sports

It will be a nine-part, limited series exclusively made for the Google Daydream virtual reality headset by NFL Films. The series will cover “life in and around the NFL — from players, to coaches, to executives, to cheerleaders, to the fans themselves — detailing how each prepares for game day,” according to a press release. The first episode will be Thanksgiving Day on YouTube, with the VR version dropping at an unspecified date before year’s end.

Wednesday’s deciding game of the World Series scored a 51.5 household rating/72 share on Fox O&O WFLD Chicago, according to the station, with 3,217,000 households watching the hometown Cubs beat the Cleveland Indians to win the Cubbies’ first Fall Classic since 1908. By comparison, WFLD said, Super Bowl 50 generated a 47.6/72. The first hour of WFLD’s post game and local news coverage delivered a 28.8/57. WFLD’s World Series coverage continued until 2:20 a.m. CT. Thursday.

Everyone’s got a theory on why the long-dominant football league has seen a precipitous decline in viewership this fall. The truth is, it’s no single thing. It’s a combination.

After the Chicago Cubs broke a 108-year World Series winning drought Wednesday night, Nike and Budweiser were quick to seize on the moment. Soon after the final out during Fox’s post-game coverage, Bud aired this classic 1984 spot starring legendary Cubs broadcaster Harry Caray.

Scripted television increasingly is looking to score with sports. Michael B. Jordan and Michael Strahan will each executive produce a sports-themed drama which will join the increasing slate of scripted sports TV including Fox’s Pitch, Starz’s Survivor’s Remorse, and HBO’s Ballers.

The Trump campaign has booked three commercial spots on the nationwide broadcast of Wednesday night’s Cubs-Indians matchup, a campaign spokesman said. And Clinton’s campaign has booked four spots, according to a source at Fox, the network broadcasting the game.

Sunday’s Game 5 of the World Series scored a 42.8 household rating on Fox O&O WFLD Chicago, according to the station, with 1,482,000 households watching the hometown Cubs beat the Cleveland Indians to stay alive in the Fall Classic. WFLD said the rating was the biggest in the market since Super Bowl 50 on WBBM, which generated a 47.6 (1,648,000 households). The game also gave a boost to WFLD’s late Fox32 News Sunday, which garnered a 19.8 household rating (685,000 households).

The Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians are making the World Series a ratings hit for Fox. The Fox telecast of the fifth game of the World Series, in which the Cubs staved off elimination with a 3-2 win over the Cleveland Indians, had an average audience of 23.6 million viewers on Sunday.

Many theories are offered to explain declining ratings, but the answer might be simple: The product isn’t good any more.

Sports franchise executives will discuss challenges and successes in producing major live events.

World Series Game 4 on Saturday delivered 17 million viewers, landing a 9.3/18 fast national rating/share with 16.7 million viewers for Fox, up 19% (vs. 7.8/15) and up 23% (vs. 13.6 million viewers) over last year’s World Series Game 4 between the Kansas City Royals and the New York Mets. It was the most-watched Saturday Series game since 2004.

The country will choose a new president on Nov. 8, and no one is more eager for that day than the TV executives who do business with the NFL. Whether Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump occupy the White House won’t make a difference as to who makes it to the Super Bowl. But it will go a long way to explaining whether the NFL ratings downturn this season is a temporary blip or a game-changer in the TV business.

The NBA has renewed its agreement and will nearly triple the content it puts on the app for the 2016-17 season. As with last season, Snapchat will cover weekly games with Live Stories, and this year NBA bitmoji and selfie Lenses are also in the mix.

A defensive struggle between two NFC West playoff teams that went to overtime Sunday and ended with a rare tie produced an 11.6 overnight rating for NBC. Sure, the overnight number was a marked uptick over the record-low 9.0 overnight wrought by last week’s Sunday Night game between the Indianapolis Colts and Houston Texans. But it was notably 15% lower than the comparable week-seven Sunday Night matchup in 2015 featuring the eventual Super Bowl runner-up Carolina Panthers and Philadelphia Eagles.

Dish Network has become the first pay-TV operator to sign onto “NBA Team Pass,” a new service that unbundles single teams and lets subscribers watch all their out-of-market games throughout the regular season.

Raycom Sports announced today an exclusive partnership with XOS Digital, a collegiate sports content management and licensing company. Under the agreement, XOS will provide archiving, enforcement, and content representation services […]

The network is reaching out to Hispanic Millennials, who like their sports information in English and Spanish, with ESPN Nacion. ESPN Deportes’ Freddy Rolón talks about the show’s conception, the network’s goals for the program, and what other Spanish-language programs may be a possibility for ESPN.

Viewership of the NFL, a stalwart of television viewing and revenue, is off 15% this season. There are many theories as to why, but I would trace it to the Trump phenomenon. Whether you like him or not, the man is leading a revolution — primarily of white working class males — against “the establishment,” of which the NFL is an entertainment cornerstone. With its $20 parking and $10 beers, seat licenses and high prices for bad seats, the NFL long ago left its original blue collar backers far behind.

Game viewing is down nearly 15% per person this fall, with some demographics showing steeper declines than others. What’s behind it? A range of things, from ho-hum games to the election.

Sunday’s game on Fox generated more than 10 million interactions on social media, more than double any other program last week.

Mark Marshall will succeed Lovinger atop ad sales for entertainment networks.

Football, America’s biggest primetime powerhouse, has been thrust into a crisis this fall, with dwindling ratings sparking questions over whether it can remain a gold mine for television in an age when more Americans are abandoning traditional TV.

Posing an ever greater competitive threat to pay TV under its first full season under partnership with streaming shop BAMTech, the National Hockey League has unveiled its new-look over-the-top platform, NHL.TV.

TV networks are giving away more commercial time this NFL season than a year ago to make up for one of the worst ratings declines in a decade, a rare sign of weakness for the biggest draw on television.

Starting Oct. 3 and for as long as the Cubs are playing in the MLB postseason, Tribune’s WGN-TV Chicago is presenting Cubs Nightly weeknights from 6 to 6:30 (it will not […]

Fox-owned WFLD Chicago (DMA 3) will inaugurate Blue October: Cubs Playoff Pregame Show on Friday, Oct. 7. The half-hour program airs at 6 p.m. and will be hosted by WFLD […]