Cable distribution continues its downward descent, MLB introduces its draft lottery and the MLBPA opens its first international office.
Cable distribution continues its downward descent, MLB introduces its draft lottery and the MLBPA opens its first international office.
George Stetson Bennett TCUs, max Duggan, Ohio State, CJ Stroud, and uscs, Caleb Williams. Were announced Monday as the Heisman Trophy finalists. The four quarterbacks who play for four of the top 10 teams, including three that will play in the college football playoff will be in New York for the Heisman ceremony on Saturday night. Uscs Williams is the betting favorite to take home the award even after the Trojans were eliminated from the college football playoff. Following a loss to Utah in the PAC 12 championship game, quarterbacks have dominated the award in recent years, winning 18 times since 2000, and taking home five of the past six trophies. Good morning. It's Tuesday, December 6th, and this is your SJ Morning Buzz cast. I'm David Albright. Filling in for a Mad Corps sports channels saw their distribution shrink significantly. This year, according to the latest Nielsen estimates, all told Nielsen says the number of subscribers to multi-channel video programming distributors dropped 5% from January to December this year.
Here are a few of the takeaways. The big networks are down like TNT and tbs, both 8%, 7%. FS one and USA 6% medium sized and small networks were hit even harder. BN Sports showed a 19% drop tennis channels down 16%. NBA TV and MLB network both are down 12%. Speaking of Lego networks, NFL networks distribution story will be noticed by any company looking to take an equity stake in the league's media business. It's subscriber numbers were down 9% in 2022 to just 52 million homes distribution for TBS and TNT has fallen below ESPN and ESPN two for years. The entertainment networks boasted higher sub numbers than their sports competitors. Even USA is only slightly ahead of espn. FS one is in a dead heat with espn with the Fox own KLO Sports Network in 73.7 million homes and Disney's flagship Sports Network in 74.2 million two NBC back channels shuttered this year.
Nbcsn went dark in January when it was in 78.6 million homes and the Olympic Channel shut down September 30th with a distribution of 47 million in its cord cutting monitor released last week. Moffitt Nathanson said Rates of decline in pay TV accelerated to new all time worst in quarter three, and at the rate of decline for the total linear ecosystem stands at minus 6.2%. On the other side of the coin, NBC U ceo Jeff Shell said that Peacock has more than 18 million paid subscribers as of today. That's a nice bump from the 15 million it announced for the quarter that ended September 30th. It's mostly driven by programming migrated over from Hulu plus sports and Universal movies. The big question in all of this is where and when down the road will the past and future business models intersect. Nike officially has parted ways with Brooklyn Nets guard, Kyrie Irving one month after the company suspended its relationship with him due to his posting a link on social media to a film that had antisemitic views in it.
Irving is now a sneaker free agent. The Kyrie eight was slated to be released in late November. Irving had been under contract with Nike since 2014. Meanwhile, Grizzly's Guard Ja Moran is in line to receive a new signature shoe at Nike in the near future. According to sources, the parties have been working on it for several months. In an effort to deter tanking, MLBs, inaugural draft lottery is set to unfold tonight. During the winter meetings in San Diego, the lottery, a component of the collective bargaining agreement reached by the league and the players association ahead of last season will be broadcast exclusively on MLB network. At 8:30 PM Eastern 18 teams have a shot at winning the number one pick in July's draft with the nationals athletics and pirates all possessing the best odds at 16.5% each. The drafts first six picks are determined by the lottery LB network's.
Greg Ainger is hosting the Network's 30 minute program alongside Dan and Harold Reynolds. During the lottery, each of the 18 clubs will have a representative from their front office in the room, most of whom will be from the scouting department, mlb, SVP of on field operations. Raul Ibanez will announce the order of the picks during the program. The MLB network broadcast will show footage from the selection process involving a coated ping pong ball system, which will take place prior to MLB network's reveal program. It's overseen and audited by Pricewaterhouse Coopers. The MLBPA announced the opening of its first international office in the Dominican Republic. The union has hired a full-time manager and stateside based former players and staff will rotate into the office to work as well. It's located in the city of Santa Domingo. Most MLB players are from the us, but a large percentage of the international players are natives of the Dominican Republic. The purpose of the office is to provide support to players during both their playing and post playing careers. Mlbpa executive director Tony Clark, said that the opening of the office demonstrates the union's commitment to protection in advancing the rights of international players. The MLB p a represents about 1200 major leaguers and recently expanded its membership to about 5,000 by unionizing the minor league baseball players. And that's your SJ morning bus cast for Tuesday. I hope everyone has a great day and we'll see you back here tomorrow morning.