Sports Media Watch presents 20 notable sports media stories of the year 2013. Today, #5-#2, including the year’s biggest TV deal, a big name political journalist returning to sports, and a major controversy involving ESPN and the NFL.
#5: NASCAR Leaves ESPN/TNT For NBC
After routinely striking out on big events, NBC Sports made a splash over the summer by acquiring rights to NASCAR Sprint and Nationwide Series races — not that incumbents ESPN and TNT were broken up about it. In July, NBC acquired rights to 20 Sprint Cup and 19 Nationwide Series per season starting in 2015, encompassing ESPN’s entire current package and half of TNT’s “Summer Series” schedule. Fox Sports, which already renewed its 13-race package last year, acquired the remaining Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series races. It should be noted that neither ESPN nor TNT were particularly bothered about losing NASCAR rights. The networks not only declined to bid for NASCAR rights, they asked to be let out of the final year of the deal (2014). ESPN, TNT, FOX and NBC engaged in fairly serious talks to begin the new TV deal a year early, but NASCAR shut that down in October.
#4: ESPN Hires Nate Silver, Acquires Five Thirty Eight Site
ESPN made one of the biggest surprise hires of 2013 when it poached political wunderkind Nate Silver from The New York Times. It is easy to forget now, with the madness of the election season in the rear-view mirror (at least until next November), but Silver was one of the biggest names in the political media in 2012. By November, the election forecasts on his Five Thirty Eight blog attracted over 10% of the Times’ online traffic (TNR, 11/6/12), and his profile rose even higher after he accurately predicted the results in all 50 states. Even though Silver came from a sports background, first coming to prominence on Baseball Prospectus, it was still a minor shock when he left the Times for ESPN. Under his agreement with the network, Silver sold his Five Thirty Eight brand to ESPN, though the site will retain editorial independence à la Grantland. Silver will serve as editor-in-chief and contribute to both ESPN and ABC News programming. Silver has been under the radar at ESPN so far, but that will not last for long. 2014 will see not only the re-launch of Five Thirty Eight but also another bitter slate of elections.
#3: ESPN Backs Out of “Frontline” Documentary
As is the case almost every year, ESPN was the subject of heavy public criticism over the summer. This time, the source of scorn was the network’s decision to end its partnership with the PBS program “Frontline” on a documentary about NFL concussions. The documentary — “League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis” — had ESPN’s fingerprints all over it. The book on which it was based was written by ESPN reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru, both of whom were heavily involved in the documentary. ESPN analyst Steve Young and reporter Peter Keating also gave interviews. It should thus be no surprise that ESPN originally had a formal partnership with “Frontline” on the documentary, to the point that the ESPN logo was used in a trailer screened at an August news conference. The partnership fell apart, according to The New York Times, after a “combative” meeting between NFL and ESPN executives — including NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and ESPN president John Skipper — in which the league expressed displeasure with ESPN’s participation (NYT, 8/23). ESPN denied that the NFL played in a role in its decision to distance itself from the documentary, instead citing a lack of editorial control. That somewhat lame justification fell on deaf ears. Despite the PR nightmare ESPN faced, “League of Denial” was arguably a successful showcase of ESPN’s journalistic capabilities, even if the network did not want to stake its name on it.
#2: Launch of Fox Sports 1
Fox Sports 1 was still a barely-kept secret when 2013 began, the official announcement not coming until March 5. After the announcement, Fox Sports made up for months of staying mum by going overboard on the hype surrounding the new network. Fox Sports 1, it was said, would bring back ‘fun’ to sports television, and a glitzy ad campaign even proclaimed ‘happy days are here again’ — a suggestion that rankled observers at ESPN. The network made a slew of big-name hires, including Regis Philbin, Andy Roddick, and Bill Raftery. It acquired rights to the Big East and NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (starting in 2015) to go along with its already established portfolio of Major League Baseball (starting in 2014), the World Cup (starting in 2015), and college football. It announced several direct competitors to ESPN staples — “Fox Sports Live” to take on “SportsCenter,” “Crowd Goes Wild” to take on “Around the Horn” and “PTI,” and “Fox College Saturday” to take on “College Gameday.” By the time the network launched in August, talk of a true ESPN competitor had reached an almost fever pitch.
And then … not much. Fox Sports 1 launched to great hype and low ratings, and while the network has been a solid alternative to ESPN in its first five months on the air, there has been nothing particularly unique or exciting about it at this early date. Rather than a radical reinvention of the sports TV wheel, Fox Sports 1 has been just another ordinary sports network, albeit with much stronger programming than NBCSN or CBSSN. The network’s unique touches — Jay and Dan, the FS Live panel, Regis on a sports show — are mostly variations on the tried and true. Though it is far too early to suggest that FS1 has failed to tackle ESPN, the yawning gap in ratings between the two networks has been noticeable. The network’s most-viewed program since rebranding — the Oregon State/Oregon college football game on November 29 (2.2M) — was topped by four separate games on ESPN/ESPN2 the following day. Of course, this was to be expected. FS1 has yet to air many of its marquee events, such as the Big East Tournament, the Major League Baseball playoffs, or NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series, and a true measure of its success is likely years away. Just judging on the basis of 2013, however, FS1 was sound and fury signifying not a whole lot.
The #1 story of 2013 will be posted on Tuesday, December 24.
