This week's Sports Business Journal released the results of its latest reader's survey on the media. ESPN came out to be the big winner topping four out of 11 categories. The subjects ranged from favorite sports announcer to favorite sports app to which network best covers the NFL. There were some very interesting results. For disclosure purposes, your humble writer did take part in this survey, but my choices did not result to be the same as the majority.
With that said, let's take a look at the results from the readers' responses to the respected Sports Business Journal poll for sports media.
This is straight-forward. In a close vote, NBC's Al Michaels beats out CBS' Jim Nantz. Michaels best known for calling Sunday Night Football, but has called many sports including baseball, basketball, boxing, hockey, Olympics and has called them well. Nantz calls three sports in a year, college basketball, football and golf. Interesting to see Marv Albert fifth in this poll.
I can understand this result. ESPN has the most inventory of other networks and has brought plenty of new technology. I voted for Fox, but totally understand why people would vote for ESPN.
I went with NBC based on Sunday Night Football and the Olympics, but it appears readers feel that ESPN's production is better. There are sports the Worldwide Leader does well such as college football and basketball, but its NBA work lags behind TNT and Monday Night Football appears to be behind NBC's NFL production, but readers feel otherwise.
Is this because Tim Tebow is not being mentioned ad nauseum this season or another reason? I went with Fox. Surprised to see NFL Network so low. Perhaps readers feel NFL Network is a mouthpiece of the league and is afraid to handle controversial topics.
Another win for ESPN. I went with WatchESPN as it allows authenticated viewers to watch the linear ESPN networks, but it's not accessible to cable and satellite subscribers whose providers don't have agreements with ESPN. I partially agree on ESPN ScoreCenter, but would have gone with At Bat if I had a second vote in this category.
MLB was the first sports league to go online and its content far outdistances the other leagues. Most videos are even embeddable now and its social media policy is well beyond the NFL, whose video policies are falling behind the times.
This is not encouraging for CBS Sports Network, Fox Sports 1 or NBCSN which have invested heavily in providing live late afternoon shows. Pardon the Interruption is the runaway among these choices, but it's probably due to its longevity on ESPN.
Another category that is not encouraging to Fox Sports 1 in the early going. This can be attributed to the lack of live games early on the network's schedule, but with college basketball ramping up, these results would probably be higher if the poll is conducted next February or March.
Here's one category that can be considered encouraging for Fox Sports 1. Readers feel it's in the best position to succeed against ESPN. And with live MLB games coming in 2014 plus NASCAR and U.S. Open Golf in 2015, Fox has given readers some hope for a true alternative to the well-established Bristolians.
Some interesting results in this poll. Do you agree with the Sports Business Journal readers? Give us your thoughts in the comments below.
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