Complete Coverage: Cable Show 2012
Boston – Social media is driving new viewers to sports programming and could represent another revenue stream, according to a panel of top sports executives at The Cable Show here Wednesday.
"Sports is inherently social," said ESPN president and Disney Media Networks co-chairman John Skipper. "Large social media networks are complementary to what we do -- I don't think they will be in the bus of buying big sports rights." He added that ESPN is working with Twitter to do aggregation around large sporting events -- the first will be the NBA Finals.
"It will increase the audience for people that watch on TV and there may be some commerce in it," Skipper continued. "We're working to see how can get advertising in those tweets."
People on Twitter aren't just talking about the games they're watching, said moderator and CNBC sports business reporter Darren Rovell. He said many are watching other shows and noting that if the game heats up, they'll switch channels.
