EPL Looking For More Money For Its US Media Rights
For almost nine years, the English Premier League, EPL, has been in the hands of NBC Sports, and they have had exclusive rights to all the soccer matches that air during the season. These matches have aired on NBCSN, NBC, and a variety of NBCU cable channels, and they have also been used to boost subscription numbers for their streaming services, starting with the recently shuttered NBC Sports Gold to now Peacock.
It’s about to get pretty interesting as NBC Sports’ grip on the EPL rights is set to expire after this season, and the executives from the English Premier League are seeking to make more money from its US media rights deal by increasing the asking price for those said rights.
It has been speculated that the price could get as high as $2 billion. Currently, NBC Sports pays $150 million per year to carry the league.
In addition to that, EPL executives will open the bids to other media properties seeking to get in on the action. This means that NBC Sports, even though they have held the rights all this time, will not get first dibs but instead be pooled in together with the other media companies that are interested in acquiring the rights.
NBC Sports parent company, Comcast, has been preparing for such a scenario by ensuring that it has the cash reserves to match their requests as they look to retain the rights deal. This has included letting go of the NHL rights earlier this year.
Other media companies interested in acquiring the EPL include CBS Sports, Turner Sports, and ESPN. Amazon and DAZN may also join in the fray.
Over the years, the EPL has proven to be a ratings draw within the US as soccer has become even more popular. Working to its advantage is that it has a comfortable conflict-free time slot as most of the games air in am during the weekends.
At this time, what is unknown is whether the executives will award the media rights to one entity or split them out to various ones, like how the American sporting leagues do with their rights?
(Bloomberg, Front Office Sports, World Soccer Talk)
RECAP
Newsy, Which Launches October 1st, Unveils Its Line-up
Looking to make a name and dent in the news network business Newsy unveiled its programming line-up and anchors. The network, which will be based in Atlanta and debuts on October 1st, revealed that it will have live programming from early morning until 8 pm ET, and then there will be a live hour of programming at 11 pm ET to cater to its west coast audience. Some of the anchors that joined the network include former CNN anchors Dave Briggs and Natalie Allen and former ABC News anchor Rob Nelson. (TVNewser)
Piers Morgan joins Fox News Media and News Corp
After storming off his morning news show, Piers Morgan will be storming back into TV sets and newspaper publications as a mega-deal was announced between him and Fox News Media and News Corp. As part of the new deal, Morgan will get a weeknight show — set to debut in early 2022 — that will air on Fox Nation in the US, Sky News Australia, and the soon-to-be-launched UK news channel TalkTV, which looks to take on the GBNews channel. (Reuters)
MSNBC Expanding Its Digital Presence
MSNBC is looking to expand its digital arm, and it’s looking to do this by giving one of its prominent evening news personalities a blog on its website. Joy Reid will be getting The ReidOut Blog which will have exclusive web content and continue to highlight the stories featured on her weeknight show. The addition of the blog shows MSNBC is serious about its digital properties as it looks to add more of its cable news personalities to its online products. Earlier this year, the network hired Meredith Bennet-Smith as MSNBC Digital’s managing director and then relaunched MSNBC.com. (Forbes)
QUICK RECAP
Derrick Dennis joins ABC News Audio as a staff correspondent. (ABC News Public Relations)
Julio Vaqueiro named lead evening news anchor for Noticias Telemundo. (TVNewser)
CBS Sports adds former NFL player Jason Campbell for NFL Monday QB on CBSN. (John Ourand/Twitter)
Tali Farhadian joins NBC News/MSNBC as a legal analyst. (NBCNewsPR/Twitter)
Univision is launching a Sunday edition of Despierta America. (TVNewser)
CNN Internationallaunching new show Marketplace Middle East. (Talking Biz News)
Locast has been ordered to shut down. (The Streamable)
Top CBS News staff are exiting the company. (TVNewser)
ESPN is seen as the top ‘must have’ cable channel. (Broadcasting & Cable)
What’s the NFL going to do with its NFL Sunday Ticket? (Axios)
HBO and NFL Films announces an in-season edition of Hard Knocks. (NFL Communications)
CNN Digital rules during this past summer. (CNN Pressroom)
Lisa Byington becomes the first full-time female play-by-play announcer for the Milwaukee Bucks TV broadcasts. (Awful Announcing)
Tubi does not need to grow as large as the other streaming platforms. (The Streamable)
ABC News’ staff are not happy with exec Peter Rice's performance. (The Daily Beast)
ESPN updates its New York City studios. (NewscastStudio)
Almost all Fox staffers are vaccinated. (Vanity Fair)
Tom Llamas’ new NBC News streaming show gets a name. (TVNewser)
Tour NBC News’ Nightly News’ new home. (NewscastStudio)
BBC News announces new positions for Jess Grammar and Paul Danahar. (BBC Media Centre)
ESPN launches ESPN+Mas, which is aimed at its Spanish-speaking audience. (The Streamable)
ABC News staffer claimed the network retaliated against her after her sexual assault claim. (Wall Street Journal$$$)
The UK’s GBNews receives a vote of confidence from its investors. (The Times)
AT&T says its WarnerMedia deal with Discovery should be completed by the first half of 2022. (The Streamable)
TNT and ESPN reveal their NHL schedules. (Awful Announcing)
Cops will now be airing on Fox Nation. (TVNewser)
NBC News’ Hoda Kotb adds a weekly podcast to her workload. (Brian Steinberg/Twitter)
Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin on her many years covering the Afghanistan war. (Forbes)
US National Soccer broadcasting rights are up for grabs after 2023. (The Streamable)
CNN wins two Primetime Creative Arts Emmys. (TVNewser)
Thanks for reading the Coverage Notes newsletter - subscribe & share.
Let us know what you think here - love it or hate it; we'll learn to deal with it and make it better.
A MarkHenry Media LLC publication - issue #63 - 2021