Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

CBS Sports' Sean McManus on NFL Ratings, the Value of RSNs, and the Future of Rights

19/10/2018

CBS Sports' Sean McManus on NFL Ratings, the Value of RSNs, and the Future of Rights By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director

Friday, October 19, 2018 - 2:13 pm

Print This Story

Story Highlights

Sean McManus, CBS Sports, chairman, sat down for the keynote conversation at the TVNewsCheck TV2020 conference at NAB NY this week. Top of mind was growing NFL ratings, the future of TV rights, and the role broadcasting plays in a multiplatform universe.

Sean McManus, CBS Sports, chairman, says sports rights will continue to be the most valuable programming asset.

McManus pointed out that all of the big sporting events are still seen on broadcast TV, whether it's The Masters, the Super Bowl, or the NBA Finals. Even NASCAR has migrated back to broadcast TV from cable.

I think that the men and women who control those rights believe in broadcast television, because part of the reason sport is as popular as it is is that the big events are available to every man, woman, and child in the television universe, he said.

McManus also discussed the rise in NFL ratings this year and pointed to a couple of factors. The Kansas City Chiefs have been a bigger draw than expected, and there is a dominant team in the Los Angeles market as the Rams have given new lift to ratings in one of the biggest markets in the nation.

But you need to keep it in perspective, because even though we were down for two years in a row, NFL programming is still as dominant as it has ever been, he said. And with everything going on in the world today people need the diversion of sports even more than they have in the past. And I think that is reflected in NFL ratings.

He also added that while the sports TV business is a competitive one, all of the entities involved with the NFL are rooting for each other.

Sunday Night Football [on NBC] is up over 30% from last year and that is good news for all the rest of us doing business with the NFL, he said.

Next year, CBS will have the Super Bowl, so any general bounces in rating could point to that event continuing to be the bell cow for CBS in 2019. McManus acknowledged the pressure of carrying the Super Bowl. He said that ad sales for the game are very strong right now and there is a lot of interest among advertisers with ad rates eclipsing $5 million.

I think it's going to be a great way for us to end what I believe is going to be a very successful NFL season and the local CBS affiliates [of the teams involved] will reap enormous benefits, he said.

Future of Sports Rights

Asked about the future of sports rights, McManus said that he has been hearing that sports rights were in a bubble since he first was in charge of programming at NBC in 1983.

Sports rights go up because they are the most valuable asset of programming in the media landscape and it generates large audiences on both broadcast and cable television, he explained. And although they may seem ridiculous, they always make sense.

Fox, for example, paid handsomely for the rights to the NFL Thursday Night Football package but McManus said it makes sense as it guarantees winning the Thursday night ratings for 11 weeks.

It was worth it to Fox to pay a huge increase over what NBC and CBS were paying last time, he said. So, the bubble we thought might have existed for Thursday Night Football evaporated, and I think you will see rights continue to go up.

The ratings success with the NFL doesn't mean the league and the broadcasters are standing pat. McManus says there is constant communication with the league on how to improve the pace of play, scheduling modifications, or have commercials that are less intrusive.

The next NFL rights deal will be after the 2021-22 season and McManus said the negotiations will be spirited and there will be a lot of competition.

I'm confident we're going to protect our territory and we have also talked to the NFL about ways to modify the package that could make the overall ratings go up, he said.

Does he expect the likes of Facebook Amazon, Netflix, or Google to be in the hunt?

They're all dipping their toe into sports rights, he said. And I do think the NFL would have to think very hard about taking one of its major packages off of broadcast or basic cable TV because of the exposure elements we've talked about.

Multi-platform Delivery

But multi-platform delivery is clearly becoming the norm for sports. For example, the NFL national games are available via not only TV but also via authenticated apps from the rights holder as well as on mobile devices without authentication (via NFL.com or Yahoo.com). And Thursday Night Football games are even carried on both a broadcast network, Fox, and a cable network, the NFL Network. The key for the rights holder is having national commercials run on all of those platforms and count towards ratings.

And then there is the development of subscription OTT platforms like CBS All Access, which allows those without cable or satellite to subscribe and watch a wealth of CBS programming.

The fees that people are paying for all access are pretty significant and that is one more opportunity to reach more people on different platforms, said McManus.

McManus pointed to the deal CBS has with Turner Sports for the March Madness tournament as a perfect example of new approaches to rights deals and programming. The deal gave Turner the programming muscle it needed to get carriage of TruTV which carried games and it also allowed CBS to move beyond regional tournament coverage and also provide the money that cable TV can generate.

If I was there negotiating by myself without those cable resources, there's no way we would have been able to keep the men's Final Four, he added.

McManus also discussed the efforts CBS has done with respect to 4K and HDR programming. DirecTV has been the primary
LINK: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2018/10/19/sean-mcmanus-of-cbs-sports-on-n...
See more stories from svg

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

09/10/2026

Dolby Expands Dolby OptiView Platform with New Capabilities at IBC 2026

September 10 2026, 06:00 (PDT) Dolby Expands Dolby OptiView Platform with New Capabilities at IBC 2026 New Sports Intelligence helps providers better unders...

07/10/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Media Operations from Ingest to Distribution

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...

22/09/2026

New TVU Pocket Offers Broadcast Features In Phone-Sized Unit

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

22/09/2026

Operative Launches Unified Platform for Advertising and Broadcast Management

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

22/09/2026

Element Launches New TiVo-Powered Smart TVs in the U.S.

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

22/09/2026

NOAA Taps Tomorrow.io for Improved U.S. Weather Forecasts

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

22/09/2026

Gray Media Promotes Tim Maloney to GM and Director of Sales at WBKO

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

22/09/2026

Reports: Paramount Reaches Settlement with State AGs in Antitrust Suit

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

22/09/2026

New Research Lays Out Streaming Services Best Defense Against Churn

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

22/09/2026

Sinclair Expands The National News Desk

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

22/09/2026

Paramount Settles Antitrust Lawsuit over WBD Merger

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

22/09/2026

U.S. Broadband Industry Investment Hits $92.6 Billion

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/09/2026

Manifold Taps Ryhaan Williams for North America COO Post

Manifold Technologies, developer of software-defined, FPGA-accelerated infrastructure for live production, has named Ryhaan Williams as Chief Commercial Officer...

21/09/2026

SNS Wins IAMT Best Journal Article Award

Studio Network Solutions (SNS) has won Best Journal Article at the 2026 IAMT Impact Awards for What Video Editors Need When Everything Is Changing Around Them,...

21/09/2026

MLW Announces Streaming Deal with Tubi for Weekly FUSION Series

Major League Wrestling (MLW) has announced a streaming distribution agreement with Tubi for its weekly series MLW FUSION. Beginning September 17, new episodes w...

21/09/2026

Adam Smith Named Chairman of Direct-to-Consumer at Disney Entertainment

Disney Entertainment has announced that Adam Smith has been named Chairman, Direct-to-Consumer, with responsibility for Disney and Hulu including product, engi...

21/09/2026

United Airlines and DISH to Offer Live Football on Starlink-Enabled Seatback Screens

United Airlines and DISH have announced an agreement to bring live professional ...

21/09/2026

SES to Provide Satellite Distribution for JioStar Channels Across India

SES and JioStar have announced a multi-year agreement under which SES will provide satellite distribution services for JioStar's television channel portfoli...

21/09/2026

Detroit Red Wings Announce Detroit SportsNet Broadcast Details for 2026-27 Season

The Detroit Red Wings have announced details for their inaugural season on Detro...

21/09/2026

Manifold Technologies Appoints Ryhaan Williams as CCO for North America

Manifold Technologies has appointed Ryhaan Williams as Chief Commercial Officer for North America, effective October 1, 2026. Based in Jacksonville, Florida, Wi...

21/09/2026

DAZN Pick Up L.A. Kings DTC Streaming Rights; ABTV Will Continue as Local TV Home

Angels Broadcast Television (ABTV), the local television home of the Los Angeles...

21/09/2026

Inside ESPNs US Open Effort: Embracing the Cloud and a New 20,000 Sq. Ft. Broadcast Center

The 2026 US Open Tennis Championships marked a year of change with respect to TV...

21/09/2026

Behind The Mic: Andrs Cantor Joins Netflixs FIFA Womens World Cup Commentary Team; Doc Rivers Joins NBC Sports NBA Coverage

Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...

21/09/2026

iDrumTune from RT60

Drum-tuning app now available on Android RT60 describe their iDrumTune app as the world's most advanced, accurate and intelligent system for assisting ...

21/09/2026

SoundGhost release Orbit

Innovative multiband auto-panner introduced SoundGhost's latest plug-in takes an innovative approach to auto-panning, and divides incoming signals into ...

21/09/2026

Apple Mac Studio With M5 Max: First Impressions

We check out the M5 Max-equipped model The same, but different. The new Mac Studio models feature M5 Max and M5 Ultra silicon, dramatically improving the perf...

21/09/2026

From Graphic Novel to 30-Minute Animated Film: What I Learned Building an AI-Assisted Production Pipeline

From Graphic Novel to 30-Minute Animated Film: What I Learned Building an AI-Ass...

21/09/2026

Liam Hopkins Builds Recording Studio with Blackmagic Design

Liam Hopkins Builds Recording Studio with Blackmagic Design Brie Clayton September 20, 2026 0 Comments Video complements audio production with music v...

21/09/2026

Indigenous screen organisations from Canada, Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia launch new international co-production initiative

Indigenous screen organisations from Canada, Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia ...

21/09/2026

Why Deploying Physical AI at Scale Demands Safety at Every Layer

Physical AI is moving rapidly from research to large-scale deployment. By 2035, ABI Research projects an installed base of 49 million level 3-5 autonomous vehic...

21/09/2026

From Enablement to Execution, Egypt's AI Ecosystem Reaches Production Scale

Today, Egypt's AI builders gathered in the Grand Egyptian Museum for a reception that highlighted the nation's rapidly growing AI ecosystem - spanning A...

21/09/2026

NVIDIA Launches DSX Ready to Qualify Power and Cooling Products for AI Factories

Every AI factory needs power and cooling that fit its computing architecture. As AI infrastructure expands, power, cooling, water, site and grid constraints are...

21/09/2026

RT celebrates Irish Sign Language Awareness Week 2026

RT celebrates Irish Sign Language Awareness Week 2026 Special programmes across RT television, radio and online, plus special initiatives #ISL #IDSL #IWDP26...

21/09/2026

AI Security Is an Engineering Problem - How to Solve It at Every Layer of the Agent Stack

AI security is an engineering problem. That means defined security requirements,...

21/09/2026

5 Companies Using NVIDIA AI for Clean Energy

Clean energy isn't hard to come by, but the pace of large-scale adoption has historically been slow due to bottlenecks - including out-of-date infrastructur...

20/09/2026

Casio Sessions returns for 2026

Piano-playing singer-songwriter competition returns for fourth year Casio have officially revealed the list of 16 finalists who have earned their place in t...

20/09/2026

COW Jobs: Video Editor, Motion Designer - Remote, PT, 6 Months

COW Jobs: Video Editor, Motion Designer - Remote, PT, 6 Months Brie Clayton September 20, 2026 0 Comments Video Editor + Motion Designer (Remote | PT ...

19/09/2026

ART Pro Audio reveal the RPC Series

Three new rackmount power conditioners introduced Yorkville Sound have announce the upcoming launch of three new RPC rackmount power conditioners from ART P...

19/09/2026

Colorfront Elevates Workflow Versatility at IBC 2026

September 15, 2026 AMSTERDAM, SEPTEMBER 2026 - Colorfront (colorfront.com), the Academy and Emmy Award-winning developer of high-performance cinema mastering, ...

19/09/2026

Two High Profile Professional Sports Franchises Renew cre...

Two High-Profile Professional Sports Franchises Renew creative.space Contracts with DigitalGlue NFL team and Major League Soccer Club cite ease of use, secure ...

19/09/2026

Limited Edition Audio releases VoxSplit Pro for overlapping dialogue separation and cleanup on macOS

Limited Edition Audio releases VoxSplit Pro for overlapping dialogue separation ...

18/09/2026

IBC 2026 Tech Moves Beyond the Gloss and Into the Rack

IBC 2026 Tech Moves Beyond the Gloss and Into the Rack If you spent any time in the halls of the RAI this year, you noticed a clear shift in conversation. The c...

18/09/2026

SVG GameDay, Ep. 31: Seattle Mariners Tim Walsh - Creative Content in the Emerald City

In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...

18/09/2026

Qvest Appoints Jens Miedek as SVP Sales, Media and Entertainment

Qvest has appointed Jens Miedek as Senior Vice President Sales, Media and Entertainment. Before joining Qvest, Miedek spent 16 years at Riedel Communications an...

18/09/2026

Fonn Group Acquires everviz, Relaunches as Teikna Graphics Platform

Fonn Group has acquired full ownership of everviz, a cloud-native platform for interactive charts, maps, and data-driven graphics, and will rebrand it as Teikna...

18/09/2026

OWC Acquires OpenDrives to Expand Enterprise Storage Portfolio

Other World Computing (OWC) has announced the acquisition of OpenDrives, a provider of software-defined video and rich media storage management solutions. The a...

18/09/2026

Kaltura and Verimatrix Partner on Content Security for OTT and Cloud TV

Kaltura and Verimatrix have announced a partnership integrating Verimatrix's Digital Rights Management and security capabilities into Kaltura's Cloud TV...

18/09/2026

Movicom's Robycam Aerial Cable System Deployed at World Nomad Games

The sixth edition of the World Nomad Games combined traditional sports, large-scale cultural performances, and some decidedly modern broadcast technology. Held ...

18/09/2026

DAZN and Super League Basketball Extend Partnership for 2026-27 Season

DAZN and Super League Basketball (SLB) have extended their partnership for the 2026-27 season. Every Championship, Cup, and Play-Off fixture will be available l...