Kia ora, Talofa, Ma’lelei, Bula, Aloha and Welcome to Season 09 Episode 77 of Breakfast Bites, by TEIVOVOdigital.com – a wrap of Pasifika people’s sports news, on Sunday morning 23 June 2024 where it is 25 degrees Celsius at 5am.
 
Coming to you with tons of hanisi from the 180th meridian, in the middle of the blue continent.
 
In Rugby Union: The Flying Fijians Drua 32-46 Barbarians at Twickenham this morning.
 
Congratulations Blues, for a comprehensive 41-10 win over the Chiefs at Eden Park last night, to easily win the Super Rugby Pacific 2024 Championship.
 
On the night, Akira Ioane, Hoskins Sotutu, Patrick Tuilpulotu, Harry Plummer and Caleb Clarke played themselves back into Razor’s first All Blacks squad.
 
Meanwhile at the Monaco 7s quarter-finals to qualify for the Paris Olympics rugby 7s – Samoa women are out, so: China v Paraguay, Uganda v Czechia, Kenya v Argentina and Poland v Hong Kong.
 
In the Men’s comp: South Africa v Uganda, Canada v Chile, Great Britain v Tonga and Spain v Hong Kong.
 
In rugby league: The Rabbitohs secured a crucial 16-0 win, in a scrappy clash against the Sea Eagles at Accor Stadium in Sydney last night to record four wins in-a-row.
 
Keaon Kolomatangi continues to impress, scoring in the closing stages of the clash, grounding a Damien Cook kick.

While Anthony Seibold’s Manly Seas Eagles had no joy versus the Rabbitohs, it was a special night for Fiji international Caleb Navale who made his NRL debut.

His Father, Eparama Navale played NRL for the Parramatta Eels in 1997-1998 and in the RLWC 2000 for the Fiji Bati.

And in football - the latest EURO 2024 results: Netherlands 0-0 France, Georgia 1-0 Czech Republic in Hamburg, Turkey 0-3 Portugal in Dortmund and Belgium 2-0 Romania in Cologne.
 
Tomorrow: Switzerland vs Germany in Frankfurt at 8pm GMT and Scotland vs Hungary in Stuttgart at 8pm GMT.
 
In Super Netball: During the week, Queensland Firebirds interim Coach, Katie Walker promised fans four wins from four games to end their troubled Super Netball season.
 
Walker is their third Coach in just three rounds, with one who lasted just one week before resigning.
In incredible scenes, Walker delivered on part one of that promise with the Firebirds heroic 78-70 win over West Coast Fever.

Goal shooter and MVP Donnell Wallam’s class under the post saw her leading the charge - her incredible long range shooting netting 57/67 goals, including nine super-shots, which lifted her teammates to new heights.

And the Adelaide Thunderbirds continued their hot run, demolishing the Melbourne Mavericks 41-67 in their biggest win of the season, to remain undefeated on their home court and rise to second on the Super Netball ladder.
 
In SportsBiz: Today’s media landscape is as uncertain as ever. Only one thing is constant: The number of customers who pay for TV access continues to decline big time.
 
Viewers some US TV companies lost between January and March 2024:
· Comcast @ 487,000
· Spectrum @ 405,000
· Dish TV @ 348,000
· YouTube TV @ 150,000

Resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in monthly fees lost to the pay-TV business. 

Meanwhile, media companies continue to shell out billions of dollars for live sports. Recent sports media-rights deals and the percentage increases of their annual average values:
·       French Tennis Open @ US$65Million, up 435%
·       US College Football Play-offs @ US$1.3Billion, up 115%
·       NASCAR @ $1.1Billion, up 40%
·       NBA reported @ US$6.9Billion, up 155%

The NFL’s US$110Billion media contracts run through 2033, but the league can opt out at the end of this decade.

In the NBA: The Lakers are taking a big gamble with their new Head Coach, signing a four-year deal with JJ Redick last Thursday, according to ESPN.

The co-host of the “Mind the Game” podcast with Lakers star LeBron James, will make roughly US$8Million per season, according to The Athletic.

Redick has no coaching experience, most recently was an analyst for ESPN and called the NBA Finals.

Lakers General Manager Rob Pelinka offered Redick the job on Thursday after being sold on his “ability to connect with players and his basketball IQ,” according to ESPN.

Which basically means, that LeBron gave the Lakers the green light to sign JJ!

And that’s a wrap peeps!
 
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Mahalo and Ka kite; for TEIVOVOdigital.com, I’m Culden Kamea tanking you all too mass for all your love and support.
 
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