Highlights From Sports Media & Technology 2007: Day One

The Fantasy Sports Association Sports Media & Technology Conference began at The Westin N.Y. with a panel entitled, "Understanding Tomorrow's Sports Media Consumer," featuring CSTV President & CEO Brian Bedol, Turner Sports President David Levy, Comcast Programming Group President Jeff Shell and NBA Deputy Commissioner & COO Adam Silver. Below are some highlights.

The Issue: Where is the industry on the issue of sports tiers currently?
The Skinny:
Shell: "Melinda Witmer (Time Warner Cable Senior VP & Chief Programming Officer) said it perfectly. The whole issue of carriage on cable is price value. (Sports tiers are) nice places for a network that needs to be priced at a higher level and is a niche space."
Bedol: "the distributors who have sports properties don't have the incentive to grow sports tiers because for the most part their own sports properties are distributed on a broader basis. As a business proposition, if everyone was focused on the same goal, which is maximizing the distribution of a tier, sports tiers can be viable business for distributors to offer. There needs to be a shared incentive to maximize distributions."
Levy: "If [sports nets] get larger distributions, they become competitors of TNT, ESPN and whoever...They become competitors for ratings, they become competitors for distribution. I'm just saying, as they grow, they naturally become competitors."
Silver: "Our original intention for the (NBA) channel was to drive distribution to other channels. We're on nights that TNT and our other partners aren't on. We see it as a way to drive our audience to TNT and whomever."

The Issue: Has the NFL overplayed its hand in its effort to get carriage for NFL Network:
The Skinny:
Shell: "If Sunday Ticket was included as part of the basket of what was being offered, it certainly would be a better price."
Bedol: "I'm not sure if they've overplayed their hand. It strikes me as in the digital universe of hundreds of channels where sports has been a primary driver...there should be a place for sports specific network on digital basic cable...As part of that $75 or $85 for cable, people should get a suite of channles -- a football channel, a baseball channel, a basketball channel."
Levy, on NFL Network's strategy of having a Jerry Jones approach government entities to push for broader distribution: "I've never seen it work; when you ask government to step in and be involved in these issues, it's never a positive thing for anyone."
Silver: "It's an extremely risky strategy to ask Congress to weigh in on one issue and hope they don't weigh in on everything else (like a la carte pricing)."

CBS' McManus (l) Discusses Flex Schedule, NFL Commissioner During One-on-One

CBS' Sean McManus Discusses Flex Schedule, Goodell at SMT
CBS' Sean McManus sat for a One-on-One interview at the Fantasy Sports Association Sports Media & Technology Conference at the Westin N.Y. It's been almost two years since McManus added the title of President of CBS News to his existing position as president of the network's sports division. McManus discussed a number of topics, ranging from Katie Couric to Roger Goodell.

The Issue: Would you ever have guessed that ratings for the Patriots-Colts and Patriots-Cowboys games would be so high?
McManus: I was talking with Chris "Mad Dog" Russo at a charity dinner before the Patriots-Colts game, and he said to me, "Mike Francesca says you're going to get a 25 rating." I said "We're not going to get a 25 rating. If we get a competitive game in the fourth quarter, we'll do somewhere between a 19.5 and a 21;" and it was a 20.5. That was obviously enormous.

When the schedule came out, we targeted those two games, and we had the opportunity, as do all the leagues broadcast partners, to sit down with the NFL, and try to protect certain games. The NFL does a really good job of dealing with four broadcast partners, figuring out which games are going to go to prime time for ESPN and NBC, which go Sunday afternoon and which go to the NFL Network. Those are two games we targeted from day one. In the past we've lost the Patriots-Colts game, and that's a game we really think we should have on Sunday afternoon.

The Issue: NFL's flexible primetime broadcast schedule.
McManus: The intent of flex schedule was to make sure that in the second half of the season, the primetime network package didn't get stuck with a bad game. It was never intended to cherry pick the best game on Sunday and move it to primetime. It was never intended to let NBC -- despite what they, I think, wanted people to believe -- it was never intended to let NBC pick a game and move it to primetime.

I think the Patriots versus Cornell would probably be a game they would put in primetime right now.

The Issue: Are league-owned networks a threat to cable networks?
McManus: The NFL Network is, to an extent, an insurance policy just in case the kind of money that they think their cable package is worth isn't able to be acquired. The NFL is very cognizant that TNT and ESPN, to a large extent, built themselves on the backs of NFL programming. You can make the case that TNT became a fully-distributed viable network because they had that eight-game NFL package. And there would still be an ESPN today without the NFL, but they certainly wouldn't be getting the three-and-half to four dollars per month per subscriber, and wouldn't be the powerhouse that it is today. The NFL looked at that history and said, "If anybody's going to build a cable channel on the backs fo the NFL programming again, its going to be us."

The Issue: Will the government get involved in the NFL Network-Time Warner dispute?
McManus: The success of the NFL Network will be determined by the marketplace, not by Congress.

The Issue: Working with former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue compared to working with current Commissioner Goodell.
McManus: They both really focus on long term, not just one or two years, but 10 years ahead. Both Roger and Paul put the fan above all else, whether its player behavior, dealing with rules or stadiums, they really both think about what is the best product for their fans. Roger is probably a little more at ease socially than Paul was. Paul didn't enjoy being in the spotlight all that much.

Issue: Katie Couric
McManus: There has not been a single person in television who has received more -- and the vast majority of it has been unfair -- bad, mean-spirited criticism than Katie Couric has. The personal attacks that have occurred have been unbelievable. The only person that I've ever seen that has generated as much attention in the press is Howard Cosell.

Panel: "The Changing Landscape of Online Video Distribution."
Panelists: YouTube.com Sports Community Manager Andrew Bangs, Turner Sports Senior VP/Production & New Media Lenny Daniels, Joost VP/Content Strategy & Acquisition Vipin Goyal, Fox Sports Interactive Senior VP & GM Brian Grey, PGA Tour Senior VP/New Media Paul Johnson, ESPN Senior VP & GM/Digital Media John Kosner, SportNet CEP Luke McDonough.

The Issue: What are people watching most online?
The Skinny:
Kosner, after the audience said they spend most time watching highlights: "That's true, but analysis and previews and takes around the game get bundled into highlights. It's about the game you watched or are going to watch."
Goyal: "On Joost, we're seeing a lot of use of the highlights. But interview material, archived material, documentary-type material...is performing extremely well because it doesn't have the shelf life that highlights do."

The Issue: Are we going to see more collaboration on online vide with league partners and efforts that are co-branded in the future?
The Skinny:
Grey: "For us, it can and will be in a lot of cases. With MLBAM for our ALCS, it worked great because we were both going to cover it an be there. There were a lot of efficiencies we could get to with respect to production and the use of talent. And then we can put both of our distributions behind it and get it to viewers, which allowed advertisers to get behind it. We like that model and think it has legs and extend to other relationships, particularly the BCS."
Daniels: "Unlike Fox or ESPN, Turner Sports isn't a brand. We believe we're building a league brand. In the end, that's creating premium content and consumers to come to that, and both of us get stronger."

Sling Media's Blake Krikorian

Sling Media CEO Discusses Deals With Leagues
Sling Media CEO Blake Krikorian took part in a One-on-One interview during the Fantasy Sports Association Sports Media & Technology Conference in N.Y. Slingbox has made headlines this year by signing a deal with the NHL, and its legitimacy in the marketplace was secured when the company was recently purchased by EchoStar. Krikorian said the company "always had a hope that content owners across the board, whether it was sports or other forms of media owners, would see the light in terms of our technologies." He said, "The licensing of sports content in the digital world is much more straightforward than movies or television shows, because there's typically one owner of the property. The buck stops there, and we don't have to go all the way down to the guilds, because we can see what is happening today with the screenwriters and other guilds. With the exception of MLB, all the major sports have things pretty much consolidated into one place, whether its digital, or audio or other technologies." Krikorian said EchoStar intends to spin Sling, along with some in-house technology, "into a seperate company." Krikorian: "While there may have been some synergies and some leverage points of being all one big happy family, now we'll be a technology provider to Dish Network, but we'll also be an independent company. Our ability to bundle the Dish Network into a deal with a sports league will now be pretty handicapped, but it frees us up to work with multiple operators."

Highlights From Sports Media & Technology 2007: Day Two

The second day of the ninth annual Fantasy Sports Association Sports Media & Technology Conference kicked off with a lively panel on programming and distribution of conference- and league-owned networks. The panel featured Big Ten Network President Mark Silverman, Fox National Cable Sports Network President Bob Thompson, Cox Communications Senior VP/Programming Bob Wilson and Time Warner Cable Senior VP & Chief Programming Officer Melinda Witmer. Here are some highlights:

Time Warner Cable's Melinda Witmer

The Issue: Why do sports tiers inspire such opposition from networks, like the Big Ten Network, and support from cable operators?
The Skinny:
Witmer said sports tiers are "a way to control costs...Unfortunately, what we've not been able to do is find a strong anchor tenant...None of the networks are confident on a sports tier that consumers are going to go to it and find them. We believe diehard sports fans will pay for it, but we need to have the highest quality programming there to make it work."
Wilson: "I don't think this has been about quality of programming or the passion of fans. This is about us being able to five customers the chance to opt out of cost."
Thompson said the Big Ten Network will never appear on sports tiers, but added, "At Fox, we're not against sports tiers. We have a variety of products we built and designed specifically for sports tiers, whether it was Fox College Sports...to Fuel to Fox Soccer, etc. Our exception is for things like the Big Ten Network, which have much broader appeal."
Silverman: "There's a reason sports programming is expensive. It's because people watch it...Not everyone wants to watch sports -- but not everyone has children, yet they're getting Disney Channel and Nickelodeon...We're entering a business that's established and there is expanded basic of 60 or 80 channels. All we're saying is that in these eight states that make up the Big Ten, you can't find 60 channels that are more important than this channel. If you're going to continue to have basic packages, you have to include a network like this."
Wilson: "You can't ignore where we are in our existing service levels. The networks we carry on our expanded basic, which include regional and national sports networks, represent over 40% of our expanded basic cost yet represent under 10% of our viewing. If we're going to cram more into that, how do we address it?"
Greatest Hit: Witmer: "We have people who are willing to paint their Winnebago in school colors and park themselves out there. I got to believe that they're willing to pay something extra."

The Issue: Future of other conferences and teams pursuing channels.
The Skinny:
Witmer: "The one thing I'd like to understand is what the (Big Ten) network is. Is it a regional sports network? What's to stop there from being a Wolverine network next?
Thompson: "Not all conferences are created equally in terms of market strength, and geographically there are a wide variety of different scenarios. Based on where each major conference rights lie, they vary...Certainly a lot of the conferences are looking at this, and they'd be foolish not to."
Silverman: "All the schools' rights are tied up in the (Big Ten) conference. We are the Buckeye channel. In Ann Arbor, we are the Wolverine channel. To be able to have 75 to 80 events for each school, that's what the Big Ten Network is."
Thompson: "Notre Dame cut a deal with Comcast, but VOD specific. If they felt they didnt' deserve a full-time linear channel, I find it hard to believe that other teams believe they should."
Wilson: "These battles seem to evolve into the distributor versus the network. From our standpoint, it's all about the customer. What does the customer want to pay for? The price resistance and pressures we feel from a pricing standpoint are enormous."

Panel: "Growth of Fantasy Sports Outside of Football and Baseball."
Panelists: STATS Associate VP/Applications Group Jim Corelis, Sporting News VP & GM Online Jeff Gerttula, NBA Interactive VP Steve Grimes, CBSSports.com VP/Product Management & Marketing Patrick Herde, ProTrade Founder & CEO Mike Kerns, ESPN VP/Games Raphael Poplock, Fox Sports Interactive VP/Product Larry Tobin.

The Issue: Where are we seeing the growth of fantasy sports?
The Skinny:
Kerns: "The NBA jokes, but I think it's actually true, particularly if you look at what these guys can do over in Asia, China."
Poplock: "We've got tremendous assets in the ESPN international brand -- cricket, rugby, worldwide soccer."

(l to r) Will Leitch, Rich Libero And Chris LaPlaca Offer Lively Discussion On Blogs

Panel: "The Impact of the Blogosphere."
Panelists: TrueHoop.com/ESPN.com Senior Writer Henry Abbott, Islanders VP/Media Relations Chris Botta, ESPN Senior VP/Communications Chris LaPlaca, Deadspin.com Editor Will Leitch, NHL VP/Interactive CyberEnterprises Rich Libero.

The Issue: What's fair game on blogs?
The Skinny: "If we are going to view these athletes as corporate beacons and say 'We're going to pay you a lot of money to tell us to eat this and buy this,' than why are they not fair game? In any other industry besides sports, everything has always been fair game."
Abbott: "It depends. In theory, my bosses could kill a post, but they never have."
Leitch: "The editorial restraint I show is way more than others. Believe me, I'm the nice guy in the blog world."
Greatest Hit: "It used to be, long ago, when teams did media training, you'd show guys an Iverson tape, and say don't do that. But that's all changed. Even discussions in the locker room can get out now. You have to be aware of where you are at all times. There are cameras everywhere. It's paranoia almost." -- Botta