Welcome to The A Block, Awful Announcing’s daily newsletter where you’ll always find the latest sports media news, commentary, and analysis.

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🎤 QUICK START ✍️

📺 Bill Simmons takes a shot. The Ringer founder did not have kind words about ESPN’s NBA Draft coverage following the first round. “I didn’t know which telecast to watch. It was like, do I take this samurai sword and jam it into my temple or do I take this chainsaw and saw my leg off? I couldn’t figure it out,” Simmons said. Specifically, the Sports Guy called out Kendrick Perkins…

🏀 Perk fires back. ESPN’s big man took exception to Simmons’ critique saying, “What have you done? What have you done, period, in the game of basketball? Have you ever played?” But he wasn’t done there. “It’s kind of pissing me off because you feel like you’re sitting on this throne,” Perkins continued. “You got in your feelings.” It’s a tough time to be part of ESPN’s NBA coverage at the moment.

🙌 On a positive note. Pro wrestling legend Jim Ross announced he’s cancer-free this week. The 73-year-old admitted that he was “scared to death” following his initial diagnosis, but is now hopeful that he’ll be able to help call the AEW All In pay-per-view at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, on July 12.

️‍🚨LEADING OFF 🚨

Has the skinny bundle finally gotten good?

I’d like to preempt this part of the newsletter by making one thing very clear. This is not an advertisement.

But occasionally, I find it incumbent upon us here at Awful Announcing to help guide our readers through an ever-difficult and ever-changing media landscape. At the end of the day, we all just want to watch sports in the simplest and most affordable manner possible. So today, I’m going to lead us off with some news you can use.

Earlier this year, pay TV distributors such as DirecTV and Comcast began launching what are known in the industry as “skinny bundles.” These are genre-specific packages that consumers can purchase that are much smaller, and crucially, much more affordable than a traditional cable or satellite subscription.

I won’t bore you with the reasons why it took until now for these types of packages to come to market (that’s a newsletter for another day). But they’re here now, and I’d venture to say they can help some of our readers save money on their live sports viewing habits.

The problem with the sports-focused skinny bundles released so far is that they’ve often been missing critical channels. Comcast’s offering, for instance, is missing the TNT Sports networks and nearly all of the league-specific channels like NFL Network. And, until now, DirecTV’s MySports package did not include one of the four main broadcast networks, CBS.

That is apparently changing according to a report yesterday in Sports Business Journal. Paramount and DirecTV have reached an agreement to include CBS and CBS Sports Network on DirecTV’s MySports skinny bundle. In doing so, MySports has become far and away the most complete sports-focused skinny bundle on the market.

Rather than listing what’s included, it’s easier to list what’s not included. If you’re a loyal Tennis Channel viewer, apologies, this package might not be for you. But if your sports viewing consists of, well, everything else, MySports is something you should probably consider.

At a price of $69.99 per month, the package comes in well below a traditional cable or satellite subscription and about $13 cheaper than virtual competitors like YouTube TV. It also includes ESPN+ (a $13 per month value) and will provide access to ESPN’s forthcoming direct-to-consumer service. Plus, it includes all of the cable news channels.

As for regional sports networks, if you’re in a FanDuel Sports Network market (or a few others) you’re in luck. MySports offers a $19.99 per month add-on, bringing your total cost to about $90. That’s not cheap, but it’s still far more affordable than the alternatives if you truly want everything.

Now, this is probably the part where I should say I can’t fully endorse MySports. I’ve never used it. I’ve been a YouTube TV loyalist for awhile now, but the addition of CBS to the package will likely get me to try it out for at least a month, at which point I’ll report back.

And if you’re wondering whether DirecTV will be raising prices on the offering a la YouTube TV’s strategy (which launched at $35 in 2017 and now costs $83 per month), that doesn’t seem to be the case. At least not yet, anyway. SBJ reports the addition of CBS will not include a price hike.

Whether or not a skinny bundle is right for you obviously depends on what kind of television consumer you are. If you’re only in the cable bundle for sports and news, an offering like this might be very attractive. If you enjoy having the entertainment or children’s programming that is available in a traditional bundle, then it’s probably not the best option. Heck, if your sports viewing is limited to just a few leagues or teams, there’s probably better ways to mix and match services to save money.

But for the generalist sports viewer who likes to have a little bit of everything, the skinny bundle is a good option. And even if it’s not a good option for you, the fact that companies are rolling these offerings out is objectively pro-consumer. Sports fans have long fought for optionality in what channels they do and don’t pay for, and skinny bundles give them one more option.

And now, there’s a truly viable alternative to the cable bundle for the sports junkie.

💬 AROUND AA 💬

The NBA offseason calendar is a mess: Here’s how to fix it

In the Age of Optimization, the NBA’s offseason calendar is anything but. If the NFL can perfect its offseason, eventizing everything from the draft to the schedule release, why can’t the NBA do the same? The NBA Finals, the draft, and free agency are all crammed into the same few weeks. If the NBA wants to become a year-round sport like the NFL has, it’s time for a change.

Awful Announcing’s Ben Axelrod gave the league some suggestions to spread out these tentpole events:

• June 5-22: NBA Finals

• July 2: NBA Draft (both rounds)

• July 9: Free agency begins

• July 14-26: Summer League

Seems simple, especially during an otherwise slow period on the sports calendar. Read Ben’s full column here to get all the details.

And if you’d like a bonus column about how ESPN can fix its haphazard NBA Draft coverage, check out Matt Yoder’s piece on how the network can fix its telecast in one fell swoop.

📣 SOCIAL EXPERIMENT 🌟

Is Anthony Davis a surefire Hall of Famer? The PTI guys aren’t seeing eye-to-eye.

“Buuuuush!”

📈INDUSTRY INSIGHTS💰

• Nearly two years on from the carriage negotiations that promised to change the landscape of the entire pay TV industry, Disney and Charter have reached another, much smaller, agreement. The new deal expands the current carriage agreement, adding Hulu’s ad-supported tier to Spectrum TV Select plans, along with the eight minor cable networks dropped during the 2023 dispute, per Dade Hayes of Deadline. Crucial for sports fans, however, is that the new agreement will include ESPN’s forthcoming direct-to-consumer streaming service in the Spectrum TV Select plan. Also included in the expanded agreement are Disney Jr, Disney XD, Freeform, FXX, FXM, Nat Geo Wild, Nat Geo Mundo and BabyTV, all of which were dropped by Charter during initial negotiations in 2023.

• SiriusXM announced the upcoming launch of its first-ever 24/7 channel dedicated to pro wrestling. The channel titled Pro Wrestling Nation 24/7 will make its debut on July 1 and will be available to find on Channel 156. The Busted Open radio show will serve as the channel’s flagship program after previously airing on SiriusXM Fight Nation. In addition to the impending launch of the new channel, SiriusXM also announced that it has signed Dave LaGreca to a multiyear extension, with the Busted Open founder continuing his role hosting the program alongside pro wrestling greats Bully Ray, Mark Henry and Tommy Dreamer.

• Following remarks made about Novak Djokovic during the Australian Open in January, Tony Jones, a sports anchor for Australia’s Channel Nine, will not be part of the network’s Wimbledon coverage. Djokovic refused to speak with Jones after the reporter made disparaging remarks about the tennis star. He later apologized, but it seems that won’t suffice for him to hop on a jet to England next week.

📈INDUSTRY INSIGHTS📊

• Predictably, Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami is leading the way from a viewership standpoint for the inaugural expanded FIFA Club World Cup. The Argentinian’s side has featured in three of the seven most-watched matches thus far. Inter Miami’s tilt against Palmeiras averaged 676,000 viewers across TNT and truTV on Monday. The club’s two other games against Al Ahly and FC Porto averaged 371,000 and 349,000 viewers respectively. Overall, TNT Sports is averaging 360,000 viewers per match for the Club World Cup so far.

• Despite excitement surrounding No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg, ESPN’s coverage of the NBA Draft declined 14.5% for Wednesday night’s first round. ESPN and ABC combined to average 3.77 million viewers throughout the broadcast, down from 4.41 million viewers last season, the first in which the two rounds were separated into their own nights. Despite the sagging overall numbers, the first half-hour of the broadcast, when Flagg was selected, was up 4% year-over-year.