February 15, 2024

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There are multiple reasons why Caitlin Clark’s march to history tonight will remain on Peacock. … Women are a force in final Super Bowl LVIII ratings. … Adam Silver is just as stunned as everybody else about the new streaming venture between ESPN, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery. … Plus: More on college football at Yankee Stadium, pro pickleball, collegiate cornhole, and NBA-affiliated basketball leagues.

— Eric Fisher [[link removed]]

Caitlin Clark’s Moment in History Will Stay on Peacock. Here’s Why [[link removed]]

USA TODAY

Live sports on the internet is about to hit another major inflection point, this time due to women’s basketball phenom Caitlin Clark.

The Iowa star is just eight points away from setting the player scoring record for women’s college basketball, and her attempt to break the mark Thursday night in a game against Michigan will be shown exclusively on NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service. And not only is Peacock showing the game itself, but it is also creating an alternate feed, the State Farm–sponsored Caitlin Cast, that will stay focused on her whenever she’s on the court.

Despite Clark’s continued on-court exploits drawing banner numbers on linear television—including roughly 1.77 million last weekend on Fox for a Hawkeyes game [[link removed]] against Nebraska—there are no plans to shift the game, sources close to the network told Front Office Sports. There are multiple reasons why:

The Iowa-Michigan game was long ago identified as a Peacock exclusive stream, part of NBC Sports’ seven-year contract struck [[link removed]] in 2022 with the Big Ten Conference. Peacock is showing seven Iowa games overall this season. NBC showed Clark and the Hawkeyes on Jan. 21 against Ohio State and drew an average audience of 1.93 million, representing the largest regular-season draw [[link removed]] for women’s college basketball on any network since 2010. But the broadcast network will devote its prime-time schedule Thursday to repeats of three separate episodes within the expansive Law & Order drama franchise. For Comcast-owned NBCUniversal, as well as other major broadcast networks, it is critical to their overall corporate strategies to revive their entertainment programming businesses after the lengthy actors’ and writers’ strikes this past summer and fall disrupted the normal TV season. Despite the current hype surrounding Clark, it’s possible those Law & Order programs will draw a much larger audience. For the original airings of those season premieres last month, Law & Order: SVU averaged [[link removed]] nearly 5.6 million viewers, while the flagship Law & Order averaged 5.2 million and Law & Order: Organized Crime pulled in 3.8 million. Peacock is also an increasingly important part of Comcast’s corporate strategy [[link removed]], particularly as legacy media businesses continue to be disrupted massively by cord-cutting and streaming. The platform drew an average audience of 23 million, a U.S. record for a livestreamed event, for an NFL playoff game last month, and Comcast executives see that game as an important proof of concept for what Peacock can do in the future. The current Caitlin Clark mania essentially follows in that wake and, similar to that Chiefs-Dolphins game and all of Peacock’s sports programming, will be seen as a tool to help drive subscriptions beyond the platform’s 31 million registered by the end of 2023.

“That was a galvanizing moment for the entire company,” Brian Roberts, Comcast chairman and CEO, told FOS earlier this week regarding the NFL game. “To say we’re going to have the biggest day in [American] internet history, that didn’t happen by accident.”

Women Prove to Be a Powerful Force in Super Bowl’s Record Viewership [[link removed]]

Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Just as women’s sports are among the fastest-growing [[link removed]] parts of the entire sports industry, women were a dominant story in final Super Bowl LVIII viewership figures.

Data from measurement agency Nielsen showed [[link removed]] the final audience for Super Bowl LVIII reached an average of 123.7 million, up slightly from fast national estimates [[link removed]] of 123.4 million and reconfirming the game’s status as the largest single event in the history of U.S. television.

That aggregate figure represents a 7.4% boost from Super Bowl LVII a year ago, but across multiple segments, women showed even greater levels of growth. Women ages 18–24 watching the game on CBS and Univision posted a 24% jump in year-over-year Super Bowl viewership, while girls ages 12–17 posted a 11% jump, and women overall logged a 9% increase to 58.8 million. Women also comprised 47.5% of the game’s total audience, representing the highest figure ever for the Big Game, beating a comparable 47.1% for Super Bowl XLIX in 2015.

Swift Surge

Beyond the still-rising popularity of the NFL overall, some of this influx no doubt owes to the Taylor Swift effect [[link removed]], with the pop star’s romantic relationship with Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce drawing additional attention from her huge base of fans to the team this past season. But that impact could represent something of a temporary high. Not only is the future status of the Swift-Kelce relationship unknown, but so, too, is how the Chiefs will do next season in their bid for the first three-peat of the Super Bowl era.

But even before the Super Bowl, commissioner Roger Goodell was quick to credit Swift for her presence within the NFL orbit, calling her presence at league games “nothing but a blessing.”

“She loves great entertainment, and I think that’s why she loves NFL football,” Goodell said [[link removed]] last week.

SPONSORED BY DAKTRONICS

Keeping Oregon’s Content a Step Ahead

When glancing at the big video board at Autzen Stadium, or many other displays on the University of Oregon’s campus, you might see the score, replays, and graphics, but you’ll also see something very intentional. Something that connects students, athletes, and fans. The Oregon Ducks’ brand!

It’s in every piece of content and every detail on the display, and the Ducks worked with Daktronics [[link removed]] Creative Services to ensure it showed up in a big way on game day.

For the 2023–24 season, Daktronics delivered content to connect audiences with meaningful elements that came directly from the shoes supporting the Ducks’ athletes. Iconic Nike shoe designs served as a transformative source of inspiration for the content designs, including diamond plates and flying ducks in 3D textures.

Watch to learn more [[link removed]].

LOUD AND CLEAR News to Me, Too

The Pat McAfee Show/ESPN

“Neither did I.”

—Adam Silver’s response on The Pat McAfee Show [[link removed]] on Wednesday after McAfee said he didn’t know about the new joint venture among ESPN, Fox, and Warner Bros. until it was announced. McAfee and the NBA commissioner were discussing the league’s media rights, which expire at the end of the 2024–25 season, when the topic came up.

STATUS REPORT Four Up

Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports

Shamrock Series ⬆ Notre Dame and Army will face off at Yankee Stadium on Nov. 23 in the next edition of the Shamrock Series that has seen the Fighting Irish play in various NFL and MLB stadiums, and even the Alamodome, since 2009. In ’10, more than 54,000 fans watched Notre Dame beat Army at Yankee Stadium.

Professional pickleball ⬆ The National Pickleball League is adding six new franchises, each valued at around $750,000—more than double the roughly $300,000 price tag that the original six teams sold for, according to Bloomberg [[link removed]].

Collegiate cornhole ⬆ Winthrop University has handed out [[link removed]] what is believed to be the first two athletic scholarships for students to play college cornhole. The school is located in Rock Hill, S.C., less than a mile from the headquarters of the American Cornhole League, a sanctioning body for the sport.

NBA offshoots ⬆ The Suns acquired [[link removed]] rights to a G League franchise that will begin playing next season, meaning all 30 NBA teams will now own or operate a club in the developmental league. Meanwhile, the Basketball Africa League will welcome five new teams from three new countries this season, which begins March 9.

SPONSORED BY CISCO

How AI and Cybersecurity Are Transforming Sports

Join [[link removed]] our exclusive one-hour virtual summit [[link removed]] focusing on the future of cybersecurity and sports, presented by Cisco. This dynamic roundtable discussion will bring together industry pioneers and thought leaders to provide a firsthand look at how AI and cybersecurity are transforming professional sports—for leagues, teams, venues, and fans.

Reserve your spot [[link removed]] now and join us on Feb. 23 at 1 p.m. ET for a conversation about how cybersecurity is shaping the future of sports.

Conversation Starters The NBA’s All-Star events at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis will have a state-of-the-art LED court. Here’s a sneak peek [[link removed]]. EA Sports has released the first teaser for the highly anticipated College Football 25 video game. Check it out [[link removed]]. Verne Lundquist has announced that the 2024 Masters—his 40th—will be his final Masters [[link removed]] for CBS. The 84-year-old has called all but one Masters since 1983 and is retiring. Editors’ Picks New Hoops Tournament Featuring UConn Women to Launch in 2024 [[link removed]]by Amanda Christovich [[link removed]]Tennessee, Iowa, Louisville, and UConn will face off in the Women’s Champions Classic in Brooklyn in December. Coaches Hate the Transfer Portal. But Their Coaching Carousel Is Making the Problem Worse [[link removed]]by Amanda Christovich [[link removed]]Thirty head football coaches have left or were fired from their positions. Comcast Tries to Sort Out Impact of Rivals’ Sports Streaming Bundle [[link removed]]by Eric Fisher [[link removed]]Skepticism persists surrounding new platform involving ESPN, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Fox. Advertise [[link removed]] Awards [[link removed]] Learning [[link removed]] Video [[link removed]] Podcast [[link removed]] Sports Careers [[link removed]] Written by Eric Fisher [[link removed]] Edited by Matthew Tabeek [[link removed]], Catherine Chen [[link removed]]

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