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SBJ Media: Trump Ad Likely Headed To Super Bowl


I spoke to George Solomon’s sports journalism class at the Univ. of Maryland today. Solomon is such a legend in these parts, I instinctively say yes to every request he makes. He’s retiring at the end of the school year, which will leave a huge hole at my alma mater.

 

TRUMP LIKELY CONTINUES SPORTS PUSH WITH SUPER BOWL AD

  • It appears likely that President Trump’s re-election campaign will buy an ad during February’s Super Bowl telecast, marking what would be the first time in recent memory that a national election ad will be part of the big game's telecast. Multiple sources say the president’s team has agreed on the broad terms for buying an ad, which Fox is selling for as much as a record $5.6 million per 30-second spot. It is not known how much Fox has agreed to price the ad spot for the Trump campaign. No contract is signed yet, and the campaign still could opt out of placing a high-priced ad during the game, which is one day before the Iowa caucuses.

  • A move to buy time in the Super Bowl fits in with Trump’s media strategy this fall that takes advantage of live sports telecasts -- the highest-rated genre on TV. His campaign bought an advertisement that ran during Game 7 of the World Series on Fox, and it has placed two broadcast ads on Fox during NFL games this season. The president has appeared at three events this fall -- a World Series game in D.C., a UFC event in New York and the LSU-Alabama football game in Tuscaloosa. Veteran ad sales execs said that they cannot recall the last time a presidential campaign bought a national spot during the Super Bowl, a game that commands the highest ad rates on TV. On occasion, campaigns run ads locally or regionally during the Super Bowl, but it’s rare to see a national sale like this for a political ad. Four years ago, when CBS carried Super Bowl 50, none of the campaigns ran national ads.

  • This year’s Super Bowl is selling at a much faster rate than previous years. Fox has sold 78% of its ad sales inventory and expects to be sold out well before the game. Each of the ads sold so far cost more than $5 million per 30-second spot.

 

 

STICK TO SPORTS? NOT AT TURNER

  • Don’t expect TNT’s on-air commentators to stick to sports, particularly during NBA programming. During an interview at the Endeavor Streaming Sports Media & Technology conference in L.A. last week, the chair of WarnerMedia’s news and sports division, Jeff Zucker, said that he has been encouraging announcers and analysts to talk about societal issues in addition to providing NBA analysis. “I get it. We all go to sports to get away from (political talk) and want to enjoy the game,” he said. “I agree. I'm good with that. But at the same time, it's hard to pretend that there aren’t other issues at play in Colin Kaepernick getting a tryout or with the NBA and China or the Pac-12 going to China. That's part of the story too. I encourage us to not hide from it."

  • Zucker: “Our folks have the responsibility to speak their mind and to say what they believe. I don't want to limit that, and I'm not going to limit that. At the same time, I think they also have to remember that they're part of a larger organization and just balance that. But in no way do I want to discourage them from speaking their mind.”

 

Zucker (r) said Turner's sports personalities "have the responsibility to speak their mind"

 

ZUCKER CALLS ON NBA TO STRENGTHEN STANCE ON "LOAD MANAGEMENT"

  • NBA ratings have been soft on TNT so far this season, causing Jeff Zucker to call on the league to make sure top stars are playing and not resting, in what has become known as “load management.” Zucker: “The league certainly has some influence over teams, and I just would like to see them exert that a little bit more.”

  • Zucker said the practice of having healthy players sit out some games as a way to stay fresh for the playoffs is a “concern” for TV networks, which pay a combined $2.7 billion per year on average for NBA rights. “The combination of injuries and sitting out has been an issue. That’s a concern and hopefully will get addressed over time.”

 

 

LONGTIME PR EXEC ROB TOBIAS REMEMBERED FONDLY

  • My heart sank when I heard last week that Rob Tobias died after a battle with brain cancer. Tobias, 60, was one of the good ones -- effortlessly combining smarts and gumption with a great demeanor. It was impossible not to like Rob. As a sign of how well-liked he is, his funeral today in FairfieldConn., was filled with current staff, former ESPN PR execs like Rosa GattiAdam FreifeldEllie Seifert and Alex Rozis, as well as on-air commentators like Bob Ley and Charley Steiner.

  • ESPN Senior VP/Corporate Communications Chris LaPlaca gave a touching eulogy, during which he described how Rob started working at the network -- a story that offers a window for why he will be so missed. LaPlaca: “He is the only person I have ever known who started working at the company of his choice without having been hired yet. He had been selling cable TV door-to-door and decided, as a huge sports fan, that he wanted to work at ESPN instead. So one night he came to work with a pal who already worked in operations and just started pitching in. It was a few weeks later that he was actually hired. There is no way you could ever do anything like that again. Hell, you shouldn’t have been able to do it in 1983. But Rob did.”

 

Longtime PR exec Rob Tobias (r) often handled "SportsCenter" for the network

 

SPEED READS

  • CNBC's Alex Sherman writes the arrival of Disney+ "isn’t really the beginning of the streaming wars -- the next year is just a warm-up." Among his "can't lose" platforms for 2020 alongside Disney's offering are Amazon Prime Video, NBC's Peacock, WarnerMedia's HBO Max and Netflix. As for contestants in the "actual" streaming wars in the next calendar year, Sherman lists QuibiStarz and Discovery as services that need to "gain the necessary scale to compete" in the long-term.

  • A couple of interesting nuggets from NBC Sports Group President Pete Bevacqua last week at SBJ's Endeavor Streaming Sports Media & Technology conference. Though the Peacock streaming service will have sports rights, that does not spell doom for NBC Sports Gold. A replacement for longtime Olympic exec Jim Bell will be announced in the next week or two, and the net never formally submitted a bid for the UEFA Champions League package that CBS won.

  • Twitter tributes poured in for late Philadelphia Inquirer sports columnist Bill Lyon today after he passed away following battles with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. The Athletic's David Aldridge: "A great columnist who used words as a brush, not a cudgel." The Ringer's Jawn Gonzalez: "There are lots of reasons I love reading and writing and journalism, but if I ever make a list, Bill Lyon will have to be right near the top." NBC Sports Philadelphia's Michael Barkann: "A great man. 6 time Pulitzer Prize nominee." CBS' Jim Nantz also paid tribute to Lyon during Patriots-Eagles yesterday.

  • It’s hard to keep my fandom in check when I cross paths with George Solomon, the man who was the architect behind -- in my opinion -- the country’s best newspaper sports section through the '80s. In 2003, he left his job as assistant managing editor for sports for the Washington Post and started teaching at the journalism school for my alma mater, Maryland. He is retiring after the spring semester, so when he asked if I would speak to one of his classes today, I jumped at the chance. I hope to make my way out there several more times before he leaves.

 

George Solomon (l), currently teaching at Maryland, will retire after the spring semester

 

 

 

Enjoying this newsletter? We've got more! Check out SBJ College with Michael Smith on Tuesdays and Thursdays for insights into all the latest news around the world of college sports. Also check out SBJ Football with Ben Fischer on Friday afternoons.

Something on the Media beat catch your eye? Tell us about it. Reach out to either me (jourand@sportsbusinessjournal.com) or Austin Karp (akarp@sportsbusinessjournal.com) and we'll share the best of it. Also contributing to this newsletter is Thomas Leary (tleary@sportsbusinessdaily.com).