MLB draws a new deadline in the sand, cable TV distribution loses more homes and Turner picks up U.S. Soccer rights.
The negotiations to create a new collective bargaining agreement and save the start of the major league baseball season lasted 16 hours yesterday and went well past midnight in Florida. And now there's a 5pm eastern deadline today to reach a deal and avoid canceling games. The two sides are scheduled to resume the talks at 11am eastern. Follow along on sportsbusinessjournal.com for the latest developments in this continuing saga.
Good morning, it's Tuesday, March 1st. And this is your SBJ Morning Buzzcast. I'm David Albright filling in for Abe Madkour. In other negotiation news, Charter and Sinclair agreed to a one month extension as they negotiate a new deal for Sinclair's Bally Sports RSNs according to several sources. The original deal, which also includes Sinclair's local TV channels was set to expire at midnight last night. These negotiations come just a little more than three months after Sinclair signed a deal with Dish network that did not include the RSNs. It's not an overstatement to say that the future of Bally Sports' RSNs depends on Charter agreeing to carry them on their spectrum TV systems. Sources on both sides of the aisle stress that media analysts shouldn't read too much into the fact that Charter and Sinclair worked out an extension, but the extension clearly means that there's a deal to be had.
Pay TV distributors dropped close to 400,000 subscribers last month, according to a monthly estimate Nielsen puts out. The total number of multi-channel homes in the US felt at just over 82 million per Nielsen. Every network that carries sports saw its distribution numbers drop, except for the big 10 network, which inexplicably posted a 46,000 month over month household increase. Not surprisingly the biggest networks that show sports all have distribution above 77 million. That includes ESPN, ESPN2, FS1, TBS, TNT, and USA Network. With 79 and a half million homes, Discovery channel has the highest distribution of any US cable network.
Speaking of those aforementioned sports networks, US Soccer is set to announce an English language, media rights deal with Warner Media Properties, Turner Sports and HBO, according to a report in the athletic. US Soccer's deal with ESPN and Fox Sports runs through the end of 2022. These new media rights do not include the men's or women's World Cup, which is held by Fox through 2026. Turner would have the rights to US Soccer properties, which includes men's and women's national team friendlies. The She Believes cup and US men's and women's national team World Cup qualifiers. Notably as a host country, the US is not expected to play any qualifiers ahead of the 2026 World Cup. It's not entirely clear how US Soccer's rights will be split between Turner and HBO, but HBO Max may be the streaming home of the Federation's games.
Invesco QQQ will title sponsor the Women's Basketball Coaches Association coaches trophy that's presented each year to the division one Women's Basketball National champion at the conclusion of the NCAA tournament. Invesco is the official ETF and official asset management partner of the NCAA. The deal was negotiated by the Learfield, which coordinates corporate agreements and the WBCA for the NCAA. ESPN, which holds the exclusive rights for the NCAA division one women's basketball championship also contributed to the agreement via Disney advertising. This marks the third time in the history of the trophy that it has been sponsored. Excel Sports Management has formally agreed to acquire executive search firm Nolan Partners, which will continue to be led by CEO, Paul Nolan and President Chad Biagini, while operating as a new vertical within Excel's properties division. Under the deal, which was reported by our Terry Lefton in this week's issue of SBJ, Nolan will retain its name. Excel's properties division reports to Partner and Chief Business Officer Emilio Collins and is headed by Senior VP, Jason Miller.
Nolan Partners, which was founded 16 years ago in London, also has offices in New York and Dallas. The UK office will provide Excel with a European beach head. The addition will bring Excel's headcount to around 150, a figure that has nearly doubled since 2019. Couple of quick notes to round out the Buzzcast, the NHL and Amazon Web Services unveiled a new in-game broadcast graphic called face off probability, which will provide fans info on which players are taking the draw and the probability for both players winning the face off. AWS has been the league's official cloud, AI and machine learning infrastructure provider since last February. Once this gets refined, don't be surprised to see in game betting possibilities around those face offs.
Packer CEO, Mark Murphy has indicated that Green Bay, Detroit and Washington DC are the three finalists to host the 2024 NFL draft. Final decision is expected at the NFL league meetings later this month in Florida. This year's NFL draft will take place in Las Vegas in late April and the 2023 draft is set for Kansas City. And finally, a little help with your busy calendar, if you haven't already it's time to save the date May 18th for the 2022 Sports Business Awards. The ceremony will be back live and in person at the Marriott Marquis in New York City. For more information on the program and how to attend, go to the events page on sportsbusinessjournal.com. May 18th, mark your calendar. And that's your SBJ Morning Buzzcast for Tuesday. I hope everyone has a great day and we'll see you back here tomorrow morning.