combined company plans to change its name to Cox Communications within the next year; however, it will continue operating Spectrum-branded services and maintain its headquarters in Atlanta.<\/p>\n Charter has held the regional broadcast rights for the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Dodgers through its Spectrum SportsNet RSNs. Cox customers in the market who are subscribed to the Contour TV Preferred or Ultimate plan in the local market will be able to access Dodgers games on Spectrum SportsNet LA beginning this week, which had not been available beforehand. Charter does not have majority ownership of any other RSNs.<\/p>\n John Ourand of Puck reported<\/a> Tuesday that Dodgers owner Mark Walter, who is under federal investigation, offered a lump sum payout to end the teams\u2019 local deals early and was turned down. Ourand reported<\/a> last October that Charter hired The Raine Group last year \u201cto try and sell Spectrum SportsNet,\u201d later adding<\/a> that the Lakers are able to extend their rights deal for an additional five years in 2032.<\/p>\n Walter reached a deal to sell the Lakers to former Disney CEO Bob Iger and Thrive Capital founder\/managing partner Joshua Kushner for $12.5 billion last week less than a year after acquiring majority ownership of the team.<\/p>\n Plus: Altitude TV, MLB on ESPN, NBC Sports, Damon Amendolara<\/p>\n Altitude TV has named Noah Reed and Katy Winge its new broadcast team for Denver Nuggets games, replacing the longtime pairing of Chris Marlowe and Scott Hastings. Studio host\/reporter Vic Lombardi is the only returning member of last year\u2019s lead broadcast team, and he will work with new studio analysts Jason Richardson and Bill Hanzlik.
\nESPN2 will air an alternate broadcast of the MLB Little League Classic between the Milwaukee Brewers and Atlanta Braves \u2014 the company\u2019s only Sunday night MLB game of the season \u2014 featuring former Little League World Series players Todd Frazier and Devon Travis alongside play-by-play voice Mike Monaco. The altcast, branded as the \u201cAlumniCast,\u201d will also feature other LLWS alumni such as Jason Marquis and Ray Ferraro.
\nFormer WNBA MVP Tina Charles will cover the WNBA for NBC Sports as a feature contributor and is scheduled to make her debut on Peacock\/NBCSN next Monday, the network announced. Charles retired from professional basketball in May after 14 seasons, finishing her career as the league\u2019s second all-time leading scorer and first in rebounds.
\nDamon Amendolara will be exiting morning drive at SiriusXM Mad Dog Sports Radio as part of larger changes at the station he said expect to be instituted after Labor Day, he revealed on Friday. Amendolara, who has hosted the morning program with Mike Babchik since joining the station in 2023 after previously working at Audacy-owned CBS Sports Radio. Amendolara will continue hosting the \u201cMad Dog Sports Sunday\u201d show on SiriusXM NFL Radio and also creates content on his YouTube channel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NFL discusses early media rights negotiations; ESPN DTC celebrates one year as \u201c[a]round 80% of\u201d subscribers reportedly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":864144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,382619,116657,61940,382620,208443,593,85,432967],"class_list":["post-864143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-espn-executives","tag-mlb-broadcasters","tag-mlb-on-espn","tag-nba-broadcasters","tag-nbc-broadcasters","tag-nfl","tag-sports","tag-wnba-on-nbc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=864143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/864144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=864143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=864143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=864143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}