A Pre-Upfront Overview with Turner Sports’ Jon Diament

Jon Diament, Executive Vice President for Turner Sports Ad Sales, is confident the unit’s combination of high-profile events, schedule consistency and digital extensions will again resonate with the marketplace.  Over the past decade, the profile of sports and its largely live audience has ascended in the ratings, while entertainment fare has receded in the face of DVR- and other time-shifted viewing.  Diament points out that during the 2006-07 TV season, sports accounted for 34 of the 100 highest-rated TV shows, a figure that grew to a massive 93 last TV season. “The audience behavior has changed,” he said. “Viewers are watching entertainment programming on their own schedules on different platforms.  That makes sports an even more important part of many marketers’ plans.”