SBJ Media: 'We Need To Talk' turns 10

CBS’s all-women studio show “We Need to Talk” is celebrating its 10th anniversary today, debuting the second of two special anniversary episodes. With 15 original and returning hosts of the show appearing, I spent some time with the hosts discussing the biggest issues in sports media and storylines they’re following.

Former Raiders CEO Amy Trask said the biggest concern is learning how people want to consume content, whether it be traditional broadcast, streaming, mobile or other methods, “but everybody’s going to find a way to watch.”

Lisa Leslie, WNBA legend, NBA studio analyst and 3-on-3 coach, noted the vitriol many women athletes are experiencing on social media as one of the biggest issues facing women in sports. “Something is going to have to be put in place to really combat all of the racism, sexism, just all the things that are negative that are happening in each of these women’s comment sections,” said Leslie. Her remarks came ahead of the WNBA’s statement condemning “racist, derogatory, or threatening comments made about players, teams and anyone affiliated with the league.”

WNBA icon Swin Cash, recently promoted in the Pelicans front office and a former Knicks studio analyst, pointed to the importance of integrity. “For someone who came also from the media and now is an executive, there’s a certain integrity you have with covering a story,” said Cash. “How deep you go, and making sure you know you’re knowledgeable about what you’re talking about. There’s something authentic about sitting down and being able to cover a sport. That's the essence of what journalism is.”

Renee Montgomery, another former WNBA star-turned-executive, said the biggest issue in sports media is access and visibility. “Every time somebody gets to see a WNBA game, especially watching up close, they come back,” said Montgomery. “It’s not the product -- it’s accessibility for people to see it,” noting fans shouldn’t have to look for five different platforms to find a game. "[I] wish you could just turn on your TV, see it on a main screen, advertised the same way you would see football and any other sport advertised. That’s what we need more of."

“The push has always been for greater coverage, quantity of coverage,” said NBA analyst Sarah Kustok. “At the bottom line, it’s all about buy-in, and a lot of that buy-in comes from exposure. The more that the media can continue to show women’s sports, talk about the stories, headline the athletes or teams that are doing great things, that will only continue to help these sports and athletes continue to grow.” 

As for what’s catching their interest

For Trask, she’s paying the closest attention to changes in safety regulations in the NFL and football in general, noting the forearm shiver and Deacon Jones head slap. “We’ve seen the evolution of rule changes over time to make the game safer, and that’s a very, very good thing.” Secondly, Trask said, the growth in youth flag football, largely due to the NFL’s involvement. “That’s terrific, because that enables kids to play in a manner that their parents may be more comfortable [with],” she said. The sport comes to L.A. for the 2028 Olympics, and Trask is looking forward to attending.

Leslie, unsurprisingly, is looking at the WNBA playoffs, which just saw big numbers around Caitlin Clark in the first round.

Cash, a lifelong Steelers fan, is busy getting the Pelicans ramped up for training camp and enjoying the Steelers' strong start. “The biggest thing I'm paying attention to, outside of those things, is the WNBA right now. The expansion teams that are happening, the W just in general, the storylines there,” said Cash. “I have so much joy, because as a player that played in a league that you knew there was some sacrifice, that you were hoping you could see the vision, to see these women now receiving and continuing to grow the league that, to me, is like top notch.”

The latest media market rankings are out, and among the biggest changes are Dallas-Fort Worth overtaking Philadelphia as the No. 4 market and D.C. overtaking Boston at No. 8, notes SBJ’s Austin Karp.

The top three markets -- N.Y., L.A. and Chicago -- remain unchanged in the ranking (although N.Y. lost over 100,000 TV homes and L.A. lost over 69,000). N.Y. accounts for just under 6% of all U.S. TV homes, while L.A. is 4.6% and Chicago is 2.9%. 

This TV season, the top 25 media markets in the country account for 49.4% of all U.S. TV homes. 

Down in Texas, it was the Metroplex’s gain of over 134,000 TV homes that boosted it into fourth place over Philly, which lost almost 31,000 TV homes and sits at No. 5 overall. Meanwhile, the nation’s capital (the market includes Hagerstown, Md.) added almost 53,000 TV homes to jump to No. 8 ahead of Boston, which lost 21,570 homes from last year.

Just outside the top 10, Tampa-St. Pete jumped Phoenix to come in at No. 11, while Orlando-Daytona jumped Minneapolis-St. Paul to come in at No. 15. Other movement among major league markets included Pittsburgh passing Salt Lake City for No. 27, while K.C and Austin both passed a falling Columbus. 

Buffalo remains the smallest major league media market in the U.S. at No. 54 (among the Big 5 leagues; and Green Bay does not count since Packers’ local ratings use the Milwaukee market). Buffalo’s ranking puts it behind minor league markets like Ft. Myers-Naples, Providence, Louisville and Albuquerque. The largest non-Big 5 media market remains Hartford at No. 32. Among minor league markets seeing sharp drops were Chattanooga and Fresno-Visalia. 

Baseball’s RSN situation remains a mess. The latest example: Sources told my colleague Tom Friend the Rangers are dropping Bally Sports Southwest in order to develop their own direct-to-distributor broadcast model independent of MLB , including an accompanying streaming app.

On the most recent SBJ Sports Media Podcast , ESPN MLB insider Jeff Passan talked about the RSN situation in baseball and what the future might hold. 

“RSN money was everything to MLB, and we've seen individual cases like San Diego and Arizona and Texas and Cleveland, where things are not going very well right now,” he said. “But more than that, the solution to this does not seem particularly ideal, because if Major League Baseball's desire is to have a 30-team package and distribute that and have fans essentially nationalizing this, good luck getting the Yankees on board. Good luck getting the Mets on board, the Cubs on board, the Dodgers on board.”

Passan believes there could be 23 or 24 teams as part of an MLB-sold RSN package. “But the revenue that's going to be generated through that -- I have a difficult time seeing it getting anywhere close to what the aggregate revenue was from all of the RSNs,” Passan noted.

He also called it a “failure” by MLB to get ahold of the situation by now. “The No. 1 priority of everything should be getting your product into the hands of fans,” Passan said. “I don't care how much it costs you to do that, I don't care how little it costs them to access it -- you need generations of fans to feel like baseball is part of their day. That's the whole point of the sport as a business -- that it's an everyday product for six months that you have four hours of programming among pregame, game and postgame. It should be a real easy sell, and, for some reason, Major League Baseball has dropped the ball on this.”

• Tina Thornton, EVP/creative studio and marketing at ESPN, is one of the guests on this week's SBJ Sports Media Podcast. Check out an early clip of Thornton's appearance, where she addresses how ESPN will be tackling issues related to connecting with young audiences through the "Flagship" OTT product, as well as through continued creative efforts around culture and music.

• NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman told my colleague Alex Silverman that there will "be an evolution" to how the league and its teams handle local media rights. "There'll be obviously more direct-to-consumer and streaming. As national rights become increasingly valuable, as we're seeing, there'll be an opportunity to maybe adjust the balance. Those are all things that we're looking at very closely. Our next negotiation is for Canada. There are two years left on our Canadian arrangement with Rogers, of which Amazon is now a part, and we have four years left with ESPN and Turner." Bettman also noted Rogers' exclusive negotiating window on that Canadian deal begins at the start of 2025. 

• Silverman also wrote that Amazon's impact on the NHL is among the key league developments he's watching this season. "The league’s hot-and-heavy relationship with Amazon, particularly in Canada, has been a source of intrigue as the league approaches its first Canadian media rights negotiation cycle in over a decade."

• My boss Abe Madkour in his Forum this week wrote you should "get familiar with the name Ed Rogers, who is now one of the most powerful executives in North American team sports" after taking majority control of MLSE earlier this month. "This gives Rogers Communications control of the Maple Leafs, Raptors, Toronto FC and the Argonauts, and remember, Rogers already owns the Blue Jays and Rogers Centre. ... To say they approach sports business differently is an understatement."

• Prime Video saw its best “Thursday Night Football” audience yet in Week 4, as the first-ever matchup of the Giants and Cowboys on “TNF” (dating back to when the package started in 2006) delivered 16.22 million viewers, reports SBJ's Austin Karp.