Gather round, sports media consumers; it’s time for another Wednesday Briefing. No doubt, you have been waiting for this since your week started. As always, grab your favourite beverage, sit back, relax, and enjoy!
Not a Betr Reunion
Things are not getting Betr for Jake Paul after HBO sent the betting company he co-founded a cease-and-desist letter over a recent ad that featured an unofficial Entourage reunion.
The ad in question showed Jeremy Piven and Adrian Grenier reuniting in a scenario that very deliberately evokes their Entourage characters, Ari Gold and Vincent Chase. A host of sporting stars appear in the ad, alongside Paul himself. While the ad doesn’t name Ari Gold and Vincent Chase, it strongly implies they are playing them.
When Entourage creator Doug Ellin was asked on social media if he was a part of the ad, which made the Piven/Grenier reunion happen, he had a very blunt response.
As Ellin suggested, he doesn’t care if people get rich; create your own shit. And that is a fair point. I’m sure things would have been fine if Paul and co had included him in the ad, but I can’t predict whether, even if they had tried to involve Ellin, he would have said yes.
In Touch Weekly reported that HBO lawyers sent a cease-and-desist to Betr CEO Joey Levy, alleging the ad infringed on intellectual property and was made without HBO’s consent or authorisation. However, when I click the link to the In Touch article, it appears to be broken.
Anyway, let’s see how this plays out over the next few weeks.
Stan by your streaming service
The Australian reported this week that Australian streaming company Stan has lost 10 per cent of its subscriber base over the last 12 months. This follows the announcement that the streamer secured an extension worth $810m for the rights to the English Premier League (EPL).
The article also pointed out that Nine’s market capitalisation had plummeted by $172m over five days.
Media Editor James Madden wrote that The Australian had obtained internal documents showing subscriber numbers fell from 800,000 when Stan first got the rights to the EPL to 730,000 earlier this month.
Nine, which owns Stan, obtained the rights to the EPL from Optus Sport after it folded. Madden said in the article that while the amount paid for the extension wasn’t disclosed, The Australian understood it came to $810m, or roughly $135m a season.
Senior Industry Executives who spoke to The Australian anonymously said Nine had essentially bet against itself because no other parties were interested in the EPL rights. Another said that the renewal was ‘just a bad deal.’ A Nine spokesperson declined to comment when The Australian reached out.
While it may seem like a bad deal, or that shedding this many subscribers is bad, people also subscribe and unsubscribe after seasons end for their favourite sport. Maybe those who unsubscribed weren’t English Premier League fans, or maybe, with the cost of living affecting households, some people have gone back to pirating sporting events.
This could be a massive loss for Nine if the EPL can get the subscribers back to the streaming platform.
Poogate
No doubt you have seen pictures of Hyrox athlete Joanna Wietrzyk finisihing a race with fecal matter running down her leg. Wietrzyk has copped a fair bit of flak online for the incident, sparking dialogue in gym group chats worldwide about safety standards and athlete responsibility.
While Wietrzyk’s coach came out in support of her, Hyrox organisers have apologised to anyone affected directly or indirectly by the incident and, according to The Guardian, have changed the rules to stop anything like this happening again.
The organisers also apologised for not acting quickly enough. People on social media were upset that the Australian athlete finished the race while jeopardising the health and safety of other competitors. Human waste is still a biohazard and should be treated quickly and properly. Organisers noted that the affected lanes were deep-cleaned overnight. But as pop star JoJo once sang, ‘it’s just a little too late.’
And there you have it: gambling, streaming rights and poogate. Just another week in sports media.
Until next time, take care.
Merce
