07 May 2024

Smith Entertainment Group briefs Salt Lake City Council on 'Reimagination of Downtown Area'

 




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31 May 2017

TY Very Much > Nepotism Here In Mesa Is Going Very Well

. . . or should we say 'family-values'? At any rate it's good for some people to have overlapping family connections of one sort or another. You, dear readers, can sort it out.
Both have connections with real estate development, an entrenched political machine, and high-power political affairs consultants and lobbying firms.
Meet Ryan Smith, [son of Ex-Mayor Scott Smith]
Communications and Government Relations Director
Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport Authority
April 2017 - present 2 months
He began his climb-up at PMGAA in April 2016 as Assistant to the Executive Director for Inter-Governmental Relations.
From June 2008-April 2016 he was an Account Executive within a company named High Ground, Public Affairs Consultants calling itself Arizona’s Premier Lobbying Firm 
More Experience:
Sep 2007-May 2008 Campaign Manager for his father
Before that - for 3 years and 3 months - he was Regional Vice-President K Hovnanian Homes from July 2004-Sep 2007.
He attended ASU and got a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science 2002-2007
Source: LinkedIn
One item missing on anything in Ryan Smith's work experience is that just about the same time in 2002 he began his studies in Political Science at ASU, Scott Smith and his son started a business: Qualtrics, which conducts online market research, is a prime example of the rapid growth of the Utah economy — and the sense that Utah is straining at the limits of its growth potential.
Scott Smith started the company with his son, Ryan, and a college classmate in his Provo home in 2002. Qualtrics now employs 1,300 people, including about 800 in a new headquarters building opened in August at the mouth of Provo Canyon. And it is bringing workers to Utah as fast as it can. 
Ryan Smith, now the chief executive, said Qualtrics had hired about three dozen graduates from the University of Michigan alone last year. The company estimates that new arrivals bought 100 homes in Provo last year. . . by the end of the year, Mr. Smith said, he expects the company will have more employees outside Utah than in its home state. It is growing where it finds workers.
Source: New York Times May 21, 2017

Qualtrics Locations worlwide
According to Wikipedia
Qualtrics is a private research software company, based in Provo, Utah, in the United States.
The company was founded in 2002 by Scott M. Smith, Ryan Smith, Jared Smith and Stuart Orgill. Wikipedia
CEORyan Smith (Dec 2002–)
Founded2002

Website: https://www.qualtrics.com/
 
J. Chuck Coughlin, President of High Ground, had this to say about Ryan in April 2016
"After nearly eight years at our firm, Ryan began his new career today as the Government Relations Coordinator for Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport.  All of his colleagues here at HighGround cannot be more pleased for him and for the Airport Authority; they are getting a wonderful human being and we still have a great friend..  It was during Ryan’s father’s initial campaign for Mayor of Mesa in 2007-08 that we first met him.
 He was working tirelessly for his father’s campaign and I joked with him that he was like a Mormon on a mission.  Everything I needed to know about Ryan I learned in that campaign: tireless and kind, he exuded a genuine warmth for everyone around him. And after that successful campaign, we happily adopted him and it was a blessing for both parties ever since. . . "

Here's a link to High Ground to see what they do >>
http://www.azhighground.com/shaping-arizona-policy/ 

Scott Smith progeny Ryan Smith is no stranger to Arizona politics, according to this article Aug 19, 2014 written by Mike Sunnucks in Phoenix Business Journal that calls him out for taking 'a cheap shot'
"Ryan Smith — the son of former Mesa Mayor Scott Smith and a close political adviser to his father – took a jab at Arizona Cardinals President Michael Bidwill in a social media post.
Scott Smith is running in the Republican primary for governor, while Bidwill backs Arizona Treasurer and former Cold Stone Creamery CEO Doug Ducey.
Ryan Smith — a political strategist at heavyweight consulting firm Highground Inc. — compared his father’s business experience as a home-building executive to Bidwill, the son of Cardinals owner Bill Bidwill.
Michael Bidwill led a recent effort to get business executives and leaders who were backing Smith to swing over to Ducey. Bidwill sent letters to top local CEOs looking to garner more business backing from Ducey and away from Scott Smith 
Ryan Smith referenced the Cardinals president in a Facebook response to a Scott Smith campaign posting about business leaders backing the former mayor.
“Unlike a letter from a guy that was born into a family, given a taxpayer-funded stadium and guaranteed league revenue. These business leaders have worked to create jobs and know what leadership looks like,” Ryan Smith posted on Facebook earlier today.
The critical post was later deleted. It referenced public financing for University of Phoenix Stadium, the Bidwill family’s long tenure owning the Cardinals and the National Football League’s business model.
Smith spokesman David Leibowitz said Ryan Smith was frustrated with the negative attacks on his father, including a recent political ad that shows his parents’ house. Leibowitz said Ryan Smith has been working long hours for his dad’s gubernatorial bid.
More than $2 million has been spent so far in the GOP primary by political groups on negative ads and mailers, according to the Arizona Secretary of State’s office.
Cardinals spokesman Mark Dalton said Bidwill and the team were not going to wade into the political sniping.
“We can’t keep members of the Smith campaign from taking cheap shots but certainly are not going to stoop to that level ourselves,” Dalton said."                    
                                                                            
Twitter : @Ryansmithaz
Profile picture standing in front of the White House on March 2, 2017












EXCLUSIVE: One-on-one with Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith on move to KJZZ 14...The Smith Entertainment Group also announced plans to launch a new Utah Jazz subscription-based streaming service in October.

 

Utah Jazz announce partnership with KJZZ-TV, new streaming platform


Owners of the Utah Jazz announced a new partnership that will make all non-nationally televised games available for free in the Beehive State using a basic television antenna. (Image: KUTV)
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Owners of the Utah Jazz announced a new partnership that will make all non-nationally televised games available for free in the Beehive State using a basic television antenna. (Image: KUTV)
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Owners of the Utah Jazz announced a new partnership that will make all non-nationally televised games available for free in the Beehive State using a basic television antenna.

The agreement with Sinclair Broadcast Group – owners of KUTV 2News – will return game broadcasts to the station that aired them for 16 years, making KJZZ Channel 14 once again, “The Home of the Utah Jazz.”

The move means all Jazz games not broadcast on a national network will be available free to fans within the team’s local broadcast market.

Games will also be broadcast through any satellite or cable provide that carries KJZZ.

In 2009, the franchise announced a long-term deal with FSN to broadcast games, ending fan access to free, over-the-air broadcasts.

The Smith Entertainment Group also announced plans to launch a new Utah Jazz subscription-based streaming service in October.

The service will be run by a new division of the company, SEG Media, and will produce unique content, in addition to Jazz games.

Additional details about the streaming service, including cost, were expected to be released at a later date.

Tuesday’s announcement fulfilled a promise owner Ryan Smith made to fans months ago that they would have increased access to games.

“When we first took over stewardship of the team, 39% of Utah households had the ability to watch Jazz games, so as soon as the window opened last fall for us to rethink our approach to broadcasting, we began exploring all options to provide fans the most reliable access to Jazz games,” he said. “This new approach is one of the most important investments we have made since purchasing the team because it allows us to deliver Utah Jazz games to 3.3 million plus Utahns.”

24 November 2023

Ryan Smith, Chairman of Smith Entertainment Group (SEG) dribbles the Utah Jazz—long an outlier in the NBA—into the spotlight. 

Terms of the deal with KJZZ’s owner, Sinclair Broadcast Group, weren’t disclosed, but S&P Global Market Intelligence estimates that this season the Jazz will bring in 50% to 70% of the revenue they were getting from AT&T SportsNet, depending on their ratings and how many streaming subscriptions they sell.
 
www.bloomberg.com

Utah Jazz Streaming Service Is a Test for NBA, NHL Post-RSN Model 

Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith at the team’s practice facility in Salt Lake City.

Photographer: Michael Friberg for Bloomberg Businessweek
 
Ira Boudway 
22 Nov 2023
1 - 2 minutes

In June the Utah Jazz announced that they were quitting cable. For most of the past two decades, the team had telecast its games on a regional sports network, or RSN. It was, while it lasted, a lucrative arrangement. 

> Beginning with several dozen games per year in 2004 and moving to an exclusive agreement for local telecasts in 2009, the Jazz sold their rights to a network that, after several ownership and branding shuffles, came to be known as AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain. In the final year, the network was paying about $25 million per season.

The team used the money to help pay for the talent that fans tuned in to see. In 2020 the Jazz gave 7-foot-1 All-Star center Rudy Gobert, who’s since moved on to the Minnesota Timberwolvesa five-year, $205 million contract extension. The network, in turn, used the programming to drive negotiations with pay-TV providers, who paid a monthly fee for every household that had the channel as part of a satellite or cable package. And carriers, for their part, passed along the fees to subscribers in their monthly bills. Everybody won—especially Gobert.

Ryan Smith, owner of the Utah Jazz.
Photographer: Michael Friberg for Bloomberg Businessweek 

This summer the Utah Jazz announced that they were quitting cable. For most of the past two decades, the team had telecast its games on a regional sports network, or RSN. It was a lucrative arrangement—while it lasted.

The same basic setup has been in place for teams across the National Basketball Association, National Hockey League and Major League Baseball for decades, helping to drive ever-increasing franchise valuations. Here comes the but: as US consumers abandon cable, the regional model is under threat.

The Jazz, whose RSN went out of business earlier this year, are among the first to face the consequences of the cable industry’s decline and one of the first to try to figure out what comes next. It’s thrust the Jazz—long an outlier in the NBA—into the spotlight. 

Beginning this season, the team is broadcasting its games on the free-to-air station KJZZ (pronounced “K-Jazz”) as well as through a paid streaming service called Jazz+.

The Rise and Fall of AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain

Subscriber losses became a drain on revenue for the Utah Jazz’s longtime regional sports network

Source: S&P Global Market Intelligence estimates

As the cable industry continues to crumble, the rest of the NBA (along with the NHL and MLB) will be watching closely to see if Utah’s approach amounts to a step backward or a way forward

 “It’s a pretty easy analysis to look out and say that the RSN model will not be around the way we know it,” says Jazz owner Ryan Smith.

> “Then the question becomes, are we going to wait and ride it out as long as we possibly can?

 > Or are we going to take the hit now and start with a new model and get ahead of it?”

Terms of the deal with KJZZ’s owner, Sinclair Broadcast Group, weren’t disclosed, but S&P Global Market Intelligence estimates that this season the Jazz will bring in 50% to 70% of the revenue they were getting from AT&T SportsNet, depending on their ratings and how many streaming subscriptions they sell.

It’s a significant setback, Smith acknowledges, though he’s confident it’s temporary—and comes with a big upside for Jazz fans.

“It’s innovation and forward-thinking,” says Daniel Cohen, a media rights consultant at Octagon Inc., “but innovation and forward-thinking does not always mean more revenue.” 

And that part is where the Jazz is getting creative.

Like The Suns, Jazz Are Ditching Their Cable Regional Sports Network

  • Jazz games next season will air locally on Sinclair's free KJZZ channel.
  • The team will also launch a paid service to stream games as cable RSNs continue to lose rights

Utah Jazz launch Jazz+ streaming service as RSN alternative

DTC subscription platform to offer more than 80 live game streams covering all non-nationally televised games.

28 Sep 2023 Josh Sim
The Utah Jazz have launched their DTC streaming service Jazz+.

Getty Images

The National Basketball Association’s (NBAUtah Jazz have launched their own direct-to-consumer (DTC) streaming service Jazz+.

Confirmed:

  • Subscribers can watch more than 80 live games, including all Jazz preseason and regular season games, excluding matchups broadcast on national television
  • Video-on-demand (VOD) replays to be available for every locally televised game
  • Original shows include behind-the-scenes content, highlights and alternative broadcast streams
  • Annual subscription priced at US$125.50, while a monthly subscription will cost fans US$15.50
  • A pay-per-view (PPV) option for single-game purchases will be priced at US$5 and will launch on 25th October

Context:

The Jazz announced plans to develop a paid subscription-based streaming service in June, as an alternative to a traditional regional sports network (RSN).

Fans can also watch non-nationally televised games on local TV station KJZZ via an over-the-air antenna or through local cable and satellite providers that carry the Sinclair-owned channel.

Comment:

“This season, we have so many reasons to celebrate being a Utah Jazz fan – from the return of Delta Center and our 50th anniversary season to the launch of Jazz+ and the ability for anyone in Utah to watch Jazz games on KJZZ,” said Ryan Smith, chairman of Smith Entertainment Group (SEG) and governor of the Utah Jazz.




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