A solo podcast. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.sportstvratings.comBy Robert Seidman

Richard Deitsch unintentionally inspired me to test something out with podcasting production workflow, so after nearly 3 years a podcast. Helping with the test was former regular Ryan Glasspiegel, now a sports/entertainment writer for the New York Post. Topics covered include NBA ratings and USA Network as a big sports channel. And we had an in-dep…

Tony Reali puts himself out there openly talking about life and dealing with anxiety. And he does it in an amazingly accessible way. I wanted to capture some of that experience on a podcast. Most of the podcast focuses on some of Tony’s struggles and thinking on eating and weight management. But there are stories, a very brief but very solid Wilbon…

Great to finally have Ben on the podcast! Ben has reported extensively about ESPN & politics in the aftermath of Dan Le Batard’s comments. The bulk of the podcast is on those topics but we talked about a few other sports media topics (DAZN’s “ChangeUp”, Sunday Ticket and The Athletic) in the last 1/3rd of the podcast. Ben’s recent deep dive on ESPN…

With the Women’s World Cup Soccer tournament beginning it was a pleasure to have the soccer beat writer from The Philadelphia Inquirer, Jonathan Tannenwald, back on the podcast. Topics discussed include the state of soccer, the state of MLS, how mostly it’s old white men like Zlatan Ibrahimović moving the MLS TV viewing and not the up and coming yo…

A pleasure to have ESPN EVP of Programming & Scheduling Burke Magnus back on the podcast. Topics discussed include: will the launch of ACCN mean fewer ACC games on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN News and ESPNU, the demands of Burke’s job, NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s comments about the NBA games being a TV show, what matters most in NBA finals (more games, no…

It was a blast to talk to “Good Morning Football’s” Kyle Brandt. We talked his “The Real World” beginnings, the NFL draft, and Kyle’s energy level. Kyle notes that never having played in the NFL and having to work with the likes of Nate Burleson and Kurt Warner drives him to always be seeking validation. Kyle talked about the morning makeup of his …

It was a pleasure to finally talk FS1’s Nick Wright. We talked about Nick letting his hair grow out (seriously!), what the rising & grinding schedule is like for someone with a 6:30A TV show and a 6P radio show (Nick has a dual-sleep schedule that works for him), NBA vs. NFL, “the ratings don’t matter to your life” (a Bryan Curtis shoutout on my po…

Great to have Ryan back on the podcast. We talked Jamie Horowitz landing at DAZN and then had a more general conversation about DAZN (including Adnan Virk’s hiring), we spent several minutes on Ryan’s gambling habits, and then we talked Sinclair acquiring the Fox Sports RSNs that Disney/ESPN had to unload. We finished up talking about LeBron James’…

Last week Jorge appeared on ESPN’s “Around the Horn” and a friend reached out with “Keep your eye on that guy, he’s an up and comer!” and I thought “He has a drive time radio show in the country’s 2nd-biggest market. He’s already here!” I was really curious about how Jorge experiences that phenomenon and I appreciate him humoring my curiosity (it’s…

Always a pleasure to talk to Jim but a note to the sports media lovers: we spent a few minutes on “will ABC get an NFL package?” during the last few minutes but this episode is for book lovers and primarily focused on author Robert Caro’s new book “Working.” You can find all of Robert Caro’s books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Robert-A.-Caro/e/…

Lots of Super Bowl ratings talk! If you’re enough of a TV ratings nerd to care how TV network executives think about and use the Super Bowl Nielsen TV ratings hopefully this will be a pretty good listen. We also had a good conversation about ESPN+ and Pat hammered the point that the death of legacy media when it comes to OTT services is greatly exa…

More “pre-holiday informal phone call” than “formal podcast” but it was fun and we talked NBA ratings & whether ESPN did a better job with the NBA schedule than Turner and whether Turner Sports’ star is fading more generally (Tiger/Phil, will it keep its MLB package?), also a little WWE and, of course, NFL ratings. Ryan on Twitter @sportsrapport Ry…

Two podcasts in a week? Yep. I didn’t see that coming either but opportunity with former Fox Sports exec turned media consultant Pat Crakes knocked so I answered. We mostly talked the fate of the 22 Fox Sports RSNs that Disney is acquiring in its deal with Fox that the regulators are requiring Disney to unload. We also talked a little NFL rights an…

Opportunity knocked and it seemed like a good way to let people know I’m still alive! We talked about the great “Sex and the City” chapter of Jim’s Origins podcast, about Disney warming the NFL up to make a bid on a rights package for the ABC broadcast network, Amazon sniffing around the Fox RSN’s (or at least the streaming rights for YES Network) …

Great to have the podcast’s first guest and my friend and fellow TVbytheNumbers co-founder Bill Gorman back on the podcast. We talked CBS’s over the top streaming service CBS AllAccess, Fox broadcast net’s new strategy, digital companies bidding on NFL rights, NFL TV ratings and the new show’s he’s tracking that have the most-frenzied fan bases. Bi…

When I was very focused on the TV/media scene Oriana Schwindt was one of the best reporters I came across. Oriana has finished her Centerville project and recently launched a new podcast, “American Grift.” We talked about the podcast, the fall broadcast network primetime TV season, sports programming and sports media rights. Oriana on Twitter: @Sch…

It was great to finally chat with Jemele Hill. We talked about SC6 and navigating becoming the poster children for both ESPN being too political and ESPN laying people off. We also talked SC6 ratings (Jemele has become a pretty good ratings analyst), about how the parting with ESPN really was amicable (Jemele nearly appeared on Around the Horn on h…

Ahead of the upcoming NBA season I thought it’d be fun to catch up with Turner Sports’ Scooter Vertino. We talked Yankees/Red Sox, Astros not getting any primetime love in the LDS, Astros/Red Sox ALCS, hiring Candace Parker, 23 years of opening night NBA double headers on TNT, this year’s opening night and the opening week slate. We talked a lot of…

A two-fer podcast: first up is Anthony Crupi: we talk about ESPN+ hitting a million viewers, studio shows on sports nets, out of home viewing and the late national windows on FOX & CBS and how both are bigger than Sunday Night Football and some of Crupi’s gambling picks. After Crupi is a chat with Phil Orlins who heads up MLB production for ESPN. W…

Anthony Crupi back by popular demand! We talked Alliance of American Football, NFL ratings, tales from the sad salad (the “power salad” wasn’t sad, but…) Crupi’s gambling picks for this weekend and more. Anthony on Twitter: @CrupiCrupiCrupi Anthony’s Story Archive on Ad Age: https://adage.com/author/anthony-crupi/6509 This is a public episode. If y…

I’d never had Richard & John on together and it was as much fun as I’d hoped it would be! We went deep on the single data point (the overnight rating for Falcons/Eagles) of NFL ratings available when we taped. We also discussed the ratings landscape and how ratings can/should be viewed through the season. We also talked about the rights landscape f…

It was a pleasure to chat with Jeff Pearlman about his upcoming book: Football for a Buck: the crazy rise and crazier demise of the USFL. We talked about the book, a bit about his process and some sports media topics. I’ll just tease it this way: anytime I can have a guest on who wrote a book that Lenny Dykstra hated and Ron Darling loved* you shou…

Stadium just celebrated its first birthday and had a lot going on in year one. I had a lot of fun talking to Stadium CEO, Jason Coyle about distribution, media rights, Stadium’s partnerships with Facebook and Twitch, free over-the-air TV, on-air talent gambling and more. Will Stadium be a part of a bid for the RSNs? Even some Lane Kiffen. Jason on …

Jim and I talked his podcast Origins of a Champion: Nick Saban & Alabama’s Crimson Tide. Nick Saban has a heart of gold and Lane Kiffin is very compelling and I’m fascinated by the idea of the pressure cooker environment at Alabama. We spent some time on that and plenty of time talking about how the podcast didn’t wind up being just about Alabama f…

Ryan was back on the podcast to help me shake off the rust. He tried! We mostly chatted about our media habits but we veered into HIGH NOON moving to 4pm; some of the OTT services like ESPN+ & DAZN, Ryan sang the praises of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and I ranted incoherently about why there’s no standard Nielsen measurement across all audio & …

Technical difficulties: please stand by. The podcast will return in late August. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.sportstvratings.comBy Robert Seidman

It was great to chat with ESPN’s Cassidy Hubbarth. We talked NBA free agency, LeBron, NBA Draft/free agency, NBA Summer League, behind the scenes production vs. being on-air, SportsCenter for SnapChat. how important social media (Twitter in particular) has been to Cassidy’s career, and how to get more people watching the WNBA. Cassidy on Twitter: @…

It was great to have Scooter back on the podcast. We covered a range of NBA production-related topics (relationships with talent, dealing with real-time Internet feedback, are they doing anything special for the small and more), TNT’s great playoff ratings, NBA finals fatigue/dream matchups, what to look for in the NBA summer league and more. This …

It’s always a blast to catch up with Fox Sports’ and NFL Networks’ Peter Schrager. Topics discussed include: GMFB’s new digs in Time Square, GMFB ratings, and GMFB getting some love. We also chatted NBA vs. NFL, Bryan Colangelo’s Twitter burner accounts and some of Peter’s TV viewing habits. Schrags also gave his three biggest NFL storylines to kee…

This podcast was inspired by a Richard Deitsch mailbag column on The Athletic (https://theathletic.com/365498/2018/05/23/media-mailbag-why-al-michaels-will-stick-around-the-future-of-espns-michael-smith-world-cup-in-4k-and-more/) that included a great question from Gil Gross in NY on whether young people thinking of getting into radio should be wor…

Ryan & Patrick together again for a podcast mostly focused on employee salaries being made public inspired by this Andrew Marchand piece in the New York Post. ( https://nypost.com/2018/05/08/why-is-espn-paying-katie-nolan-seven-figures/ ). We also talked the ESPN+ acquisition of some UFC rights and password sharing. After we taped Ryan posted Four …

Was great to catch up with Richard on a variety of sports media related topics and on moving to Canada and joining The Athletic. This was a “Never Can Say Goodbye” podcast where we kept talking (and taping) several times after saying goodbye. I could’ve edited to make myself look like a more skilled host but I left it in for the more organic Wayne’…

It was great to talk to Derek Thompson who’s a senior editor for The Atlantic and the best-selling author of Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction for a short podcast. We discussed his recent piece in The Atlantic: Disneyflix Is Coming. And Netflix Should Be Scared (https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/05/disne…

Ryan Glasspiegel from The Big Lead and first-time guest Patrick Crakes who is a media consultant and former executive at Fox Sports joined the podcast and on the heels of the NFL schedule release it was a lot of fun talking to them. Topics discussed: – NFL Draft & impact of being on the Fox Broadcast network – A look at the 2018 NFL Schedule: are t…

Bill Roth has a broadcasting career that spans 30 years including an impressive 27 of them consecutively calling Virginia Tech football. Bill has transitioned to calling some national games on ESPN & CBS Sports Network but Bill is back in Blacksburg helping Virginia Tech launch its academic curriculum that has a concentration on sports media and an…

Was great to talk to Jon Lewis about Indy Car leaving ABC for NBC, NCAA tournament ratings and potentially good finals matches still in play, NBA ratings, the new Sunday Night Baseball booth, Monday Night & Thursday night football booths, NFL ratings, the AAF and ESPN’s “Dominant 20” and ratings predictions for Saturday’s “Elite 8” round games of t…

On March 5, 2018 ESPN announced it had hired Disney exec Jimmy Pitaro as president of ESPN. On March 6, 2018 I talked to Eric Jackson, who is founder and president of EMJ Capital about the hire. Eric is a big investor in the tech and media sectors and very bullish on Disney and on the hire. We also talked ESPN’s upcoming ESPN+ streaming service, wh…

No guests for this one. A quick, less than 7-minute podcast discussing the Winter Olympics Ratings from PyeongChang on NBC. Here are the numbers versus Sochi in 2014 via NBC Sports: WINTER OLYMPICS PRIMETIME TOTAL AUDIENCE DELIVERY PYC 2018 Sochi 2014** PYC 2018 Sochi 2014** Day Viewership Viewership HH Rating HH Rating Opening Thur. 17.2 million 2…

Mina recently wrote a great piece on NFL ratings ( if you don’t see a hypertext link you can find the piece at: http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/22359434/where-people-miss-point-nfl-television-ratings-2017-season-super-bowl-lii ) and we talked about it. At the end of the podcast we also talk about this: (if you can’t see the embedded video you ca…

Jimmy Traina was the only person I spoke to before the NFL season who predicted NFL ratings would go down this season. I thought it’d be good to have him on to bookend the season by talking about ratings for the Super Bowl. We also talked about whether there’s anything the NFL can really do on the CTE front, Thursday Night Football moving to Fox, J…

It was a pleasure to finally talk to Michael David Smith who was calling in from Minnesota where he’s covering the Super Bowl. We talked about the Super Bowl and the perceived lack of buzz, what the ratings will be and who will win the game. We also talked about the report that Fox broadcast would be picking up the Thursday Night Football package a…

With NBC televising both the Super Bowl and the Olympics in February, I thought it’s be a good time to catch up with Rick Cordella to talk about NBC Sports’ plans for handling that on the streaming side. Topics discussed include: – Balancing the stress of the challenge with the excitement of the challenge (the Super Bowl draws more concurrent viewe…

It was great getting to know Scooter Vertino a little. Additionally, Scooter also is SVP of content, programming and production for NBA digital which includes NBA-TV, League Pass and NBA.com. Topics discussed include: – reactions to the schedule and off season news lining up so well for this season’s opening night matchups on TNT (Cavs/Celtics & Wa…

It was great to talk to ESPN’s Burke Magnus. Two sections to this podcast. The first 15 minutes is a straight one-on-one interview with Burke where we discuss: – College Football Bowl season recap – Burke’s thoughts on the move away from New Year’s Eve for the CFP semifinals – We talked about Burke’s comments a few weeks ago on John Ourand’s podcas…

Topics discussed include: NFL ratings Outside factors impacting NFL ratings (Ryan posits Videogames and Netflix) Media coverage of the Larry Nassar trial Discussion of Ryan branching out from just writing to doing a podcast and radio appearances and some video and TV appearances Fox and ABC bidding for the Thursday Night Football rights and Jerry J…

Richard Deitsch and Anthony Crupi have appeared individually on my podcast more than any other guests so I thought it would be fun to pair them up. It was*. Topics discussed include: — Super Bowl ratings? — discussion about how NFL ratings are covered in general — Crupi doesn’t necessarily pooh pooh the idea that NFL RedZone could be impacting the …

There’s a great community of data scientists on the Internet and that’s how I originally came across Aaron Barzilai. Now Aaron has launched herhoopstats.com, a site that aspires to be the Ken Pom of women’s college basketball. Since Richard Deitsch is so knowledgeable about women’s college hoops I asked him to join in. Topics discussed include: — t…

Jim Miller of “Live from New York,” “Those Guys Have All the Fun” and “Powerhouse” fame joined the podcast to talk about the recently released PTI episode of the ESPN chapter of his Origins podcast. We also talked about his recent piece in The Hollywood Reporter, “Inside an ESPN President’s Shocking Exit (and Bob Iger’s Possible Role)” You can find…

Ryan Glasspiegel from the Big Lead joined the podcast for the third time to discuss a variety of recent sports business and sports media topics. Topics discussed include: Ryen Rusillo leaving ESPN/Where will he land John Skipper’s resignation from ESPN Upcoming Mike Greenberg show Pete Carroll and the Seahawks should part ways? A crackdown on strea…