CBS Sports and Turner Sports’ coverage of Monday night’s NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball National Championship, which saw Kansas edging North Carolina 72-69, with the biggest halftime comeback in championship game history made history as the most-viewed NCAA Men’s Championship Game in cable history. Running across TBS, TNT and truTV, the contest delivered an average of 18.1 million viewers, based on total audience delivery, an increase of 4% over last year’s national championship. The 2022 NCAA Men’s Tournament airing across all networks averaged 10.7 million total viewers and a 17.0 share for its 67 live game telecasts, both up 13% over last year. The 17.0 share is the best for the entire NCAA Men’s Tournament since 1994.

In addition, Kansas/UNC netted a peak of 1.6 million concurrent streams, breaking the previous record set just two days prior during the Duke/UNC showdown. This year’s NCAA Men’s Tournament generated the most live uniques for any full tournament in MML history, a 12% increase over the previous record year set in 2019.

PROGRAMMING

South Carolina claim to the 2022 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship saw the matchup against UConn bring in 4.85 million viewers on Sunday night to become the most-watched women’s title game since 2004, up 18% year-over-year. In addition, the 2022 NCAA Women’s Final Four is the most-watched Final Four weekend since 2012, averaging 3.46 million viewers, up 20 percent from 2021. “ESPN’s commitment to women’s basketball has never been stronger and this year’s viewership numbers are a clear indication of the growing popularity of the sport and the NCAA Women’s Tournament,” said Nick Dawson, ESPN vice president of programming and acquisitions.

Elsewhere in viewership numbers, FOX Sports saw Sunday’s NASCAR race from Richmond run up 3.958 million viewers, up 27% over last year’s equivalent event, according to Nielsen. The average minute audience streaming the race hit 31,752. FOX’s NASCAR viewership for the NASCAR Cup is now up 16% for the season, averaging 4,849,000 viewers.

MLB Network is set to deliver Off Base, a new regular season afternoon program, on April 11 at 3p with Lauren Gardner hosting, joined by panelists including Hannah Keyser and Xavier Scruggs. Off Base will mark the first daily studio program MLB Network has launched since its regular season morning program MLB Central debuted in 2015. “We’re thrilled to launch a fresh show that will be different than any show that has appeared on MLB Network to this point,” said Josh Bernstein, MLB Network Vice President of Production. “We want the show to have a casual feel that resonates because the content is appealing and excites fans about the game.”

GOLF Central Live From The Masters takes on the 2022 Masters with more than 50 hours of studio coverage this week on GOLF Channel. Overall, nearly 20 GOLF Channel hosts, analysts and reporters will contribute to this week’s comprehensive studio coverage, highlighted by the Live From The Masters primetime team of host Rich Lerner and analysts Brandel Chamblee and Paul McGinley.

Learn from sport’s marketing masters. Do not miss the CMO Exchange on May 24, a virtual conference featuring the heads of marketing from the NFL, NHL, WNBA, NASCAR, UFC, MLS, ESPN, FOX Sports, NBC Sports, Sinclair, Riot Games, and many more! Top execs break down the road ahead. Be sure to get your tickets now by clicking here.

Combate Global will produce an-women’s Mixed Martial Arts fight card for the televised portion of its second event of 2022 on Friday, live from Miami on Univision at midnight. Headlining the event will be reigning World Boxing Council (WBC) Muay Thai champion Claudia Diaz, who will take on Manuela “The Butcher’s Daughter” Marconetto) in a strawweight contest.

2022 SPORTS MEDIA AWARDS
April 19th @ The NY Athletic Club

Meet the top people in the sports media community – including executives from NFL, Twitter, Crypto.com and NBC Sports —you won’t want to miss it! Join us at this exciting in-person event!

Book my seat!

SPONSORSHIP & PROMOTION

Major League Baseball revealed a slate of new and refreshed tributes to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s historic MLB debut on April 15, 1947 as he broke baseball’s color barrier. Celebrations will include the MLB-produced video “Play, Run, Win, Rise”; a special logo for this Diamond Anniversary, and players, managers and coaches will once again wear Robinson’s iconic number on April 15th, with all teams for the first time using Dodger blue “42” jersey numbers. Additionally, 42 patches with team-specific uniform colors will appear on Nike uniform sleeves and on New Era caps.

Deere & Company is tapping Ryder Cup champion Daniel Berger, for a multi-year charitable ambassador partnership that will include charitable collaborations and branding on his golf bag. John Deere and Berger will be committing $100,000 in donations to various organizations in lieu of a traditional win bonus within the terms of their agreement. Berger continues to support charities including St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, and he’ll work with John Deere to donate the allotted win bonus to charities they both support. For the first time in tournament history, the 2022 John Deere Classic will be played June 27-July 3.

The NBA Foundation tipped off its second year of grantmaking, unveiling 40 new grants totaling $11 million to organizations that are creating employment opportunities, furthering career advancement, and driving greater economic empowerment for Black youth throughout the United States and Canada. Named as part of the Foundation’s fifth grant round and the first of 2022, the grants are focused on workforce development, pathways for higher education, mentoring and entrepreneurship for Black youth.

The New York Jets are making a $1 million donation to help aid the people of Ukraine. The donation will be split between various organizations, each receiving $100,000, over the course of a year. The first organization to receive a donation is Plast Scouting – USA. “These donations will positively impact Ukrainian refugees and their families with essential supplies,” said New York Jets Chairman Robert Wood Johnson. “The need for resources is continuously growing. Our thoughts continue to be with the innocent lives who have been affected and all those who are suffering.”

New England Sports Network and Salem Five Bank secured a multiyear naming rights sponsorship for NESN’s signature studio in Watertown, which will now be named the Salem Five Studio. The partnership follows the complete redesign of the state-of-the-art facility, which occurred last year to create a fully customizable studio experience for NESN’s millions of viewers, including 4K/HDR compatibility. Salem Five will have two permanent brand fixtures within the studio space, alongside a digital ribbon on the largest LED monitor. The bank will be prominently featured in all NESN studio shows, which include pre and postgame coverage of away Boston Red Sox and Boston Bruins broadcasts and intermission coverage for Bruins away games.

Imagn, a sports and news photo wire service, announced a multi-year agreement to serve as the worldwide official photography partner of the National Women’s Soccer League. Imagn will operate as the official supplier for all commercial imagery needs for the NWSL’s sponsors and licensees with images from every match available to publishers for editorial use.

DIGITAL, DATA & TECH

The BIG3 is getting creative in its approach to team ownership, introducing a way to offer fans the chance to own a stake in the 12 teams in the BIG3 via blockchain tech. Fans will have two ownership options comprised of 1000 editions – 25 Fire priced at $25,000 each and 975 Gold priced at $5,000 each and all editions include voting rights towards team actions, gameday experiences and VIP tickets to all games. Fire editions also include exclusive intellectual property and licensing rights to team names, logos, and merchandise as well as additional gameday activations.

As part of a long-term strategic partnership that includes MLB gaining an equity stake in the company, Diamond Kinetics was named as the new “Trusted Youth Development Platform of Major League Baseball.” The partnership with MLB will place an emphasis on “making player development fun for kids by providing hitting and throwing technology that allows players to enter into a digital gamification environment where they can earn achievements, challenge themselves, compete with friends, and track improvement.”

Low6 Limited announced a relationship with LEARFIELD via SIDEARM Sports. Low6 will use its free-to-play digital gaming expertise to develop unique mobile games for collegiate athletic programs and their fans. Participating schools include NC State, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Ole Miss and Texas A&M. “We are proud to enter the college sports landscape with an established leader, and we’re delighted to already have so many reputable schools live on the Low6 platform,” said Jamie Mitchell, Low6 CEO. “Low6 technology enables rights holders to monetize their digital fanbase by leveraging our proprietary platform, increasing both the volume and value of their first-party data at a mass scale. We are excited to roll out our platform to more schools across the country, potentially seeing Low6 engage with millions of students, alumni, and college sports fans.”

ESPORTS

DreamHack and Wizards of the Coast announced a new agreement to bring Magic: The Gathering to the gaming festival. With this partnership, DreamHack will become the Official Partner of all Magic: The Gathering Regional Championship Qualifiers and Regional Championships in the United States — which will lead up to the Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour and the Magic: The Gathering World Championship. As part of the new partnership, Wizards Play Network stores will offer in-store qualifiers. These qualifying events will lead into the DreamHack Magic: The Gathering Showdown Regional Championship, featuring a prize pool of up to $150,000. From there, the top 48 players at the Regional Championships will earn an invitation to the Magic Pro Tour, with the top two players also earning automatic invitations to the Magic World Championship.

Vindex locked in a partnership with the Interactive Advertising Bureau to launch the Vindex Intelligence Platform, designed leverage the company’s data collection capability across the games content ecosystem, combined with a insights and analytics platform to equip stakeholders with “actionable measurement, growth, and engagement solutions.” Vindex and IAB will collaborate to improve transparency and reduce friction in the gaming and esports ad buying process through active workshops with brands, marketers, and video game publishers during an IAB Brand Academy, a series of classes exclusively curated for brand marketers and agency executives to help them connect with publishers, platforms, and data companies

Riot Games renewed and expanded its partnership with Getty Images to include image coverage of the League of Legends World Championships, VALORANT Champions and Wild Rift Global Icons. The two companies first partnered in 2020, when Riot Games named Getty Images the Official Photo Image Distribution Partner for League of Legends events.

Upper Deck is teaming up with the Call of Duty League to release a line of esports trading cards dedicated to the 2022 Call of Duty League season. The cards will be made available exclusively via the Upper Deck e-Pack platform. The cards themselves will showcase key moments from the 2022 season and will include the ‘Championship weekend’ which is made available for purchase for one week following each qualifier and major tournament.

The International Esports Federation is adding 12 new national Member Federations from four continents, bringing the total number of members to a record 123. Algeria, Bulgaria, Guadeloupe, Bangladesh, Palestine, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger, Somalia and Haiti were officially accepted as IESF Member Federations and will now participate in the 14th edition of the World Esports Championships this year.

INDUSTRY & ROSTER MOVES

Bob Bowlsby, who has guided the Big 12 since 2012, will “step away from the Commissioner’s chair” later this year. He will remain at the conference helm until a new commissioner is selected and then will transition to a new role in the league office. “After more than 40 years of serving in leadership roles in intercollegiate athletics, including the last 10 with the Big 12, and given the major issues that college sports in general and the Big 12 specifically will address in the next several years, I have reached a natural transition point in my tenure as Commissioner, as well as in my career,” Bowlsby said.

Sports, media and technology investment platform Aser Ventures has appointed former WME | IMG Co-President Ioris Francini as Vice Chairman.

MEASUREMENT & DATA CONFERENCE
June 7th @ Edison Ballroom, NYC

Paramount, CIMM, Crackle Plus and GroupM have joined the 2022 speaker line-up.

View the updated speaker list and full day agenda, including a networking event to end the day.

FIND OUT MORE

ON THIS DAY in
1977: The Kingdome opens.

IN THE KNOW
Who hold the record for most appearances at The Masters, clocking in 52 times? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company and city).

Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question
In which sport would you find a major event titled “Head of the Charles”? Answer: Rowing/Crew. Kudos: Jackie Mahon-Havas/NY; Phyllis McQuillan-MSG Networks/NY; Michael Ritz-Lenox Advisors/NY; Keith Marder-Brown Harris Stevens Real Estate/NY; Liz Eng-NBC Sports/Stamford; Stephanie Ann/Amherst; Mike Flanagan-Effectv/Boston; C.J. Bottitta-Big Picture Productions/Apex; Joe Lyons-ESPN/Dallas; Andy Pittman-TAMU/College Station; Kyle Krebs-CBS 42/Birmingham; Jim Seifert/Denver; Brian McAloon-Fox Sports/LA; Lorrie Shilling/El Segundo; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA

Cynopsis Team