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Television
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Written by Maury Brown
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Tuesday, 16 September 2008 04:30 |
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CNBC's Darren Rovell is, as far as this author knows, the only reporter that is almost exclusively dedicated to sports business on television. Accessible and sharp, Rovell has given those that follow sports as a business a considerable amount of insight.
The Business of Sports Network previously interviewed Rovell regarding his documentary on Nike for The Biz of Basketball (read the interview here). Now, Rovell has taken time to talk to Ken Fang of the invaluable Fang's Bites blog. Here's just a small excerpt from Ken's interview with Rovell: FB: With the NFL now in season, what are some of the stories that you feel we'll be reading over the next few months? Labor strife? Online streaming?
DR: I'll take the NFL Network story into another season. It's a fascinating tale. How the greatest sports league has had a tremendously hard time getting traction with their channel. They've tried plenty. They gave themselves those slate of games. They had two huge games last year and the carriers haven't budged. There's been word that they're trying to forge an alliance, but you kind of wonder how committed the owners are to making this work and how much money they could really be making in its current state with its current carriage.
FB: Last year, Fox reportedly sought $2.7 million for a 30-second spot for a Super Bowl ad. Do you see advertisers getting a bang for their buck? And how much is too much? And what do you see NBC charging for Super Bowl XLII?
DR: Some advertisers get a bang for their buck, others don't. What's going to be interesting is to see how much Anheuser-Busch scales back on the Super Bowl game and on their priority to win the USA Today Ad Meter now that they are owned by InBev. I'm sure you've seen this, but so far NBC is reporting they've sold 85 percent of their ads at a market value of $3 million. That's amazing. But the thing that separates the Super Bowl from any other sporting event is that, no matter who is playing, it's always going to get a great rating. The other aspect that continues to drive the buck here is that it's no secret that people pay more attention to the commercials during the Super Bowl than the commercials in any other single piece of programming throughout the year.
Check the interview out as it covers the gamut from the Olympics to the Cubs sale to hot dog eating contests. OTHER NEWS ACROSS THE BUSINESS OF SPORTS NETWORK
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