Fox Corporation discusses potentially “rebalancing” its sports portfolio; an NFL executive discusses the league’s deal with ESPN; and Fubo Sports may become available for purchase through ESPN Unlimited. Plus news on NBCUniversal, Nielsen-Cumulus, The New York Times Company and WGR 550 SportsRadio.
Fox Corp. discusses potential rebalance of sports portfolio, has ability to offset potential NFL cost increase
Fox Corporation CEO Lachlan Murdoch said in a quarterly earnings call Wednesday that the company could “consider balancing or rebalancing” its sports portfolio in order to offset any increase in NFL rights, which could be reopened as soon as this year. Fox, which has been an NFL rightsholder since opening its sports division in 1994, is in the midst of an 11-year media rights deal with the NFL for a reported $2.25 billion annually. The league can opt out of the agreement following the 2029 season, but has floated the possibility of going to the negotiating table even earlier.
Outside of the NFL, Fox has a contract with Major League Baseball through 2028 that includes the World Series, is in the final year of a deal to carry the FIFA men’s World Cup, and rights to Big Ten college football. Fox already lost rights to the FIFA Women’s World Cup after presenting the tournament in the U.S. since 2015, and its deal for the men’s iteration of the tournament expires this year.
For the quarter as a whole, Fox Corporation generated $5.18 billion in revenue (+2% YoY) on adjusted EBITDA of $692 million, down $89 million from the same period last year. The company registered an increase of $119 million in operating expenses (+3% YoY), which it primarily attributed “to $180 million of higher sports programming rights amortization and production costs and higher digital content costs.” Fox Corporation also accrued $621 million in content and other revenues, a 4% rise that was primarily because of augmented revenues for sublicensing in sports.
NFL exec: ESPN would not receive better ‘MNF’ schedule over equity stake
NFL executive Jeff Miller downplayed concerns that ESPN will get preferential treatment from the league as a result of the recently-completed deal giving ESPN ownership of NFL Network and the NFL a ten percent stake in ESPN. Asked by host John Ourand on Puck’s “The Varsity” podcast whether ESPN might receive a better schedule or better windows as a result of the deal, Miller said that the “short answer is no,” and that the league will still have to balance the interests of all of its partners.
Miller added that ESPN’s editorial decisions will not change, saying that the parties had made it “a point in the conversations to ensure that wasn’t the case,” and that ESPN would not have the inside track on a “sweetheart deal” upon the next set of negotiations. Miller: “I’ve never seen anybody get a sweetheart deal. There’s a fan-friendly deal, right? That’s our priority to make sure fans get what they want, but I don’t think that that’s a dynamic that anybody needs to concern themselves with.”
Earlier in the interview, Miller said that ESPN could provide NFL Network “with a lot of talent, a lot of growth,” and “a lot of energy that maybe it needs.” On an episode of the “SI Media” podcast with Jimmy Traina last November, ESPN president of content Burke Magnus said that the company is looking to maintain the identity of NFL Network. Magnus: “I think the NFL Network has a very different brand and a very different voice in many ways, and we think that we like that, we think that’s important.”
The Walt Disney Company is currently in a 10-year media rights deal with the NFL that the league can reportedly opt out of after the 2030 season. This is separate from its agreement to license three more games to air on NFL Network. NFL EVP/media distribution Hans Schroeder stated in September that the league is going to maintain “an arm’s length” in future negotiations with partners in which it holds an equity stake.
Users may be able to purchase Fubo Sports through “ESPN commerce flow”
Fubo revealed Tuesday that it is working with ESPN on “a reseller and marketing arrangement” wherein the Fubo Sports platform would be available for purchase through the “ESPN commerce flow.” That would allow users to subscribe to Fubo’s sports skinny bundle offering alongside other offerings such as ESPN Unlimited and the Disney Bundle (Disney+, Hulu, ESPN Unlimited). David Gandler, co-founder/CEO of Fubo, called the opportunity “particularly exciting given ESPN’s scale” while speaking on the company’s earnings call Tuesday.
The plans, which are contingent on the sides reaching “definitive agreements,” occur a few months after Fubo finalized its merger with Disney’s Hulu + Live TV business. While Disney owns a majority of shares in the business, the Fubo management team is responsible for operating the company, which is maintaining both platforms as standalone services. It should be noted that Disney is reportedly planning to move its Hulu + Live TV offering within Disney+ sometime this year.
NBCUniversal networks have not been accessible through Fubo since last November after the two entities did not reach a new carriage agreement. “Comcast indicated that they are satisfied with their existing Hulu Live arrangement and do not intend to engage in renewal discussions on the Fubo side at this time, preferring to reengage closer to the Hulu Live expiration,” Gandler said on the earnings call. “Given that most commercial terms had been largely aligned prior to the Versant spin-off, this position is very difficult to reconcile. Importantly, the subscriber impact to date has been modest since the removal of NBC content and better than our expectations.”
In its first quarterly earnings report since completing its merger with Hulu + Live TV, Fubo reported that it had a total of 6.2 million subscribers in North America (-1.6% YoY) and corresponding pro forma revenue of $1.675 billion (+6.1% YoY). The company also suffered a $19.1 million net loss globally, an improvement of 50.5% from the same period in the previous year.
Plus: NBCUniversal, Nielsen-Cumulus, The New York Times Company, WGR 550 SportsRadio
- NBCUniversal has added Mary Carillo to host Friday’s Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympics alongside Terry Gannon, filling in for Savannah Guthrie. The company also said that Craig Melvin is no longer making the trip overseas and tabbed Ahmed Fareed to fill his role hosting the “Olympic Late Night” show from February 7 to 9.
- The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit granted Nielsen its request to receive a stay in the antitrust case with Cumulus Media pertaining to tying access to national radio ratings with purchasing data from local markets, meaning an injunction against such is not in effect. Nielsen also alleged in a countersuit filed with the Southern District of New York that Cumulus had shared “proprietary and confidential radio ratings data” with “direct competitor” Eastlan. “Cumulus, a sophisticated national communications network, fully understood—and deliberately pursued—the deleterious effects such disclosure would have on Nielsen’s business, including the harm to Nielsen’s relationships with other customers.”
- New York Times Company CEO Meredith Kopit Levien acknowledged on a quarterly earnings call that the company has been “very, very happy with what [The Athletic] can do as a commercial business, as an ad business.” The company disclosed that it had 6.48 million subscribers either receiving a bundle package or digital access “to two or more of” its products, an increase of 210,000 subscribers (+3.34% YoY) on the quarter.
- The Buffalo Bills are departing Audacy-owned WGR 550 SportsRadio after 14 years on the airwaves, instead opting to produce and distribute their radio broadcasts directly. Moreover, WKBW reported that the Buffalo Sabres have a contract with WGR “through the end of the NHL season,” after which the team would no longer utilize the outlet as its flagship and move its production in house.
