ESPN's coming off a huge win.
The NCAA Women's Basketball tournament had record-breaking ratings throughout the tournament. The Championship game that aired on ABC averaged 18.9 million viewers, four million more than the Men's game that aired on Turner channels.
And the Final Four game between Iowa and UConn that aired on ESPN had 14.4 million viewers, the most ever for a college basketball game (Men's or Women's) in the history of the network.
In January, the Disney-owned (DIS) ESPN extended its media rights deal with the NCAA in a eight-year, $920 million deal that lumped in the NCAA Women's Basketball March Madness with dozens of other NCAA tournaments. The deal reportedly valued the Women's Basketball tournament at around $65 million annually.
Meanwhile CBS and Turner are paying about $1.1 billion per year for the Men's Tournament starting in 2025.
Related: More people watched Women's NCAA Final than the Men's for first time ever
While there's no assurance that the Women's game will be able to outdraw the Men's Tournament with the departure of Caitlin Clark, the ratings for the non-Clark games — which include over 7 million viewers for the Final Four game between South Carolina and NC State — indicate that ESPN could have gotten a steal with its deal.
But amid this public-facing success comes some internal turmoil at the top for the network.
On Friday, April 5, the New York Post was the first to report that longtime ESPN executive Norby Williamson left the company. Williamson, who was ESPN's Head of Event and Studio Production, was called out by new ESPN talent Pat McAfee in January for attempting to "sabotage" him from within the company.
The initial report by The New York Post indicated that the clash with McAfee — who is reportedly one of the highest paid talents of the network at about $17 million annually — was not the reason for the departure of Williamson. Instead, the story cited differences in the vision for the future of the network that Williamson had with Burke Magnus, ESPN's President of Content.
Magnus was promoted to the role around a year ago, making him Williamson's boss.
A new report by Puck News on Monday, April 8 confirmed that while top ESPN brass like CEO Jimmy Pitaro and Magnus were unhappy with McAfee's decision to call out Williamson publicly, the driver for Williamson's departure was indeed because of his differences with Magnus.
And the story also dove deeper into the divide.
The Puck News report indicated that the two "deployed different management styles" that made it impossible for them to work together. The report described Magnus to be more "collaborative," while it's no secret that Williamson has been a stern and upfront leader in the company.
Related: Stephen A. Smith addresses Pat McAfee fight, but doesn't deny it happened
His style has led to clashes with many current and former ESPN talents.
But the writer of the Puck News story, well-known sports media journalist John Ourand, indicated the differences between the two is seen through the direction that ESPN is headed toward.
Ourand said that he's "known these guys forever," but that their perspectives differ with regard to ESPN's direction to invest heavily in streaming and direct-to-consumer products. ESPN has already announced a partnership with Fox (FOXA) and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) for a sports streaming service to be released later this year, and it plans to launch a flagship streaming application.
Ourand's report indicates that Magnus and subsequently Pitaro are all-in on moving ESPN in that direction, and it seems like Williamson was opposed to that, ultimately leading to his decision to leave the company.
Magnus made the announcement on Friday about Williamson's departure through an internal memo to employees, thanking him for his service.
"During Norby’s career, he made significant contributions across many important roles within Content," the memo read. "Through his steadfast commitment and attention to detail, Norby has had a lasting impact on the sports fans’ experience. His wide-ranging influence includes SportsCenter, breaking news coverage, immense creativity within event and studio productions and diverse storytelling across various ESPN platforms."
Related: ESPN exec who was recently called out by Pat McAfee is suddenly leaving the company
