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NFL TV Partners Unsure How To Handle Player Protests

“Michael McCarthy raises the possibility that the NFL may try to ban its TV partners from showing the protests or from showing individual players wearing particular messages calling out the NFL.”
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Published

3 years ago

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Kap Kneeling

Executives at NBC Sports, CBS Sports, Fox Sports, and ESPN are all debating how their networks will handle player protests in the NFL. According to a report from Front Office Sports’s Michael McCarthy, says that all of the NFL’s TV partners are torn on what the right approach is.

Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during the National Anthem in 2016 to protest police brutality against minorities. During that season, all networks showed the pregame playing of the anthem as a news event.

Since the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, many NFL players have pointed to Kaepernick’s protest and the reaction of the League and team owners to say that the NFL’s goal was always to ignore and discredit the issue by focusing on the action instead of the message. In a powerful video, some of the NFL’s biggest stars demanded commissioner Roger Goodell acknowledge the league was wrong. He did and also said that he would not have a problem with players kneeling in 2020.

On a recent episode of her podcast Jemele Hill is Unbothered, Hill said that protesting racial injustice and kneeling during the playing of the national anthem before NFL games have become so linked that for it to happen again would be “too big to ignore.”

“They have to make the connection between the unrest and the protesting – and the fact that racism has become the No. 1 emphasis in America right now,” she said. “There is a heavy interest in seeing how athletes respond at this moment. George Floyd does not have had to have died a week before to make it newsworthy.”

An anonymous network executive told McCarthy that he expects networks will cover any protests as news events.

“I would say with Roger Goodell and the NFL itself saying they were wrong to stand in the way of silent protest, I believe that gives the networks the freedom to show kneeling if that takes place – and possibly interview the player later in the locker room,” the source said.

Michael McCarthy raises the possibility that the NFL may try to ban its TV partners from showing the protests or from showing individual players wearing particular messages calling out the NFL. Multiple PR/marketing executives told McCarthy that would be a mistake. Such action would likely create more stories that make the NFL look bad.

One PR executive pointed out that ratings for the three largest cable news networks in the United States were up across the board in May. That means there is interest in the protest. Allowing TV partners to show players kneeling could actually result in higher ratings.

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Sports TV News

Peacock Announces 19 Game 2023 Baseball Schedule

“It all starts on April 23 at 12:05 p.m. as the Colorado Rockies take on the defending N.L. champion Philadelphia Phillies.”
Jordan Bondurant

Published

8 hours ago

on

February 1, 2023

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MLB games are returning to Peacock in 2023. NBC announced its full schedule of Sunday matinee games on Tuesday.

It all starts on April 23 at 12:05 p.m. as the Colorado Rockies take on the defending N.L. champion Philadelphia Phillies.

Peacock will carry all 19 games this year. The game on May 7, an 11:35 a.m. first pitch, features the Baltimore Orioles and the Atlanta Braves and will also be simulcast on NBC.

As was the case for the first year of this deal in 2022, the Peacock games will be the only MLB action until 1:35 p.m.

Games will air on Peacock through September 3. NBC has not announced its broadcast team for these games.

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Sports TV News

PGA Tour Expects Mic’d Players To Be Common For 2023 TV Broadcasts

“This doesn’t need to be a walk and talk like I did. But we can make it what you want it to be.”
Jordan Bondurant

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8 hours ago

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February 1, 2023

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Following the success with Max Homa last weekend, the PGA Tour is planning to mic a player up this weekend at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

According to Sports Business Journal, the Tour is considering micing up a player on either the 14th or 18th hole at Pebble Beach.

“The point of this is that if you want it to just be, they have an air pod on your caddie and they ask him one question, he could elaborate on something,” Homa said in an interview on the podcast No Laying Up. “That would be an improvement. This doesn’t need to be a walk and talk like I did. But we can make it what you want it to be.”

Homa added that he appreciated that the questions he was asked while taking part in the segment were solely on the task at hand and tackling the hole he was on.

“It wasn’t about how it is being a dad, how it is being in contention, it’s about golf,” he said. “This hole. That’s what we wanted it to be.”

CBS received positive reviews for debuting the new segment in their season debut at Torrey Pines last week.

It will be interesting to see if having players mic’d up for a segment will carry into NBC coverage or if it remains exclusively CBS. Have to think that in April at The Masters, if CBS keeps with it, the segment has the potential to be pretty compelling especially if the interview is with a player in contention or even leading.

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ABC Scores Most Watched NBA Saturday Primetime Game In 4 Years

“The game drew 3.7 million viewers.”
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17 hours ago

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January 31, 2023

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The Boston Celtics beat the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night. While the game’s controversial finish left LeBron James and Patrick Beverly upset, executives at the Walt Disney Company had nothing but smiles thanks to the performance of ABC.

The game drew 3.7 million viewers. That means the Celtics’ win is the most-watched game in the ABC Saturday night prime-time window in the last four years. A February 2019 game between the Lakers and Golden State Warriors drew 4.1 million.

Boston also delivered the highest-rated game of the NBA season so far outside of the league’s stacked Christmas Day slate.

NBA Saturday Primetime on ABC is experiencing a nice uptick in viewership this season. Through the weekend, the Saturday night games are averaging over 3.4 million viewers according to an ESPN press release.

That number represents a 16% jump from last season. The edition of NBA Countdown that airs before the Saturday night game is having a good season as well. It’s average audience is up 3% to just under 1.5 million.

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