NFL ratings are mostly flat through Week 8, U.S. Soccer toasts another renewed sponsorship and the NBA has next Monday’s election eve covered.
In the "better late than never" department, the Brooklyn Nets suspended Kyrie Irving for at least five games without pay Thursday, dismayed by his repeated failure to unequivocally say he has no antisemitic beliefs. Hours after Irving refused to issue the apology that NBA commissioner Adam Silver sought for posting a link to an antisemitic work on his Twitter feed, the Nets said Irving is "currently unfit to be associated with the Brooklyn Nets. We are dismayed today, when given an opportunity in a media session, that Kyrie refused to unequivocally say he has no antisemitic beliefs nor acknowledge specific hateful material in the film. This was not the first time he had the opportunity but failed to clarify." That's from the Nets' statement on Thursday evening. It's rare when it's the team, and not the league office, that hands out any consequences, so kudos to Nets' owner Joe Tsai and his executive team for taking action.
Good morning. It's Friday, November 4th, and this is your SBJ Morning Buzzcast. I'm David Albright filling in for Abe Madkour. Viewership of Thursday Night Football on Amazon has become a slow drag on the NFL's overall numbers through week eight, with average viewership now down 5%, after being up earlier in the season, notes our Austin Karp. All NFL games are averaging 15.7 million viewers to date, down from 16.5 million at the same point in 2021 compared to two years earlier. However, the NFL is up 4% even with the Thursday Night Football move. The traditional NFL media partners, NBC, CBS, Fox and ESPN are seeing averages right at where they were last season. Sunday Night Football is down just 1% to date. Over on ESPN, Monday night football is flat at 13.7 million viewers, including any simulcast on ABC and ESPN2. On Sunday afternoon, CBS windows are down just 1% and that's with one less double header window compared to the same period in 2021.
Fox's Sunday afternoon package is seen a 1% uptick to date. Where the NFL is feeling the pinch, is on Thursday nights. Amazon is averaging 10.3 million viewers, not including last night's Eagles Texans game. That is 16% lower than what Thursday night games drew through week eight last year, which was on a combination of Fox and NFL Network and also on NFL Network alone. However, the Thursday slate of games this season is up 7% from the same point in 2020, which was also a mix of NFL network and the combo of Fox and NFL Network. And if international games from London are excluded, the NFL average this season jumps to 16.2 million. US soccer renewed its relationship with its longest standing sponsor, Anheuser-Busch, reports our Alex Silverman. The multi-year extension, which US soccer negotiated directly with the beverage giant is worth seven figures annually for the national governing body.
As the official beer sponsor of US Soccer, Anheuser-Busch will continue to host US soccer kickoff parties the night before matches and maintain its entitlement of the fan selected woman or man of the match award. For the first time. AB also will be the official beer sponsor of the US Open Cup and the US Soccer Association National Amateur Cup celebration. The AB deal is the latest move in a spree of pre-World Cup commercial activity for US soccer, which Wednesday, announced a renewal of its partnership with Allstate, and last week added Truly Hard Seltzer as its first ever sponsor in that category.
Some updates on sports brands finances. In a busy week for quarterly earnings reports, Under Armour beat profit and revenue expectations for Q2, even as it cut its full year outlook amid a difficult retail environment. That's according to the Baltimore Business Journal. UA reported profits of 86.9 million for the period ending September 30th, down from 113.4 million for the same period last year. Total revenue for the company was 1.573 billion, up 2% compared to the same quarter a year ago. Both Under Armour's profits and sales were above Wall Street's expectations for the second quarter in a row."Electronic Arts entered another strong quarter in the books," writes SBJ, to be a sec, earning 299 million during the three month Q3 that ended September 30th. EA Sports and multi-platform live services business were the catalyst for continued growth. Meanwhile, Dish Network added about 30,000 net pay TV subscribers in Q3, compared with a drop of 13,000 in the year ago period and a decline of 257,000 in the second quarter of the year. All 15 NBA games on Election Eve, that's next Monday, November 7th will be available for free on the new NBA app. All 30 NBA teams will be in action with games starting at 7:00 PM, Eastern. Fans in the US and Canada can tune into Crunch Time, the NBA app's exclusive live weekly whip around show from 8:00 PM to midnight, Eastern to see crucial moments of each game throughout the night, commercial free. The league previously announced it had scheduled all 30 teams to play the night before election day when the NBA will help promote voter participation, share important resources from voting organizations, and highlight the civic engagement work of teams in their markets.
We'll close by noting that we want to hear from you. Sports Business Journal's reader's Survey is back. This year's questions take a broad look at the industry and the many changes that have occurred in recent years. Questions include, "What was the sports business story of the year?" "Have you watched live golf this year?" "Is NIL good or bad for college sports?" And, "How have your sports betting habits changed in the past year?" The survey will take no more than six or seven minutes to complete and the results will appear in the December 5th issue of Sports Business Journal. That's your SJ morning Buzz cast for Friday. I hope everyone has a great day, an even better weekend, and we'll see you back here, Monday morning.