August 28, 2025 • 32 mins
Watch Bloomberg Businessweek Daily LIVE every day on YouTube: http://bit.ly/3vTiACF.
On this special edition of Bloomberg Businessweek Daily, Tim and guest host Molly Smith broadcast live from the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, Queens.
They speak with:
- Jon Wertheim, sports journalist and Correspondent for 60 Minutes, on the business of tennis
- Tim Bunnell, Senior Vice President of Programming at ESPN, on the changing landscape of sports media
- Bloomberg Cross-Asset Reporter Isabelle Lee and Managing Editor for Bloomberg Markets Live blog Kristine Aquino on the Thursday trade
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News. This is Bloomberg Business Week,
Daily reporting from the magazine that helps global leaders stay
ahead with insight on the people, companies, and trends shaping
today's complex economy. Plus global business finance and tech news
(00:23):
as it happens. The Bloomberg Business Week Daily Podcast with
Carol Masser and Tim Stenebeck on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
It is Bloomberg Business Week on this Thursday, August twenty eight,
twenty twenty five. We are not live from the Bloomberg
Interactive Brokers studio today. We are on site at the
US Open right outside of Arthur Ash Stadium here at
the twenty twenty five US Open. I'm Tim Steneveek. That
is Molly Smith. She's not just a Bloomberg News economics enter,
she's also tennis expert, in house tennis expert at Bloomberg. Well,
(00:54):
our next guest needs no introduction. You know him from
the Tennis Channel as a correspondent for sixty minutes, from
his many books and leading Glory Days, the Summer of
nineteen eighty four and the ninety Days that changed sports
in culture forever. He also joins US pretty much each
year at the US Open. We've got John Worth. I'm
with us.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
How are you good? Good to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
How are you guys? We're doing pretty well. How's the
tennis this year for you?
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Good?
Speaker 4 (01:16):
It's like a three week event now, so it's it's Thursday,
and it feels like February now because of Fan Week. Yeah,
I mean Fan Week really has gone from sort of
this fun novelty for hardcore connoisseurs to this is a
three week event and they handed out trophies in week
one for mixed doubles and hundreds of thousands of fans
came through the gates and it's really great for tennis.
(01:37):
For those of us working, it's you know, it can
be a bit of a slug, but no, it's great.
This is where we feel like we're like at the
halfway point, even though we're only a few hours into
round two.
Speaker 5 (01:47):
So as one of these hardcore connoisseurs, I'm gonna start
using that one. I like that word, thank you so much,
so I will self proclaimed hardcore connoisseur. I gotta hear
from you, John, what did you think of the mixed
doubles format this year?
Speaker 4 (02:02):
Well, I'm interested to hear you're from where I stand.
Twelve out of ten big success. I mean, we sort
of had this irony where an actual to the defending champion.
So a real committed mixed doubles team won the title
over these sort of shotgun marriages of singles players. But uh,
you know, they filled the stadium. There was great interest
(02:22):
mixed doubles is it sounds great in theory. It's sort
of one of tennis's great virtues. As the men and
women compete at the same time, a mixed doubles has
kind of become a bit of a side show. And uh,
this tournament figured out how to make it newsworthy and noteworthy,
and it was.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
It was great.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Do you think we'll see that from other tournaments because
of the success here?
Speaker 4 (02:39):
It's a great I mean this is this is tennis
in a nutshell, like uh, you know, the sincerest form
of flattery.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
I don't think Wimbledon because of the grass, it's a
variable you would get destroyed.
Speaker 6 (02:52):
Your addition to I think.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
Australian, I think Australia is looking very closely. I mean,
you know, getting the player on site for three weeks
as opposed to two is a bit of a challenge.
But yeah, if Australia doesn't have something similar, I would
be shocked.
Speaker 5 (03:07):
Well, let's talk about the scheduling challenge. It was particularly
a nightmare this year. We had the tournaments in Canada
and Cincinnati coming into this a really bizarre scheduling where
those finals were played on a Thursday and a Monday, respectively.
Didn't know if they were going to get here on
time for the mixed doubles. Can you tell us a
little bit about how packed this tennis calendar is and
(03:28):
why this summer in particular was really very jubled up
coming into this US Open.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
It's like I'm dating myself. Do you remember Tetris?
Speaker 7 (03:36):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (03:37):
The tennis calendar is just this sort of its NonStop
combinations and permutations, and the players say there are too
many events and these tournaments keep popping up. But it's
a global sport, so you're I mean, it's the great
riddle of tennis, and it has been ever since I
started covering the sport.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
It has not been solved.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
I'm not sure overlapping events in Canada and Cincinnati is
the end.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
No, you're right.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
We had a final in Cincinnati on Monday and then
this event started Tuesday, and thankfully the Pennsylvania Turnpike was
not crowded. No, I mean, even flying private and getting
here as quick as you can, it's still logistically it's
it's a bit of a challenge.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Unfortunately, a lot of those players have deals now with
these private jack companies.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Exactly.
Speaker 5 (04:21):
The Egos fiancee's singles final was played at Believe six
pm in Cincinnati Monday night.
Speaker 6 (04:26):
She had a match here in ash the.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Next day Pennsylvania Turnpike.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
They got to figure something out, exactly, you got to
figure it out. What kind of toll does that take
on the players. I mean, I think people romanticize the
life of pro athletes a lot. But if you if
you look at this schedule and you understand these people,
and I was going to say, in some cases, kids
are literally living on the road, out of hotel rooms
for much of their formative years, Like that takes a toll.
Speaker 6 (04:53):
It makes me think of Amanda.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
Yeah, I'm who you reference a player who who just
basically needed a mental health sabbatical just basically said, you know,
I'm gonna take a break. Maybe I'll come back, maybe
I won't. We're seeing that more and more don't you know.
I'm sure your listeners can relate to this. You can
stay at the nicest hotel and they can put a
little orchid in the room service, and you know what,
it's still not your bed, and it's still not your sheets,
(05:16):
and it's just there's something that's disruptive that you're you're dislocated.
And you can have all the amenities and drivers and
people fetching you water, it's still not home. And I
think that's something that people, you know, we all know.
In sports right now, we're seeing how sleep in the
study of sleep is getting a lot more emphasis. Does
not do great things for your sleep to change time
(05:38):
zones and change hotels in different pillows and at some level, yeah,
this is an international tour. This is what you sign
up for if you're your Taylor Swift plays all over
the world. Like, you can't have it both ways. But
the flip side is it's a real challenge. I don't
think we talk about it enough. Even with the nicest amenities,
it still takes something out of you to be on
(05:58):
the road as much as these.
Speaker 6 (06:00):
It takes a lot of money to do that too.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
You know, only people at the top are the ones
earning enough to actually like make a living too.
Speaker 5 (06:06):
And this is where I wanted to come back actually
to this mixed doubles tournament because I think what I
would personally love to see and what I want to
hear your opinion on this going forward?
Speaker 6 (06:15):
Maybe this is the way to get mixed.
Speaker 5 (06:16):
Doubles onto the map by having all the singles players
doing it as this glorified exhibition, so to speak. But
I think sustainably going forward, we want to see the
doubles players. I mean, that was really the beauty of
Irani and Fava story winning. And would you want to
I personally, again, I know I'm the connoisseur here, I
would love to see the mixed double the player the
(06:38):
doubles players playing doubles. Is this Does this format maybe
set the stage to get them back in and get
a chance at that bigger prize money.
Speaker 6 (06:46):
They're the ones that are needing.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
No, it's it's a good point.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
I think it's a fundamental question of tennis really, of
any workplace, right, what is the right sizing, what is
the right number of tennis players, what is the right
distribution of prize money? And I think getting these singles
players to play mixed. It was a great coup, but
what did it entail. It meant they had shortened sets,
They had only sixteen players in the draw, and it
spanned two days. And I think if they opened the
(07:10):
draw up and suddenly it's three days and suddenly it's
thirty two teams, the top stars are just going to say,
you know what, I'm trying to win the big trophy here,
I'm trying to win the singles trophy. It was fun
when it was you know, I knew it wasn't going
to take much out of me. But I'm not playing
three days of mixed doubles before I try and defend
my real.
Speaker 6 (07:26):
Title, of course.
Speaker 5 (07:27):
So that's where the challenge has been to the mixed
doubles is that it was played at the end of
the tournament and the singles players kept advancing, and we're like, oh,
we're not word to pull out now, We're focused on
the singles. I want to hear from you this last
one here, John. We talked to a lot of fans
about how you know, a lot of people obviously this
is such a marque New York event.
Speaker 6 (07:43):
They love coming to the US Open. But a lot
of people have grown.
Speaker 5 (07:46):
Very frustrated about how crowded, how expensive it's become. You
talked to so many of the players. What's their experience
like being here from a play.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
I mean it's an interesting you're you're right, we've sort
of hit on this.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
So's what's the ogi barrism that's so crowded?
Speaker 3 (07:59):
No and goes there anymore?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
I mean it's I said that.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
Friends here exactly, you know, I mean at some level
like this is great. This is what all entertainment events want, right,
You want to high demand, you want ticket prices to
go crazy. Something would be really wrong if you know
they were begging people to come.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
The players, I think, first of all, they.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
Like the prize money five million to the winner, one
hundred and ten thousand dollars if you lose in the
first round. And as you say, this is an expensive sport.
And we see the high end, and we see the
Carlos Alcarez and fifty million dollar endorsements, there is a
whole cohort of players that are on the other side
of the net from Carlos Alcarez that you know, are
taking extra bananas out of the players lounge so they
(08:43):
don't have to pay for breakfast.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
It's really not evenly distributed.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
But I think the players are really they see the
investment here, They see this is a great showcase. I
mean not every event on a Thursday afternoon, pick your
random tournament spot. They don't resemble this. They're not you know,
mark bands and tens of thousands of fans.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
What about from the perspective of fans, because I've noticed
in just this is my fourth I've been to what
more than a half dozen US opens? Molly, you've been
doing the twenty you think, I think twenty.
Speaker 6 (09:10):
Yeah, my first was in nineteen ninety six.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Yeah, so you were too.
Speaker 6 (09:13):
Yeah, we're coming up on my thirtieth anniversary.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
So you've seen it change a lot just in the
last three years. I remember getting a ticket a grounds
pass for my wife for one hundred and fifteen dollars
day of oncon you know, ticket Master, what have you?
I mean, if I look at the prices right now,
which I did right before because I'm trying to get
her at grounds pass for tomorrow, but a rund four
hundred bucks, Yeah, well that's prohibitively expensive. And I went
by the box office and they don't have it.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
You know, they've they've done a great job of washing
their hands with this whole discussion and saying, hey, listen,
you know this is the market is speaking more.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
So than any of the year. When colleagues came up
to me, when friends or even people I had never
met who realized I was going to the US Open,
they asked me the same question this year, since the
pre sale, what is going on with tickets?
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Supply meets demand at a very extreme I mean.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
I start to do an economics editor here, Yeah, I can.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
I can give you my my spiel as my riff,
which is, you know, it's fine, right, we have luxury goods,
we have not not everyone gets a rolex at some
level like this is what you want, right, you want
the supply curve to look like it does here.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
I do kind of think that you can't have it
both ways.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
And there's a lot of talk here about inclusion, and
you have various you know, tributes and kids, and you
come here and it's like, wait, Chicken McNuggets are twenty
six dollars, My grounds pass is four hundred dollars. It
seems to me you can't have it both ways either.
You are those populist event that takes place in a
public park and we want everyone to feel welcome or
you are this commercial and this transactional, which is fine,
(10:42):
you know, I get it. We're running a business here,
not a philanthropy. But I think it's a little bit
strange that they sort of try to they try to
play it both ways.
Speaker 5 (10:51):
I mean, I guess that would be their answer to
that is Fan Week of course, that this is this
you know, a couple of days where you can come
in and watch for free, but now that has also
become increasingly a.
Speaker 6 (11:00):
Ticketed event as well. That you know that, yeah, it
is free to come in here.
Speaker 5 (11:04):
You can watch the qualifying tournament, you can watch them
players practice, you can watch.
Speaker 6 (11:08):
A lot of DJ sets, that's for sure, but like
you not ultimately watch a lot of really what people
want to see.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
Why so Wimbledon does not have DJ sets, but wimbled
it has a lot of this this this sort of
high end and you know, you've got the private jet
set that that's come in. But they also there are
ten thousand seats that are set aside for the cures people.
I mean, you know, you got to spend the night
in a field to get these tickets. There are ten
thousand fans that come through the gates Wimbledon, this sort
of bucket list location, and the tickets are like thirty
(11:37):
bucks strawberries and cream, you know the signature dish, it's
like two pounds fifty, it's like three dollars yea. And
so they've really done a nice job of Yes, you've
you've got your high end and you've got your debenture
group and your club seating, and you can spend thousand.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
You can also spend thirty bucks and have a great day.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
That's so interesting because it looks from the outside like
such an exclusive event and it's so much more formal
and buttoned up. John, We always love hanging out with you.
You are a busy guy. Thank you so much for
spending so much time with us and being janious with
your time, John Worth. I'm even from the Tennis Channel
correspondent for sixty minutes. He's got more than ten books
that he's authored and co authored, including Glory Days, The
Summer of nineteen eighty four and The ninety Days That
(12:15):
Changed Sports in Culture Forever. This is Bloomberg Business Week Daily.
Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Business Week Daily coming
up after this.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
You're listening to the Bloomberg Business Week Daily podcast. Catch
US live weekday afternoons from two to five e's during
Listen on Applecarplay and Android Otto with the Bloomberg Business app,
or watch US live on YouTube.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Tim Stentevik and Molly Smith live at the US Open
here in New York City. We're in Queen's right now
at Flushing Meadows. It's still a windy one.
Speaker 6 (12:51):
Molly.
Speaker 5 (12:51):
Oh yeah, Oh my gosh, I just got distracted.
Speaker 7 (12:53):
Sorry.
Speaker 5 (12:54):
Andre Rufelov is walking by in front of us. I
am distracted everywhere.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
That's okay.
Speaker 6 (12:58):
That's the part.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
That's the part of being here. Scripts that's what makes
the US Open magical, that you're just sitting. I mean, granted,
we're in the media area, so we're close to the players.
But the way that Andra got here was he walked
through the entire crowd. Yes, he was flanked by some security,
but if you're out there, you can get pretty close
to these players, which is pretty cool about the US Open.
Speaker 5 (13:16):
I mean, our seat is really, i would say, the
most accessible to the players from where we are.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
You got to stay here. You can't get up and
go and talk to the players, just so you know.
Speaker 6 (13:25):
I'm good. I mean, we've had a great guest here
to stick with.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Let's talk a little media here, because last week ESPN,
which is the largest sports media company in the world,
did something that just a few years ago, I think
many observers thought, who would never do? They undercut the
traditional PATV business, which generates billions of dollars in profits
for its owner, Walt Disney. Yet it was time to
just go straight over the top. We've got Tim Bunnell
(13:50):
with US, senior vice president of Programming for Esgenny joins
us here on site at the US Open and Flushing,
New York.
Speaker 8 (13:56):
So in my.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Early earlier career, I covered media and streaming and one
thing that analysts told me over and over again was
Live Sports holds the bundle together. And in a few
very short years that narrative has seemed to shift, and
I think this is a sea change moment for ESPN
to say, you know what, in order to watch everything,
(14:17):
you don't need to pay a PATV provider. What's thinking here?
Speaker 8 (14:20):
Yeah, look, I think it's.
Speaker 7 (14:22):
I would agree that sports holding the bundle together is
an accurate description, but I think what we're seeing now
is as you aggregate services, whether it's you know, whether
it's Peacock or whether it's Paramount Plus or whether it's
the ESPN direct to consumer offering. You know, we're starting
to see, you know, kind of aggregation in a different way.
But I think where we feel, you know, we've done
(14:42):
well is kind of manage that transition that you referenced from,
you know, from a kind of a five hundred channel
in universe is when direct to consumer offerings first were
sort of a thing and the leagues were doing their
own services. I think that the feeling at the time was,
why does an ESPN go out and they should just
be the Netflix of sports. There's a very good reason
(15:02):
we didn't do that right away, and you cited it,
Tim that that you know that we were walking away
from billions of dollars of revenue and you have to
kind of manage your existing golden goose business with the future.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Well, you also had those negotiations that in those long
term rights agreements that you'd made with leagues that sort
of kept things together too, right.
Speaker 7 (15:22):
Yeah, I mean, you know, those deals typically typically for
the US sports least, we try to do as long
term deals as we can, and I think the understanding
going into them, is the world's going to Given the
pace of change and the media business, the world's going
to change, it's going to look very different by the
time these deals, you know, expire, and so we've had
to kind of, you know, whether it was the launch
of ESPN Plus or our direct to consumer service you know,
more recently, you had to.
Speaker 8 (15:44):
Kind of manage that transition within deal terms.
Speaker 7 (15:46):
And that's what these partnerships and these league relationships.
Speaker 8 (15:49):
Are all about.
Speaker 5 (15:50):
Let's come back to that, just for our listeners who
maybe don't know the difference between what is the ESPN
Direct to Consumer app now and ESPN Plus.
Speaker 7 (15:58):
Yeah, so actually one contains the others the way to
think of it. So the ESPN Direct to Consumer app,
simply enough, is all of our video services available in
one place direct to the consumer. That includes all of
our linear networks. It includes ESPN and ABC and ES.
What we know today is ESPN Plus and so when
we launched the Plus service a number of years ago,
(16:20):
it was didn't include any of the linear networks. It
was just incremental programming that we anchored by UFC and
a bunch of other big properties. But the direct to
consumer product takes ESPN Plus and all of the networks
and available content we have and puts them in one
place that's called the ESPN Unlimited. You can also still
subscribe to just ESPN Plus called the ESPN Select Package.
Speaker 8 (16:43):
So if you're only you know, we would prefer that
people not do that. We'd actually like them, you know,
to go for the full package.
Speaker 7 (16:50):
But if you're only interested in making it up Bundesliga
or something that's your passion for sports, we have all
the matches on ESPN Plus and you could do just
that as well.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Know when pre covid, when retailers were trying to figure
out how to respond to the rise of online shopping,
there was this sort of thing that people said, which is, okay,
what can we provide in the store that you can't
replicate online? So Lulu Lemon was doing like yoga classes
and stuff to try to build a brand and build
an audience. I feel like there's an opportunity with a
direct consumer media offering where you can offer something that
(17:23):
you can't offer in a traditional pay TV package. We
saw that with Peacock in the Olympics, where you could
kind of choose different camera angles and watch a bunch
of different stuff. I see that being and granted I've
been watching the US Open Linear on ESPN, I see
it being promoted the direct consumer app being promoted in
a way that says, wait a second, I kind of
would rather be watching this on the app because I
(17:43):
get to watch whatever I want.
Speaker 7 (17:46):
Yeah, Look, I mean I think there's some of it
is just having all of the content available in one
place just builds consumer choice. I think the other big
piece of the app launch and of the product launch
last week is the improvements to the ESPN app and
the expansion of the app. So whether it's some of
the stats and data and fantasy and betting info you
can opt into.
Speaker 8 (18:06):
Or the multiview experience.
Speaker 7 (18:08):
That we're providing Sports Center for you, vertical video, and
there are a bunch of things that you know that
came along with the the what I would call the
content offering at the same time, and so if you're
asking sort of what is it that says to the consumer,
I really I need this product. Apart from just the
content that's provided, it's all these features and functionalities that
come with it.
Speaker 5 (18:27):
So with the US Open specifically, I mean, you guys
have had the broadcast rights here for a number of years.
Is your got a bit longer with the mixed doubles
at the beginning, a lot more programming that you guys
probably had to offer. Can you talk about what those
conversations were like with the USTA when they were talking
to you guys about this format, how that goes into
planning the rights and the deals around this Because more airtime,
(18:49):
that's got to be a lot more work for you guys.
Speaker 8 (18:51):
Yeah, and a lot more fun.
Speaker 7 (18:53):
So, you know, I would say that really there was
there was two big innovations that affected us directly. One
as the Sunday start, which we were totally in favor of.
I mean, I you know, we've talked about this before,
Molly that I always felt like the US Open beginning
on a Monday morning at eleven am, which just began quietly,
and this is New York City, like it should be
(19:14):
a festive opening. And so that Sunday telecast, that Sunday start,
in addition to being good for the tournament as a whole,
gives us the window on ABC on Sunday afternoon where
we're able.
Speaker 8 (19:26):
To program it there.
Speaker 7 (19:27):
That allows us to be on ABC opening Sunday middle
Sunday and the men's final, and then and then the
other big thing was obviously the mixed doubles. So that's
another one where you know, all of the Grand Slams
that we work with talk about building a week that
leads into the tournament.
Speaker 8 (19:44):
That means something.
Speaker 7 (19:45):
They've done a great job of it here, but mixed
doubles was something that you know, sort of I felt
gets kind of buried in the main draw and so
lifting it out adding a lot of star power to it.
And I know that was controversial, but to me that
really sent a lot of juice to fanweek, which gives
us a lot of added momentum for the entire tournament.
Speaker 6 (20:04):
And you just alluded to ABC.
Speaker 5 (20:06):
There's so many networks here under the Disney umbrella. At
your disposal, we have ABC, ESPN, ESPN two of course,
all the outer courts on ESPN Plus. How do you
within the main cable networks, what's the decision making process
that goes into where do we place which courts?
Speaker 8 (20:22):
Good question.
Speaker 7 (20:22):
I mean up until this year we actually sim willcast
the semis quarters and final quarters, Semis and finals on
you know, on ESPN Plus along with so so there
was you can sort of get it both ways, But
I think ultimately, you know, once you get to you know,
once you get to the round of sixteen on it's
pretty much it's all. You know, you can cover everything
on your miniar networks. It's early in the tournament where
(20:43):
you're saying, all right, we were going to focus on
Ash and Armstrong or if there's a you know, an
interesting match going on court eighteen, you.
Speaker 8 (20:50):
Know, we'll we'll head out there.
Speaker 7 (20:51):
But to me, the app that we have and the
multiview experience could not be better tailored to any sporting
event than at tournament.
Speaker 8 (21:00):
Maybe maybe a golf golf tournament as well.
Speaker 6 (21:02):
Will you over that too?
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Yeah, yeah, I gotta go to the other US Open
and talking. We're speaking with Tim Bonnell, Senior vice president
of Programming at ESPN. Tim, when when you think about
the tennis actually moving the needle when it comes to
people subscribing, where where does it fall under the you know,
when you think about sports that are so popular in
the US, because tennis, even though it's really hard to
get a ticket here and even though this draws a
(21:24):
huge crowd, Like we're not talking NFL, MLB, you know,
or NVA here.
Speaker 8 (21:29):
You know, it's funny.
Speaker 7 (21:30):
I think tennis is terrific for us, for it performs
very well across the board. The the skew between men
and women is very favorable for us. Often we're sort of,
you know, it's a more heavily skewed male network.
Speaker 8 (21:44):
Uh. And so that's an attractive element to us.
Speaker 7 (21:47):
And I think, you know, just we're a network and
a business that's about big events, be it tennis or
golf or NBA or college football or whatever it is.
And so when I look across the Grand Slam, this landscape,
the US Open in New York, in our backyard, all
the hospitality that it allows us to you know, to
provide to our to our fans and to our sponsors
(22:09):
and customers. Uh, it's you know, to me, it's it's
punches well above its weight, even even apart from its
programming value. And so you know, this year, like we've
gotten off to a terrific start through the first round.
We're up thirty seven percent P two plus. Uh, you know,
it's a it's a I feel like the US Open
is is just it's an upward spiral for us, and
(22:29):
and uh yeah, I mean it's speaking of program value,
who just walked by us.
Speaker 6 (22:34):
Oh goodness, Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness. We have
Naomi Osco.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Painting the picture a little bit first. Yeah, went on here.
Speaker 8 (22:43):
Yeah, all right, I feel like I've arrived.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
You got got one more question.
Speaker 6 (22:46):
But I'm sandwiched between the two tims right now.
Speaker 5 (22:48):
Which is the most important part of the program. So
tim long tennis calendar throughout the year. You guys have
the US Open, you have Wimbledon, you have the Australian Open.
Just quickly here in this last minute, do you ever
think of the French Yes, yeah.
Speaker 8 (23:01):
We actually have it in Latin America.
Speaker 7 (23:03):
We've had it for a long time, so we were
you know, we're at the tournament. We've been familiar with
with the French Kinnis Federation of Rolling Garrels for a
long time.
Speaker 8 (23:10):
We looked at it.
Speaker 7 (23:11):
We look at everything, any significant event that comes up,
we look at it. But I think in the end,
you know, the WVD put up a.
Speaker 8 (23:19):
Big number, you know, and and.
Speaker 7 (23:22):
I think that that the French Tennis Federation and IMG
did an excellent job in negotiating it, and we would
love to have it. It does work well with our schedule
and obviously would complete the Grand slams for us. But
what we're learning in this environment we're in as you
can't have everything and you just have to make hard
decisions here and there. So but you know, yes, that's
we We love that event and.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Your job making that decision easier for the consumer when
it comes to options. Tim, thanks for joining us and
taking the time. That's Tim Bonald, Senior vice president of
Programming at ESPN. From the US open. This is Bloomberg
Business Week Daily. Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Business
Week Daily coming up after.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
This, some macle how about you let me drive?
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Oh no, no, no, no, this is not a toy, honey.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
Please excuse me. I want to drive.
Speaker 7 (24:18):
It's good question.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
This is the drive to the Clothes Punk's musing well
led it down on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
It is Bloomberg Business Week. I'm Tim Steneveek. That is
Molly Smith. She is Bloomberg News Economics Editor, alive from
the US opening the Shadow of Arthur Ashe Stadium here
in Flushing Meadows, Queens. But we're not forgetting about everything
happening with the markets, because we just have shy of
sixteen minutes until markets close on what could be another
(24:52):
record day for the S and P five hundred. I
want to right now bring in Bloomberg News cross ass
that report. Isabel Lee and managing editor for the Bloomberg Markets,
alag Christina Quino that join us from our studio back
in midtown man Manhattan. Isabelle, I want to start with
you and just set the scene for today's trade with
of course in Vidia front and center.
Speaker 9 (25:14):
In Vidia's front and center, but the stock is actually fluctuating.
But for the broader market, we're seeing the S and
P top sixty five hundred, and that's ahead of the
PCE report tomorrow. That's all important because that's the fed's
favorite or favorite price gauge. Molla Smith would know a
lot about that. But really we're just really seeing recession
Jater's kind of decline.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Now.
Speaker 9 (25:33):
I feel like Christine, that investors aren't as worried anymore,
even if Nvidia didn't really excite as much as people
were hoping.
Speaker 10 (25:40):
Yeah, absolutely, Isabelle. I mean you even forget that procession
fears were a thing in markets like just a few
months ago, right. I think that was theme in April
when we first got the reciprocal tariffs announcement. From Trump
administration and then since then, animal spirits have just taken over.
I feel like, I mean, the fact that we're talking
about six to five hundred s and BFI hundred right now,
(26:01):
what recession risk?
Speaker 5 (26:02):
Right?
Speaker 9 (26:04):
And if you look at the cross assets.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Well that's the question. Yeah, go ahead as a belle, Yeah,
go ahead as a bell.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Sorry, they just.
Speaker 9 (26:09):
Really continue to feed positively into the equity rally, Tim.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
So I want you to weigh in on that a
little bit and sort of cross asset what we're seeing
here because we're and this has been a theme really
since I would argue, gosh May at this point, and
a ton of people have come out and said, wait
a second, why aren't we actually seeing the effect of
tariffs on asset prices as a result, like similar to
what we saw post you know, quote unquote liberation day
(26:36):
before the president sort of said the bond market became
a little yippie and he did the pauses and stuff
like that. But why do you think we're we're not
seeing asset values declined as a result of the increased
prices that companies or people depending on you know how
you're defining it, are paying for these things?
Speaker 10 (26:53):
Well, Tim, I mean from my perspective, you know, I
think it's just a question of timing, right. It takes
a while for that effect to be done. I think
at the moment it's kind of lying primarily with a
lot of the producers in retailer. We've seen a lot
of commentary from the retailer earnings recently talking about how
(27:14):
they are trying to absorb some of those costs because
they don't want to be raising the prices on their
customers and turning them away. But I think the warnings
that we've gotten from the likes of Best Buy Today,
right and Coals and a lot of these major retailers
also indicating that they might not be able to do
that for very long. And so you know, we might
suddenly get that wave of higher prices, probably just in
(27:37):
time for that peak holiday season right as well.
Speaker 9 (27:40):
Yes, and you see a lot of adjustments. Victoria's Secret
for instance, their outlook includes an updated estimated tariff of
around one hundred million dollars this year, double the prior projection.
But you see Dick Sporting Goods, for instance, including expected
impacts from all tariffs currently in effect. That's the key
phrase I'd like to point out that's currently in effect,
acknowledging that things could still change. But Tim and Mollie, Tim,
(28:02):
Christina and I were actually looking at this fun story.
It's titled hell No Shop Okay. Nine hundred and thirty
four dollar bill shows tariff pain to hit shoppers. So basically,
there's this gentleman. He bought something and then suddenly a
bill of almost one thousand dollars in tariffs came in
and he owes this to the US Customs and Borders Protection.
Speaker 6 (28:21):
Christine, how will you react.
Speaker 9 (28:22):
If you get something like that?
Speaker 6 (28:23):
What if you just want a fifty dollars I.
Speaker 10 (28:25):
Probably react the same way.
Speaker 6 (28:27):
Yeah, absolutely not.
Speaker 10 (28:29):
But imagine buying something and then suddenly getting a follow
up bill. Mollie, I saw you nodding. I think you're
familiar with this. This is a deminimous exemption that a
lot of American consumers have been enjoying up until this week,
and that all goes away tomorrow, I believe.
Speaker 5 (28:48):
Yeah, it's this is a brutal development for consumers. What
this is talking about lower priced goods coming into the US,
that if they're under a certain value, would not have
a tariffy on top of that, that exemption though, is
now ending. So that's what our friend on this story
here that you guys were talking about, who had a
nice hell no to skick off the headline. That's what
he was reacting to right there. Keeping on this price
(29:11):
data though, Christine, we're looking ahead to the PCE price
data tomorrow. I mean, you've got the SMP setting new records.
Speaker 6 (29:18):
Basically every day.
Speaker 5 (29:19):
Is there really any world in which the PCE report
can really disappoint this momentum in the stock market right now?
Speaker 10 (29:26):
Yeah, Molli, it's really hard to see, given that we
are talking about just continued rally in the S and
P five hundred. I mean, you know, unless it's maybe
a big shock to the upside, that could be once
an era where markets are suddenly thinking about inflation once again.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
But you know, I think the feeling is that.
Speaker 10 (29:45):
We are still headed towards a world of lower interest rates.
In the latest markets Paul survey, for instance, that we
conducted over an the M Live team, we asked readers,
you know, what would get stocks boosted again? Would a
lower interest rate from the Fed boost stocks even if
it comes at the expense of pressure from the Trump
administration and a majority of Versawana has actually said, yeah,
(30:07):
so we're in this environment where there is such an
impetus to rally based on hope for lower interest rates,
which seems like that's where a lot of the road
is leading towards. We'll see, of course, once we hear
from the Federal Reserve in September. I'm sure Molly you're
looking forward to covering that and seeing what the result
of does is going to be. That's a big one,
isn't it.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
It's a big one. But I'd say, Molly, there's a
lot of data that we're still going to gap it
before that September meeting.
Speaker 5 (30:34):
I was just going to say for me right now,
I mean, I'm obviously trying to say in the moment
of the US open, but I'm also thinking ahead to
the jobs report next Friday, and then we get those
big revisions a couple of days later. That's going to
be a huge one right now, and again, it's just
so hard for me and my eco brain to conceive
of right now the SMP just hitting record after record
when we're supposedly in this environment where the labor market
(30:56):
is weakening, and you know, maybe we'll see that jobs
market and the revisions show as much. Maybe you'll be
what was probably perceived as a brief pickup to stocks
because we're in that bad news good news environment right
now where if we get a bad job zumper, we
get a bad inflation number, it's great news because we're
going to get an interest rate cut to That's.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
That's where we are again. I feel like we were
just there.
Speaker 6 (31:16):
I think that's where we've been for the every lease.
We're just waiting right goods.
Speaker 10 (31:20):
I don't think we have a lot of them.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Hey, speaking of leaving, Speaking of leaving, we gotta go.
We is windy here. We appreciate you guys holding down
the port down at Bloomberg headquarters in midtown Manhattan. That's
our Bloomberg News crossouts. That reporter Isabelle Lee, also managing
editor for Bloomberg Markets Live Blog. Christine Aquino joining us
from Bloomberg Headquarters. Just have about ten minutes ago until
(31:43):
the close of it. Could be trading on this Thursday afternoon.
If we take a look at the S and P
five hundred, we are hired by three tons of one
percent as we speak, could be another record close today.
Taking a deeper look at the industry, groups utilities in
the red to the tune of nine tens of one percent, lower,
consumer staples down six tens of one percent, health dot
half a percentage point. On the upside, communication services up
(32:03):
a percentage point, IT information technology have eight tens of
one percent, and energy up seven tenths of one percent.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
This is the Bloomberg Businessweekdaily podcast, available on Apple, Spotify,
and anywhere else you get your podcasts. Listen live weekday
afternoons from two to five pm Eastern on Bloomberg dot com,
the iHeartRadio app, tune In, and the Bloomberg Business App.
You can also watch us live every weekday on YouTube
(32:32):
and always on the Bloomberg terminal
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News. This is Bloomberg Business Week,
Daily reporting from the magazine that helps global leaders stay
ahead with insight on the people, companies, and trends shaping
today's complex economy. Plus global business finance and tech news
(00:23):
as it happens. The Bloomberg Business Week Daily Podcast with
Carol Masser and Tim Stenebeck on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
It is Bloomberg Business Week on this Thursday, August twenty eight,
twenty twenty five. We are not live from the Bloomberg
Interactive Brokers studio today. We are on site at the
US Open right outside of Arthur Ash Stadium here at
the twenty twenty five US Open. I'm Tim Steneveek. That
is Molly Smith. She's not just a Bloomberg News economics enter,
she's also tennis expert, in house tennis expert at Bloomberg. Well,
(00:54):
our next guest needs no introduction. You know him from
the Tennis Channel as a correspondent for sixty minutes, from
his many books and leading Glory Days, the Summer of
nineteen eighty four and the ninety Days that changed sports
in culture forever. He also joins US pretty much each
year at the US Open. We've got John Worth. I'm
with us.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
How are you good? Good to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
How are you guys? We're doing pretty well. How's the
tennis this year for you?
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Good?
Speaker 4 (01:16):
It's like a three week event now, so it's it's Thursday,
and it feels like February now because of Fan Week. Yeah,
I mean Fan Week really has gone from sort of
this fun novelty for hardcore connoisseurs to this is a
three week event and they handed out trophies in week
one for mixed doubles and hundreds of thousands of fans
came through the gates and it's really great for tennis.
(01:37):
For those of us working, it's you know, it can
be a bit of a slug, but no, it's great.
This is where we feel like we're like at the
halfway point, even though we're only a few hours into
round two.
Speaker 5 (01:47):
So as one of these hardcore connoisseurs, I'm gonna start
using that one. I like that word, thank you so much,
so I will self proclaimed hardcore connoisseur. I gotta hear
from you, John, what did you think of the mixed
doubles format this year?
Speaker 4 (02:02):
Well, I'm interested to hear you're from where I stand.
Twelve out of ten big success. I mean, we sort
of had this irony where an actual to the defending champion.
So a real committed mixed doubles team won the title
over these sort of shotgun marriages of singles players. But uh,
you know, they filled the stadium. There was great interest
(02:22):
mixed doubles is it sounds great in theory. It's sort
of one of tennis's great virtues. As the men and
women compete at the same time, a mixed doubles has
kind of become a bit of a side show. And uh,
this tournament figured out how to make it newsworthy and noteworthy,
and it was.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
It was great.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Do you think we'll see that from other tournaments because
of the success here?
Speaker 4 (02:39):
It's a great I mean this is this is tennis
in a nutshell, like uh, you know, the sincerest form
of flattery.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
I don't think Wimbledon because of the grass, it's a
variable you would get destroyed.
Speaker 6 (02:52):
Your addition to I think.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
Australian, I think Australia is looking very closely. I mean,
you know, getting the player on site for three weeks
as opposed to two is a bit of a challenge.
But yeah, if Australia doesn't have something similar, I would
be shocked.
Speaker 5 (03:07):
Well, let's talk about the scheduling challenge. It was particularly
a nightmare this year. We had the tournaments in Canada
and Cincinnati coming into this a really bizarre scheduling where
those finals were played on a Thursday and a Monday, respectively.
Didn't know if they were going to get here on
time for the mixed doubles. Can you tell us a
little bit about how packed this tennis calendar is and
(03:28):
why this summer in particular was really very jubled up
coming into this US Open.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
It's like I'm dating myself. Do you remember Tetris?
Speaker 7 (03:36):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (03:37):
The tennis calendar is just this sort of its NonStop
combinations and permutations, and the players say there are too
many events and these tournaments keep popping up. But it's
a global sport, so you're I mean, it's the great
riddle of tennis, and it has been ever since I
started covering the sport.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
It has not been solved.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
I'm not sure overlapping events in Canada and Cincinnati is
the end.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
No, you're right.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
We had a final in Cincinnati on Monday and then
this event started Tuesday, and thankfully the Pennsylvania Turnpike was
not crowded. No, I mean, even flying private and getting
here as quick as you can, it's still logistically it's
it's a bit of a challenge.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Unfortunately, a lot of those players have deals now with
these private jack companies.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Exactly.
Speaker 5 (04:21):
The Egos fiancee's singles final was played at Believe six
pm in Cincinnati Monday night.
Speaker 6 (04:26):
She had a match here in ash the.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Next day Pennsylvania Turnpike.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
They got to figure something out, exactly, you got to
figure it out. What kind of toll does that take
on the players. I mean, I think people romanticize the
life of pro athletes a lot. But if you if
you look at this schedule and you understand these people,
and I was going to say, in some cases, kids
are literally living on the road, out of hotel rooms
for much of their formative years, Like that takes a toll.
Speaker 6 (04:53):
It makes me think of Amanda.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
Yeah, I'm who you reference a player who who just
basically needed a mental health sabbatical just basically said, you know,
I'm gonna take a break. Maybe I'll come back, maybe
I won't. We're seeing that more and more don't you know.
I'm sure your listeners can relate to this. You can
stay at the nicest hotel and they can put a
little orchid in the room service, and you know what,
it's still not your bed, and it's still not your sheets,
(05:16):
and it's just there's something that's disruptive that you're you're dislocated.
And you can have all the amenities and drivers and
people fetching you water, it's still not home. And I
think that's something that people, you know, we all know.
In sports right now, we're seeing how sleep in the
study of sleep is getting a lot more emphasis. Does
not do great things for your sleep to change time
(05:38):
zones and change hotels in different pillows and at some level, yeah,
this is an international tour. This is what you sign
up for if you're your Taylor Swift plays all over
the world. Like, you can't have it both ways. But
the flip side is it's a real challenge. I don't
think we talk about it enough. Even with the nicest amenities,
it still takes something out of you to be on
(05:58):
the road as much as these.
Speaker 6 (06:00):
It takes a lot of money to do that too.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
You know, only people at the top are the ones
earning enough to actually like make a living too.
Speaker 5 (06:06):
And this is where I wanted to come back actually
to this mixed doubles tournament because I think what I
would personally love to see and what I want to
hear your opinion on this going forward?
Speaker 6 (06:15):
Maybe this is the way to get mixed.
Speaker 5 (06:16):
Doubles onto the map by having all the singles players
doing it as this glorified exhibition, so to speak. But
I think sustainably going forward, we want to see the
doubles players. I mean, that was really the beauty of
Irani and Fava story winning. And would you want to
I personally, again, I know I'm the connoisseur here, I
would love to see the mixed double the player the
(06:38):
doubles players playing doubles. Is this Does this format maybe
set the stage to get them back in and get
a chance at that bigger prize money.
Speaker 6 (06:46):
They're the ones that are needing.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
No, it's it's a good point.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
I think it's a fundamental question of tennis really, of
any workplace, right, what is the right sizing, what is
the right number of tennis players, what is the right
distribution of prize money? And I think getting these singles
players to play mixed. It was a great coup, but
what did it entail. It meant they had shortened sets,
They had only sixteen players in the draw, and it
spanned two days. And I think if they opened the
(07:10):
draw up and suddenly it's three days and suddenly it's
thirty two teams, the top stars are just going to say,
you know what, I'm trying to win the big trophy here,
I'm trying to win the singles trophy. It was fun
when it was you know, I knew it wasn't going
to take much out of me. But I'm not playing
three days of mixed doubles before I try and defend
my real.
Speaker 6 (07:26):
Title, of course.
Speaker 5 (07:27):
So that's where the challenge has been to the mixed
doubles is that it was played at the end of
the tournament and the singles players kept advancing, and we're like, oh,
we're not word to pull out now, We're focused on
the singles. I want to hear from you this last
one here, John. We talked to a lot of fans
about how you know, a lot of people obviously this
is such a marque New York event.
Speaker 6 (07:43):
They love coming to the US Open. But a lot
of people have grown.
Speaker 5 (07:46):
Very frustrated about how crowded, how expensive it's become. You
talked to so many of the players. What's their experience
like being here from a play.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
I mean it's an interesting you're you're right, we've sort
of hit on this.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
So's what's the ogi barrism that's so crowded?
Speaker 3 (07:59):
No and goes there anymore?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
I mean it's I said that.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
Friends here exactly, you know, I mean at some level
like this is great. This is what all entertainment events want, right,
You want to high demand, you want ticket prices to
go crazy. Something would be really wrong if you know
they were begging people to come.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
The players, I think, first of all, they.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
Like the prize money five million to the winner, one
hundred and ten thousand dollars if you lose in the
first round. And as you say, this is an expensive sport.
And we see the high end, and we see the
Carlos Alcarez and fifty million dollar endorsements, there is a
whole cohort of players that are on the other side
of the net from Carlos Alcarez that you know, are
taking extra bananas out of the players lounge so they
(08:43):
don't have to pay for breakfast.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
It's really not evenly distributed.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
But I think the players are really they see the
investment here, They see this is a great showcase. I
mean not every event on a Thursday afternoon, pick your
random tournament spot. They don't resemble this. They're not you know,
mark bands and tens of thousands of fans.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
What about from the perspective of fans, because I've noticed
in just this is my fourth I've been to what
more than a half dozen US opens? Molly, you've been
doing the twenty you think, I think twenty.
Speaker 6 (09:10):
Yeah, my first was in nineteen ninety six.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Yeah, so you were too.
Speaker 6 (09:13):
Yeah, we're coming up on my thirtieth anniversary.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
So you've seen it change a lot just in the
last three years. I remember getting a ticket a grounds
pass for my wife for one hundred and fifteen dollars
day of oncon you know, ticket Master, what have you?
I mean, if I look at the prices right now,
which I did right before because I'm trying to get
her at grounds pass for tomorrow, but a rund four
hundred bucks, Yeah, well that's prohibitively expensive. And I went
by the box office and they don't have it.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
You know, they've they've done a great job of washing
their hands with this whole discussion and saying, hey, listen,
you know this is the market is speaking more.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
So than any of the year. When colleagues came up
to me, when friends or even people I had never
met who realized I was going to the US Open,
they asked me the same question this year, since the
pre sale, what is going on with tickets?
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Supply meets demand at a very extreme I mean.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
I start to do an economics editor here, Yeah, I can.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
I can give you my my spiel as my riff,
which is, you know, it's fine, right, we have luxury goods,
we have not not everyone gets a rolex at some
level like this is what you want, right, you want
the supply curve to look like it does here.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
I do kind of think that you can't have it
both ways.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
And there's a lot of talk here about inclusion, and
you have various you know, tributes and kids, and you
come here and it's like, wait, Chicken McNuggets are twenty
six dollars, My grounds pass is four hundred dollars. It
seems to me you can't have it both ways either.
You are those populist event that takes place in a
public park and we want everyone to feel welcome or
you are this commercial and this transactional, which is fine,
(10:42):
you know, I get it. We're running a business here,
not a philanthropy. But I think it's a little bit
strange that they sort of try to they try to
play it both ways.
Speaker 5 (10:51):
I mean, I guess that would be their answer to
that is Fan Week of course, that this is this
you know, a couple of days where you can come
in and watch for free, but now that has also
become increasingly a.
Speaker 6 (11:00):
Ticketed event as well. That you know that, yeah, it
is free to come in here.
Speaker 5 (11:04):
You can watch the qualifying tournament, you can watch them
players practice, you can watch.
Speaker 6 (11:08):
A lot of DJ sets, that's for sure, but like
you not ultimately watch a lot of really what people
want to see.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
Why so Wimbledon does not have DJ sets, but wimbled
it has a lot of this this this sort of
high end and you know, you've got the private jet
set that that's come in. But they also there are
ten thousand seats that are set aside for the cures people.
I mean, you know, you got to spend the night
in a field to get these tickets. There are ten
thousand fans that come through the gates Wimbledon, this sort
of bucket list location, and the tickets are like thirty
(11:37):
bucks strawberries and cream, you know the signature dish, it's
like two pounds fifty, it's like three dollars yea. And
so they've really done a nice job of Yes, you've
you've got your high end and you've got your debenture
group and your club seating, and you can spend thousand.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
You can also spend thirty bucks and have a great day.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
That's so interesting because it looks from the outside like
such an exclusive event and it's so much more formal
and buttoned up. John, We always love hanging out with you.
You are a busy guy. Thank you so much for
spending so much time with us and being janious with
your time, John Worth. I'm even from the Tennis Channel
correspondent for sixty minutes. He's got more than ten books
that he's authored and co authored, including Glory Days, The
Summer of nineteen eighty four and The ninety Days That
(12:15):
Changed Sports in Culture Forever. This is Bloomberg Business Week Daily.
Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Business Week Daily coming
up after this.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
You're listening to the Bloomberg Business Week Daily podcast. Catch
US live weekday afternoons from two to five e's during
Listen on Applecarplay and Android Otto with the Bloomberg Business app,
or watch US live on YouTube.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Tim Stentevik and Molly Smith live at the US Open
here in New York City. We're in Queen's right now
at Flushing Meadows. It's still a windy one.
Speaker 6 (12:51):
Molly.
Speaker 5 (12:51):
Oh yeah, Oh my gosh, I just got distracted.
Speaker 7 (12:53):
Sorry.
Speaker 5 (12:54):
Andre Rufelov is walking by in front of us. I
am distracted everywhere.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
That's okay.
Speaker 6 (12:58):
That's the part.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
That's the part of being here. Scripts that's what makes
the US Open magical, that you're just sitting. I mean, granted,
we're in the media area, so we're close to the players.
But the way that Andra got here was he walked
through the entire crowd. Yes, he was flanked by some security,
but if you're out there, you can get pretty close
to these players, which is pretty cool about the US Open.
Speaker 5 (13:16):
I mean, our seat is really, i would say, the
most accessible to the players from where we are.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
You got to stay here. You can't get up and
go and talk to the players, just so you know.
Speaker 6 (13:25):
I'm good. I mean, we've had a great guest here
to stick with.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Let's talk a little media here, because last week ESPN,
which is the largest sports media company in the world,
did something that just a few years ago, I think
many observers thought, who would never do? They undercut the
traditional PATV business, which generates billions of dollars in profits
for its owner, Walt Disney. Yet it was time to
just go straight over the top. We've got Tim Bunnell
(13:50):
with US, senior vice president of Programming for Esgenny joins
us here on site at the US Open and Flushing,
New York.
Speaker 8 (13:56):
So in my.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Early earlier career, I covered media and streaming and one
thing that analysts told me over and over again was
Live Sports holds the bundle together. And in a few
very short years that narrative has seemed to shift, and
I think this is a sea change moment for ESPN
to say, you know what, in order to watch everything,
(14:17):
you don't need to pay a PATV provider. What's thinking here?
Speaker 8 (14:20):
Yeah, look, I think it's.
Speaker 7 (14:22):
I would agree that sports holding the bundle together is
an accurate description, but I think what we're seeing now
is as you aggregate services, whether it's you know, whether
it's Peacock or whether it's Paramount Plus or whether it's
the ESPN direct to consumer offering. You know, we're starting
to see, you know, kind of aggregation in a different way.
But I think where we feel, you know, we've done
(14:42):
well is kind of manage that transition that you referenced from,
you know, from a kind of a five hundred channel
in universe is when direct to consumer offerings first were
sort of a thing and the leagues were doing their
own services. I think that the feeling at the time was,
why does an ESPN go out and they should just
be the Netflix of sports. There's a very good reason
(15:02):
we didn't do that right away, and you cited it,
Tim that that you know that we were walking away
from billions of dollars of revenue and you have to
kind of manage your existing golden goose business with the future.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Well, you also had those negotiations that in those long
term rights agreements that you'd made with leagues that sort
of kept things together too, right.
Speaker 7 (15:22):
Yeah, I mean, you know, those deals typically typically for
the US sports least, we try to do as long
term deals as we can, and I think the understanding
going into them, is the world's going to Given the
pace of change and the media business, the world's going
to change, it's going to look very different by the
time these deals, you know, expire, and so we've had
to kind of, you know, whether it was the launch
of ESPN Plus or our direct to consumer service you know,
more recently, you had to.
Speaker 8 (15:44):
Kind of manage that transition within deal terms.
Speaker 7 (15:46):
And that's what these partnerships and these league relationships.
Speaker 8 (15:49):
Are all about.
Speaker 5 (15:50):
Let's come back to that, just for our listeners who
maybe don't know the difference between what is the ESPN
Direct to Consumer app now and ESPN Plus.
Speaker 7 (15:58):
Yeah, so actually one contains the others the way to
think of it. So the ESPN Direct to Consumer app,
simply enough, is all of our video services available in
one place direct to the consumer. That includes all of
our linear networks. It includes ESPN and ABC and ES.
What we know today is ESPN Plus and so when
we launched the Plus service a number of years ago,
(16:20):
it was didn't include any of the linear networks. It
was just incremental programming that we anchored by UFC and
a bunch of other big properties. But the direct to
consumer product takes ESPN Plus and all of the networks
and available content we have and puts them in one
place that's called the ESPN Unlimited. You can also still
subscribe to just ESPN Plus called the ESPN Select Package.
Speaker 8 (16:43):
So if you're only you know, we would prefer that
people not do that. We'd actually like them, you know,
to go for the full package.
Speaker 7 (16:50):
But if you're only interested in making it up Bundesliga
or something that's your passion for sports, we have all
the matches on ESPN Plus and you could do just
that as well.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Know when pre covid, when retailers were trying to figure
out how to respond to the rise of online shopping,
there was this sort of thing that people said, which is, okay,
what can we provide in the store that you can't
replicate online? So Lulu Lemon was doing like yoga classes
and stuff to try to build a brand and build
an audience. I feel like there's an opportunity with a
direct consumer media offering where you can offer something that
(17:23):
you can't offer in a traditional pay TV package. We
saw that with Peacock in the Olympics, where you could
kind of choose different camera angles and watch a bunch
of different stuff. I see that being and granted I've
been watching the US Open Linear on ESPN, I see
it being promoted the direct consumer app being promoted in
a way that says, wait a second, I kind of
would rather be watching this on the app because I
(17:43):
get to watch whatever I want.
Speaker 7 (17:46):
Yeah, Look, I mean I think there's some of it
is just having all of the content available in one
place just builds consumer choice. I think the other big
piece of the app launch and of the product launch
last week is the improvements to the ESPN app and
the expansion of the app. So whether it's some of
the stats and data and fantasy and betting info you
can opt into.
Speaker 8 (18:06):
Or the multiview experience.
Speaker 7 (18:08):
That we're providing Sports Center for you, vertical video, and
there are a bunch of things that you know that
came along with the the what I would call the
content offering at the same time, and so if you're
asking sort of what is it that says to the consumer,
I really I need this product. Apart from just the
content that's provided, it's all these features and functionalities that
come with it.
Speaker 5 (18:27):
So with the US Open specifically, I mean, you guys
have had the broadcast rights here for a number of years.
Is your got a bit longer with the mixed doubles
at the beginning, a lot more programming that you guys
probably had to offer. Can you talk about what those
conversations were like with the USTA when they were talking
to you guys about this format, how that goes into
planning the rights and the deals around this Because more airtime,
(18:49):
that's got to be a lot more work for you guys.
Speaker 8 (18:51):
Yeah, and a lot more fun.
Speaker 7 (18:53):
So, you know, I would say that really there was
there was two big innovations that affected us directly. One
as the Sunday start, which we were totally in favor of.
I mean, I you know, we've talked about this before,
Molly that I always felt like the US Open beginning
on a Monday morning at eleven am, which just began quietly,
and this is New York City, like it should be
(19:14):
a festive opening. And so that Sunday telecast, that Sunday start,
in addition to being good for the tournament as a whole,
gives us the window on ABC on Sunday afternoon where
we're able.
Speaker 8 (19:26):
To program it there.
Speaker 7 (19:27):
That allows us to be on ABC opening Sunday middle
Sunday and the men's final, and then and then the
other big thing was obviously the mixed doubles. So that's
another one where you know, all of the Grand Slams
that we work with talk about building a week that
leads into the tournament.
Speaker 8 (19:44):
That means something.
Speaker 7 (19:45):
They've done a great job of it here, but mixed
doubles was something that you know, sort of I felt
gets kind of buried in the main draw and so
lifting it out adding a lot of star power to it.
And I know that was controversial, but to me that
really sent a lot of juice to fanweek, which gives
us a lot of added momentum for the entire tournament.
Speaker 6 (20:04):
And you just alluded to ABC.
Speaker 5 (20:06):
There's so many networks here under the Disney umbrella. At
your disposal, we have ABC, ESPN, ESPN two of course,
all the outer courts on ESPN Plus. How do you
within the main cable networks, what's the decision making process
that goes into where do we place which courts?
Speaker 8 (20:22):
Good question.
Speaker 7 (20:22):
I mean up until this year we actually sim willcast
the semis quarters and final quarters, Semis and finals on
you know, on ESPN Plus along with so so there
was you can sort of get it both ways, But
I think ultimately, you know, once you get to you know,
once you get to the round of sixteen on it's
pretty much it's all. You know, you can cover everything
on your miniar networks. It's early in the tournament where
(20:43):
you're saying, all right, we were going to focus on
Ash and Armstrong or if there's a you know, an
interesting match going on court eighteen, you.
Speaker 8 (20:50):
Know, we'll we'll head out there.
Speaker 7 (20:51):
But to me, the app that we have and the
multiview experience could not be better tailored to any sporting
event than at tournament.
Speaker 8 (21:00):
Maybe maybe a golf golf tournament as well.
Speaker 6 (21:02):
Will you over that too?
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Yeah, yeah, I gotta go to the other US Open
and talking. We're speaking with Tim Bonnell, Senior vice president
of Programming at ESPN. Tim, when when you think about
the tennis actually moving the needle when it comes to
people subscribing, where where does it fall under the you know,
when you think about sports that are so popular in
the US, because tennis, even though it's really hard to
get a ticket here and even though this draws a
(21:24):
huge crowd, Like we're not talking NFL, MLB, you know,
or NVA here.
Speaker 8 (21:29):
You know, it's funny.
Speaker 7 (21:30):
I think tennis is terrific for us, for it performs
very well across the board. The the skew between men
and women is very favorable for us. Often we're sort of,
you know, it's a more heavily skewed male network.
Speaker 8 (21:44):
Uh. And so that's an attractive element to us.
Speaker 7 (21:47):
And I think, you know, just we're a network and
a business that's about big events, be it tennis or
golf or NBA or college football or whatever it is.
And so when I look across the Grand Slam, this landscape,
the US Open in New York, in our backyard, all
the hospitality that it allows us to you know, to
provide to our to our fans and to our sponsors
(22:09):
and customers. Uh, it's you know, to me, it's it's
punches well above its weight, even even apart from its
programming value. And so you know, this year, like we've
gotten off to a terrific start through the first round.
We're up thirty seven percent P two plus. Uh, you know,
it's a it's a I feel like the US Open
is is just it's an upward spiral for us, and
(22:29):
and uh yeah, I mean it's speaking of program value,
who just walked by us.
Speaker 6 (22:34):
Oh goodness, Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness. We have
Naomi Osco.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Painting the picture a little bit first. Yeah, went on here.
Speaker 8 (22:43):
Yeah, all right, I feel like I've arrived.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
You got got one more question.
Speaker 6 (22:46):
But I'm sandwiched between the two tims right now.
Speaker 5 (22:48):
Which is the most important part of the program. So
tim long tennis calendar throughout the year. You guys have
the US Open, you have Wimbledon, you have the Australian Open.
Just quickly here in this last minute, do you ever
think of the French Yes, yeah.
Speaker 8 (23:01):
We actually have it in Latin America.
Speaker 7 (23:03):
We've had it for a long time, so we were
you know, we're at the tournament. We've been familiar with
with the French Kinnis Federation of Rolling Garrels for a
long time.
Speaker 8 (23:10):
We looked at it.
Speaker 7 (23:11):
We look at everything, any significant event that comes up,
we look at it. But I think in the end,
you know, the WVD put up a.
Speaker 8 (23:19):
Big number, you know, and and.
Speaker 7 (23:22):
I think that that the French Tennis Federation and IMG
did an excellent job in negotiating it, and we would
love to have it. It does work well with our schedule
and obviously would complete the Grand slams for us. But
what we're learning in this environment we're in as you
can't have everything and you just have to make hard
decisions here and there. So but you know, yes, that's
we We love that event and.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Your job making that decision easier for the consumer when
it comes to options. Tim, thanks for joining us and
taking the time. That's Tim Bonald, Senior vice president of
Programming at ESPN. From the US open. This is Bloomberg
Business Week Daily. Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Business
Week Daily coming up after.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
This, some macle how about you let me drive?
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Oh no, no, no, no, this is not a toy, honey.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
Please excuse me. I want to drive.
Speaker 7 (24:18):
It's good question.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
This is the drive to the Clothes Punk's musing well
led it down on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
It is Bloomberg Business Week. I'm Tim Steneveek. That is
Molly Smith. She is Bloomberg News Economics Editor, alive from
the US opening the Shadow of Arthur Ashe Stadium here
in Flushing Meadows, Queens. But we're not forgetting about everything
happening with the markets, because we just have shy of
sixteen minutes until markets close on what could be another
(24:52):
record day for the S and P five hundred. I
want to right now bring in Bloomberg News cross ass
that report. Isabel Lee and managing editor for the Bloomberg Markets,
alag Christina Quino that join us from our studio back
in midtown man Manhattan. Isabelle, I want to start with
you and just set the scene for today's trade with
of course in Vidia front and center.
Speaker 9 (25:14):
In Vidia's front and center, but the stock is actually fluctuating.
But for the broader market, we're seeing the S and
P top sixty five hundred, and that's ahead of the
PCE report tomorrow. That's all important because that's the fed's
favorite or favorite price gauge. Molla Smith would know a
lot about that. But really we're just really seeing recession
Jater's kind of decline.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Now.
Speaker 9 (25:33):
I feel like Christine, that investors aren't as worried anymore,
even if Nvidia didn't really excite as much as people
were hoping.
Speaker 10 (25:40):
Yeah, absolutely, Isabelle. I mean you even forget that procession
fears were a thing in markets like just a few
months ago, right. I think that was theme in April
when we first got the reciprocal tariffs announcement. From Trump
administration and then since then, animal spirits have just taken over.
I feel like, I mean, the fact that we're talking
about six to five hundred s and BFI hundred right now,
(26:01):
what recession risk?
Speaker 5 (26:02):
Right?
Speaker 9 (26:04):
And if you look at the cross assets.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Well that's the question. Yeah, go ahead as a belle, Yeah,
go ahead as a bell.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Sorry, they just.
Speaker 9 (26:09):
Really continue to feed positively into the equity rally, Tim.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
So I want you to weigh in on that a
little bit and sort of cross asset what we're seeing
here because we're and this has been a theme really
since I would argue, gosh May at this point, and
a ton of people have come out and said, wait
a second, why aren't we actually seeing the effect of
tariffs on asset prices as a result, like similar to
what we saw post you know, quote unquote liberation day
(26:36):
before the president sort of said the bond market became
a little yippie and he did the pauses and stuff
like that. But why do you think we're we're not
seeing asset values declined as a result of the increased
prices that companies or people depending on you know how
you're defining it, are paying for these things?
Speaker 10 (26:53):
Well, Tim, I mean from my perspective, you know, I
think it's just a question of timing, right. It takes
a while for that effect to be done. I think
at the moment it's kind of lying primarily with a
lot of the producers in retailer. We've seen a lot
of commentary from the retailer earnings recently talking about how
(27:14):
they are trying to absorb some of those costs because
they don't want to be raising the prices on their
customers and turning them away. But I think the warnings
that we've gotten from the likes of Best Buy Today,
right and Coals and a lot of these major retailers
also indicating that they might not be able to do
that for very long. And so you know, we might
suddenly get that wave of higher prices, probably just in
(27:37):
time for that peak holiday season right as well.
Speaker 9 (27:40):
Yes, and you see a lot of adjustments. Victoria's Secret
for instance, their outlook includes an updated estimated tariff of
around one hundred million dollars this year, double the prior projection.
But you see Dick Sporting Goods, for instance, including expected
impacts from all tariffs currently in effect. That's the key
phrase I'd like to point out that's currently in effect,
acknowledging that things could still change. But Tim and Mollie, Tim,
(28:02):
Christina and I were actually looking at this fun story.
It's titled hell No Shop Okay. Nine hundred and thirty
four dollar bill shows tariff pain to hit shoppers. So basically,
there's this gentleman. He bought something and then suddenly a
bill of almost one thousand dollars in tariffs came in
and he owes this to the US Customs and Borders Protection.
Speaker 6 (28:21):
Christine, how will you react.
Speaker 9 (28:22):
If you get something like that?
Speaker 6 (28:23):
What if you just want a fifty dollars I.
Speaker 10 (28:25):
Probably react the same way.
Speaker 6 (28:27):
Yeah, absolutely not.
Speaker 10 (28:29):
But imagine buying something and then suddenly getting a follow
up bill. Mollie, I saw you nodding. I think you're
familiar with this. This is a deminimous exemption that a
lot of American consumers have been enjoying up until this week,
and that all goes away tomorrow, I believe.
Speaker 5 (28:48):
Yeah, it's this is a brutal development for consumers. What
this is talking about lower priced goods coming into the US,
that if they're under a certain value, would not have
a tariffy on top of that, that exemption though, is
now ending. So that's what our friend on this story
here that you guys were talking about, who had a
nice hell no to skick off the headline. That's what
he was reacting to right there. Keeping on this price
(29:11):
data though, Christine, we're looking ahead to the PCE price
data tomorrow. I mean, you've got the SMP setting new records.
Speaker 6 (29:18):
Basically every day.
Speaker 5 (29:19):
Is there really any world in which the PCE report
can really disappoint this momentum in the stock market right now?
Speaker 10 (29:26):
Yeah, Molli, it's really hard to see, given that we
are talking about just continued rally in the S and
P five hundred. I mean, you know, unless it's maybe
a big shock to the upside, that could be once
an era where markets are suddenly thinking about inflation once again.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
But you know, I think the feeling is that.
Speaker 10 (29:45):
We are still headed towards a world of lower interest rates.
In the latest markets Paul survey, for instance, that we
conducted over an the M Live team, we asked readers,
you know, what would get stocks boosted again? Would a
lower interest rate from the Fed boost stocks even if
it comes at the expense of pressure from the Trump
administration and a majority of Versawana has actually said, yeah,
(30:07):
so we're in this environment where there is such an
impetus to rally based on hope for lower interest rates,
which seems like that's where a lot of the road
is leading towards. We'll see, of course, once we hear
from the Federal Reserve in September. I'm sure Molly you're
looking forward to covering that and seeing what the result
of does is going to be. That's a big one,
isn't it.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
It's a big one. But I'd say, Molly, there's a
lot of data that we're still going to gap it
before that September meeting.
Speaker 5 (30:34):
I was just going to say for me right now,
I mean, I'm obviously trying to say in the moment
of the US open, but I'm also thinking ahead to
the jobs report next Friday, and then we get those
big revisions a couple of days later. That's going to
be a huge one right now, and again, it's just
so hard for me and my eco brain to conceive
of right now the SMP just hitting record after record
when we're supposedly in this environment where the labor market
(30:56):
is weakening, and you know, maybe we'll see that jobs
market and the revisions show as much. Maybe you'll be
what was probably perceived as a brief pickup to stocks
because we're in that bad news good news environment right
now where if we get a bad job zumper, we
get a bad inflation number, it's great news because we're
going to get an interest rate cut to That's.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
That's where we are again. I feel like we were
just there.
Speaker 6 (31:16):
I think that's where we've been for the every lease.
We're just waiting right goods.
Speaker 10 (31:20):
I don't think we have a lot of them.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Hey, speaking of leaving, Speaking of leaving, we gotta go.
We is windy here. We appreciate you guys holding down
the port down at Bloomberg headquarters in midtown Manhattan. That's
our Bloomberg News crossouts. That reporter Isabelle Lee, also managing
editor for Bloomberg Markets Live Blog. Christine Aquino joining us
from Bloomberg Headquarters. Just have about ten minutes ago until
(31:43):
the close of it. Could be trading on this Thursday afternoon.
If we take a look at the S and P
five hundred, we are hired by three tons of one
percent as we speak, could be another record close today.
Taking a deeper look at the industry, groups utilities in
the red to the tune of nine tens of one percent, lower,
consumer staples down six tens of one percent, health dot
half a percentage point. On the upside, communication services up
(32:03):
a percentage point, IT information technology have eight tens of
one percent, and energy up seven tenths of one percent.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
This is the Bloomberg Businessweekdaily podcast, available on Apple, Spotify,
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afternoons from two to five pm Eastern on Bloomberg dot com,
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(32:32):
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