Fans reel after successive deaths of Hulk Hogan, Ozzy Osbourne and other celebrities
'I believed in him,' said Huigens, 68, of nearby Berwyn. 'He made being a Cubs fan enjoyable.'
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Fox Sports
24 minutes ago
- Fox Sports
Coco Gauff overcomes 14 more double-faults to advance in Montreal
Associated Press MONTREAL (AP) — Coco Gauff overcame 14 more double-faults to beat Veronika Kudermetova of Russia 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 on Thursday in the National Bank Open. Two days after surviving 23 double-faults and a third-set tiebreaker against fellow American Danielle Collins, the top-seeded Gauff rallied from a set and break down against Kudermetova to reach the round of 16. Gauff, No. 2 in the world behind Aryna Sabalenka, entered the week having lost two straight matches since winning the French Open, falling in her opening matches in Berlin and Wimbledon. McCartney Kessler of the United States upset fourth-seeded Mirra Andreeva of Russia 7-6 (5), 6-4. ___ AP tennis:
NBC News
25 minutes ago
- NBC News
The death of cable TV may be the birth of streaming sports aggregation
For about a decade, media executives have heavily invested in live sports as the primary value proposition for consumers to keep subscribing to traditional pay television. While tens of millions of Americans have ditched cable for a variety of streaming services, ESPN's marquee live sports have remained exclusive to cable subscribers. The broadcast networks (CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox) have been able to charge increasingly high fees to pay TV operators because they've invested in NFL games and college football, the most-watched American programming. When ESPN launches its direct-to-consumer service (likely next month), for the first time ever, Americans will be able to consume all major sports without having to subscribe to cable. (By the way, Disney — ESPN's majority owner — reports earnings next week. Sources suggest to me and my colleague Mike Ozanian that would be a logical time for ESPN to announce not only the DTC launch date but also the finalized details of its deal for NFL Media assets, which I reported on in last week's newsletter. Spokespeople for the NFL and ESPN declined to comment.) The changes in the pay TV landscape have led to one question that's dominated the strategic choices of the biggest media companies for the last decade: Will traditional pay TV die off completely, or will it level out and exist for decades to come as a profitable, albeit smaller, business? There was an interesting data point last week in Charter Communications' earnings report that suggests the answer could be the latter. Charter's earnings results weren't good. The stock fell 18% after the company reported it lost 117,000 internet customers during the quarter. Companies like Charter and CNBC's parent company, Comcast, have largely traded on residential broadband additions (or subtractions) for many years. Still, a bit hidden in the Charter numbers, the second-largest U.S. cable company reported a decline of just 80,000 video customers in the quarter. A year ago, that number was 408,000 in the same quarter. That's a five-fold improvement. There may be two reasons for plateauing losses. First, Charter has aggressively added 'free' access to streaming services for customers who pay for the full bundle of cable networks. It's, of course, not actually free — consumers are still paying for it, but it's included in the cost of the bundle. This has probably made cable subscribers less likely to cancel their plans. Now, if a customer cancels cable, that household is also giving up access to Disney's Disney+ and Hulu, NBCUniversal's Peacock, Paramount Global's Paramount+, and Warner Bros. Discovery's (soon to be just Warner. Bros.) HBO Max. When ESPN's direct-to-consumer application launches in the coming weeks, a cable customer would also lose access to that. Charter CEO Chris Winfrey noted in last week's earnings conference call that those offerings add up to 'over $100 worth of programmer apps.' 'That's going to be the stickiest product,' Winfrey said. 'It's going to be the best for customers and for programmers, us, and it's going to be the best for our broadband churn as well.' Second — and this one's the biggie to look out for — it's at least possible that pay TV losses are finally subsiding after more than a decade of losses. Comcast posted its earnings release Thursday morning and reported video customer losses of 325,000, an improvement over 419,000 losses in the year-earlier period. It's possible most of the U.S. households that want to cancel cable have now canceled, and the ones remaining plan to stick around for a little while. If that's the case, cable TV may effectively morph into the primary aggregation video service for sports. You may remember Venu, the never-launched sports streaming application from Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery. For $42.99 per month, Venu planned to give customers all sports owned by Disney/ESPN, Fox and WBD's Turner Sports. Experts estimated the offering included about 60% of all sports on TV. Over time, Venu hoped to add Paramount Global and NBCUniversal to the mix, according to people familiar with the matter. That would have given consumers most sports, outside of regional sports networks and the NFL and NBA packages on Amazon. Venu's value proposition was its price — $42.99. I highly doubt we'll see a service like Venu come to market at that low of a price. Fox is getting ready to launch its new streaming service, Fox One, which will give non-cable customers access to all of Fox's pay TV programming. While Fox hasn't revealed the pricing for the service yet, it won't be cheap. 'Pricing will be healthy and not a discounted price,' Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch said in May. Fox doesn't want you to cancel cable TV, so it won't incentivize churn by coming to market at a low price. 'We do not want to lose a traditional cable subscriber to Fox One,' Murdoch said, bluntly. Other pay TV operators have debuted skinny bundles of sports, such as DirecTV. Its MySports offering costs $69.99 per month, but it includes more than Venu would have. Comcast followed this year with a $70-per-month version of its own. The future of cable TV may slowly morph into something that resembles these skinny sports bundles. Sources tell me that once Skydance formally merges with Paramount Global next month, incoming CEO David Ellison plans to heavily invest in sports because pay TV economics still justify the spending. If video subscription losses are flattening, broadcast networks can continue to raise retransmission fees as long as they have premium programming — and sports are the most premium programming. How will he balance spending on sports when he's already promised more than $2 billion in cuts when the merger closes? What's likely to go is spending on anything that isn't sports or hit primetime (between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET) programming. See: 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' as Exhibit A, which fits the strategy even if Skydance wasn't involved in that decision. Maybe we should all stop thinking about cable TV as doomed to death and start viewing it in a new way — the next-generation aggregation service for sports. In this lens, it's not surprising NBCUniversal is thinking about developing a new cable sports network even while it plans to spin off almost all of its other cable networks (including CNBC). The battle may be between the cable companies, YouTube TV and ESPN's direct-to-consumer app as the go-to destination to access all sports. To quote esteemed cable analyst Craig Moffett from his note to clients last month, 'Maybe, just maybe, we're finding the long-imagined bottom for traditional pay TV, where sports and news fans are all that's left.'
CBS News
25 minutes ago
- CBS News
MLB trade deadline: Cubs pick up Willi Castro and Taylor Rogers, White Sox trade Adrian Houser
The Major League Baseball trade deadline struck at 5 p.m. Thursday. The Cubs were hoping to land a top-notch starting pitcher, but that didn't happen. What did happen was that the Cubs acquired a lot of players to add depth. They acquired utility man Willi Castro from the Minnesota Twins in exchange for minor-league prospects. Castro has spent time in several positions throughout a seven-year career. He has had a great year at the plate so far with 10 homers and 32 RBIs this season. Castro, an impending free agent, gives the Cubs another option to play third base, or anywhere over the diamond. The Cubs also agreed to a deal for left-handed reliever Taylor Rogers. This was the second time Rogers has been traded this week, as he was sent to the Pittsburgh Pirates from the Cincinnati Reds in a deal for Ke'Bryan Hayes. Rogers, 34, has a 2.45 ERA and 1.46 WHIP with 34 strikeouts in 33 innings this season. The return for the Pirates is High-A outfielder Ivan Brethowr, per The Athletic. The Cubs this week also obtained a pair of right-handed pitchers in Michael Soroka and Andrew Kittredge, who were acquired from the Washington Nationals and the Baltimore Orioles, respectively. The 35-year-old Kittredge is a former All-Star, who has a 3.45 ERA in 31 games this season. Soroka, who turns 28 next week, is an impending free agent who started 16 times for the Nationals. He compiled a 4.87 ERA (82 ERA+) and a 3.63 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Soroka played for the White Sox last year. Speaking of the White Sox, they traded Adrian Houser to the Tampa Bay Rays. The right-handed pitcher, whom the Sox signed just this past May, has been having a great first season on the South Side — amassing a 198 ERA+ and a 2.14 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 11 starts. House was expected to be moved. The White Sox are getting first baseman Curtis Mead from the Rays in exchange. Pitching prospects Duncan Davitt and Benjamin Peoples are also headed to the Sox, according to ESPN. And after so much chatter, it does not appear that outfielder Luis Robert Jr. is going anywhere. The centerfielder has been healthier lately and playing well, but General Manager Chris Getz opted not to make a deal.
