Major League Baseball (MLB)的动态

Tonight’s WNBA (Women's National Basketball Association) Draft is in the spotlight on women’s sports. This follows record-breaking March Madness viewership and Caitlin Clark absolutely slaying it on SNL this weekend…which is not easy to do! There is no question that Clark has been a magnet for NIL deals in her college career and a driver of record ratings and ticket sales. The residual impact of her popularity will be similar to Messi, meaning good for the team she plays for, but teams that don’t have her will need to be creative to otherwise capitalize on the momentum. For the WNBA, partnerships and media deals remain the league’s largest sources of revenue, but here’s the good news: WNBA Teams are growing their fanbase at a significantly higher pace than their NBA, NFL & MLB Counterparts. There’s no silver bullet for teams without Clark, but when it comes to social media, teams need to DOUBLE DOWN. This includes posting content that grants unparalleled access to the players and their personalities, and for brand integrations in the broadcast, it’s making sure advertiser integrations are clean and visible. During March Madness, the average media value per post of the top women in the NCAA Tournament was 109% higher than the average media value per post amongst the men. Tonight, those women further prove why they are the best - at the game and building their audiences - as their names are called during the live broadcast of the WNBA Draft. We’ll be watching tonight and all season long to help brands understand and leverage the data around the media value these players not only bring to their teams, but to the league overall. #WNBA #wnbaDraft #proathletes #womenssports #sportsmarketing

TL;DR: Don't sleep on women's sports Just Women's Sports Newsletter this AM Monday's blockbuster Elite Eight matchup?between Iowa and LSU has shattered women's basketball TV ratings records, averaging 12.3 million viewers. ?? Iowa's big win is now the?most-watched?women's college basketball game on record, and the most-watched college basketball game on ESPN platforms. ?? The game was also ESPN’s highest audience for?any basketball game?since the 2018 NBA Eastern Conference Finals. ?? The broadcast peaked at 16.1 million viewers overall. ? ???? Fun fact: UConn's women's team?outdrew?the UConn men (6.48 million) in their respective Elite 8 games. ? ?? The entire 2024 tournament viewership?is up 127% year over year?according to ESPN, with games through the Elite Eight averaging 1.5 million viewers. https://lnkd.in/eU8BUxTk

?? Yesterday, pitcher, slugger and unanimous American League MVP Shohei Ohtani signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers for a record-breaking 10-year, $700 million contract making him the world’s highest paid athlete. Yup, that includes Messi and Ronaldo. I will let Mad Dog radio debate Ohtani’s on field value. As a lifelong baseball fan I would argue that no one player is worth this sort of money on the field. But if there was ever a player worth it from a pure business perspective it is Ohtani. The Dodgers have the most lucrative regional sports TV rights deal in the MLB. In total, it’s worth more than $8 billion. While MLB controls all international broadcast rights, it is near certainty that the Dodgers will be able to leverage the signing in Japan. According to Forbes, the 2023 MLB Regular Season average ratings on NHK, the league’s primary rightsholder in Japan, were the highest since Ohtani joined the league and a few key Ohtani games registered Super Bowl-esque ratings. Last year, Katsuhiro Miyamoto, renowned economist and Professor Emeritus at Kansai University, released a report on Ohtani’s economic effects in the 2022 season. The study found that Ohtani’s economic effects totaled an estimated 45 billion Japanese Yen, approximately 337 million US dollars. The bulk of Ohtani’s economic effects came from ticket sales, merchandise sales, Ohtani’s salary and sponsorships, and MLB broadcasting rights related to Ohtani. The ticket and merchandise sales coupled with his salary and sponsorships brought Ohtani’s direct impact on the US economy to ￥19.4 billion ($143.6MM). Ohtani’s direct impact on the Japanese economy was calculated through merchandise sales, travel packages for Ohtani games, and appearance fees for TV commercials, which totaled an estimated ￥1.7 billion ($12.55MM). In addition to these direct effects on the economy, Miyamoto accounted for primary and secondary economic ripple effects on related industries to calculate the final amount. The estimated value of Ohtani’s economic effects in the 2022 season was nearly double that of Ohtani’s groundbreaking 2021 AL MVP season, which was an estimated 24 billion Japanese Yen ($178MM). Miyamoto explained that the increased effect was a result of higher attendance at games in 2022 because of the MVP campaign and inflation. As we continue to move more and more toward a truly global, decentralized world where stars shine more than teams, Ohtani could be the best example to date of global super stardom and that is what the Dodgers are paying for. Is Ohtani going to pitch like Nolan Ryan and hit like Mike Trout in Dodger blue? TBD, but one thing is certain, people from the US to Japan will pay to find out. What do you think Jordan Brown and my other sports business peeps?

?? As the WNBA (Women's National Basketball Association) season gets ready to tip-off, local broadcasts are on the rise in a big way! ?? ?? Front Office Sports writes, "The WNBA is currently in the midst of selling a new set of national media-rights deals, doing so?in concert with the NBA?to help forge a potential year-round basketball presence on partner networks." ?? In fact, just last month, over-the-air TV broadcaster TEGNA and Indiana Fever Fever parent company Pacers Sports & Entertainment struck an?agreement?to show 17 of the team’s games on broadcast stations in Indianapolis.? ?? Tegna and the team then quickly expanded the pact to increase that coverage to 11 other markets stretching from Davenport and Des Moines, Iowa—the state where Clark starred collegiately—to Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio. ?? The increased broadcast footprint pulled in five other TV station owners, which turned companies that are rivals in multiple other areas into partners in the fast-growing economy of Clark. ?? When you look more closely at the deal, Tegna and the Fever are tapping not only into the unprecedented fan frenzy surrounding the professional debut of Clark but also the rapidly increasing cord-cutting. The National Basketball Association (NBA)’s?Phoenix Suns & Utah Jazz, along with the National Hockey League (NHL)’s Seattle Kraken Kraken &?Vegas Golden Knights and the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury have made the switch to broadcast all of their local games on free television. ?? The Tegna-Fever deal also highlights a previously undervalued element of a WNBA that is now set for major expansion: full-fledged local team affinity, built significantly through local broadcasts. ?? Historically, local team broadcast coverage has not been a prominent fixture of the league’s overall media presence, particularly compared to what the league receives through a series of national partners such ESPN, CBS, Ion, Amazon, NBA TV, or on social media. ?? Each of the league’s 12 current teams already has some level of local coverage to supplement the national deals, whether those deals are based on over-the-air distribution, on a cable-focused regional sports network, or via streaming. ?? In recent years, though, that mixed collection of distribution structures and number of available games have not been as much of a featured component for the WNBA. But things are changing & we're excited to see how these new local deals affect the league's growth going forward! #sports #sportsbiz #WNBA #Media #MediaRights #LocalMedia #Clarkenomics

The summer lull in sports is here, with the NBA, NFL, and NHL in their off-season. Data reveals that July is typically the slowest month for sports viewership in the U.S. ?? Despite this downturn, it's a crucial time for sports marketers and broadcasters to strategize for the bustling seasons ahead. Historically, fall and winter witness a sharp increase in viewership, as football, basketball, and hockey seasons get underway, reaching their peak during playoff seasons. For businesses and professionals in the sports industry, now is the perfect time to plan your marketing campaigns and fan engagement strategies to capture the audience's renewed interest in the upcoming months! #SportsIndustry #SportsMarketing #Broadcasting #ViewerEngagement #StrategicPlanning

Welcome to the #trailblazingtuesday #upfront & #WNBAWNBA (Women's National Basketball Association) Tip Off edition... As we said at the Women's Sports Club IAB Newfront - this is not an AND / OR proposition. This upfront is time to INVEST IN WOMENS' SPORTS. The WNBA (Women's National Basketball Association) on ESPN/Disney platforms opening night is projected to exceed the 5M viewers - breaking the all time inaugural WNBA game record in 1997 - and a feat given the games were on E2 & ESPN+ (because of NHL Playoffs on ESPN). Linear ratings were up between 103% in the women's NCAA March Madness Finals (where else do you see those increase in live sports?!?) ,and over 7% YOY in the NCAA Softball World Series final - essentially drawing the SAME viewership as the men's college WS in the title game. These linear viewership trends are too significant to ignore. AND while it's important to invest in those high profile moments on linear this upfront season- it's equally important to invest in the STORIES and the always on moments that fans are craving and thats where our Trailblazing Sports Group Marketplace partners can help! So let's all do our part to tell more women's sports stories, buy/watch the live events, partner with athletes, and support local teams this UPFRONT season. ?????? #trailblazing #womensports #upfront

The Varsity 1. Could the National Basketball Association (NBA) sell four packages? It's still a long shot. While Warner Bros. Discovery has signaled that it could be interested in such a package, NBCUniversal has resisted the idea of carving up its package even further. 2. Why does WBD think it can use matching rights on Amazon's package? WBD’s dealmakers believe they have the ability to match any package that have games that are part of WBD’s current deal. 3. Is David Zaslav workshopping the talking points he’ll trot out if he loses the deal? Rather than highlighting matching rights during an appearance at a financial conference in New York, Zaz referenced WBD’s deals with the National Hockey League (NHL), NASCAR, and College Football Playoff. “When you put that together with March Madness and baseball playoffs and the U.S. soccer that we have, it’s a very robust offering for consumers that they can watch on TNT in the U.S. all year round,” 4. John Skipper and David Levy?will handle rights deals for Unrivaled, a women’s three-on-three basketball league slated to launch in January.?And Levy’s Horizon Sports & Experiences would sell sponsorships. Levy: “It’s like a penny stock that can go to $10 in a year from now.” ? 5. Am I counted in the ratings if I stream a Los Angeles Lakers game on Spectrum SportsNet via DirecTV Stream from an East Coast city? I talked to a ratings expert to find out. Plus, a new consensus is emerging as the clock ticks on the NBA rights deals: WBD probably shouldn’t bid on a package that it really can no longer afford. “Either way, it’s going to hurt,” said?Michael Nathanson, a senior research analyst at MoffettNathanson LLC. “Given the pressures on linear, he has to have a more flexible cost base. His company doesn’t have the scale of The Walt Disney Company or Comcast, so he can’t compete at those prices. He just can’t.” LightShed Partners media and technology analyst?Rich Greenfield?believes Zaslav has already made his decision to walk, even if he hasn’t said so publicly. “For Zaz, the problem is that spending $2.5 billion or more versus $1.2 billion for half the number of games and a substantial reduction in playoff games—the math is so problematic,” Greenfield said. “Saying no to the NBA makes sense as long as you believe it doesn’t lead you to being dropped. The multibillion-dollar question is:?Does Zaz have enough confidence that he can convince cable operators not to drop his channels.” https://lnkd.in/e2zFR7a3

**What Advertisers Predicted about Super Bowl LVIII's and the Record-Shattering Viewership** ? Part 2: The Taylor Swift Effect on Super Bowl LVIII I have always asked myself if one person (celebrity) can have generational influence and spur interest in sports. Lionel #Messi is an example of more Americans paying significant attention to soccer, but at least Messi plays the sport. Can a musician (non-sportsperson) spark major interest in any of the major sporting events and bring a new level of viewership and demographics to sports? How can it be done? (Research Questions). For example, Drake was just a fan that attended Toronto #Raptors basketball games and it could be argued he did not influence interest so much. “Hold my beer”, says Taylor Swift. The "Taylor Swift effect" played a pivotal role in catapulting Super Bowl LVIII's viewership to unprecedented heights. Swift's romance with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce not only dominated headlines but also attracted legions of new fans, many from demographics previously less engaged with the NFL. Taylor Swift’s presence at many of Chief’s games, from the Wildcard round, through the Divisional and Conference rounds, and the Super Bowl itself, brought a fresh wave of enthusiasm for the football culture. It is estimated that Swift's influence contributed to a 20% surge in sponsorships and a significant spike in young female viewership. Many of them proudly refer to themselves as the “Swifties / Swiftys”. The NFL's successful harnessing of the "Swift effect" showcases a blueprint for future events aiming to capture a wider, more diversified audience. This integration of pop culture with professional sports underscores the power of celebrity influence in expanding the NFL's audience base beyond traditional boundaries. It will therefore not be surprising if Super Bowl LIX in 2025 surpasses the total viewership in 2024. For that to happen, Roger Goodell (The NFL Commissioner/CEO) will be praying Kelce and Swift remain partners. I’d be rooting for them too. #TaylorSwiftEffect #SuperBowlViewership #NFL #SportsMarketing #AudienceEngagement #Drake ?

Between 2022 and 2023, the five major U.S. sports leagues collectively earned $49.3 billion. The NFL generated the highest revenue, at $18.7 billion, significantly outpacing both the NBA and MLB, which each brought in $10.9 billion. Although the main sources of league revenues have largely remained unchanged over the last four decades, there are distinct variations in the revenue breakdown of each sport.

Showing the world it still cares deeply about sports, Warner Bros. Discovery has inked a five-year sublicensing deal with Disney to carry certain College Football Playoff games exclusively on TNT. The deal is for two first round games this year and next year, and then four total games (two first round, two quarterfinal) in years 3-5. WBD Sports now owns rights to carry some CFP games, MLB games, NHL games, and some NASCAR races for years to come. Warner Bros. Discovery continues to work with the NBA on figuring out if there's a way for the company to carry live games in the league's next media rights deal. WBD/TNT will have NBA rights next year no matter what -- the last year of the league's current media rights deal. But CFP bolsters not just TNT and Max's sports tier but also Venue Sports, the sports streaming app that's co-owned by Disney and WBD (and Fox), which launches in the fall. Both ESPN and TNT are part of the Venue, which doesn't yet have a price. Story here: https://lnkd.in/eXybwxQi