Long time gone from Paris to Toronto; BMO doubles down on MLS; Breaking down the LIV Golf/CW deal and the path of Nick Khan
Well rest in peace the talented David Crosby, who made a lot of the music I grew up listening to and still do. David Crosby dead at the age of 81. SBJ now on TikTok and coming to a For You Page near you. Be sure to follow us at Sports Business Journal for all the latest updates on the sports business. And this is your Morning Buzzcast for Friday, January 20th. You made it to Friday. I'm Abe Madkour. Thanks for listening to the Buzzcast.
Let's start with this. You want to know why all the sports leagues and all the sports properties crave to be with Netflix? Well look no further than yesterday's quarter report where Netflix added 7.7 million new subscribers in the fourth quarter of '22, beating forecasts and boosting its total to 231 million paid subscribers worldwide. 231 million. Yes, the company, like all streamers, faces headwinds, but it's still a distribution force and that's why people in tennis are so excited for the docuseries Breakpoint, which dropped last month, and it's why people in golf are so excited about the potential of Full Swing, the docuseries launching in February. Netflix has that power of getting in front of so many new viewers.
Let's close the loop on something we brought up earlier this week, and that's LIV Golf formally announcing a TV partner in the U.S., their first U.S. TV deal, a multi-year deal with the CW. Terms were not disclosed, but it looks to be a revenue-sharing deal between the two sides and the two parties. The CW is known to draw a young audience. It's never had sports programming before. Its programming is largely young adult dramas, but CW execs are hoping to draw an older audience over time and hope this could be one way to do it. So it's new terrain for the CW, and if you went to its website yesterday, you saw no mention of its deal with LIV Golf, but that's not a huge deal. The CW will air 14 LIV Golf events on its stations on Saturday and Sunday. It will not show the golf on its broadcast stations on Friday. They will stream them on the CW's app, so no coverage on the broadcast network on Fridays, only the weekend. In terms of reach, the CW is a broadcast network with over-the-air coverage on its eight owned and operated stations and 220 affiliates in most of the major markets. So again, the CW, new to sports, but LIV Golf must like being the main sports asset on the network and will look to build around that. The '23 LIV Golf season starts in Mexico on February 24th.
Speaking of February, hype is building around advertising on the Super Bowl, and I know you're used to seeing Anheuser-Busch all over the Super Bowl broadcast, but look for a far smaller presence on the broadcast this year on Fox, as Anheuser-Busch has purchased just three minutes of national ad time during the broadcast and around three brands. You'll see Bud Light, you'll see Michelob Ultra, and you'll see Busch Light. Adweek notes that it's a minute less than last year. A-B bought four minutes of time during the national broadcast, actually, the last two Super Bowls. Now the brewer may also buy regional times in major markets, but in terms of national time, just three minutes on this year's Super Bowl.
Now it's interesting to compare who was promoted or amplified during last year's advertising and who will be the focus this year. So brands that were advertised last year under the A-B umbrella that aren't being advertised this year? That would be the Michelob Ultra Organic Seltzer, the Bud Light Seltzer Hard Soda, Bud Light Next, and Cutwater Spirits. So you don't know if tastes change or trends change, but they will not be advertising this year. This year, Busch Light is getting on the Super Bowl for the first time since 2017, and with the emphasis on healthy living, Michelob Ultra will have two ads during the game that will feature Tony Romo and Canelo Alvarez. So that's a little bit of a breakdown of what you can expect to see from Anheuser-Busch during the Super Bowl broadcast.
Let's move on. A new naming rights deal in LA. You have a new name for the home of MLS's LAFC, and it's a big deal. It's being reported as the largest naming rights deal in MLS history, a deal with the financial services company BMO for approximately $100 million over 10 years. That's according to sources of the LA Daily News. The home of LAFC will now be called BMO Stadium. It was, of course, called Bank of California Stadium. That was a deal that was signed in 2016, but the bank paid quite a bit of money to get out of the agreement, although its name stayed on the stadium, but now the stadium name will change. The venue's first official game as BMO Stadium will be played January 25th. They'll start to remove signage from Bank of California signage to BMO Stadium signage. For BMO, it continues to invest in soccer sponsorship. It also has naming rights to Toronto FC Stadium, as well as being that club's main jersey sponsor. So BMO going heavy in Toronto and the LA market around Major League Soccer.
Let's shift to some news on basketball because the Chicago Bulls beat the Detroit Pistons in the Paris Game '23 in front of a sellout crowd at Accor Arena in Paris, largely made up of Bulls fans. It was a celebratory day for the league. You had Adam Silver there, Joakim Noah on hand. He was a former Bulls player. You had Magic Johnson, you had former Spurs Tony Parker there, and so you had a lot of energy, a lot of alumni there to celebrate the Paris games.
So while the NBA is spreading its brand to Europe, we also know the WNBA is looking to expand, and the Minnesota Lynx and the Chicago Sky will play a preseason game in Toronto in May, and some are wondering if this is a signal that the W is looking to expand to Canada. So some believe this game May 13th at Scotiabank Arena will be a real test of the viability of a Canadian WNBA expansion team. We know the WNBA is looking to expand. They haven't offered a timeline or the exact number of cities, but they do admit that Toronto is one of the markets strongly being considered. And in Toronto, the WNBA would get deep pocketed, experienced operators with MLSC being the owner of that franchise. So playing outside the United States for the W is a big deal. This would be only the third time the WNBA has played a pre-season game outside the United States. They played in Monterrey, Mexico, and they've also played in Manchester, England. But in May, they'll play a preseason game in Toronto, and we'll want to keep our eye on that game to see just how the market responds from an attendance and viewership perspective because it could, it could, be a signal that the WNBA's future could be in Canada.
And finally, one podcast I suggest is worth a listen for you, Bill Simmons' conversation with WWE CEO, Nick Khan. Now the two are obviously quite close. They have a very easy rapport, and they touch on a ton of topics related to sports business. And as many of you know, Nick Khan is one of the most connected executives in the business.
So in the interview, Nick Khan said he expected the return of Vince McMahon as Executive Chair of the WWE, even after Vince McMahon's departure for about five months over sexual harassment allegations and charges. Nick Khan said he never felt Vince McMahon's exit was permanent, and I found that interesting. And now that Vince McMahon is back, he will oversee the sale of the company or some other form of strategic alternatives. Nick Khan believes that Vince McMahon is just ready to sell now, and he predicted it would not be a lengthy process because remember, the WWE's media rights are set to expire in 2024, and so the goal is that the new owners could negotiate their own media rights deal. So that is the goal, unless a media company ends up buying the WWE directly, which certainly could happen, and therefore, the rights would be part of that package. But there are a lot of other elements to this interview. Nick Khan talks about competition from Tony Khan and the AEW, a rival wrestling circuit. They talk about the future of ESPN, and again, they touch on a number of other sports business issues, so it is worth a listen.
So that is your Morning Buzzcast for Friday, January 20th. I hope you enjoy the best football weekend of the year. Should be four exciting games. I'm Abe Madkour. Thanks for listening to the Morning Buzzcast. Continue to spread the word on the Morning Buzzcast. Stay healthy, be good to each other, and I'll speak to you on Monday.