Episode 295 of the Sports Media Podcast features ESPN national NHL reporter Ryan Clark and Austin Karp, managing editor/digital of Sports Business Journal. In this podcast, Clark discusses the league’s biggest storylines for the postseason; how a national writer decides on what to cover for the postseason; how much the ESPN name carries weight in hockey; being based in Seattle; the teams that are press friendly; how the war in Ukraine has impacted the season; Pride Night; Stanley Cup predictions; and more. Karp discusses the second season of the media rights deal the NHL has with Warner Bros. Discovery and ABC and ESPN; ABC/ESPN averaging 583,000 viewers for its regular season; how that number jumps when you exclude NHL vs. NFL windows; ABC’s NHL viewership; TNT averaging 364,000 viewers for its regular season games; what the numbers mean in context; the best Final matchup based on viewership, and more. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and more.

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Episode 294 of the Sports Media Podcast features Michael Nathanson, the co-founder and senior managing director of research firm MoffettNathanson. In this podcast, Nathanson, one of the top analysts in the country when it comes to the media sector, discusses the health of sports rights deals writ large; what the floor is on the number of pay-TV households in America; how 2023 TV advertising spending will impact sports spending; the media rights future of the College Football Playoff; why Michael thinks Fox could be a player for the NBA; why Adam Silver might want to expand reach by going with a broadcast network as one of his upcoming media partners; the rights future of the women’s basketball tournament; how the WWE sets up for media rights; sports as a driver of consumption and consumer spending; the short and medium term outlook for Fox as it relates to sports; whether the YouTubeTV-NFL deal makes sense; why Netflix is likely to enter the sports space; Premier League clubs collectively agreeing to withdraw gambling sponsorship from the front of clubs’ matchday shirts and what it might mean for the U.S. and more. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and more.

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Episode 293 of the Sports Media Podcast features Alan Shipnuck, a longtime golf writer who is a partner and executive editor at the golf media company, the Fire Pit Collective. He is also the author of “Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf's Most Colorful Superstar.” He is followed by Howard Beck, the longtime NBA writer whose work can today be found at GQ.com. Beck has written for the New York Times and Bleacher Report among other publications. In this podcast, Shipnuck discusses how challenging it is to cover the Masters; how a writer functionally covers the event; the LIV media deal; the future of Tiger Woods, and the sport as a TV play without Woods; the new TGL league, which will take place on Monday nights and has major stars signed up; forming a golf media company; and more. Beck discusses his recent piece, “Why NBA MVP “Voter Fatigue” Is (Mostly) a Myth”; what it’s like being an awards voter; whether writers should vote for league awards; what we expect from viewership in the NBA Play-In round and more. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and more.

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Episode 292 of the Sports Media Podcast  features ESPN play by play announcer Ryan Ruocco, who calls both the Women’s Final Four and the WNBA for ESPN, and the Yankees and Nets for the YES Network, and Chantel Jennings and Sabreena Merchant, national writers for The Athletic covering the WNBA and women’s college basketball. In this podcast, Ruocco discusses calling the most-watched women’s college basketball game of alltime as the voice of LSU-Iowa; why the women’s basketball growth has happened; the impact of Caitlin Clark; the footage of Angel Reese taunting Clark; the terrible officiating in the title game; his WNBA and Nets schedule; the MLB  pitch clock and more. Jennings and Merchant discuss covering the Women’s Final Four in Dallas; the record viewership; the upcoming women’s tournament media rights; why trash-talking and taunting are good for women’s basketball; Sabreena’s women’s college basketball too-early top 25 with LSU at No. 1; our No. 1 bet, and more. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and more.

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Episode 291 of the Sports Media Podcast features a roundtable discussion with The Boston Globe sports media writer Chad Finn and Sports Business Journal assistant managing editor/digital Austin Karp. They are followed by Alex Sherman, a media reporter for CNBC. In this podcast, Karp and Finn discuss LSU’s win over Iowa in the NCAA women’s basketball championship– the most-watched women’s college basketball game ever; what the viewership numbers mean in context; the future of women’s basketball as a media play; Jim Nantz signing off from the Final Four; the men’s tournament viewership number; the shortening of MLB games thanks to the rule changes; news-breakers on Sports Twitter; and more. Sherman discusses the WWE merging with UFC to form a new publicly traded company controlled  by Endeavor Group;  why Endeavor wanted this deal; why WWE wanted it; whether there are legit synergies between the two; the valuation of the deal; the upcoming media rights for ‘Raw’ and ‘SmackDown,’ and UFC; the WWE’s intellectual property; Vince McMahon’s future in the new company; where things stand with the NBA's upcoming media rights negotiations, and more. 

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Episode 290 of the Sports Media Podcast features WWE announcer Michael Cole, who has been one of the signature voices of WWE since 1997 and also works as the company’s Vice President of Announcing. In this podcast, Cole discusses working with Pat McAfee and how McAfee has helped rejuvenate his day-in passion for calling the product; his preparation for WrestleMania 39 from SoFi Stadium, which airs April 1 and April 2 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on Peacock in the US and WWE Network elsewhere; covering Presidential campaigns for CBS Radio prior to working at WWE; why he believes members of the Bloodline storyline should be nominated for an Emmy Award; how the hours leading up to WrestleMania for him are very mundane; the prospect of people gambling on WWE matches; how one approaches a job when performers are breaking tables next to you; what he is looking for regarding broadcasters he hires; why he will not work on-air after a certain age, and more. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and more.

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Episode 289 of the Sports Media Podcast features ESPN broadcaster Holly Rowe, who is covering the NCAA Women’s Basketball Final Four in Dallas this month. In this podcast, Rowe talks about the growth and evolution of the women’s basketball tournament; why viewership numbers are up; the title game being on ABC; the uniqueness and star power of Iowa’s Caitlin Clark; the impact of South Carolina’s success; why women’s basketball coaches are unlike other coaches when Rowe interviews them at the half or quarter breaks; how she prepares for the trophy ceremony; signing a long-term deal with ESPN to continue to have prominent roles on ESPN’s College Football Playoffs, college football regular season, NCAA Women’s Final Four, NCAA Women’s College World Series and WNBA coverage; being named a 2023 Curt Gowdy Media Award Winner (for electronic media) for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame; how her health is following a diagnosis of stage 4 desmoplastic melanoma, and more. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and more.

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Episode 288 of the Sports Media Podcast features ESPN investigative reporters Nicole Noren  and T.J. Quinn. In this podcast, the two reporters discuss their reporting over a four-year period on University of Utah athlete Lauren McCluskey a 21-year-old heptathlete who was murdered in 2018 by a man she briefly dated; the institutional failure by the university campus police and other institutions; how to report this kind of story and get public records; the resources they were given for the story; using surveillance videos to tell a story; how you navigate getting publicity for this without being exploitive; what has happened since at the University of Utah, and more. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and more.

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Episode 287 of the Sports Media Podcast features a conversation with Fox Sports lead MLB broadcaster Joe Davis and Britt Ghiroli, a senior writer for The Athletic covering MLB. In this podcast, Davis discusses calling six games of the World Baseball Classic including the semifinals and finals; what it was like to call Shohei Ohtani striking out Mike Trout to give Japan the title; how he prepared to call the event; calling on Stephen Nelson to help with pronunciations of the Japanese team; where he would play the WBC heading forward; how the rule changes will impact him as a broadcaster; potential places for Ohtani in 2024 and more. Ghiroli discusses what will make the WBC a better event in 2026; the international interest in the event; MLB’s plans to fix the RSN mess; the city and team best for baseball when it comes to Ohtani’s future home and more.  You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and more.

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Episode 286 of the Sports Media Podcast features two guests. First up is Kevin Harlan, the CBS Sports, Warner Bros Discovery Sports and Westwood One Audio play by play broadcaster. Harlan is calling the NCAA Tournament this month. He is followed by Jeff Pearlman, the best-selling author of ten books, the writer of the “Jeff Pearlman's Journalism Yang Yang Substack” and host of the “Two Writers Slinging Yang” podcast. In this podcast, Harlan discusses his now-viral call of Furman’s upset of Virginia; why he was uncomfortable with that video getting out; how he prepares to call four games in a single day; calling NCAA Tournament games in Las Vegas; calling the Super Bowl on radio; working with his daughter, Olivia Harlan Dekker, and more. Pearlman discusses his column on journalists not paying sources, how he looks at things such as reporters taking subjects out to dinner; whether we were complicit at Sports Illustrated attending parties where subjects were invited; reporting for his upcoming book on Tupac Shakur and more. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and more.

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