Sports Media Watch

3 days ago | sportsmediawatch.com | Jon Lewis

NBA playoff viewership continues to trend above last year, with the Celtics-Knicks series producing a pair of big gains for Games 3 and 4. Through Monday, NBA playoff games are averaging 3.7 million viewers across ESPN, ABC, TNT and NBA TV, with that figure rising to 4.05 million with NBA TV excluded — up 5 and 6 percent respectively from last year. Second round games are averaging 4.83 million, up 5% from last year’s 4.58 million.

3 days ago | sportsmediawatch.com | Jon Lewis

The NFL has officially announced that YouTube will exclusively stream its Week 1 International Series game from Brazil. Google-owned YouTube and YouTube TV will carry the Week 1 NFL International Series game from Brazil, it was announced Tuesday. The league has not officially announced the matchup as of yet, but per Front Office Sports, the Chargers are expected to host the Chiefs. YouTube winning the bidding war, which reportedly also included Warner Bros.

3 days ago | sportsmediawatch.com | Jon Lewis

NBC has made another prominent NBA hire; five NBA teams are renewing their deals with FanDuel Sports Network; Rich Eisen will make some appearances on ESPN shows. Vince Carter joining NBA on NBCNBC Sports announced Tuesday that it has hired TNT NBA studio analyst Vince Carter to serve in the same role on its NBA coverage that resumes this season. Carter will work one or more days per week in the studio, often alongside Carmelo Anthony.

3 days ago | sportsmediawatch.com | Jon Lewis

ESPN on Tuesday officially announced the name and pricing of its new direct-to-subscriber streaming service. Titled “ESPN” — as reported last week by CNBC — the service will cost $30/mo ($300/year) when it launches later this year. The price tag makes “ESPN” less expensive than any of the general vMVPDs, including Sling ($45/mo), though obviously those services include a far greater number of channels.

4 days ago | sportsmediawatch.com | Jon Lewis

Sports Media Watch presents thoughts on recent events in the industry, starting with a look at the sports rights marketplace. Heading into one of the biggest weeks in media — the upfronts, paired with the NFL schedule release — there will be any number of glitzy announcements signaling the grand importance of sports to television. Yet look beyond the surface and one starts to see evidence of rare belt-tightening in a media industry buffeted by negative trends, instability and uncertainty.