Hello and welcome to The Addition, where I deal with the intersection of media, culture and sport. The main part of today’s newsletter is a reflection on a fantastic summer of sport across all media platforms (but mostly streamers). To read the whole thing, as well as a first take on the sacking of Jermaine Jenas, you will need to take out a paid subscription. Your support is greatly appreciated. If you’re a sports fan, summer 2024 was a good one. It featured the Euros and Copa América football competitions, the Olympics, two cycling grand tours (the third one is happening now,) and test cricket. There was also the Open golf (although the weather was not very seasonal,) and Wimbledon. The regular summer seasons for some US sports were in full flow too. It all meant that sport dominated the media, pushing reality shows and much else out of the spotlight. One of the big winners was NBC. It announced 23.5 billion minutes of Paris 2024 were streamed thanks to its Peacock service. The platform has been considered somewhat second-tier, but it got gold at the Olympics. NBC-owned USA Network also performed well. Mark Lazarus, Chairman of NBCUniversal Media Group, was clearly happy:
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Charlotte Henry is a journalist and broadcaster who creates and runs The Addition newsletter and podcast; an award-winning publication looking at the crossover between media and technology.
Welcome to The Addition, where I cover the crossover between culture, media and sport. This is the penultimate newsletter of The Addition in 2024. Thank you all so much for your support this year. Those who have followed my work for a while will know that I have used Mujjo products for a number of years. (I remain devastated that I managed to lose one of the gloves that they kindly sent me a couple of years ago.) The latest product of theirs I’ve been using is a MagSafe Wallet. As with almost...
Welcome to The Addition, where I cover the crossover between culture, media and sport. We all want to work on projects we're passionate about, but sometimes compromises need to be made. This is particularly true in the current media environment. Is there a way to turn that passion into profits and, therefore, a sustainable media business? Peter Houston from Media Voices and Magazine Diaries/Grub Street Journal comes back on the podcast to discuss it all. Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on...
Welcome to The Addition, where I cover the crossover between culture, media and sport. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the need for the WSL to get more competitive if it is going to maintain media interest. This weekend was very illustrative. The managers like to emphasise how difficult the league is. Tottenham's Robert Vilahamn called the WSL "crazy competitive" in a press conference on Friday. Chelsea boss Sonia Bompastor has said similar. However, only Vilahamn's team ended up in a...