Turner Sports Acquires NHL Rights
Turner Sports the home of the NBA, MLB, and the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament is welcoming the NHL to its rink.
The sports network acquired the second half of the league’s TV rights, which is worth $1.57 billion after NBC Sports declined to continue with its package as it’s putting its efforts and money into renewing the rights for the English Premier League.
Disney owns the other NHL rights package.
Turner Sports’ deal begins with the 2021-2022 season and will run for seven years. The deal includes 72 games as well as airing the Winter Classic every year. They will also air the playoffs and the Stanley Cup Finals, which will alternate between Disney and Turner Sports — Disney will get four finals and Turner will get three finals.
The majority of the games will air on TNT, but the exact day when these games will be shown has not been determined yet. TNT already airs the NBA on Tuesdays and Thursdays and its season runs roughly around the same time as the NHL’s, which creates potential conflict.
One possible day being floated is Wednesday, but AEW currently airs on that day — AEW could potentially move to Monday nights putting it into direct competition with WWE and the NFL when it is in season.
Bleacher Report will also be part of the deal as it will have expansive digital and highlights rights.
An interesting facet of this agreement is that there is a streaming component tied to it, which means that sometime down the road NHL games will also be made available on HBO Max. Turner Sports’ parent WarnerMedia has kept live sports out of its streaming service, but it looks like that will be changing in the future.
Turner Sports has managed to turn itself into a sporting juggernaut as it will be the home to three major professional leagues and men’s college basketball. All this sports content is being used to prop up TNT and TBS, which makes them valuable assets and must-haves in the shrinking cable TV universe.
(The Wrap, WarnerMedia Press Room, Andrew Marchand/Twitter, Richard Deitsch/Twitter)
RECAP
Tom Llamas Moves Back To NBC News From ABC News
Tom Llamas has rejoined NBC News after leaving ABC News where he was their weekend anchor for World News Tonight. It’s a homecoming for Llamas who began his reporting career at NBC News in 2000. Llamas will be the weekday primetime anchor for its live-streaming service NBC News Now. He will also serve as a senior national correspondent and will contribute to the Today Show, NBC Nightly News, and Meet the Press. He will also be available for special events and breaking news coverage. Llamas’ start date is May 3. (Variety)
Discovery Has 13 million Global Subscribers
Discovery is feeling really good about its direct-to-consumer efforts as it has recorded 13 million global subscribers. This number also includes those who have subscribed to its streaming service Discovery Plus, which launched earlier this year. Discovery’s CEO, David Zaslav, says that users are spending an average of three hours per day on the streaming service and the ad-supported version of Discovery Plus, which costs $4.99 a month, is bringing in an average of $10 in revenue per user. According to Zaslav popular shows on Discovery Plus include Chip and Joanna Gaines’ Fixer Upper and the 90 Day Fiancé franchise. (AdWeek)
Which Linear Channels Will Be Axed As A Result Of Streaming
NBCUniversal announced earlier this year that it will be shutting down its linear channel NBCSN and moving much of its programming to its streaming service Peacock and the USA cable network. The demise of NBCSN has everything to do with sustaining Peacock and if NBCUniversal can do away with one of its channels then there is a strong possibility Disney, ViacomCBS, and WarnerMedia will do the same to their underperforming channels in order to support their streaming services. So, which channels would be on the chopping block? ESPN News, TruTV, Boomerang, and Destination America are some of the channels being floated as likely to be shut down. (The Hollywood Reporter)
QUICK RECAP
Calvin Haywood the first black director at ESPN passes away. (ESPN/Facebook)
India in the past two weeks has lost 45 journalists to COVID-19. (BBC)
Phil Williams ABC News’ chief international correspondent is set to retire. (The Guardian)
Jim Denney moves from Hulu to Peacock as its Chief Product Officer. (Deadline)
HBO Max animation to be led by Suzanna Makkos. (CableFax)
ABC News’ head of communications Julie Townsend is leaving the network. (Variety)
Fox News promotes its executives in New York and Washington, D.C. (TVNewser)
Newsmax apologizes for and retracts its Dominion Votings Systems allegations. (NPR)
April Ratings: Tucker Carlson and Fox News lead in prime time during April. (Forbes)
April Ratings: MSNBC is the second-most-watched cable network. (NBCUniversal Media Village)
April Ratings: CNN was the most-watched cable network during the daytime. (CNN Press Room)
Advertisers flocked to TV coverage of this year’s NFL Draft. (Front Office Sports)
Peacock generates nine million sign-ups in the first quarter of this year. (Tavish ZM/Twitter)
Rupert Murdoch’s News UK scrubs its plans for a news channel. (The Spectator)
HBO Max is benefiting from streaming first-run movies. (MediaPost)
Disney’s movies have been hugely beneficial for Disney Plus. (Time)
One year in, what does NBC News Group look like under Cesar Conde? (The Wall Street Journal)
CNN’s Rick Santorum under fire for his comments. (Los Angeles Times)
Netflix is creating a Bubba Wallace docuseries. (Front Office Sports)
BBC and CNN have domains that are most sought after by PR firms. (MediaPost)
ESPN seems to hire a lot of former New York Jets players. (New York Post)
WarnerMedia’s Jason Kilar would have been earning more than AT&T’s John Stankey. (Reuters)
NBC Sports used influencers to promote the Kentucky Derby. (Front Office Sports)
CNN adds a new reporter and promotes three. (Sara Fischer/Twitter)
Netflix won seven awards at the Oscars. (MediaPost)
CNN launches an internal investigation into the treatment of women and workplace culture at CNN Business. (TVNewser)
How the COVID-19 pandemic has changed NFL Draft coverage on TV. (Front Office Sports)
What happened to NewsNation? (Los Angeles Times)
WarnerMedia to charge $9.99 for the ad-supported version of HBO Max. (CNBC)
CBSN’s Lana Zak’s husband charged with wire fraud, money laundering, and making a false statement to a bank. (CBS News)
Netflix is on a mission to end endless scrolling. (Vulture)
British Telecom is looking to sell BT Sport. (The Guardian)
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A MarkHenry Media LLC publication - issue #57 - 2021