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🎤 QUICK START ✍️

🏈 ESPN to debut Chapel Bill on a Monday night. The Worldwide Leader is taking a prudent approach to Bill Belichick’s debut as head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels. The network has given the six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach a standalone window on Labor Day for the Heels’ season-opener against TCU. Expect Chapel Bill to get the Coach Prime treatment during the upcoming season.

⚾ Ichiro would like a talk. Seattle Mariners great Ichiro Suzuki will be enshrined in Cooperstown this summer, no thanks to one Hall of Fame voter. The outfielder fell one vote shy of the elusive perfect vote, sparking yet another debate about the merits of the voting process. It’s fair to say that Ichiro has a bone to pick with the writer who snubbed him, inviting them to his house for “a good chat” during his press conference Thursday.

🎤 The Pivot away from Fanatics. Ryan Clark’s popular interview show is parting ways with Fanatics less than one year into a multiyear partnership. The two sides reportedly decided to mutually split late last year. The show is exploring new deals with other platforms and has already landed big-name guests like Nick Saban in the new year.

🚨LEADING OFF 🚨

Comcast launches its own skinny bundle

We have now entered Week 2 of a post-Venu world and the traditional TV distributors are hastily launching their own Venu-inspired offerings to the masses. Last week, DirecTV announced their “MySports” package that includes most of what a sports fan could ever want, and yesterday Comcast announced a competing service, “Sports & News TV,” that will also include most of what a sports fan wants.

It’s all that the distributors have ever wanted. For years now, DirecTV, Comcast, and the like have been clamoring for the ability to offer choice to the consumer by way of the “skinny bundle.” In the ever-declining business of cable/satellite television, sports, and news are the only content people truly subscribe to. Yet, the time-honored tradition of bundling by content providers like Disney, Fox, etc., has made this venture impossible, until now.

Since Venu’s implosion shortly after the Disney-Fubo tie-up earlier this month, content providers have seemingly lightened their stances on bundling. And with major distributors able to flex their most-favored-nation clauses to get the same terms as their competitors, these skinny bundles won’t be stopping at just DirecTV and Comcast.

The question is, are these things actually going to be useful?

Both DirecTV’s and Comcast’s offerings are priced around $70 per month. DirecTV includes everything except regional sports networks and CBS, and only carries local ABC, Fox, and NBC affiliates in select markets. Comcast similarly omits regional sports networks, and crucially does not include the Warner Bros. Discovery channels (i.e. TNT, TBS, truTV).

If you’re sitting there wondering, “Who are these for?” then congratulations, you and everyone else keyed into this news are on the same page. At $70 per month, both offerings are a far cry from what Venu claimed to be. $70 is not at all far off from streaming alternatives like YouTube TV ($83 per month) which gives you the whole enchilada (minus those pesky RSNs).

Conversely, Venu’s slimmed-down CBS and NBC-less package was set to be priced at a cool $43 per month, placing it firmly in no man’s land when it comes to streaming services; a tier higher than the entertainment-focused Netflix and Hulu, but quite a bit cheaper than the YouTube TVs of the world.

In an alternate universe where Venu saw the light of day, it’s easy to imagine a sports fan pairing the service with a free antenna to access CBS and NBC and calling it a day. Heck, they could even shell out a bit extra for Paramount+ and Peacock to satisfy all of their European soccer and Big Ten desires and still come in at under $60 per month.

Instead, services like DirecTV’s MySports and Comcast’s Sports & News TV prove we’re back at square one. There has yet to be a bundle for the live programming junkie that is truly a viable alternative to traditional cable/satellite TV packages.

It’s unlikely another distributor will come around and significantly undercut what DirecTV and Comcast have already put out there on the market. So now, the next shoe to drop will center around ESPN’s impending launch of “Flagship,” the network’s direct-to-consumer offering supposedly coming in August.

Will Flagship open the door for some skinnier bundles at an equally skinny price point? Time will tell. But right now, the market for that type of bundle remains completely untapped.

📣 SOCIAL EXPERIMENT 🌟

🖌️Graphics teams are having a moment🎨

👏 INDUSTRY INSIGHTS 🗣️

• Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith aren’t going anywhere according to CNBC’s Alex Sherman. The duo are set to re-sign with TNT Sports, with Shaq’s contract being a five-year agreement and Smith’s described as “multiyear.” Inside the NBA will air on ESPN next season under a licensing deal struck last year.

• Chris Paul, Kevin Love, Draymond Green, and Kyle Lowry are among the current NBA players Amazon and NBC are eyeing as potential talents for their studio shows next year, Sherman also reported Thursday. Both broadcasters are in the unique position of building out an NBA talent roster from scratch before starting their 11-year media rights agreements with the league next season.

• ESPN has shaken up its corporate structure under EVP, Sports Production Mike McQuade. As first reported by The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand, Scott Favalora, who oversees Event and Studio Directing, and Jack Obringer, who oversees Wraps and Content Integration, will now report directly to McQuade. ESPN content head Burke Magnus also announced a host of other promotions and reorganizations within the company earlier this week.

• WNBA star Cameron Brink is launching a podcast called Straight to Cam alongside Sydel Curry-Lee. The show, which debuts January 28th, plans to cover the WNBA, Unrivaled, and NBA along with some lighter fare like dating.

📈 DATA DUMP 📊

• Week 3 of the tech-infused simulator golf league TGL experienced an expected drop off in the ratings, though still looks very promising when compared to its competition. Tuesday’s match averaged 682,000 viewers on ESPN, down 32% from Week 2 which featured Tiger Woods’ playing debut, and down 27% from the league’s opening week. However, TGL has outdrawn comparable college hoops windows by 50% year-over-year. Further, the league boasts an incredibly young audience, with 43% of viewers in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demo compared to 33% for men’s college hoops. If TGL continues this type of performance, it’s on a very solid trajectory.

• Inter Miami is dominating TikTok. The Lionel Messi-boosted MLS side is taking full advantage of its worldwide phenom, tallying over four million more followers on TikTok than any other U.S. sports team, according to Lev Akabas of Sportico. Inter Miami has 10.4 million followers on the platform while the next closest team, the Golden State Warriors, has 6.3 million.

• The new 3-on-3 women’s basketball league Unrivaled is averaging 204,000 viewers between TNT and truTV, per Sports Business Journal. The high watermark so far was 313,000 for the league’s first game last Friday. The low point came one day later, 89,000 viewers for a Saturday afternoon game that aired exclusively on truTV.

️‍🔥The Closer🔥

Will the Fox Sports lawsuit cast a dark cloud over the network’s Super Bowl coverage?

Normally a time for celebration at any network lucky enough to broadcast it, the Super Bowl may take on a different feel for the folks over at Fox Sports this year.

The network is currently embroiled in a bombshell workplace misconduct lawsuit that names several on-air talents and executives. While these are just allegations, their very public and salacious nature may bring some challenges for Fox during what’s sure to be extensive coverage of Super Bowl LIX in two weeks.

The network has already begun to trickle out coverage plans for the Big Game. FS1 is set to “take over” the Fox broadcast channel on the Friday before the Super Bowl, with the network’s studio programming to preempt Fox’s normal weekday fare.

Typically, networks go all-out in their studio coverage in the lead-up to the Super Bowl. That usually includes on-site sets, and often, a live audience during these shows. With the high-profile nature of these allegations, subjecting the implicated talent to a live studio audience seems like it’d be risky business for the network.

Earlier this month, a source close to Fox told Front Office Sports, “The last thing they want is for [the lawsuit] to become a distraction in New Orleans.”

That would seem to indicate Fox might take the conservative approach and shield the people featured most prominently in the lawsuit — namely Speak host Joy Taylor — from any public appearances during Super Bowl week.

Something else to look out for is who Fox will make available at its pre-Super Bowl press conference. Traditionally, executives from the network airing the game will participate in a press conference during Super Bowl week. Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks would be the obvious candidate to represent the network.

Shanks was named in the lawsuit but was not listed as a defendant. Nevertheless, he’d undoubtedly have to field questions from a press corp eager to learn more about the ongoing litigation.

So far the only official statement from Fox came the day after the lawsuit was first reported. “We take these allegations seriously and have no further comment at this time given this pending litigation,” the network told Front Office Sports.

It’s all unfortunate timing for the network as it prepares to broadcast its second Super Bowl in three years, and the first to include its new crown jewel: Tom Brady.