04/01/19: Home Team Sports comes out swinging

Good morning. It’s Monday April 1, 2019 and this is your first early morning Sports briefing.

Baseball is back and Home Team Sports is once again serving up partnership opportunities with RSNs throughout the country, with the sales unit of FOX Sports offering advertisers “build-your-own”, scalable branding opportunities for TV, mobile, and digital media sponsorships for all MLB home teams in the U.S., reaching every DMA across the country. Cynopsis Sports asked Craig Sloan, EVP at Home Team Sports, about the marketplace as MLB gets underway, discussing new brands entering the scene as well as the future of the RSN industry.

Sloan on 2018: Thankfully, the 2018 MLB season had so many tremendous story-lines with high-profile young stars leading the way to another hotly contested September playoff push. While it was a successful campaign, we added to our Insights team in staffing size and depth of information to allow us to relay an unprecedented story of engagement and scale with a series of proprietary research studies.

On momentum: We made a concerted effort this off-season to secure 85% or more of our sponsor targets before Opening Day. We’ve overachieved our goals with all top 25 partners from last season returning and a host of new sponsors coming aboard including TruGreen, Google, and Door Dash. We expect strong ratings across the country as interest is piquing with some major stars moving markets like Harper and Machado as well the most marketable players in the game all under 30 years old (Trout, Judge, Bryant, Arenado, Yelich, Acura, and Betts).

On trends: There is a clear recognition from the client and agency world that the TV landscape is setting up into a VOD and Live marketplace. We have more brands, locally and nationally, leaning into our home team model because it provides live, large audience with unique reach and industry high unaided recall. Brands are enthused by our short pod breaks where 90% of our in-game breaks are 2 minutes or less— often with only 3 advertisers.

On new categories and clients: We have had a significant uptick in partners from the financial services / banking category, including our new Opening Week partner, TD Ameritrade. We have provided TD Ameritrade with an elevated presence on-air as well as created multiple pieces of custom short-form content that will appear across all of our platforms. And we are seeing even more interest from the highly competitive wireless/telecom and QSR categories. Overall, we have managed to create a very balanced advertising sponsor portfolio with a mix of season long participants like MillerCoors, TMobile, and Taco Bell— while others that are taking strong positions for key distinct periods from April through September like Scotts, Apple, and Amazon.

On the future: Every year, with our consistent delivery and the decline of available prime-time GRPs, our content becomes a larger and larger percentage of the available key A18-49 demographic impressions. Fans will again spend more minutes watching home team baseball this summer than any other program on television. The home team model remains immune to many of the challenges facing many other sectors of the linear landscape. Simply stated, as examples, nothing will get between a Yankees fan in NY, a Red Sox fan in Boston, or an Cardinals fan in St. Louis. Because of those factors, we see brands evolving, or growing, by getting further into our in-market streaming, highlights, and social/mobile platforms to extend their reach to these passionate fans. Our fans have an insatiable appetite for content around their beloved players and teams and we’re serving up more ways for a brand to join that intersection each and every year.

PROGRAMMING

The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament continues to deliver upticks in audiences for CBS and Turner Sports. Friday’s regional semifinal action saw a 27% lift in metered market rating, hitting an 8.5/17. Tournament to date, through Friday, sees the event average a 6.6/15 to tie for the second highest in 29 years. NCAA March Madness Live set all-time daily records in live streams and live hours of consumption, with both up more than 50% over last year’s same day.

Meanwhile, Turner and CBS laid out tip times for the Final Four National Semifinals on April 6 on CBS, with Auburn/Virginia tipping off at 6:09p, followed by Texas Tech/Michigan State. Jim Nantz, Grant Hill and Bill Raftery will call the games with reporter Tracy Wolfson for the fifth consecutive year. Saturday’s live, on-site pregame coverage will begin with At the Final Four presented by Infiniti at 3p, followed by The Final Four Show from 4-6p.

MLB is pulling back on its broadcasts on Facebook, announcing that the platform will stream six non-exclusive games on Watch, with one per month. Last year’s, by comparison, saw 25 games on the platform. MLB Network will produce dedicated Watch broadcasts with interactive and social elements.

Carson Daly joins David Feherty on Feherty tonight at 9p on Golf Channel. Filmed last month in Santa Monica, Calif., the two discuss several subjects, including: Daly’s bond with his step-father, and how it led him to golf; his ties to Riviera Country Club, and summers spent caddying there, and more.

The Canadian Women’s Hockey League announced plans to shut down as of May 1. “While the on-ice hockey is exceptional, the business model has proven to be economically unsustainable,” the league wrote in a release. Meanwhile, NWHL Founder & Commissioner Dani Rylan stated that the company had meetings in January to unite into one league, but told fans that “The NWHL wants to assure the players, fans, staff and supporters that our season is confirmed to start in October. As we have since our first season in 2015, we remain committed to building the value of women’s professional hockey players – not just in the U.S., but around the world.”

Asia’s top MMA promotion, ONE Championship, has reportedly held discussions to stage a live event in the US, in addition to opening an office stateside in June. Promotion founder and CEO Chatri Sityodtong told SportsPro that “We have had discussions at the highest level in terms of throwing events in America. We still just haven’t committed but I think there is a strong possibility that we will have an event in the US.”

The United States Auto Club and FloSports unveiled an expanded partnership to provide live and on-demand coverage of additional USAC Racing events exclusively on FloRacing.com. This five-year deal nearly doubles the amount of USAC events on FloRacing adding live events from the series’ western divisions, including the CRA Sprint Cars, Western States Midgets and Southwest Sprint Cars, and more.

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SPONSORSHIP & PROMOTION

UFC detailed plans for the 8th Annual UFC International Fight Week, taking place in Las Vegas from July 3-7 and anchored by UFC 239, as well as the 2019 UFC Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, and a two-day, interactive UFC Fan Experience. The free two-day UFC Fan Experience will feature meet and greets, autograph sessions, and partner activations that provide unprecedented access to UFC champions, top-ranked contenders, Hall of Famers, and other UFC personalities.

The NHL and the National Hockey League Players’ Association joined Kraft Heinz to announce Calumet Colosseum in Calumet, Michigan as the winner of Kraft Hockeyville USA 2019. Calumet Colosseum will have the opportunity to host an NHL Pre-Season Game, will be awarded $150,000 in rink upgrades and will receive $10,000 worth of new equipment from the NHLPA Goals & Dreams fund. “Community support is pivotal in this competition and Calumet Colosseum showed the passion and determination of a true champion,” said Magen Hanrahan, vice president of media and marketing services at Kraft Heinz. “Calumet Colosseum is an inspiration to local hockey communities across America, and we’re excited to celebrate with them later this year.”

DIGITAL, DATA & TECH

NBCUniversal launched a “first-of-its-kind” content commerce platform with Golf Channel titled “Shop with GOLF.” The new e-commerce venture will look to offer shoppers with a new way to engage with their brands, shows, personalities, players, and network. The site launches with a selection of 30 brands, such as Linksoul, J. Lindeberg, Foray Golf, Criquet, and Rhone, as well as Bill Murray’s golf lifestyle brand, William Murray Golf, which also provides entertaining video content. Additional brands will also be joining the site over the course of its first month, including EleVen by Venus Williams. “We’re taking the next step in reimagining the commercial experience by reimagining the commerce experience. Our new Shop with GOLF platform combines the power of premium content and digital commerce to create a first-of-its-kind opportunity,” said Josh Feldman, Executive Vice President, Head of Marketing and Advertising Creative, NBCUniversal. “On this platform, golf fans can engage with their favorite content and brands like never before, while companies can reach their consumers at scale and drive impact.”

ESPORTS

ESPN debuted a weekly program, CEC: Countdown on Friday, leading into the first-ever ESPN Collegiate Esports Championship. The program will air on ESPN Esports’ Twitch, YouTube and Twitter as well as ESPN3 and will rotate hosts weekly. Week one featured Goldenboy and LeTigress on microphone duties.

Riot Games inked home and kitchen appliance brand Beko to serve as the newest partner for the League of Legends European Championship, where they will serve as the official domestic appliances supplier for the Spring Split and upcoming Summer Split. Activation will see the two orgs team up to create exclusive content designed to promote healthy eating.

Ubisoft announced plans for year two of the Rainbow Six US Nationals. The season begins April 6. The company posted that this year’s total prize pool has been raised to $156,000, with the winning team earning the title of Team USA 2019. Doubling down in 2019, the R6USN will have two broadcast days per week, highlighting the top four teams from each Conference. Western Conference teams will compete live on broadcast Tuesday evenings. The Eastern Conference teams will compete on Thursdays. Towards the end of the stage, the top four teams will play in a semifinal and final round, determining who will move on to the R6USN Finals in December.

The Boston Uprising announced today the bracket for the preliminary rounds of the Spring Collegiate Cup taking place online on April 6. The field features 11 teams from nine local New England schools including Becker College, Boston University, Champlain College, Emerson College, University of Massachusetts Amherst, New England College, Northeastern University, University of Rhode Island and Stonehill College.

INDUSTRY/ROSTER MOVES

FOX Sports announced that Dan Donnelly has been named Senior Vice President, Ad Sales Marketing. Donnelly will oversee the Sports Marketing division, creating opportunities for brands to be represented across all FOX Sports properties.

The XFL named Erik A. Moses, most recently Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Sports, Entertainment & Special Events for Events DC, as President of the XFL football team in DC. The DC XFL team will first take the field in February 2020 for its inaugural season and play its home games at Audi Field.

Eric Burak was tapped as Executive Producer at The Famous Group. Burak was previously Vice President, Digital at Bellator MMA and will now oversee current projects and develop new business while reporting to Executive Vice President, Andrew Isaacson.

THE MAIN EVENT

Cubs/Braves on ESPN at 7p.

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ON THIS DAY in 1972: MLB players go on strike.

In the Know: Which baseball player holds the record for most career grand slams? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company and city.)

Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question: College football is king, even around March Madness. Gonzaga has the chance to be just the third NCAA Men’s Basketball Champion from a school that does not have football. Who was the last one? Answer: Marquette. Kudos: Michael Dittelman/NY; Michael Ritz-Northwestern Mutual/NY; Michael G. Hawkins-Francis Marion University/Florence; Wayne “World B.” Otto-Pro-Am Sports/Boone; Andy Pittman-TAMU/College Station; Kathryn Kieser-Haworth Marketing and Media/Minneapolis; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA

Later — Chris

Chris Pursell @VegasandVine
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