MEDIA MAVEN - Publishing media news & opinion (often with a critical eye) in the Pacific Northwest, covering Seattle, Spokane, Portland, Tri-Cities/Yakima and even a litte beyond. At times, even some sports. Posts occasionally @tvmavenseattle.bsky.social. I'm a retired, longtime broadcast journalist and manager in multiple markets, ex-writing prof at UW and PLU in WA state, author of Season of the 76ers, Kent St. and American U alums, Pittsburgh native. Hit search/menu and follow!
Mary Nam grinding out sports on Thursday's KOMO 4 PM. Guess Niko and, even Chris Daniels were unavailable. Hey the Fox station in Houston just closed down it sports dept. KIRO did it here. Lavan and Sloss doing sports there off the news desk. It's a trend, right. I believe weather may be next down the road. Just need mornings live...AI for the rest or hubbed from out of market.
With KIRO and the Fox station in Houston closing down their sports departments, there is reason to be concerned about the future of sports news and segments being part of local TV newscasts going forward. Will we see more stations close their sports departments? I hope not, but the possibility is out there.
ReplyDeleteWith that being said, however, the movement away from doing sports segments in local TV newscasts seems to fly in the face of the ongoing trend of local TV stations having agreements with local teams to air games and do pregame and/or post-game coverage. These are not likely cheap contracts, so you would think that stations would be inclined to promote them at every opportunity, and sports segments within newscasts are a good way of doing that.
Yes, KIRO has no such deals and they are up against KING with the HAWKS deal and KRAKEN deal. Fox holds on with smaller partnerships, like Seawolves, T-Birds and now Orcas.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if we may get to a point where it will become commonplace for stations that have deals like KING and Fox 13 do to keep their sports departments, while stations that don't (cough, KIRO) won't. Again, I hope we won't see more stations close their sports departments, but without such deals serving as incentives, it may become an attractive option for stations as budget cuts eat away at more pieces of the TV news bone.
DeleteSports does not research well on TV unless you have exclusive access to drive viewers. Matter of time that some partnerships will become too pricey. But, on the other hand, a team like the Hawks might pay for coverage beyond what it is doing now.
ReplyDeleteSo, generally speaking, stations that don't have deals like KING and Fox 13 do see more viewers for their sports segments, compared to stations like KIRO that don't?
DeleteIt's more about advertising, when clients can be attracted to sportscasts, special shows, like 5th Quarter on KING, and the teams requiring additional promotion.
ReplyDelete