04/02/19: CBS saddles up PBR extension

Good morning. It’s Tuesday April 2, 2019 and this is your first early morning Sports briefing.

CBS Sports is up for another ride with Professional Bull Riders, announcing a long-term rights extension that keeps CBS Sports as the exclusive television home of PBR through 2028. The new agreement also ups the number of PBR broadcast hours on the CBS Television Network on a yearly basis, adding additional broadcast hours during the 2019 season and then televising nearly 20 broadcast hours of programming each subsequent year over the course of the agreement. Broadcast coverage features multiple PBR Majors awarding riders more points and earnings –Monster Energy Bucking Battle, Iron Cowboy and Jack Daniel’s Music City Knockout – and other key events from the PBR circuit, including the Global Cup.

Meanwhile, CBS Sports Network will continue its season-long coverage, airing 28 events including all four Majors – with live coverage of Last Cowboy Standing – and more than 85 hours each year, opening the season at Madison Square Garden in January and closing it in Las Vegas with the PBR World Finals each November.

PROGRAMMING

CBS Sports and Turner Sports’ coverage of the 2019 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship is now tied for the third-highest rating through the Regional Finals in 26 years, pulling a 6.7/15 household rating for an 8% markup over last year, based on Nielsen metered market delivery. This weekend’s Regional Finals across TBS and CBS (7.2/15) generated the second highest-rating for the Elite Eight since 2011, with increases across all four game windows as Sunday’s Michigan State/Duke game (10.5/21) produced the highest metered market delivery for the game window in 14 years, up 4% vs. 2018 and Sunday’s Auburn/Kentucky (+15%) and Saturday’s Virginia/Purdue (+14%) and Texas Tech/Gonzaga (+2%) telecasts all showed lifts vs. last year’s comparable coverage.

National Football League official John Parry, who served as head referee for Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta in February, signed on to team ESPN where he will serve as an Officiating Analyst. He will contribute to weekly Monday Night Football telecasts from the booth and offer analysis on ESPN’s NFL studio shows, SportsCenter and more.

MLB Network Showcase begins its 2019 schedule with Bryce Harper’s return to D.C. as the Phillies visit the Nationals at 7p tonight, called by Bob Costas, John Smoltz, and Tom Verducci. Leading up to the telecast, MLB Network’s Fran Charles and Bill Ripken will report live from Nationals Park across MLB Network’s studio programming, including MLB Central, The Rundown, MLB Now and MLB Tonight. Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo will also host High Heat with Christopher Russo live from Nationals Park at 1p, followed by Mad Dog Unleashed on SiriusXM Mad Dog Sports Radio from 3:00-6:00 p.m. ET. After the game, MLB Tonight will air live with Greg Amsinger, Harold Reynolds and Pedro Martinez in-studio. The new season saw MLB Network and MLB Network Strike Zone launch on Sling TV on its “Sports Extra” add-on service.

Speaking of baseball, TeamWorks Media announced the launch of La Vida Baseball Live, a daily four-hour show produced and formatted for every major social media platform – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram Live, YouTube and LaVidaBaseball.com. The show soft-launched on February 17 and in its first Beta month with no promotion reached an audience of more than 250,000, with more than 25% of the views occurring after the show ended.

Westwood One is set to present comprehensive coverage of the NCAA Final Four, live from U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. Westwood One’s coverage of the 2019 NCAA Final Four tips off Saturday with The Final Four Show at 3:30p. New this year will see fans gain access to live game audio and play-by-play highlights via Google Assistant-enabled devices

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

RESULTS ARE IN!

Announcing Winners of the Cynopsis Social Good Awards

We’re thrilled to announce Winners and Honorable Mentions for the 5th Annual Cynopsis Social Good Awards, spotlighting the companies, programming, campaigns and people that are using media in innovative ways to help make the world a better place. Take a look at the projects, partnerships and people who utilized their position to make real change happen.

VIEW WINNERS & HONORABLE MENTIONS

SPONSORSHIP & PROMOTION

Major League Baseball announced the return and expansion of MLB FoodFest Presented by Budweiser. After selling out its tasteful debut in New York during the spring of 2018 in 48 hours, MLB has expanded FoodFest to three locations across the globe in 2019: Los Angeles, New York and London. The new edition of MLB FoodFest hits downtown LA from April 26-28 at Magic Box. New York and London will host the much anticipated event in the second half of the season. All 30 Clubs designated one concession item to represent them with this year’s menu, including the Mariners Toasted Grasshoppers and the D-Backs Churro Dogs.

Meanwhile, Minor League Baseball, in conjunction with Brand Activation Maximizer, revealed the launch of the largest retail program in its history. The “Grilling All-Stars” national retail program will encompass five national brands and activated at select retailers in more than 100 MiLB markets and over 13,000 locations across the country. Brands include: BUSH’S Beans, Scott Bath Tissue, Scott Paper Towels, Ball Park Buns and The ORIGINAL Louisiana Brand Hot Sauce.

Bracketology is back for the NHL with the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs Bracket Challenge presented by Jägermeister, where fans worldwide can share their predictions and face off for the chance to win the grand prize of $100,000. Brackets will be locked at 6:59p on April 10.

DIGITAL, DATA & TECH

AEG named Spectrum, the branded suite of advanced broadband services from Charter Communications, Inc., a key partner across AEG’s major assets in its global portfolio. The comprehensive agreement, brokered by AEG Global Partnerships, designates Spectrum as a Founding Partner, a premium designation, of STAPLES Center and Dignity Health Sports Park. Spectrum will also be the official cable, internet, home phone, and mobile phone wireless services partner of STAPLES Center, Dignity Health Sports Park, LA Kings, LA Galaxy and L.A. LIVE.

Sports gaming platform Money Knife Fight unveiled the debut of hundreds of daily prop contests for every MLB game. The platform launched with last fall’s NFL season, and has already registered more than 10 million entries on football, basketball, hockey, and golf contests, with projections to top more than $100 million in gaming through the upcoming baseball season.

March Madness continues to dominate Tunity Analytics’ weekly list of Top 10 out-of-home sports programs. CBS and TBS split the list each with five entries, all games except for one: TBS’ Inside March Madness post-game wrap-up show on March 30. This week’s top entry, Michigan State/Duke on March 31, delivered more than 1.8 million more OOH viewers than last week’s number one game, UCF vs. Duke (4.08m).

Show/Network/Date (000’s)

NCAAB – Michigan State/Duke on CBS on March 31 (5912)
NCAAB – Auburn/Kentucky on CBS on March 31 (4543)
NCAAB – Texas Tech/Gonzaga on TBS on March 30 (3099)
NCAAB – Virginia Tech/Duke on CBS on March 29 (2731)
NCAAB Purdue/Virginia on TBS on March 30 (2726)

Source: Tunity Analytics. Viewing estimates are derived from Tunity mobile app usage for the week of March 25, 2019. OOH Viewer impressions are calculated using Tunity Analytics proprietary estimation model.

ESPORTS

The NBA 2K League announced plans to kickstart The Tipoff powered by AT&T and the start of season two with celebrations that include the Knicks Gaming Championship Ring Ceremony (April 2), a live music performance by rock band X Ambassadors (April 3), as well as guest commentary by Ronnie 2K and comedian Sarah Tiana during the live Twitch broadcast. All games and celebrations during THE TIPOFF will take place from the NBA 2K League Studio Powered by Intel in Long Island City, New York, and will be livestreamed on the league’s Twitch channel. Fans can register to attend THE TIPOFF by visiting NBA2KLeague.com.

The World Showdown of Esports locked in Team Serenity to defend their Dota 2 championship at WSOE 6: Dota 2 – Serenity’s Destiny. Competition will take place from April 13-14 live from the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, with a preshow at 9:30a. The event will showcase the WSOE’s unique “fight card” format. Day one will feature four “challengers” from around the world, including J.Storm, Infamous Gaming, GGNGG, and Team Team, competing for the opportunity to dethrone Team Serenity as WSOE Dota 2 champion. On day two, Team Serenity and the top challenger will battle in a final best-of-five Championship Match.

Porsche is expanding its one-make motorsport series in a move that will now add a virtual world championship, known as the Porsche Esports Supercup. Competition will feature 40 sim racers, who have successfully made their way through the global qualifying process and will compete in slate of ten online races, starting April 13 on the virtual version of the Barber Motorsport Park in Alabama. The final race will take place on Sept. 28 at the Circuit Monza, Italy, with the championship offering a $100,000 prize pool.

INDUSTRY/ROSTER MOVES

Major League Lacrosse announced structural changes that includes the league no longer operating the Ohio Machine, the Florida Launch or the Charlotte Hounds in 2019 (although the Hounds will return in 2021 under new ownership). The league stated that the moves were made to “focus on expansion in strategic markets and has reacquired its media rights in an effort to seek a broadcast partner with broader reach for its fans, players and sponsors” with the goal of establishing Eastern and Western conferences. The league also reacquired all linear, digital and social broadcast media rights to air MLL games and will explore broadcast options with broader distribution.

The Professional Fighters League named Steven Gray as vice president of global partnerships. Gray. He worked for the UFC as director of integrated marketing partnerships from 2015 until 2018 and joins from Relevant Sports, where he served as vice president, global marketing partnerships for the International Champions Cup.

The XFL named Jordan Schlachter, most recently Chief Marketing Officer of the National Basketball Players Association and President of its marketing and revenue arm, THINK 450, as Chief Marketing and Commercial Officer. In addition, Derek Throneburg, most recently Vice President of Customer Insight and Engagement for Pacers Sports & Entertainment, joins the league as Senior Vice President of Team Business Operations.

THE MAIN EVENT

Bruins/Blue Jackets on NBCSN at 7p.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

Here’s to Top Women in Media.

May we know them.

May we be them.

May we NOMINATE them.

You don’t have to be a woman to recognize the

extraordinary women moving the industry forward.

NOMINATE YOUR COLLEAGUE TODAY

Nominations are due April 16. Honorees will be celebrated at the

Cynopsis Top Women in Media Awards August 7th in NYC.

ON THIS DAY in 1931: A teenage Jackie Mitchell strikes out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig back-to-back in an exhibition game.

In the Know: Which MLB player holds the record for consecutive seasons hitting 20 HRs or more, reaching 20 in a row? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company and city.)

Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question: Which baseball player holds the record for most career grand slams? Answer: Alex Rodriguez. Kudos: John Ferlazzo/London; Tom Buffolano-LTN Global/NY; Andrew Feingold-Fox News/NY; Matt Meachem-Gracenote/NY; Aymon DeMauro-ADM Media & Marketing/NY; Randy Ingram-WISH/WNDY-TV/Indianapolis; Rick Rosenfelt-New York Red Bulls/Harrison; Scott Running-Stafford Motor Speedway/Stafford Springs; Andy Pittman-TAMU/College Station; Rich Wolfe-RichCraft/Scottsdale; David Westberg-SAG-AFTRA Federal Credit Union/Burbank; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA

Later — Chris

Chris Pursell @VegasandVine
Kerry Smith Division President Access Intelligence Roberta Caploe Publisher @robertacaploe	Cynopsis Ad Sales Mike Farina 203-218-6480 Albert Nassour 917-545-3129	Cynopsis Job Listings Sales Trish Pihonak 203-899-8459 Director of Operations

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