From television ratings and rights deals to the latest personnel moves, Sports Media Watch and its founder Jon Lewis have been covering the sports media industry on a daily basis for nearly two decades.
Since its founding by Lewis in 2006, Sports Media Watch has established itself as a well-known source in the sports media industry thanks to its understanding of complicated data, such as television ratings; an emphasis on quality content; and in-depth coverage of leagues large and small, from the NFL to college volleyball.
With its emphasis on clear, concise reporting, SMW has the goal of translating the language of sports business into that which is easily understood by both the average fan and industry professionals. It has arguably brought the discussion of sports television ratings into the mainstream — for better or worse — and through easy-to-digest facts, figures and analysis has helped provide the context for innumerable debates about the relative popularity of college conferences, professional leagues and star players.
Lewis and Sports Media Watch have been cited and/or quoted in many of the major domestic news publications ranging from The New York Times and Washington Post to The Wall Street Journal and Boston Globe.
Beyond anything else, SMW is motivated by a high interest in the sports business niche and could not exist without its author having a lifelong affinity for the inner-workings of sports television. That interest is shared by many of its loyal commenters and has helped sustain the site’s existence — one of the only the sites born of the mid-2000s blogosphere still principally run by one person — into what is approaching its third decade.
For the sports media obsessive, the alum advocating for his alma mater, those who work in the field, those who play on the field, and anyone else interested in the what, where, how and why of sports television, Sports Media Watch seeks to provide clarity.
