I’m sharing operations of a fantasy NBA team with my 14-year-old son this season, and we had our draft on Sunday night. I thought I knew enough heading into the draft. Did my prep work. But after around Round 4, I could tell I was getting lapped on my roster knowledge by this ninth grade basketball superfan. If this were a real draft war room, I would have been the intern sitting quietly on the wall, and he would have been the GM making the calls and telling me to get coffee. Whatever YouTube feed or sports app he’s looking at these days definitely prepared him well.
Tonight in SBJ Media:
NBA ready to assist teams on local strategies
“SportsCenter” at 6pm is on a viewership heater
Will Skydance keep buying sports docs from outside its house?
Ampere: MLB’s regional media rights valued at $1.6 billion
NBA staying flexible with efforts to assist teams on local media strategies
Camera operator behind the scenes during the game between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Los Angeles Lakers
NBA HQ is offering to help clubs with end-to-end local media solutions or select components of a team strategy.
Local delivery of NBA games this season has teams all over the map in terms of distribution models being used. But as the league begins the 2026-27 season on Tuesday, execs at 645 Fifth Avenue are being flexible in terms of assisting franchises, whether it’s with end-to-end solutions or select components of a team strategy.
“If we want to work with a team and help them all the way from their scheduling trucks and crewing, we can provide that to teams end to end,” said Chris Benyarko, the NBA’s EVP and head of DTC products, technology and operations (as well as SBJ’s reigning Tech Exec of the Year). “Then from a production standpoint, also do that end-to-end from a direct-to-consumer standpoint. So we can completely stand up the direct-to-consumer service, do all the packaging, do the custom support, help them with the marketing, the targeting — we could do all that. But we also realize that each team has different scenarios and different situations they’re in.”
Benyarko also noted that readiness extends beyond the teams to RSNs or other telecast partners so that the NBA can help all sides drive innovation.
Learning lessons
Much of the innovation advice being offered to teams on the digital front comes from the NBA’s enhancements made on the League Pass app, such as alt-telecasts and overlays.
“We’re providing that to teams and their local partners for them to use within their products,” Benyarko said. “Mobile View has been an alt-cast that we’ve done for many years. You’ll see that appear across a lot of the local partners and those telecasts. We’re also launching out kind of a new stats-based focus feed that we’ll also be doing on local.”
The NBA will even be offering to help teams with virtual signage on their telecasts, should they seek such advice.
“Our goal is to just be available to help them as much as possible,” Benyarko said. “Have the teams really be focused on both the marketing and access and content and all those things that make a lot of the more production and technical stuff a little bit more turnkey for them.”
New enhacements
The NBA had a lot of success with its Tap to Watch feature last season in Year 1 of new media-rights deals. Benyarko noted other leagues have reached out for best practices on that effort, as well as the NBA’s broadcast partners who also are in business with other leagues.
But the NBA isn’t resting on its Tap to Watch success of last season. It is introducing a slew of new digital products and initiatives this season for that effort and others, including building out more on TikTok.
“We realized that this is something that we actually need to take global, so we’re getting global coverage coming this year, not just using the U.S. for Tap to Watch,” Benyarko said. “Then we also are taking certain platforms and doubling down and realizing that the Tap to Watch, in terms of mechanism, shouldn’t just be only restricted to the things that we at the league do and what teams do, but we’re also expanding that pretty broadly to also have the creators do it.”
TikTok will be a central part of creator efforts this season, both in the U.S. and abroad. “Lessons that we learned from doing that in the U.S., we can take those to how we apply [efforts] globally,” Benyarko said. “But I would say the mix of the folks that we have even across the different creatives are folks that tend to have larger audiences currently right now within the U.S.”
6pm ‘SportsCenter’ keeps drawing bigger audiences
The 6pm ET "SportsCenter" has now seen 14 straight months of year-over-year audience growth.
The 6pm ET "SportsCenter" has now seen 14 straight months of year-over-year audience growth.
The 6pm ET “SportsCenter” streak of success continues, scoring 14 straight months of year-over-year audience growth.
The show, which first occupied the 6pm slot on Sept. 7, 1979, is coming off its most-watched year since 2015, and it is already pacing ahead of 2025, showing 7% growth in 2026 through September (last month was also the show’s best audience since February 2015).
Here’s how the “SC” 6pm audience has shaped up so far in 2026:
September: 640,000 average viewers
August: 403,000
July: 395,000
June: 470,000
May: 546,000
April: 529,000
March: 529,000
February: 505,000
January: 620,000
Creating urgency and personality
Kevin Negandhi has been the consistent face of the 6pm show since 2018, when ESPN moved away from its “SC6” experiment. Negandhi has had a few co-anchors during that time, including Sage Steele and Elle Duncan. After Duncan left for Netflix last December, Christine Williamson has been Negandhi’s most regular partner.
ESPN VP and executive producer Scott Clark has had oversight of all “SC” shows since August 2025 and the 6pm show specifically since August 2023. He credits the continued viewership rise to a combination of urgency and personality with the show.
“What we’re doing is setting up the night, creating the feeling for fans that there is stuff going on. I think that’s the biggest thing,” Clark said. “That’s something that was really pushed with the team the last couple of years -- lean in on what’s happening in your window, before your window and after your window. … The other piece is reacting to the day and being flexible and creating urgency around those stories and leaning in when there is news. And not making the viewer wait -- coming right out and delivering that news and reacting to it.”
The 6pm show generally leans on more review of the day during football season, like injury updates, versus preview of the night’s live events. That review approach ramps up anytime there is a day game to go over, such as MLB afternoon playoff matchups. And depending on what time a game starts that evening, a 6pm “SC” can go for 90 minutes or even two hours.
“For viewers that are coming in at like 6:45, they’re always aware that there’s something coming up at 7pm, and it allows us to set the table,” Negandhi said. “It allows us to give them the appetizer to the main course.”
Getting the talent right
ESPN has around 25 anchors who helm “SC” during a given year. Clark called Negandhi and Williamson “extremely likable” as a pair at 6pm.
“You can feel that they like each other and that chemistry is different,” Clark said. “With this show, anyone who does it needs to be able to handle breaking news in a significant way. … I wouldn’t call 6pm the ‘SportsCenter’ version of the nightly news, but it is the closest thing to it that we do.”
When Negandhi and Williamson aren’t on, Jay Harris and Hannah Storm usually fill in. Brian Custer and Kevin Connors also work the 6pm “SC” from time to time. “It’s not a huge group of people who do this show, and that’s in part because Kevin and Christine will do it solo primarily when one of them is out,” Clark said.
For Negandhi, keeping things fresh and contemporary has been a north star with his approach to the show, and he’ll often lean on his family for ideation.
“As a father of a 14-year-old boy who is a diehard sports fan, as well as a 12-year-old boy who wants to do what I’m doing down the road, and a 10-year-old daughter, I get it firsthand, right? I hear what they say. I’m in the car with them and their friends, and I hear what they talk about,” Negandhi said. “I’m always approaching ‘SportsCenter’ as a fan. What does the fan want? How do I make sure that I’m serving the fans so when they’re done watching, they’re smarter, they feel like they had fun and they feel good about the whole product.
“I’ll hear a certain thing that my kids are listening to and I’m like, ‘OK, I’ve got to be fully aware of that. I got to be on my toes that if a line is brought up that I’m prepared for that line.’ But at the same time, I also know that we have a dedicated loyal audience, so I’m going to drop a ‘Seinfeld’ reference or a Beastie Boys reference or something from hip hop in the early ’90s. Something with DMX or Public Enemy. Something I like as well that’s really mine. … The audience can smell if you’re authentic or if you’re trying to be somebody. I’m not trying to be Mr. Hip Guy.”
Shoutout to Wilbon and Kornheiser
“PTI,” which will celebrate its silver anniversary on Thursday, is another ESPN show that continues to do well in viewership, and one that is crucial to the success of the 6pm “SC.”
“Those guys have become true appointment viewing, and they have sustained that for 25 years,” Clark said. “When we start our show, if there’s big news, we come right to it. We do not waste time. We’re trying to grab that [‘PTI’] audience as quickly as we can and hold them as long as we can, because we know it’s a significant amount of people and we know that a lot of those people are there for Tony and Mike. … They do their bonus topic for us that we air anywhere from 6:10pm to 6:25pm to try to keep that audience as much as possible. So they are a big part of it.”
What I’m watching
Words + Pictures has done a number of documentary efforts for WBD over the last few years.
Words + Pictures has done a number of documentary efforts for WBD over the last few years.
Words + Pictures has done projects for both Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery, including a couple of documentary efforts on the Paramount side recently. But even after a merger of potential content buyers, W+P CEO Connor Schell feels the new combined company shows a “real commitment” to sports storytelling. “We’re always thinking about who are the potential buyers, who can we talk to, who’s investing in this space and all these ways, and so we’re cognizant of the number of people you can sell to,” Schell told me. “The people who are invested heavily in sports content tend to be the best supporters of the ecosystem. … We’re excited to keep working with them. I don’t have a crystal ball as to how that all plays out, but it’s incumbent upon us to keep having great things to try to sell.”
MLB’s regional media rights (non-national game telecasts) are valued at $1.6 billion, accounting for 43% of the league’s total $3.7 billion in broadcast rights revenue, per new data from Ampere Analysis. Given their market size, the Dodgers (SportsNet L.A.) and Yankees (YES Network) account for 23% of total MLB regional rights fees. The 14 teams partnered with MLB.tv currently account for roughly 30% of all regional non-advertising TV revenue. With the league’s full national rights coming to market after the 2028 season, MLB is still going through the process of what any potential national package of local rights could look like.
Playfly CEO Craig Sloan tells me that his company has had 20 team partners across the NBA and NHL move into a new local TV environment this season, with some opting for a more traditional broadcast approach and some experimenting a little more, including with new entrant DAZN. “The average team moving to broadcast increases their ratings by over 50% when that’s happened over the last few years,” Sloan noted. “Then we’ve got more experimentation happening with DAZN coming into the mix and in some cases being the only form of a way to get involved with that team. We’re going to be literally tracking it game by game, day by day, and really trying to understand and learn and be able to guide our team partners on what is working and what needs to be improved.”
Media speed reads
The latest episode of the SBJ Sports Media Podcast sees sports media experts John Kosner (top right) and Ed Desser discuss their new book with SBJ's Austin Karp (top left).
The latest episode of the SBJ Sports Media Podcast sees sports media experts John Kosner (top right) and Ed Desser discuss their new book with SBJ's Austin Karp (top left).
On the latest SBJ Sports Media Podcast, we analyze Netflix’s acquisition of FIFA Men’s World Cup rights in Spain and the ramifications of CFP expansion. Meanwhile, longtime sports media experts John Kosner and Ed Desser join the show to talk about their new book, “Inside the Big Business of Sports Media.”
“Monday Night Football” analyst Troy Aikman confirmed his pending free agency after the season, leaving questions as to his future with ESPN once his deal expires following Super Bowl LXI.
Getting TV networks on board was an easier element to handle for the overall heavy lift that was moving Games 3 and 4 of the WNBA Finals to State Farm Arena.
Relevent hired two former IOC execs to lead a new broadcast and production company called Relevent Media Services, which will offer end-to-end broadcast production for both existing Relevent partners and new clients across soccer and other sports, reports SBJ’s Alex Silverman.
The Clippers formalized their local direct-to-distributor and DTC broadcast plans for the season with an NBA-led reprisal of ClipperVision and layered availability across Spectrum cable, DirecTV satellite and streaming platform Fubo, notes SBJ’s Tom Friend.
Genius Sports is providing social media platform X with official NFL data to power its NFL Gametime on X feed, reports SBJ’s Joe Lemire. The product soft-launched earlier this season and is available during live games.
FloSports secured global streaming rights for the National Lacrosse League in a multiyear deal that will also see the platform launch a dedicated FloLacrosse channel starting Nov. 5.