LEAD STORY
Troy Aikman Set To Leave Fox Sports For ESPN
Joe Buck and Troy Aikman have been Fox Sports fall staples for 20 years. The legendary duo is considered one of TV’s premier broadcasting teams, and they are responsible for calling the network's weekly marquee NFL and Super Bowl games. That seems like it’s about to change this coming football season, as Aikman is set to leave his buddy and his comfortable confines for ESPN’s Monday Night Football.
He will sign a five-year deal with the sports network and make Tony Romo money, at around $17.5 million per year.
It’s a shocker of a move and a huge scoop by ESPN, which has been desperately trying to find a quality broadcasting team that can rival its competitors. ESPN's last decent broadcasting team was Mike Tirico and former NFL coach Jon Gruden.
Since then, ESPN has tried teams consisting of Sean McDonough and Gruden, Joe Tessitore, Booger McFarland, and Joe Witten, and its current squad of Steve Levy, Brian Griese, and Louis Riddick. None of these teams have won audiences over, forcing ESPN to hit the reset button.
Losing Aikman has forced Fox Sports into panic mode, as it is now in search of an in-game analyst that could pair well with Buck and bring about the same aura and prestige to its marquee matchups.
Names floated as potential fill-ins include former New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton and former NFL tight-end Greg Olsen, who is currently their No. 2 analyst, but it seems all signs are pointing towards Payton joining Buck in the broadcast booth.
Typically, the NFL offseason sees team to team movement mostly with players, coaches, and management, but this time around, that movement also includes broadcast teams.
The Aikman move was undoubtedly the most buzzworthy, but there is a whole lot of shuffling going on this time around.
Buck, who is in his final contract year with Fox Sports, could be enticed to join Aikman at ESPN if he is not happy and or comfortable with whomever they pair him with. Fox Sports may do whatever it takes to keep him, though, as he is also the voice and face of their MLB coverage.
Al Michaels may have called his last game for NBC Sports with the Super Bowl and could be headed to either ESPN or Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service. Tirico is set to be the heir apparent on Sunday Night Football.
Amazon’s Prime Video is looking to lure ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit, who works the college football beat, making him their top Thursday Night Football analyst. They tried to go after Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean Mc Vay, but he remained with the team.
The streaming service, like ESPN, is still searching for its lead announcer.
The only network not seeing any turmoil is CBS Sports which is very content with its number one team of Jim Nantz and Tony Romo.
(New York Post, Front Office Sports, Awful Announcing)
RECAP
Chris Licht To Become CNN’s New President
It’s been a crazy month for CNN, and it’s a month the network would like to forget soon as it had to deal with the sudden resignation of its head Jeff Zucker and all the upheaval that came with it, including Allison Gollusts’ resignation. Now comes word that the soon-to-be leader of the combined Discovery and WarnerMedia, David Zaslav, has found the next president of CNN, and that person is Chris Licht. Licht, like Zucker, is an uber-producer who helped co-create MSNBC’s Morning Joe, helped launch CBS News’ morning program CBS This Morning, and currently is the executive producer of CBS’s Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which he helped in making the number one late-night show. Licht is set to assume his new role in April once his current contract expires and after the Discovery/WarnerMedia merger. (Deadline, New York Times)
The Indian Premier League’s Media Rights Are Up For Grabs
When it comes to intense sports media rights battles, one thinks of what happened in the NFL, NBA, NHL, and the EPL — we can now add cricket to the list. The Indian Premier League, IPL, is now one of the most sought-after leagues attracting the likes of media titans such as Disney, Paramount, Amazon, and Sony. Each of these companies is trying to secure the league so that they can add it to their streaming portfolio. Disney’s Star India currently holds the rights, which they acquired in 2017 for five years at the cost of $2.55 billion. The Board of Control for Cricket in India has started soliciting bids for the next five-year deal, which is expected to go as high as $6 billion. Why is the IPL in demand? Cricket is extremely popular in India, with 44% of India’s 1.37 billion people watching the sport, resulting in 603 million viewers. (Front Office Sports)
Neil Cavuto Is Back On-Air After A Long Absence, Says It Was COVID-19 Related
Neil Cavuto had been missing from his Fox News and Fox Business Network shows since January 10, and the network did not explain what happened to him during that time. He finally resurfaced this past Monday on his Fox Business Network show Cavuto: Coast to Coast and explained his absence was a result of once again contracting COVID-19 and that he had been hospitalized with “Covid pneumonia.” Cavuto is immunocompromised and credited the vaccines with saving his life, saying, “had I not been vaccinated at all, I wouldn’t be here. It provided some defense, but that is still better than no defense.” He asked his bosses not to explain his absence out of respect for his privacy, and the network did get a lot of heat for not revealing why he was not on the air. (TVNewser)
QUICK RECAP
Former basketball coach and TBS and TNT analyst Dick Versace passes away. (Announcer Schedules/Twitter)
Alexa Philppou joins ESPN as a full-time women’s basketball writer. (ESPN Press Room)
ABC News promotes Ashan Singh to a multi-platform reporter for Nightline. (ABC News Public Relations)
Stephanie Kotuby and Rachel Welford are named executive producers for PBS’s Washington Week and the weekend edition of NewsHour. (TVNewser)
Fin Gomez named political director at CBS News. (ViacomCBS)
CNBC’s Leslie Picker to also cover major banks and financial institutions. (Leslie Picker/Twitter)
Dahlia Lithwick joins MSNBC and NBC News as a law and politics analyst. (MSNBC Public Relations/Twitter)
TV/digital host and reporter Victoria Arlen re-signs with ESPN. (ESPN Press Room)
Russia Invades Ukraine: Some news networks use offensive comparisons when covering the invasion. (The Washington Post)
Russia Invades Ukraine: RT’s broadcast cut in Australia. (The Guardian)
Russia Invades Ukraine: How Russia’s last independent TV channel, Rain, is covering the unfolding invasion. (The New Yorker)
Russia Invades Ukraine: Ukrainian film and TV groups want a boycott of Russian media. (Variety)
Russia Invades Ukraine: How US news correspondents are dealing with covering the invasion. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Russia Invades Ukraine: Fox News’ Tucker Carlson shifts his tone on Putin. (The Washington Post)
Russia Invades Ukraine: Discovery’s David Zaslalv praises CNN’s coverage as he gets ready to take over the parent company. (Axios)
Russia Invades Ukraine: Lack of details hampers invasion coverage. (Associated Press)
Russia Invades Ukraine: MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow returns from hiatus to cover the invasion. (Forbes)
Russia Invades Ukraine: CNN removes “squeeze back” ads after awkward positioning. (TVNewser)
Russia Invades Ukraine: How the networks covered the initial invasion - part 1. (New York Times)
Russia Invades Ukraine: How the networks covered the initial invasion - part 2. (TVNewser)
Russia Invades Ukraine: Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin pushes back against her colleagues regarding invasion assertions. (Mediaite)
Russia Invades Ukraine: CNN shines in its invasion coverage. (Vanity Fair)
Russia Invades Ukraine: What kind of visual looks are the networks employing for their coverage. (Newscast Studio)
Zucker fallout: Former CNN exec Allison Gollust offered guidance to Chris Cuomo during Andrew Cuomo’s sexual harassment allegations. (The Wall Street Journal)
Zucker fallout: Why did WarnerMedia Jason Kilar do what he did so close to the merger with Discovery? (The Hollywood Reporter)
Ratings: ABC News’ World News Tonight with David Muir defeats NBC News’ Nightly News with Lester Holt during the Winter Olympics. (ABC News Public Relations)
CBS News’ Gayle King puts a national spotlight on Trayvon Martin’s death. (Los Angeles Times)
NFL’s Sunday Ticket could be heading to either Amazon or Apple in 2023. (Awful Announcing)
How the networks are visually covering this year’s State of the Union. (Newscast Studio)
The Golden State Warriors have the highest local TV ratings this season. (Sports Business Journal)
Discovery’s David Zaslav doesn’t want to go on a content “spending war” when he takes over WarnerMedia. (The Streamable)
ESPN’s Adam Schefter has had talks with betting companies. (Sports Business Journal)
Dan Abrams Live moves to 9 pm ET on NewsNation. (TVNewser)
CNN Go is to be terminated as CNN Plus is set to launch. (The Streamable)
Fox Weather adds an Orlando bureau. (Newscast Studio)
Discovery adds 22 million direct-to-consumer subscribers. (The Streamable)
TV/digital host and reporter Victoria Arlen re-signs with ESPN. (ESPN Press Room)
CNBC rejigs its afternoon lineup. (A.J. Katz/Twitter)
CNN Plus announces its programming lineup ahead of its spring launch. (CNN Press Room)
Ideal streaming price points for consumers are below what Netflix and HBO Max offer. (The Streamable)
CNN’s ratings collapse in prime time. (Forbes)
CBS News introduces new graphics and music for its special reports. (Newscast Studio)
NBCUniversal News Group Digital is tops again in January. (NBC News PR)
Netflix to air almost 400 titles in 2022. (The Streamable)
163 million people watched this year’s Winter Olympics. (Next TV)
Netflix, Disney Plus, and HBO Max by 2027 will control half of the world’s SVOD subscriptions. (MediaPost)
Netflix is set to invest $45 million in French and European movies. (Variety)
Amazon wants to have an NFL game on Black Friday, amongst other NFL TV schedule changes. (Sports Business Journal)
CNN wins a Polk Award for Foreign Television Reporting for its fall of Afghanistan coverage. (CNN Press Room)
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A MarkHenry Media LLC publication - Issue #79 - 2022