ESPN to Launch Ad Campaign for ‘SportsCenter’; Marketing Push Comes as ESPN Faces New Competition

September 24, 2013 Leave a comment

Updated September 20, 2013, 7:40 p.m. ET

ESPN to Launch Ad Campaign for ‘SportsCenter’

Marketing Push Comes as ESPN Faces New Competition

SUZANNE VRANICA

Facing new competition in the sports-TV world, ESPN is about to go on a marketing offensive. The U.S. sports-TV juggernaut is expected to begin airing a new advertising campaign Saturday for its flagship program “SportsCenter.” ESPN, which is majority owned by Walt Disney Co., DIS -1.08% has long promoted the show on its own network, but this is the first time in about a decade it will pay for SportsCenter ads to air on other media outlets.The SportsCenter spots come as ESPN is battling a new rival, 24-hour sports channel Fox Sports 1, which 21st Century Fox FOX +0.55% launched last month. One of its signature programs, “Fox Sports Live,” is a news-and-highlights show that competes with SportsCenter at 11 p.m.

Fox Sports joined other sports networks including Comcast Corp.’s CMCSA -0.02%NBC Sports and CBS Corp.’s CBS -0.87% CBS Sports that also are trying to dent ESPN’s dominance. (21st Century Fox and Wall Street Journal owner News CorpNWSA -1.40% were part of the same media company until June.)

“We are constantly evaluating where we stand with fans in terms of our products and our brands and this is more a natural offshoot of that rather than a reaction to Fox or any other competitor,” said Aaron Taylor, ESPN’s senior vice president of marketing.

The new SportsCenter campaign could help bolster the show’s ratings. This year, SportsCenter averaged 828,000 viewers through Sept. 8, down from one million in the year-ago period, according to Nielsen. Fox Sports Live averaged about 100,000 viewers on weeknights and 160,000 viewers on weekends during the Aug. 17 through Sept. 18 period, Nielsen said.

ESPN said its ratings softness was partly due to tough comparisons with last year when the shortened NBA season boosted its ratings significantly.

ESPN’s ad push includes TV, outdoor and digital advertising. It will show professional athletes and sports fans evoking the familiar “DaDaDa” SportsCenter theme song in the midst of their activities. The network declined to comment on how much they would be spending on the pitch.

Fox Sports began its own ad assault earlier this year, including TV, digital and social-media ads. In July, it began airing a 90-second commercial featuring a bevy of well-known athletes such as Nascar driver Jeff Gordon and baseball star Miguel Cabrera. The spot uses a redone version of the song, “Happy Days Are Here Again.”

For Fox Sports Live, the network has relied heavily on network promotions. It plans to ramp up publicity during the coming Major League Baseball playoffs. The network declined to comment on spending.

“We are patient. We are going to let it grow and we will support it but we want to do it strategically,” said Robert Gottlieb, marketing chief of Fox Sports 1.

Shoring up SportsCenter is key for ESPN. Such studio programming accounted for 43% of the $2.8 billion in ad spending ESPN attracted in 2012 to its flagship and sister networks, according to WPP PLC’s Kantar Media, an ad-tracking research firm. Needham Insights estimates that ESPN has more than $10 billion in annual revenue.

The SportsCenter ads will run on DirecTV, DTV +0.24% Time Warner Inc.’sTWX -0.16% Adult Swim and channels owned by Viacom Inc. VIAB -0.07% such as Spike and Comedy Central, ESPN said.

The network’s ad outlays have been declining over the past few years. ESPN spent $57.2 million in 2012, down from $138.8 million in 2010, according to Kantar. ESPN declined to comment on ad-spending totals, but added that in 2010 it heavily promoted the World Cup.

Beyond the marketing campaign, ESPN is taking other steps to bolster its SportsCenter franchise. It is building a 10,000-square-foot studio for telecasts that will feature 13 cameras, several touch screens and a floor that displays video.

“It will completely revolutionize the way we produce and anchor the show,” Michael Shiffman, senior coordinating producer of SportsCenter, said last month at an event ESPN hosted for reporters at its Bristol, Conn., headquarters.

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