New day in Denver as ownership meets the team; Disney's streaming strength; Fox pushes back on any ad slowdown and MLB dreams big again in Iowa.
New day in Denver as ownership meets the team; Disney's streaming strength; Fox pushes back on any ad slowdown and MLB dreams big again in Iowa.
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A sellout of nearly 20,000 fans filled Allon field on Wednesday night, MLS, all stars held off the league, a MX all stars for the second straight year, a two to one victory in the MLS Allstar game. Like I said, Wednesday night at Alliance field, another good indicator for MLS as it heads into the second half of its season. And this is your morning buzz cast for Thursday, August 11th. Good morning. I'm a mad cor. Thanks for listening. Hope you're doing well. Let's start with some news on Disney. While many of the results we've seen recently have indicated a slowdown in streaming service subscriptions that hasn't applied to Disney's portfolio during its quarter report. Yesterday, Disney announced that Disney plus added nearly 15 million subscribers about 45% more than wall street had expected. And that lifted Disney's portfolio of streaming services, which includes Hulu and ESPN plus to 221 million subscribers around the world.Why is that interesting while that edges out Netflix for the first time, meanwhile, subscriptions to ESPN plus continue to grow. Here are few other items of interest. First, we talked about the impact of losing the digital rights to India's premier cricket league and Disney admitted that will impact its global goal of reaching up to 260 million subscribers with Disney plus alone by 2024, because it did not retain those rights. Disney has lowered its expectations, and now it's estimated to hit between 215 to 240 million subscribers by 2024. But finally, I'll just say this streaming is a long game. Disney continues to lose money on its streaming business. As losses for Disney's streaming division exceeded a billion dollars. We know they are spending a lot of money on content, but last year, the streaming losses were 300 million same period.Last year, this year they exceeded a billion dollars, but streaming revenue does continue to increase. It was up 20% to 5.1 billion, but overall streaming is still a long, long game, but good indicators for Disney's portfolio. Let's move on to baseball because major league baseball returns to Iowa tonight, and it tries to, uh, recapture that major success of last year's stunning debut of its field of dreams game. Remember that Yankees white Sox matchup that was decided, uh, at the end with a home run, it was a pop culture and ratings hit. It won sports event of the year at the sports business awards. So a very high bar has been set for a year two tonight in Dyersville Iowa, which is expected again to draw a sellout of about 8,000 fans. Tonight's game will be on Fox at eight o'clock Eastern. And while last year's game drew nearly 6 million viewers, which was the most watched regular season baseball game on any network since 1998.Well, it will be hard pressed to match that number this year for one, the matchup isn't as appealing really Yankees white Sox last year was great. This year, you have two underperforming clubs in the Cubs and the reds, but it will still be a marque game for baseball and for Fox look for some new sponsorship activation around the event. Look for 15 official league sponsors to be activating or advertising onsite eight MLB partners, Adobe Anheuser Bush capital one, Geico Chevy Google mattress firm, and T-Mobile will be advertising during the broadcast, but take in these visuals from Iowa because major league baseball will not return to Dyersville Iowa. In 2023 construction plans at the field of dreams will prevent a return next year for major league baseball. But again, a big night for baseball. Let's see how year two fairs for MLBs field of dreams game in Iowa, shifting to the NFL.Another big day in the new ownership for the Denver Broncos yesterday on Wednesday as the Rob Walton, Greg Penner ownership group was in Denver a day after their purchase of the Broncos was finalized and approved by NFL owners. So Greg Walton, Rob Penner were joined by Carrie Walton, Penner, melody Hobson and condo Lisa Rice. As the new ownership group visited with Bronco's players, they met with the club senior executives. They held a meet and greet with team employees, meanwhile, as expected longtime president and CEO, Joe Ellis, one of the really well regarded leaders in the NFL officially resigned from his position at the Broncos. Greg Penner, the son-in-law of Rob Walton was named CEO and he'll be the Broncos really main point person. But Penner said he will hire a new team president, which is one of the most talked about openings in the sports business right now.So bottom line, new ownership is getting settled at the Denver Broncos. Let's move on to media while many in the sports marketplace brace for an economic slowdown impacting sports advertising and sponsorship Fox yesterday told a very positive story for the network. As sports programming has been its strongest advertising platform, and it led the way in the company's upfront media negotiations or ad sales negotiations, Fox CEO Locklin Murdoch said during the company's earnings call on Wednesday, that Fox has sold more NFL Sunday advertising in this current upfront market than Fox sold across both Sunday and Thursday night combined in last year's marketplace. So that Sunday ad marketplace very strong for Fox. He said the company's ad sales for this year's super bowl in February is pacing well ahead of schedule. And they are seeing very robust demand and record pricing levels for super bowl spots. So all of that is good news as Fox indicates that the ad sales market for sports for its network is still very robust.Finally we'll end around college sports, influential college leader and Notre Dame, athletic director, Jack Schwar brick said some very interesting comments during a university chat session that was covered by our friends at D one ticker Schwar brick of course, wields, great influence, and his words have meaning. And he argued that Notre Dame's independence has never been more valuable than it is right now as power consolidates in college sports and Notre Dame is still a premium, highly sought after institution. Swar Brook also said that many believe Notre Dame would be giving up its independence and that it was inevitable that eventually Notre Dame would forego its independence, but he says he is not so sure about that. He also said the upcoming big 10 media deal could be perfect for Notre Dame. Remember the big 10 likely to reach a deal with NBC and SW brick believes that that will elevate the role of college football at NBC, which should benefit Notre Dame's programming and promotion and lead for even more exposure for Notre Dame on that network. Finally, Jack Warburg thinks that both the big 10 and the SCC will eventually grow and get to around 20 teams each, but he doesn't think other additions are imminent. So some interesting words for influential college leader, Jack Warrick from Notre Dame, and that is your morning buzz cast for Thursday, August 11th. I made mad Corp. Thanks for listening. Hope you have a great day, stay healthy, be good to each other. I'll speak to you tomorrow.