Weekly Recap: Pink's Bottom Line on Media, Money and Sports
Top items and takeaways from the week
Here are the top items and takeaways from this week’s newsletters. I hope everyone has a great weekend.
MEDIA
Spotify has made podcasts a priority for its service, and it appears that news and current affairs topics are proving popular among its listeners. Look for that trend to accelerate as the fall brings a potential second wave of the coronavirus, the presidential election and a shaky economy.
Quibi, the short-length video streaming service, hasn’t fared as well in the roughly six months it’s been available. Now, The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the firm might be considering a sale. It’s quite a comedown for the service that was launched with much fanfare in April.
In 2016, the first Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton presidential debate attracted more roughly 84 million television viewers, the most watched debate in history. I expect viewership of the first Trump and Joe Biden debate next Tuesday to shatter that record.
MONEY
Stripe, a fast growing, San Francisco-based fintech payments company, reportedly is planning to do something pretty unusual — it will pay employees if they move. It reflects the notion that the long-term impact of the coronavirus on the nature of work in this country could be profound both for workers and for major cities.
Artnet, in its latest Intelligence Report, says that from the period of January 1 to July 10, sales at auctions declined 58.3% compared to the first six months of last year. However, here’s why I expect that we’ll see both the total dollar amount sold at auction — and the average price per piece — to increase sharply in the next two quarters.
Fewer undergraduate students students enrolled in colleges and universities this fall, according to a new report, which might indicate a potential financial strain both on students and on the higher education institutions themselves.
SPORTS
I expect this year’s postseason in baseball to remind me of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. I think we might see a lower seeded team upset a higher seeded team in an early round playoff series a la the NCAA tourney. Ultimately, though, I expect one of baseball’s top seeded teams to prevail and win the World Series, which is what almost always happens in the NCAA tournament.
There’s a quarterback who’s flying under the radar that I suspect will be one of the top NFL quarterbacks in the next ten to 15 years — it’s Kyler Murray of the Arizona Cardinals.
In this year’s NBA playoffs, four young players — Denver’s Jamal Murray, the Los Angeles Lakers’ Anthony Davis and Miami’s Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro — have all shined. They also have two other things in common — all four played college basketball at the University of Kentucky and each played only one year there.
Jeremy Pink is former CEO of private-equity backed Broadcast Sports International where he led the company to a successful sale and exit during his tenure there. He is also a former CNBC executive in New York, London and Singapore. He currently serves as an advisor to companies in media, technology, sports and financial tech.
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