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5 Questions After ESPN, FOX Agree To Big 12 Extension

The agreement, while expected — perhaps not this early, but expected — did still leave several questions that I’m not sure can be answered immediately.

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The Big 12 has agreed to an extension of its media rights deals with ESPN and FOX that will see an increase of 90% of its annual payment from the two entities.

The average annual payment to the conference is reported at $380 million per year, even after the departure of the conference’s two highest-profile members, Texas and Oklahoma. As you likely know, Cincinnati, UCF, BYU, and Houston will replace the Longhorns and Sooners in the conference.

That number will pale in comparison to what the Big Ten and SEC generates in its new media deals. The Big Ten will haul in more than $1 billion per year.

The agreement, while expected — perhaps not this early, but expected — did still leave several questions that I’m not sure can be answered immediately.

Can The Pac-12 Beat $380 Million?

To be transparent, I never thought the Big 12 would sniff an annual rights fee of $380 million per year for its members after Texas and Oklahoma. No offense to Kansas State and Texas Tech, but you don’t exactly move the needle for the average college football fan (which is what these deals are all centered around…sorry, basketball fans).

So, when the reports started to come out earlier this week that the conference and networks were working on numbers in the $350 million range, but preferred to be closer to $400 million, I was simply stunned.

But the first thought that came to my mind was: Can The Pac-12 Beat $380 Million? According to a report from Pac-12 reporter John Canzano, a conference source said “We are very confident to beat that number.” There’s only one way for the Pac-12 to beat that number, especially after the departure of USC and UCLA after the 2023 school year.

Amazon is the only way the Pac-12 can beat $380 million. While trying to avoid sounding like some Midwestern hilljack, those on the west coast are seemingly more apt to adopt new technology before other areas of the nation. A deal with Amazon, which might have sounded ludicrous before the streaming platform’s high viewership numbers for its Thursday Night Football debut, could legitimately be a viable option for Pac-12 fans. Now, what that would mean for the conference’s standing and reputation nationally is a discussion for a different day.

Was Amazon Involved Or Are They Strictly Holding Out For The Pac-12?

Amazon Prime Video has not been shy about its interest in college football rights.

“Actually, we’re very interested in that,” Amazon Vice President for Global Sports Video Marie Donoghue told The Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast last week. “Obviously, we don’t talk about specific negotiations, but we’re going to keep knocking. The thing about sports is there’s a lot of marquee properties out there. We’re very interested in big-time college sports. Anybody would be.”

It was rumored that Amazon Prime Video put in an offer on the Big Ten’s media rights deals. It was rumored Amazon Prime Video put in a bigger offer than ESPN for the Formula 1 package that ultimately went to the worldwide leader.

So it’s safe to assume Prime Video was in on the Big 12, right? How involved is a question I’m guessing isn’t likely to be definitively answered anytime soon, but would you be floored if it was later reported that Amazon had a higher bid than ESPN or Fox did? I don’t think I would.

How Much Inventory Goes to ESPN+?

Reportedly, the reason the Big Ten passed up a deal with Amazon was it’s worry of fans not being able to find the games they were looking for, and valued a traditional TV audience. That’s fine and dandy, but the Big 12 deserves credit where credit is due. It has not been afraid to put games on ESPN+. And really, at this stage of the “streaming wars”, would the Big 12 rather have its games on ESPN+ or FS2? I know which option I’d choose (and it includes choosing it twice on Sundays), but the Big 12 has earned the props for being willing to embrace streaming before others.

Fans will complain that a game will be behind a streaming paywall. That’s the nature of living in America in 2022, we hate everything, and we’re not afraid to share it. But, if more than one of your team’s games is going to be on ESPN+, doesn’t that make the platform more enticing to fans?

Obviously, ESPN and FOX Sports aren’t going to put marquee matchups that have the potential to draw several million viewers behind a streaming paywall. But with ESPN’s expansion of SEC rights coinciding with the duration of the Big 12 deal, just how many games will end up on ESPN+? And if they are on ESPN+, will the schools or conference take back some of the control of deciding when games start? Realistically, if your game is going to be on a streaming platform, does adhering to the now-traditional 12:00 PM, 3:30 PM, 7:30/8:00 PM ET windows make sense?

How Does ESPN Prioritize The Big 12?

Speaking of games being on ESPN, how will the network prioritize the Big 12? Again, not to necessarily speak ill of the remaining members of the conference after Texas and Oklahoma leave, but can you envision more than one or two Big 12 games per season that you can envision bumping an SEC game from primetime on ABC or ESPN?

ESPN holds the “A” package for the Big 12, meaning the network will get six of the top eight picks in the broadcast draft (which should absolutely, 100%, no questions asked be a television special each July but, again, that’s another story for another day), eight of the top 12 selections, and 12 of the top 20. Without a doubt, ESPN is going to have the best Big 12 matchups every year. And yet, I wonder how many will find themselves in primetime.

How Many Games Will Big 12 Get On Big Noon Saturday?

FOX will broadcast 26 Big 12 games every season in the extension. I’m sure being on network television will continue to be a priority for the conference. But, I wonder how the conference feels, in general, about Big Noon Saturday. FOX Sports has shown no signs of slowing down its promotion of the Big Noon Saturday brand, and with good reason. The timeslot continues to produce ratings wins for the network. But, for every member other than West Virginia, Cincinnati, and UCF, Big Noon Saturday means beginning games at 11:00 AM local time, which isn’t exactly a popular time with fans.

Did the conference ask for more Big Noon Saturday games? Or perhaps did they limit the amount of times they could featured in that window? I get the impression that outside of Texas and Oklahoma — who have been spoiled by being premiere college football brands — the remaining conference members would welcome the opportunity to play in front of a national TV audience, even if it meant playing at 11:00 AM CT.

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How to Help Your Clients with Low Website Conversions

Don’t assume there isn’t enough traffic; focus on optimizing user engagement once visitors arrive on the site.

Jeff Caves

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Graphic for how to increase website conversions
Credit: WPDesigner.Biz

Are your clients dealing with low website conversions? Whenever a marketing campaign is run, and the goal is to convert website visitors into leads, the temptation is to blame low traffic, amongst other issues, for low form fills or appointments being generated.  Just spend more money, you may think! Sometimes, you must look at at least four other potential issues to tackle poor conversion rates. Here are some actionable steps using the IT services industry to increase website conversions.

IT Solutions specializes in providing products, services, or solutions related to technology, particularly in areas such as software development, hardware sales, IT consulting, cybersecurity, cloud computing, networking, and digital transformations. They faced challenges with their website conversions. Despite driving substantial traffic through Google Ads and other SEO tactics, they struggled to convert website visitors into form fills for appointment requests. A 2% to 5% conversion rate could be considered reasonable. Of course, conversion rates can vary based on various factors, such as the competitiveness of the local market, the quality of the website (and radio stations help most to fix that) and its user experience, the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, and the reputation and offerings of the IT solutions business. Focusing on improving the quality of leads and providing exceptional customer service can be just as crucial as achieving high conversion rates. Don’t blame EVERYTHING on the marketing tactics! 

The Diagnosis

Upon thorough analysis, several critical issues were identified with IT Solutions’ website:

1. High Bounce Rate: Nobody was checking out the business. If 70% or more of website visitors only visit the landing page, that is an issue.  It could be slow loading times, irrelevant content, poor user experience, or unclear calls-to-action that prevent them from wanting to know more about IT Solutions. You can check the bounce rate on the Google Analytics page for the website in the left-hand sidebar, click on “Behavior” to expand the menu, then click on “Site Content,” and finally, click on “Landing Pages.” You’ll see a list of landing pages and their respective bounce rates.

2. Complex Navigation: It was hard to move around the website to find relevant information about IT services, and it was unclear who they were initiating contact with and for what purpose.

3. Unclear Calls-to-Action (CTAs): The website lacked clear and compelling CTAs guiding visitors toward requesting an appointment. Simply stating “click here for an appointment” is like asking for a meeting whenever or without establishing value. Here are 28 CTAs for free.

4. Lengthy Forms: The appointment forms were long, without qualifying information, and requested excessive information upfront, deterring potential leads from completing them.

Action Plan

1. Optimize Landing Pages:

   – Redo high-traffic landing pages with clear messaging and compelling CTAs.

   – Showcase IT Solutions’ services as benefits, making it easier for users to request appointments, thereby increasing user engagement and conversions.

2. Simplify Navigation:

   – Reorganize the menu and add more action-oriented links.

   – Provide additional options for users to access relevant information, such as “Get a free IT Solutions 15-point checkup NOW” and “Take this 5-question survey to diagnose your IT issues,” motivating them to book appointments.

3. Enhance CTAs:

   – Utilize concise and persuasive messaging throughout the website.

   – Encourage visitors to take action, whether requesting a free download about “5 things you can do to solve your IT issues on your own” or “get a free pizza for booking an appointment.”

4. Improve the Form Fill:

   – Add a further line about the number of employees who qualify for incoming leads.

   – Highlight the value of leads based on company size, prioritizing forms with higher potential impact.

Review landing pages, navigation, CTAs, and form experience to address website conversion issues. Don’t assume there isn’t enough traffic; focus on optimizing user engagement once visitors arrive on the site.

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‘NHL on TNT’ Gives Hockey Fans the ‘NBA on TNT’ Treatment

Watching Albert and Olczyk call a hockey game is like watching Picasso paint and da Vinci sculpt. They are masters of their respective crafts.

John Molori

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NHL on TNT studio

Let’s play a little word association, sports media style. If I say TNT, what is your response? Chances are it will be a three-letter abbreviation of your own, namely, NBA. Over the years, TNT has built a reputation as arguably the premiere network to telecast the National Basketball Association.

The NBA on TNT pregame and halftime shows have become the gold standard with stars like Ernie Johnson, Jr., Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley, and Shaquille O’Neal. Still, it’s not just this quartet of roundball royalty that has fortified TNT’s hoops coverage.

The rep was also built on tremendous play-by-play announcers like Bob Neal and Kevin Harlan, color analysts like Doug Collins and Reggie Miller, and courtside reporters like the late Craig Sager and current sideline star Allie LaForce.

Indeed, TNT and the NBA have become synonymous, but I have some news for you. This network is not just about professional basketball. This past week I went off the grid with TNT looking at their in-game and studio coverage of the NHL.

On March 24, the NHL on TNT provided coverage of the Pittsburgh Penguins at Colorado Avalanche matchup. Kenny Albert did play-by-play with Eddie Olczyk on color. Albert is not as noted as his legendary broadcasting father Marv Albert, but he has certainly staked his claim as one of the best in the business – able to cross over to multiple sports with equal aplomb.

Hockey is a strong suit for Albert. His rat-tat-tat, drama-building style draws viewers in and keeps us on the edge of our seats. Similarly, Olczyk is one of the top four or five NHL game analysts in the business. His style is understated, providing calm and clear analysis of key plays. They work really well together.

Albert eschews any kind of hackneyed and trite catch phrases for his goal calls. An emphatic, “He shoots and scores!” is plenty enough.

Hockey is a different beast when it comes to play-by-play. Unlike basketball, baseball, football, or even soccer and tennis, there is a minimum of breaks in the action. With hockey, a play-by-play announcer has to know the names of the players like he or she knows her kids’ names.

To me, it is the hardest sport for play-by-play and equally difficult for a color analyst. In basketball, after a team scores, the play-by-play announcer will keep silent and give the color analyst time to talk until the play crosses center court. In baseball and football, there is ample room for commentary.

Hockey does not offer such space, but Olczyk gets the most out of the minimal amount of time. Watching Albert and Olczyk call a hockey game is like watching Picasso paint and da Vinci sculpt. They are masters of their respective crafts.

Coming back from a break in the game, Albert and Olczyk provided on air commentary and then tossed to ice level reporter Brian Boucher who has grown into a tremendous asset to the TNT broadcasts. Boucher provided real talk about Colorado’s objectives of staying on top of their division and vying for the top seed in the Western Conference.

The Penguins, squarely in a rebuilding year having dumped talent at the NHL trade deadline, surprisingly jumped out to a 2–0 lead in this game, and the TNT between periods studio crew was all over it. The excellent Liam McHugh hosted alongside Colby Armstrong, Anson Carter, and Keith Yandle.

Armstrong was especially entertaining. With Pittsburgh outshooting the Avs 16-4, Armstrong noted that it’s the best he’s seen Pittsburgh play in a long time. His reasoning was that teams get geared up for playing Colorado even if it’s out of fear. Great stuff.

Both teams tallied two goals in the second period giving Pittsburgh a 4-2 lead heading into the final frame. When Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon set up Jonathan Drouin for a goal to make it 4-3, Albert and Olczyk showed their strengths.

Albert called the pass from MacKinnon and one-timer goal from Drouin, and immediately noted that MacKinnon now had a point in all 34 of Colorado’s home games this season. On the goal replay, Olczyk showed how the play developed pointing out how McKinnon allowed Pittsburgh’s Evgenii Malkin to come in close before making the past to Drouin.

The TNT production team then showed a graphic displaying that McKinnon is now second all-time in longest home points streaks trailing only Wayne Gretzky. This was a sublime sequence of symmetry between talent and technicians like a songwriter, musician, and singer creating beautiful music.

What was supposed to be a blowout win for Colorado had now become a hockey barn burner, and the TNT crew was up to the task. Every goal and key play was followed up with replays from multiple angles showing the genesis of the action.

TNT has certainly taken to the velocity of the hockey broadcast with movement that challenges directors, graphics professionals, and videographers.

When there were breaks in this non-stop action, Olczyk was at his best. No hockey analyst draws on his experience as a player and explains that experience better to viewers. The TNT broadcast also lets Boucher freewheel and join in the flow of discussion without having to be introduced.

TNT does not merely rely on the traditional wide shot of the entire rink. We see close-up shots of each goaltender after a great save and the sweat of players on the bench or in the penalty box.

When McKinnon tied the game at 4-4 with 4:38 left in the third period, we got a series of tremendous crowd shots showing the Colorado fans going absolutely berserk. The sage Albert and Olczyk wisely remained quiet for several seconds, letting the cheers do the talking.

When Drouin scored the game winner at 4:06 of overtime, Albert exercised controlled enthusiasm, raising his voice on the call of the goal, but not becoming the show and overshadowing the play itself. He is definitely in the mold of Dan Kelly, Gary Thorne, and Sean McDonough, announcers who enhance but do not supersede the game.

Putting a cherry on top of this hockey Sunday, TNT showed a graphic that the Avalanche now led the NHL in comeback wins this season with 25 and that they were riding a 9-game winning streak. In analyzing the goal, Olczyk opined that the altitude of playing in Colorado was prevalent as the Penguins seemed to tire as the game progressed – really interesting insight.

In the postgame show, Anson Carter made a great point that the chemistry between Drouin and MacKinnon stems from the fact that they have been playing together going back to junior hockey. McKinnon joined in from the arena for a postgame interview. The analysts asked solid questions and even did a funny MVP chant together as the interview ended.

The NHL on TNT takes no back seat to its elder NBA sister. The broadcast provides viewers with flash, dash, and serious hockey talk from every angle – in studio, from the broadcast booth, and on the ice.

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Kim Mulkey Now Has Everyone Anticipating Washington Post Story

I can’t imagine what headline, under normal circumstances, the Washington Post would have to put on a Kim Mulkey story to make me want to read it.

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photo of LSU women's college basketball coach Kim Mulkey
Credit: Dailymail.co.uk

The Washington Post, you might’ve heard, has a story coming out about controversial LSU women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey. The reason you might’ve heard is because Kim Mulkey told you. The Tigers coach read a fiery prepared statement just before her team started the Women’s NCAA Tournament. In the statement, Mulkey threatened to sue The Post for defamation before the first word was even published.

Now, I’ve never run a public relations firm but that did not seem like a good idea. The Washington Post story on Mulkey is one of the bigger stories in sports right now and nobody even knows what’s in it. The reason the story, apparently unflattering to Mulkey, is even on anyone’s radar screen is Mulkey herself.

It all started with an innocuous social media post by Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde right in the middle of the most anticipated two days in sports, the NCAA Tournament Round of 64. On his X account, Forde posted: “Hearing some buzz about a big Washington Post story in the works on LSU women’s hoops coach Kim Mulkey, potentially next week. Wagons being circled, etc.”

You know what generally will go unnoticed at 4:00 on the first Friday of the NCAA Tournament? A post on X about a women’s basketball coach. But don’t tell Mulkey, she saw Forde’s post and decided to fight fire with nuclear weaponry. The result: the average person like me now is really interested in what has Mulkey so incensed. By “average person like me” I mean that I can’t imagine what headline, under normal circumstances, the Washington Post would have to put on a Kim Mulkey story to make me want to read it. Maybe:

“LSU Women’s Coach Discovers Ark of the Covenant”

Or:

“Mulkey Reveals True JFK Assassin(s)”

Perhaps:

“Famed Women’s Basketball Coach Reveals the Mystery Behind Slow Drivers in the Left Lane”

Literally any of those catch my attention more than whatever will likely be the Washington Post headline about Mulkey. But now Mulkey is “Mad as Hell and is not going to take this anymore” so I now have an interest I would never before have had in this story. It has been fascinating to watch the online speculation about the subject of the article and all we really know, as of now, is that it will be written by Kent Babb. This is a dream come true for Babb; he writes an article that is, presumably, not flattering about Kim Mulkey and, before it is even published, she gives the article the greatest commercial anyone could give it. Babb couldn’t have entered into a business agreement with Mulkey and had this turn out better for him.

For those who don’t follow Babb, he is a former NFL reporter who now is an award-winning writer for the Washington Post. In his 14 years with The Post, he has written sports features and authored a couple of books. One of those sports features stories was a deep dive into what he viewed as a large inequity in the level of pay for LSU head football coach Brian Kelly and his LSU players. It is this piece Mulkey described as a “hit piece” and, based on that piece, referred to Babb as a “sleazy reporter.” Babb, and many others, resented the fact his story was labeled as a hit piece. In fact, Babb essentially confirmed he was the author Mulkey was referencing when he shared the original article on X with the comment: “Hit piece?”

Whether a printed piece or a recorded interview, I can’t imagine a better promotion for it than the subject of the interview threatening a libel/slander lawsuit, especially before it is even released. That simply screams “This piece is salacious!!” Also, libel and slander suits get settled all the time, right? Of course they don’t, they seem to never even get filed. That little thing called discovery is a scary thing for most public figures.

The NCAA Tournament has been very entertaining, and I think the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight will be terrific. For only the fifth time ever, the top two seeds have advanced to the third round which sets up for a remarkable weekend. For me, I guess it will now include a Washington Post article, not a sentence I’d normally say.

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