A look back at some of the most significant numbers in sports media during the past year.
0: Games in the four major sports lost to a lockout, the first time in four years that zero games have been canceled due to a labor-management dispute.
0.25: Seconds elapsed in Erin Andrews’ postgame interview with Seahawks CB Richard Sherman after the NFC Championship Game. A fired up Sherman ranted to Andrews about 49ers receiver Michael Crabtree in the immediate moments after the game, an incident that played out in front of 55.9 million viewers on FOX. The story was swept into the news-cycle, became a source of controversy, and was quickly forgotten. Sherman ended up with endorsements and a Super Bowl ring, and Andrews ended up on the lead FOX NFL team.
1: Game called by Brent Musburger on ESPN/ABC during the 2014 regular season. Musburger was demoted from ESPN’s top college football broadcast team in March, replaced by Chris Fowler. After spending most of the season calling low-wattage games on the new SEC Network, including Western Carolina/Alabama, Musburger got his first ESPN assignment in the penultimate week of the regular season — the much-hyped Auburn/Alabama Iron Bowl. The voice that ESPN buried for most of the season ended up calling not just the network’s top game of the year, but its most-watched regular season game ever. Musburger finished 2014 with another relatively big assignment, the Orange Bowl on New Year’s Eve.
2: World Cup matches that set an all-time viewership record. The Germany/Argentina World Cup final drew a combined 26.5 million viewers on ABC and Univision, the largest soccer audience in U.S. TV history and the year’s top sporting event outside of the NFL and the Olympics. That broke a three-week old record set by the United States/Portugal group play match, which drew 24.7 million on ESPN and Univision. On ESPN alone, USA/Portugal drew 18.2 million viewers — the largest English-language soccer audience ever. Univision set its own record for Netherlands/Mexico in the Round of 16, generating the largest audience for any Spanish-language program in U.S. TV history with 10.4 million viewers. Overall, the World Cup was an unqualified success for ESPN and Univision, averaging 8.1 million viewers per match across the two families of networks—up nearly 50 percent from 2010.
3: Networks included in Turner Sports’ inaugural NCAA Tournament TeamCast. Airing the national semifinals for the first time, Turner split the telecasts across three networks — airing the traditional broadcast on TBS and team-specific coverage on TNT and TruTV. The TeamCast received generally decent reviews by those who understood the intent, but was a source of confusion for a large portion of the audience. Dozens of viewers tuning into TNT (and to a lesser extent TruTV) did not realize that the obvious bias of the announcers was intended and complained en masse on Twitter.
4: Bidders CBS muscled out to acquire Thursday Night Football. In January, the NFL approached CBS, FOX, NBC, ABC and Turner Sports to submit a bid for a Thursday night package, the first time the league made Thursday games available to networks other than its own. NBC needed Thursday games the most, given its terrible ratings on the night, and ABC had been shut out of NFL coverage for nearly a decade. Even so, it was CBS — which had a strong Thursday night line-up and already owned NFL rights — that came out ahead. Shortly after the Super Bowl, the NFL announced a one-year deal (with an option for a second) with CBS to simulcast eight Thursday Night Football telecasts with NFL Network.
6: NASCAR broadcasters who re-signed with ESPN despite the network losing rights to the sport. Nicole Briscoe stayed on as a SportsCenter anchor, set to begin next year. Marty Smith has remained as a Charlotte-based reporter, quickly becoming a familiar face on ESPN’s stick-and-ball coverage. Allan Bestwick has transitioned to a multi-sport play-by-play voice, adding tennis, golf and college sports to his existing IndyCar duties. Dr. Jerry Punch will return to college basketball and football after a nine-year absence. Brad Daugherty has returned to his basketball roots as an NBA and college analyst. Finally, Ricky Craven has stayed on as (of all things) a NASCAR analyst.
7.8: The lowest rating on record for a primetime Olympic telecast. After a decent start from Sochi, including an impressive 17.0 rating for the Opening Ceremony, the 2014 Winter Olympics faded badly down the stretch. The final three nights of the Olympics earned the event’s three lowest primetime ratings on record (dating back to 1994) — the 7.8 for the final Saturday, an 8.7 for the Closing Ceremony, and an 8.8 for the final Friday. Sochi ended up as the second lowest rated Olympics in primetime, just a tick ahead of Turin in 2006 (12.3 to 12.2).
8: Months between the end of the Olympics and NBC promoting Johnny Weir, Tara Lipinski and Terry Gannon to its lead figure skating team. Lipinski and Weir became media darlings for their colorful commentary on NBCSN’s live figure skating coverage, and their social media popularity made it almost inevitable that NBC’s incumbents Tom Hammond, Sandra Bezic and Scott Hamilton would be pushed aside.
12: Years Pam Oliver spent on the lead NFL on FOX broadcast team before being demoted in favor of Erin Andrews this year. Oliver was not just dumped from the lead FOX team, but given an early retirement from the sidelines. As part of her new position as ‘senior correspondent,’ her role will be limited to providing long-form interviews and commentary for various FOX programs.
88: Days into Adam Silver’s tenure as NBA commissioner before he had to conduct a somber news conference in front of the national media.
157: Consecutive primetime Olympic telecasts Bob Costas worked before an eye infection sidelined him this year. Costas’ eye infection started as a source of social media snickering, with Costas making light of it on-air, but it escalated into a weeklong absence from NBC’s Olympic coverage. Instead of going with a sports personality like Al Michaels or Dan Patrick, NBC tapped Today host Matt Lauer and his former colleague Meredith Vieira to fill-in.
914: Days until the potential 2017 NBA lockout. A pair of developments in 2014 set the stage for what could be an acrimonious negotiation in two-and-a-half years. The NBPA filled the vacancy left by Billy Hunter with Michele Roberts, who just months into the job has already become an outspoken advocate for the players. In an October interview with ESPN, Roberts espoused strident opposition to many of the economic pillars undergirding the NBA, with statements so bold they necessitated a response by Adam Silver. The other major development was the league’s new television deal, a financial bonanza that caused fresh skepticism of the owners’ cries of poverty during the last negotiation. Several players, including LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, indicated that the union would not fall for such pleas next time around (whether that will actually be the case remains to be seen).
1,475: Approximate number of job cuts Turner Broadcasting announced the day after agreeing to a $1.2 billion/year television deal with the NBA.
1957: The last time CBS averaged a lower rating for The Masters than it did this year. The network’s two-day coverage averaged just a 5.4 rating in April, the lowest since a 3.4 in ’57. The final round in particular tied a 34-year low with a 6.8 rating. The poor performance at The Masters was followed by a record-low 3.0 rating for the final round of the U.S. Open on NBC and a near-record low for the final round of the British Open on ESPN. It was not until the PGA Championship, and a star-studded final round that stretched into primetime, that golf’s major slump ended (or at least abated).
2032: The last year under the NBC’s Olympic television contract, thanks to an unexpected extension early in the year. Without much build-up, NBC and the International Olympic Committee announced a 12-year media rights extension in May. Under the deal, NBC acquired rights to every Olympics from 2022 to 2032. The network already owned Olympic rights through 2020 after winning a 2011 bidding war with ESPN and Fox Sports.
12.3M: Average viewership for the Giants/Royals World Series through six games, which would have been an all-time record low if not for Game 7. Considering the Giants’ negative effect on the ratings in 2010 and 2012, the Royals’ small market size, and the uncompetitive nature of the first six games, it should be no surprise the 2014 World Series was on a record-low pace. Game 7 provided a needed boost, as the Giants’ dramatic win scored a 13.7 rating and 23.5 million viewers — the second-best numbers for any baseball game in a decade. Thanks to Game 7, the series ended up as only the second-lowest rated and third-least viewed of all-time, with the Giants’ 2012 win remaining in the cellar.
20.4M: Viewers for the race segment of The Belmont Stakes, the event’s second-largest audience on record. The most legitimate Triple Crown threat since Smarty Jones, California Chrome attracted the largest audience for any horse race since the former’s run in the 2004 Belmont Stakes (21.9M). Like Smarty Jones — and Big Brown, Funny Cide and War Emblem in previous years — he could not seal the deal.
112.2M: Viewers for the Seahawks’ blowout win of the Broncos in Super Bowl 48, the largest audience in U.S. television history. Despite the least competitive Super Bowl in years, Seahawks/Broncos topped the previous viewership record set in 2012 by more than one million viewers.
$2.6B: The annual rights fee for the NBA’s new television contract. The NBA’s TV deal was widely expected to provide a major financial windfall, but the price tag ended up well beyond even the rosiest predictions. ESPN and Turner will each pay the NBA more than $1 billion per year under their respective contracts, more than the networks’ combined annual rights fee under the current deal ($930M). While the NBA’s improved television ratings justified a major increase over the previous deal, which was signed during the league’s mid-2000s nadir, what really sent the figures flying was the threat posed by Fox Sports 1. From its launch in 2013, FS1 had been a trendy pick to carve out at least some NBA rights, making it imperative for ESPN and Turner to wrap up negotiations before the expiration of their exclusive negotiating window. The networks were thus willing to spend as much as possible (perhaps a bit too much) to lock up NBA rights through 2025.
$80B: The price tag on 21st Century Fox’s proposed deal to acquire Time Warner. In July came news the surprising news that Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox had been rebuffed in an effort to acquire Time Warner and all of its associated properties — including Turner Sports. The move would have infused Fox Sports with valuable rights, including the NBA and NCAA Tournament as well as additional rights to Major League Baseball. Fox Sports 1 would have presumably taken on those properties and become a powerful rival to ESPN, as opposed to the relatively minor concern that it is currently. Murdoch eventually withdrew his offer.
