While MLB Network has challenges like any other channel amid a declining cable TV universe, Commissioner Rob Manfred tells me the league plans to continue doubling down on the channel and its content creation capabilities. “The production of baseball-related content is a really important capacity for us,” he said. “It served us really well in the disruption on the local media side. And I think that it will play a major role in what our overall media package looks like post-2028. It just gives you a ton of flexibility dealing with local games, making it easier for your partners to handle baseball games and, candidly, producing original content that has great value for us.” MLB Network broke ground last year in Elmwood Park, N.J., on a 207,000-square-foot building that will house all of the network’s production studios and offices, plus MLB’s video tape library. That facility is expected to open for the 2028 season.
But speaking of the current MLB Network facility in Secaucus, I liked seeing Andrew McCutchen as a guest analyst on “MLB Central” this afternoon. McCutchen, repped by The Montag Group’s Nick LoPinto, was always a favorite of mine as a player and looked like a natural in the studio as well. He’s back at it again with MLB Net Tuesday morning.
I love the Dr Pepper Fansville ads, which have become a staple of college football season. Data from YouGov shows that fans are also responding to a new crop of ads this year. Ahead of the season, Dr Pepper’s “Purchase Intent” — which measures the percentage of consumers who say they would be most likely to purchase Dr Pepper — averaged around 5.5%. As the Fansville launch neared, the score then began to rise, reaching 9.0% on Aug. 27. “Purchase Intent” continued climbing after the launch, peaking at 12.6% on Sept. 1, and then by Sept. 8, the metric was at 11.6%, more than double its prelaunch average.
The fall is no joke for TNT Sports studio host Adam Lefkoe, who has the MLB Postseason (including an ALCS road trip), college football, NBA season prep work, boxing and more. “The first thing I did was I called all of my friends that I played fantasy football with and I said, ‘I’m done. I cannot be looking at the waiver wire at Wednesday morning at 5am,’” Lefkoe joked. But what’s his routine for keeping up with so many sports? “Since baseball’s the next thing, I’m reading all of the local papers, reports on those teams that are coming up. Then it’s a lot of podcasts. God bless MLB Network. They have like a 10-minute recap pod, which I love. The Athletic has obviously been great, and I read as much as I can,” Lefkoe said. “My statistician for baseball, [TNT Sports researcher and field producer] Joe Underhill — famously known to ‘Inside the NBA’ band as ‘Underdog’ — he’s now, other than my wife, the person that I text the most. … I’ve created group chats with all of my analysts for all of the different sports, and I spend a lot of time on there. One, I want them to be engaged and focused, but two, when Tim Bradley is sending a highlight from a fight that happened the night before on DAZN, I can watch that and talk and I can catch up on the conversation. Same thing with Takeo Spikes, Champ Bailey and Victor Cruz. We’re sending memes and videos and stuff from the college football week.”