E.W. Scripps looks to play ball with launch of new sports division

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by Lindsey Francy Dec 17, 2022 News
E.W. Scripps looks to play ball with launch of new sports division

A new sports division led by Brian Lawlor will be launched by the E.W.Scripps Company.

In announcing the new business unit, the company said it wants to leverage its local market TV portfolio and national broadcast reach to forge partnerships with leagues, conferences and teams.

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Live broadcast television is the best way to reach every generation of sports fans. Scripps is working with the leagues and teams to increase reach and visibility for audience engagement.

The new unit will be headed by Lawlor, who has been the president of the Local Media division for the past four years.

The broadcast executive pointed to the high popularity of sports with its consistently large and dedicated audiences but noted sports viewing has become fragmented alongside cord-cutting and challenged regional sports networks models

Lawlor said in a statement that cable subscriptions are down and regional sports networks are challenged. With our vast number of local stations and ION, a national network that can be tailored in many markets, we believe we can showcase leagues and players that are currently limited by aging distribution deals.

The acquisition of ION Media was completed in January 2021. ION reached more than 100 million homes, according to the time.

The NFL, NHL, MLS, National Women's Soccer League, and multiple college sports rights have been acquired by the owner of the fifth- largest broadcast network in the U.S.

According to the Sports Business Journal, Scripps is looking to scoop up national sports rights to run on ION but won't bid on major packages. According to Symson, the strategy is to pull in a larger pool of fans at the top of the funnel.

Symson believes that teams that focus solely on pay-TV will end up with impaired assets.

The strategy of the company is to play a role where traditional RSNs are not doing as well as they could. Recent years have seen pay TV providers walk away from RSN distribution deals due to rising carriage fee costs. Sinclair Broadcast paid $10 billion to acquire 21 RSNs from Disney, but has since faced financial losses and a large debt load as distributors dropped channels, along with increased costs for sports rights and declining viewers.

Lawlor said that smaller RSN distribution meant that teams were not able to reach 50% of households in their home markets.

If you can't reach half of your potential customers, that's not a good business model.