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Welcome back to What I’m Hearing+, and hello from New Orleans, where I’m delivering a keynote at the Realscreen Summit on unscripted entertainment. If you’re in town and want to grab a coffee around Bourbon Street, shoot me an email.
Also: If you’re in New York on Valentines Day, a reminder that Puck is partnering with Netflix to present selections from the Maestro soundtrack, performed by the New York Philharmonic, at Lincoln Center at 8 p.m. Puck members can get in for free, but as of now, only waitlist is available. Still, click here to RSVP! Sounds like a good time.
Also also: In case you missed it, my new partner John Ourand, who will be covering the business of sports for Puck, sent his first dispatch this evening breaking the news that The Orioles are being sold to an investor group led by private equity billionaires David Rubenstein and Mike Arougheti. (There could be some major impacts on the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network…) If you missed his email, click here to sign up for The Varsity, his excellent new biweekly newsletter.
Tonight, an unflinching look at the state of the uber-trendy sports docuseries: what’s working, what’s not, and what’s next as streamers try to attract actual sports fans without paying out the nose for live sports rights. (Plus, a first look at some exclusive new data that I’ll be presenting at Realscreen.) The big question: Is the sports-buying spree a bubble, and is it about to burst?
But first…
- Did ‘Ted Lasso’ get a Messi bump?: In a surprise to everyone, likely including Apple executives, Nielsen crowned Ted Lasso as the most streamed original title in the U.S. in 2023, with more than 16.9 billion minutes streamed, beating out...
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| Live sports and the development of consumer media have been intertwined for the better part of a century. Radio grew alongside baseball, whose leisurely pace made it a natural fit. Football, on the other hand, was perfect for television—with the line of scrimmage perfectly framed onscreen and, just as importantly, advertising-friendly pauses baked into the action. The rise of cable TV was facilitated by networks gaining exclusive rights to various leagues. Ted Turner’s TNT superstation was built around an Atlanta Braves broadcasting license, for instance. So it’s only fitting that live sports appears to be... |
