Beating the Bear

NBA television ratings are down, but everything else on TV is down more. That may not be good enough anymore. A decade ago, the Cancellation Bear became famous in television circles. The Bear was a gimmick that tracked the survival prospects of primetime broadcast television shows, on the now-shuttered TV By the Numbers website. The

Ready or Not

For better or worse, WWE signaled a changing of the guard at Payback. One, two, three. Randy’s shoulders on the mat. Keith Lee on top. It’s a whole new era in WWE. (For now.) New eras of wrestling are about as common as new eras of Batman movies. As soon as the financials start to

High Profile, Low Stakes: CBS Tries All-Star Racing in Primetime

One of the Worldwide Reader’s favorite #sportsbiz journalists, Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand, broke the news this morning that CBS is getting back into the auto racing business with a six race, All-Star stock car racing series called Superstar Racing Experience (SRX). Once the home of stock car’s major league, NASCAR, CBS has been off

Brother, Can You Get ROI on $100 Million?

A pre-pandemic investment in LeBron’s SpringHill makes headlines. Finding a return in a post-coronavirus world is a different game. Kudos to Bloomberg, and to New York Bureau Chief Jason Kelly (who also writes #longform, I guess?). This morning they went viral with a press-release-as-journalism feature on investment, past successes and future plans for LeBron James’s

The Sinclair/YouTube TV Reveal

Sinclair’s RSN unit upset the Yankees by leaving them out of a YouTube TV deal. In hindsight, it wasn’t surprising. The best twists are the ones nobody sees coming, yet are obvious in hindsight. It is an old movie axiom with many examples. Nobody expected Luke to be Darth Vader’s son. Then it made sense

Making McIntyre Special

The 2020 Royal Rumble was widely received as one of the best of the genre. It also signaled Drew McIntyre’s opportunity to become the next big WWE star. Drew McIntyre won the 2020 Royal Rumble last night. In the Worldwide Reader’s eyes — and seemingly in the eyes of Wrestling Twitter — the match was

Regional Block

RSNs are under the gun, but it’s the NBA that has the most to lose. One of the oddest #sportsbiz situations in recent memory was resolved last week, but its effects linger. Altitude Sports, a(n essentially) team-owned Nuggets/Avalanche regional sports network (RSN) out of Denver, struck a carriage deal with AT&T/DirecTV after being utterly and

Brother, Can You Share a Hundred Million?

AEW Dynamite is TV gold, and Warner is reaping the rewards In heady times, speculation is a siren’s call. “I’m not selling,” Tony Khan may contemplate, “but could I get a billion if I did?” The Worldwide Reader is proud of its AEW prediction record. From the moment news of the trademarks leaked (and with

City of Angelic Soccer Ratings

MLS (that’s soccer, for the pro-American Americans out there) hit the TV ratings jackpot this weekend, when the league’s most decorated team, LA Galaxy, secured a place in the quarterfinals against the phenomenon known as LAFC. (Full disclosure: the Reader holds front row season tickets to the LA newbies.) The Gals and the Laffs (the

The Lucky Fox Enters a Rough Patch

Fox Sports has lived a charmed life so far this fall; that’s about to change. “You make your own luck,” so the expression goes. Or maybe you don’t. Whatever one’s opinion of the role of fate in one’s place in the world, the fortunes of Fox Sports have gone up as the autumn leaves have