CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — Advertising time for the fall TV season is going quickly at cable network ESPN, as advertisers have been proceeding as if there is going to be an NFL season, ESPN’s ad chief told MarketWatch Wednesday.
NFL players and owners have so far been unable to agree on a new collective bargaining agreement, and the owners’ lockout of the players has fed fears that the 2011 season could be delayed or canceled.
PGA Tour players Ben Crane, Rickie Fowler, Hunter Mahan and Bubba Watson have collaborated on "Oh Oh Oh," the first release from their teenybopper band spoof, Golf Boys. Video courtesy Farmers Insurance.
During an interview at the annual NCTA Cable Show in Chicago, Sean Bratches said that after just two weeks, the Walt Disney Co. /quotes/zigman/245568/quotes/nls/dis DIS -0.52% -owned network has just about sold all of the commercial time it has made available for the new season, with key categories including automotive, retail and entertainment.
ESPN does have a contingency plan ready to present to advertisers if the NFL season is delayed or isn’t played at all, but Bratches said that option was not a part of its negotiations with clients. “We think the owners and players will settle their differences. We have more than 300 college football games, we have a lot of football-related programming, and we’re on multiple platforms,” Bratches said. “So we’re comfortable either way that we can meet the needs of advertisers in the marketplace.”
As the second quarter comes to a close, ESPN’s ad sales remain brisk, helped by improved ratings for the just-concluded NBA season and Major League Baseball. With increasing usage of mobile platforms like Apple Inc.’s iPad and iPhone, and lots of on-demand video choices gathering momentum, Bratches said advertisers see sports as “a place they need to be” to attract the large mass audiences that watch live games.
The network is also seeing gains at ESPN Radio, where waves of controversy around the NBA’s Miami Heat and forward LeBron James have helped move the ratings needle. “Radio is driving about 28% of all of our consumption among heavy users,” Bratches explained. “And this is not a zero sum game. So the person that is a heavy user of ESPN.com or ESPN Radio is a bigger consumer of our content on the TV screen. So it’s really 1 + 1 + 1 equals 8. And there’s no subtraction, per se.”
Bratches said ESPN’s research has echoed reports by major cable and satellite operators that there is little evidence of so-called “cord-cutting,” or cancellation of cable service in favor of some combination of streaming video and/or DVD rental. “If anybody is cutting a cord, it’s driven by the economy, not the ability to access content on these other platforms. We think ESPN, and sports in general, are ensuring the survival of subscription television, because they are only available live, and from multichannel distributors.”
ESPN is getting early traction from its WatchESPN iPad app.
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