Austin Karp
@AustinKarp
Longtime @SBJ editor/writer. Dishing out TV viewership data since 2006. Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech. Don't try and convince me the end to "Lost" was good.
Fans in Austin will have to continue to wait to see the legend. In skipping the MLS All-Star Game, Messi has yet to play a game at Q2 Stadium (Inter Miami has yet to visit Austin FC) sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2025/…
Re-upping a couple things from Charlotte this morning as ACC Media Days get going (the Big Ten is also set to begin in Vegas). My story from reporting over the last week on Memphis' efforts to get into the Big 12 and the $200 million pitch it made: sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2025/…
Hearing MLS owners did not vote today on a shift to the European calendar. Should get some more context at the Commissioner’s pre-game press conference at 630 CT.
New at @SBJ: MLS owners are set to meet in Austin, but there’s no huge sense of urgency to vote this week on the proposed shift to the global soccer calendar. Still, many view the move as a “when, not if” development. sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2025/…
Audience for the @IndianaFever seems to be doing OK without Caitlin Clark in the lineup right out of the gate after All-Star ESPN drew 1.2 million viewers last night for the game against the NY Liberty, marking the cable net's third-best WNBA game this season Something to watch
Caitlin Clark effect manifests itself in 2 ways: 🔲Anything with Clark, then without, drops hard. NCAA title game -54%. Draft -49%. All-Star -36%. Regular-season -50% during her time out (but still up for 2025) 🔲Numbers even without Caitlin well above years before her arrival
2.2 million for the WNBA all-star game is a great number, but you can't help but notice that ESPN compared it to the 2023 game (instead of 2024) because viewership was down 36% without Caitlin Clark playing this year
Really liking the activations they're doing to promote "Happy Gilmore 2" Started with the "Happy Place" penalty box during Stanley Cup Final on ABC Latest: @Topgolf partnering with @netflix to launch giveaway of limited-edition @Odysseygolf Hockey Stick putter at U.S. venues
Some early Cooper Flagg effect? The @NBASummerLeague saw a 27% viewership uptick this year, averaging 254,000 viewers across ESPN channels. @Hornets-@SacramentoKings title game on Sunday drew 420,000 viewers, up 3% from Grizzlies-Heat last year (406,000)
I guess I shouldnt be surprised when WNBA numbers decline like this without Caitlin. Audiences have been pretty consistent in showing a very sharp drop without her in the game. Still above those years before Caitlin joined, but wow does she move the needle
Some of the big event weekend numbers: Little over 4 million for final round of Open Championship on NBC. Up big for Scottie’s win. WNBA All-Star game on ABC dropped 36% without Caitlin Clark, but 2.2 million viewers still 2nd best for the game.
Some of the big event weekend numbers: Little over 4 million for final round of Open Championship on NBC. Up big for Scottie’s win. WNBA All-Star game on ABC dropped 36% without Caitlin Clark, but 2.2 million viewers still 2nd best for the game.
Big 12 presidents are passing on a pitch made by Memphis to join the league, sources tell @SBJ. The Tigers’ sell centered on taking no conference distribution in the immediate future and delivering $200+ million in sponsorship dollars to the league. sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2025/…
Some solid executive news in Bristol: @ESPNFlora, a fantastic purveyor/analyst of sports viewership/audience data, is being promoted to Senior VP/ESPN Research. If you don't already follow Flora Kelly and are interested in the numbers around myriad sports, give her a follow!
ESPN/ABC sports programming having best first half viewership since 2016 sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2025/…
AAC officially rebrands to the American Conference. I know I've just been calling it The American for a while. sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2025/…
Well, WNBA regular season viewership this season is actually +9%, not +23%. Still a good increase though share.google/t2evykT9jJufyz…
Taking the over here.
Viewership for the final round of @TheOpen going back 20 years. Where does tomorrow land?
Good question here. Tough to make a linear TV comp right now. But within Netflix universe alone, if Raw is to be considered a “series," then those 26 “episodes” through June (88.6 million views) rank below only Season 2 of “Squid Game” and the limited series “Adolescence”
Do you think wwe is doing bad on Netflix or would you consider it good?
New internal Netflix data shows that F1's "Drive to Survive" audience is slowing, while @WWE "Raw" looks to be settling in on the platform Also check out data on docs like "Court of Gold" and "The Clubhouse" with the @RedSox sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2025/…
Is the Disney-NFL Media deal going to happen before the season? Two NFL sources tell my @SBJ colleague Ben Fischer that they’ve received an informal heads up that there may be a special league meeting in August on the topic
WNBA All-Star Game averaged a record 3.4 million with Caitlin last year. Only twice before had the game topped 1 million viewers (2005 and 2003)(at least from my records) I imagine Saturday still gets over 1 million, but now well short of 3 million without the league's star
a message from Caitlin Clark ❤️