03/26/18: Miller and Miles talk terms

Good morning. It’s Monday March 26, 2018 and this is your first early morning Sports briefing.

After announcing a deal for the entire IndyCar package last week, in which NBC Sports would carry the full season for the first time starting in 2019, Mark Miles, President and CEO, Hulman & Company and Jon Miller, President, Programming, NBC Sports & NBCSN, met with the press to break down expectations for the deal. Under the agreement, eight IndyCar races would be carried on NBC next season, up from five that ABC had been showing, with the rest of the races slated for NBC Sports Network, in addition to other content. In lieu of our weekly Q&A, here are some key quotes from the press conference.

Miller on IndyCar: From the NBC perspective, we’ve seen the growth of IndyCar on our cable network NBCSN. We’ve had sustained growth each of the past several years. So the opportunity to have the entire series was very important to us. Of course, to be able to do the crown jewel, the Indy 500 on NBC, really puts the icing on the cake for us and makes our championship season portfolio even stronger.

On the timing of the Indy 500: It’s perfect. It falls right at the end of May. We start our Championship Season with the Kentucky Derby and THE PLAYERS Championship, although by ’19 THE PLAYERS Championship will have moved out. This becomes an ideal opportunity for us to go from the Triple Crown, the championship season in the Premier League, the Stanley Cup Finals, the Indianapolis 500, the French Open, and all the way through the Tour de France and The Open Championship in golf.

On preventing overlap with NASCAR: I think the idea that IndyCar fans wouldn’t watch NASCAR or NASCAR fans wouldn’t enjoy IndyCar is wrong. I think that people like speed, they like motorsports, they like the individual stories that come out of the athletes that are in the cars. I think we’ll be able to grow our fan base accordingly.

I think it is something that we will look at, and strategically when we set up the schedule for 2019, we will do it with an eye towards not competing with our other motorsports properties.

Miles on the partnership: We’re delighted be every aspect of this announcement today and these arrangements. The increase in broadcast, the number of races on broadcast, is really important to the continued growth of the series. The continuity with one media partner who is committed to the sport and to IndyCar, who can help promote from race to race to race throughout the season is important. Having our product, if you will, our first offering to fans in the direct-to-consumer channel is important to us.

On how the package will help sponsorship: At the more micro or operating level, I think we have a great opportunity with NBC to really integrate our approach to the market and to sales. I think there will be companies that are prospective series sponsors that NBC has great relationships with. We ought to be able to go to them with an integrated package of both advertising and series sponsorship. And conversely, perhaps there are companies we’re talking to already that we’d really like to see invest in NBC and its programming, as well as being considered for title sponsorship.

ON THE AIR

Turner Sports and CBS Sports locked in their Final Four plans as the 2018 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship wraps up play starting on Saturday. The Semifinals will tip off at 6p on TBS, followed by Kansas/Villanova. Jim Nantz, Grant Hill and Bill Raftery will call the games for the fourth straight year with reporter Tracy Wolfson. Coverage tips off with At the Final Four presented by Infiniti at 3p. Additionally, TNT and truTV will provide TeamCast presentations – independently produced, team-specific coverage for both games. For the first game, the Michigan TeamCast will be featured on TNT and the Loyola (IL) TeamCast will air on truTV. The second game will feature the Kansas TeamCast on TNT, with the Villanova TeamCast on truTV.

AT&T is adding live 4K HDR broadcasts of the 2018 Masters to its DIRECTV 4K channel lineup. The company will team up with CBS Sports for coverage, with live 4K HDR programming from Amen Corner (Holes 11, 12, 13) as well as from Holes 15 and 16. Overall, DirecTV will serve up more than 50 hours of Masters coverage in the format via Channels 105 and 106.

Meanwhile, Golf Channel reports that NBC Sports’ coverage of the 2018 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play on Saturday drew a 1.69 overnight Nielsen number on NBC, up 16% over the equivalent in 2017, with 3.6 million minutes streamed, up 88% over 2017. Day 3 action handed Golf Channel with a .51 score, up 50%, with 3.09 million minutes streamed.

The clock’s ticking! Cynopsis Sports hosts the sixth annual Sports Awards program on April 12 – honoring the top sports programs, campaigns and people. Among the finalists are AT&T, Big Ten Network, CBS Sports, DraftKings, El Rey Network, ESPN, FOX Sports, GMR Marketing, Golf Channel, Houston Astros, InStadium, Intersport, Lagardère Sports, LeadDog Marketing Group, MSG, Mandt Media, MELT, MLB Network, MSG, NASCAR, National Lacrosse League, NBA, NBC Sports Group, NY Jets, NFL Media, OMNIGON, Optimum Sports, Pac-12 Networks, Paramount Network, Philadelphia 76ers, Red Bull, Riot Games, Showtime Networks, SiriusXM, Stadium, The Atlantic, The Players’ Tribune, Time Inc., Troika, Turner Sports, USOC, Univision Communications, Uproxx Media Group, Viacom, Whistle Sports, WorldGaming, WWE, YES Network and more. Congratulations to our finalists and be sure to get your tickets here before the event sells out.

MLB Network unveiled its live game schedule to start the 2018 MLB season, lining up at least one live game every day from March 30 – April 30.The 48-game slate debuts with Yankees/Blue Jays on Friday at 7p with Bob Costas, Jim Kaat and Tom Verducci on microphone duties.

Speaking of baseball, ESPN announced that World Series Champion Manager John Farrell will join Baseball Tonight as a studio analyst, starting Wednesday with Baseball Tonight – 2018 Season Preview at midnight on ESPN2. Farrell will make regular appearances on Baseball Tonight: Sunday Night Countdown during the 2018 season.

ESPN laid out programming plans for the 2018 Special Olympics USA Games, starting July 1 with live coverage of the Opening Ceremony at 3:30p with programming airing primarily on ESPN2 while the Opening Ceremony and highlights from the Closing Ceremony air on ABC. ESPN’s Kevin Negandhi will serve as host for both the Opening Ceremony and ESPN’s nightly studio shows throughout the Special Olympics USA Games. ESPN’s evening studio programs will see Negandhi hosting from various venues and iconic locations around Seattle.

JUMA Entertainment and the Atlanta Tipoff Club are teaming up to create a one-hour documentary examining the history of college basketball’s Naismith Trophy, The “Naismith 50 Celebration” presented by Werner Ladder is narrated by John Malkovich and will air on April 1 at 5p on CBS.

The Council of CONMEBOL awarded the contract for the consultancy and commercialization of Copa America 2019 to MP & Silva, who will be responsible for the consulting, sales and after-sales services of the Copa America Brazil 2019.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

Results are in for the Cynopsis Short Form Video Awards!

The inaugural conference took place on Wednesday, honoring outstanding work in the field, as well as offering insights and intel during panels with creators and buyers of this emerging format. After a noisy networking break, we got down to the task of honoring the best in the business. Our guest presenters kept things moving, naming the top three finalists in each category, including the winning entry.

Click here to view winners!

SPONSORSHIP & PROMOTION

NASCAR and PNC Bank inked a five-year agreement that makes the company the “Official Bank of NASCAR” and “Official Wealth Management Partner of NASCAR.” The deal gives PNC exclusive status and promotional rights around retail, corporate and private banking across the country and US military bases abroad. PNC will be present at key NASCAR races throughout each season and offer its services to the industry, providing valuable insights to drivers, teams, tracks and sponsors.

In other NASCAR news, Axalta and Hendrick Motorsports extended their partnership with a four-year contract extension that runs through 2022. The global coatings company will serve as a 25-race primary sponsor from 2018-2022, sponsoring Alex Bowman for 15 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races in 2018 and 12 races in 2019, and William Byron for 10 races in 2018 and 13 races in 2019.

DIGITAL & STREAMING

Formula One is partnering with Netflix to produce a docu-series spotlighting the 2018 season. According to Variety, Netflix will have access to drivers, team bosses and F1’s management team for the 10-episode run, which will be released in early 2019.

The NBA is reportedly testing out a service that would allow fans to watch a game’s fourth quarter live stream for 99 cents from its streaming app as fans reported receiving the offer to see the end of the Heat/Thunder game, according to The Verge. The league hasn’t formally announced the service yet.

ESPN brings back ESPN Fantasy Baseball for the 2018 season with three formats to play – in addition to news and other fantasy coverage – traditional rotisserie, head-to-head roto and head-to-head points. Content will be anchored by Daily Notes, which provide player rankings for pitching and hitting, as well as information for setting a lineup every day of the season and will now add daily “X-Factors” generated by Derek Carty’s THE BAT projection system, which highlights potential difference-making factors such as weather, ballpark dimensions and umpire assignments.

ESPORTS

Dreamhack is renewing vows with Twitch in a multi-year deal. The relationship dates back to Twitch’s previous incarnation as Justin.tv and fans will be able to tune into Twitch to watch all of DreamHack’s premium esports content live, including DreamHack Open, CORSAIR DreamLeague, CORSAIR DreamHack Masters and DreamHack Fighting Game Championships. The content agreement also includes live coverage in 13 languages and Twitch will be the Head Partner for four of DreamHack’s festivals: DreamHack Tours, DreamHack Austin, DreamHack Montreal and DreamHack Atlanta. Twitch will also continue to host the popular Twitch Player lounge and the Twitch After-Party at DreamHack events each year.

The French Tennis Federation will try to jump into the esports pool via a new series backed by BNP Paribas. The news comes as part of the sponsorship renewal and will see the Roland-Garros e-series by BNP Paribas .launch in April, with competitions to be staged in France, the UK, Belgium, Italy, Germany, China, India and Brazil using a version of the Tennis World Tour video game, which will be officially released in May. The winners from each country will progress to a championship final taking place on May 25 during the French Open.

THE MAIN EVENT

NASCAR’s STP 500 looks for a green flag today at 2p on FS1.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

Congratulations to the 7^th Annual Sports Media Awards Finalists

Get Tickets Before Prices Increase!

Thursday, April 12 | 8:30am – 10:30am | NYAC, NYC

With only three weeks left until the event, be sure to register your team (before prices increase on 3/29) to attend the awards breakfast for team photos, celebratory toasts and networking opportunities. Parties with tables of ten* will have priority seating at the front of the room, and will have ensured seats together. This event sells out EVERY year. Don’t wait!

ON THIS DAY in 1973: UCLA wins its seventh straight NCAA men’s basketball title.

In the Know: The legendary Jerry Tarkanian once coached which NBA team for a grand total of 20 games? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company and city.)

Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question: The Phillies retired #20 in honor of which player? Answer: Mike Schmidt. Kudos: Pete Gautieri-A&E/NY; Bob Dudelson-Leverage Agency/NY; Denis Barry-CBS/NY; Art Salisch-Hearst Television/NY; Joe Schreiber-3 Penny Films/Bethesda; Willy Gibson-WTG Sports/Columbus; Chris Schwartz-ISC/Charlotte; Randy Ingram-WISH/WNDY-TV/Indianapolis; John Ward-Tennis.com/Chicago; Tom Doherty-Starcom Media/Chicago; Mark Stulberger-Stully’s Broadcasting School/Houston; Lance Phegley-Texas Runner and Triathlete magazine/Houston; David Hauptman/Denver; Jack Neumann-University of Calgary Dinos 5th Quarter Alumni Development/Calgary; Greg Moloznik-GLM Media/Scottsdale; Lorrie Shilling/El Segundo; Anne Wettig-Fox Cable Networks S&P/LA; Jaymz Wooden-Bottelsen American Dart Lines/Santa Maria; John Baghdassarian-Olympusat/LA

Later – Chris

Chris Pursell @VegasandVine
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