Go to Source Author: Andrew Cohen ESPN’s Saturday night viewership for Texas vs. Alabama narrowly edged out Deion Sanders’ Colorado home debut against Nebraska on Fox Sports. Texas-Alabama drew 8.8 million viewers on ESPN platforms, including 799,000 viewers that tuned into “The Pat McAfee Show” alternate broadcast on ESPN2. It was the most-watched alt-cast for McAfee, whose show debuted in 2019 with DAZN before he joined ESPN in May on a multiyear deal that pays him a reported $85 million. Texas-Alabama peaked at 10.7 million viewers, making it ESPN’s most-watched regular-season college football game since 2015 and the most-watched college football game of the week across all networks.  Colorado’s Saturday noon ET win over Nebraska scored 8.73 million viewers on Fox, making it the second-most-watched

Go to Source Author: Michael McCarthy The NFL’s media partners — ESPN, CBS, NBC, Fox, Amazon Prime Video, and YouTube — pay over $12 billion annually for live game rights.  But they get their money’s worth, reaping an estimated $5 billion to $6 billion annually from advertising in and around NFL games, and 2023 is no different.  The Walt Disney Co. is poised to reap an estimated $585 million advertising windfall from ESPN’s 2023 NFL coverage. The company anticipates a 17% increase in ad sales for “Monday Night Football” and the “ManningCast,” sources told Front Office Sports. Disney declined to comment on numbers. But MNF ad sales across ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2 last season (including a Wild Card Playoff telecast) hit an estimated $500 million, according

Go to Source Author: Doug Greenberg On Saturday, after years of hype and close calls, Coco Gauff finally broke through with her maiden Grand Slam victory, defeating Aryna Sabalenka 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the U.S. Open final. Gauff is the first American man or woman to win the home tournament since Sloane Stephens in 2017, and the first American to win a major since Sofia Kenin’s 2020 Australian Open triumph. “Thank you to the people who didn’t believe in me,” Gauff said after the match. “To those who thought you were putting water on my fire, you were actually adding gas to it.” As champion, the 19-year-old takes home $3 million from a Grand-Slam-record $65 million prize pool, bringing her total on-court earnings this season

Go to Source Author: Daniel Myrick Oregon State and Washington State are exploring options to keep the Pac-12 name alive, but it’s unclear whether the conference would retain Power 5 status — or what would happen to the crumbling conference’s media deal and IP rights. Plus, TNF analytics expert Sam Schwartzstein joins us to discuss the football analytics movement, overvalued and undervalued NFL positions, and his predictions for the new season. Related Stories The Mountain West Is Exploring How To Become the New Pac-12 Mountain West Appears To Be Likely Spot For Last Two Pac-12 Schools Expanded CFP Could Set the Stage for Next Media Rights Battle For more on how sports impacts business and culture, subscribe to the Front Office Sports Today podcast. The post Could the Pac-12

Go to Source Author: Eric Fisher The start of the new NFL season brings some big changes — perhaps most notably a new urgency for sportsbooks to attract new customers. NFL-related betting is projected to soar this season to unprecedented levels — creating both opportunity and concerns for the league — and leading sportsbooks are elevating their promotional efforts to win those incoming bettors. FanDuel has increased its signup bonus from last year’s $150 to $200 in return for a $5 NFL bet, and it’s also giving existing customers a $100 discount on an NFL Sunday Ticket subscription on YouTube. That new total matches the $200 bonus for a similar $5 bet on offer from DraftKings. But those market leaders, which hold a duopoly on

Go to Source Author: Eric Fisher ESPN parent Disney has slashed the price of its flagship Disney+ streaming service — another strategic move from the company amid its bitter distribution fight with Charter Spectrum. As the blackout of 19 Disney channels — including ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPNU — on the nation’s second-largest cable carrier has led to piracy and proposed class-action lawsuits, Disney has temporarily cut the price of the ad-supported tier of Disney+ from $7.99 per month to $1.99.  In what is being called a “Blockbuster September” promotion running until Sept. 20, the deal will offer three months of the streaming service at the reduced rate.  The current offer doesn’t extend to Disney’s sports-centered streaming service, ESPN+. But the promotion does arrive in advance

Go to Source Author: Owen Poindexter Haason Reddick of the Philadelphia Eagles has established himself as one of the top edge-rushers in the NFL, but he’s more concerned with the players who line up next to him. “Inside linebacker is like the quarterback of the defense, so to see them finally getting paid in a respective way lets me know that the game is progressing into the right direction,” Reddick said on Front Office Sports Today. His interview begins at 10:11 and he gets into pay issues starting at 16:15: “Edge-rushers have always gotten paid a great amount,” Reddick noted. “But I have also been an inside linebacker and just knowing how difficult that is, to see some of these other guys getting their $19

Go to Source Author: A.J. Perez Chris Mortensen unexpectedly announced his retirement from ESPN, a decision the longtime NFL insider said he made months ago.  “It’s time to reveal after my 33rd NFL draft in April, I made a decision to step away from ESPN and focus on my health, family and faith,” Mortensen wrote on social media Tuesday. “The gratitude and humility is overwhelming. It’s not a classic retirement. I’ll still be here talking ball. It’s just time. God Bless you all.” Mortensen, 71, has worked at ESPN since 1991 and was a staple on various NFL-centric programs for decades. Mortensen isn’t expected to appear on any of the network’s platforms this season, a source told Front Office Sports.  Over the decades, the pioneering

Go to Source Author: Amanda Christovich One year ago, the ACC’s media deal with ESPN, which runs through 2036, looked like it would put the conference behind the rest of the Power 5. It was the only one without an opportunity to negotiate a new contract by 2025. But that length has become its greatest strength in the recent round of realignment, Octagon SVP William Mao, who worked with the ACC on its expansion deal, told Front Office Sports.  The contract was a major reason the ACC was able to get enough votes to add Stanford, Cal, and SMU. It offers a decade-plus of security in the conference for all parties, with the promise of tangible revenue down the line. “I view [the ACC-ESPN deal]

Go to Source Author: Eric Fisher Already facing a wide range of mounting internal and industry challenges, ESPN and parent company Disney are now dark on the country’s second-largest cable carrier due to a nasty distribution dispute with Charter Spectrum. Nineteen Disney channels — including ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPNU — went dark on Charter Spectrum late Thursday, removing those networks from 14.7 million subscribers across 41 states, including many in key media markets such as New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, and Atlanta, with sports standing as a central component in the battle. Perhaps most jarring, the channel removal happened Thursday evening in the midst of the U.S. Open — a key event for ESPN — as well as coverage of a Florida-Utah college football