04/05/16: Yahoo feeds the MLB fix; UConn pushes ESPN; WWE downs Divas



CYNOPSISSPORTS
04.05.16

Good morning. It’s Tuesday April 5, 2016, and this is your first early morning Sports briefing. 

Yahoo is going deeper into sports streaming, announcing that the company will offer users one MLB game every day this season. The service will be offered free on the site as part of the Free MLB Game of the Day program beginning yesterday with the Giants/Brewers and continuing today with the Mariners/Rangers. Overall, 180 games are on deck, with the streams featuring commercial breaks and live games blocked in local markets.

ON THE AIR

The NCAA Women’s Final Four handed ESPN with a 1.7 overnight score for its UConn/Oregon State matchup on Sunday. That was up 31% over last year’s first semifinal and up 6% over UConn’s 2015 semifinal game (1.6). On WatchESPN, the game scored a 70% rise in average minute audience, with a 32% spike in total unique viewers and up 59% in total minutes viewed compared to the first semifinal game in 2015. The two National Semifinal games  including Syracuse/Washington on ESPN2  earned a combined 1.4 overnight rating with the second semifinal drawing a 1.0 rating. Tonight’s UConn/Syracuse showdown in the NCAA Women’s National Championship game takes place at 8:30p on the channel.

Meanwhile, Major League Baseball Opening Day saw a 2.1 overnight rating for ESPN as the Mets/Royals World Series rematch on ESPN to match the channel’s best Opening Night game since 2010.
 
Meanwhile, ESPN delivers the 2016 Frozen Four on Thursday and Saturday beginning with Quinnipiac/Boston College in the first semifinal at 5p, followed by North Dakota/Denver at 8:30p. ESPN2 will televise both semifinals and ESPN will air the championship game. John Buccigross and Barry Melrose call all three games with Quint Kessenich reporting from between the benches. Production elements include On Ice Audio featuring rhe referee for all three games wearing a wireless microphone; an Ice Level View on ESPN3; and more.

The official debut of Major League Football, Inc., the upcoming professional spring-football league, is on hold for another year as the organization announced that the League will instead launch a ‘Development Season’ this year and reschedule its inaugural year for March 2017.

We are down to just a few weeks! The Cynopsis Sports Awards honors the best in the business on April 21 in New York. Click here now to claim your spot.

WWE’s WrestleMania 32 set a new attendance record of 101,763, as fans from all 50 states and 35 countries hit AT&T Stadium. The bests the previous WWE attendance record set at WrestleMania 3 in 1987, where 93,173 fans filled the Pontiac Silverdome in Detroit. WrestleMania 32 also became the highest grossing live event in WWE history with a gross of $17.3 million. 

CBS Sports carries a CBS Sports Spectacular special with Jim Nantz Remembers Augusta: Jack Nichlaus at the Masters on Sunday at 1p as Nantz looks back at the Golden Bear’s legendary career at the Masters.


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SPONSORSHIP & PROMOTION

WrestleMania saw WWE officially rebrand its “Divas” division, ending the moniker with the introduction of the new WWE Women’s Titles. Stephanie McMahon hit The Player’s Tribune to explain the move, noting that, from now on, all performers would be known as Superstars. “The role of women in WWE has continued to evolve,” she wrote, adding that “Our female performers are world-class athletes, actors, public speakers and philanthropists. They’re role models, inspiring and empowering women and girls to be confident and strong. They dedicate themselves to WWE, achieve great success and earn the same respect as their male counterparts. Therefore, from this point forward, all of our performers – male and female – will be known as ‘Superstars.’"

Continuing the WWE theme, Tapout, a global hard-body fitness and training brand recently re-launched by WWE and Authentic Brands Group, locked in a deal for the performance apparel line to be available in nearly 300 JCPenney stores. A fully integrated marketing program will support the launch of Tapout with the brand promoted across WWE’s global platforms including TV programming, WWE Network, pay-per-view broadcasts, live events, digital and social media.

The USOC announced that Deloitte renewed its sponsorship and will continue as the official professional services sponsor of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Teams through the Rio 2016, PyeongChang 2018 and Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. As a sponsor, Deloitte “leverages its professional services across advisory, tax and consulting to further the USOC’s mission of promoting sport and fielding the strongest Team USA during the Olympic and Paralympic Games.” “Since 2009, Deloitte has served as a trusted advisor to the USOC  helping us to set long-term strategy and aiding us in our mission of effectively serving Team USA athletes,” said Lisa Baird, USOC CMO. “We are proud to call Deloitte a member of the USOC family of sponsors, and we are thrilled that Deloitte’s commitment to Team USA will continue through 2020.”

SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook reports that both Villanova and North Carolina saw growth in social engagement throughout the NCAA tournament. Villanova’s viewership has grown each time they stream live with 26k viewers initially to 79k viewers for their latest stream and UNC has seen six-figure viewership of every live stream thus far. Overall, Facebook LIVE saw 23 teams tap the platform, offering exclusive content and more than 100 unique live streams.
 
Top LIVE moments:
1.      UNC Fans Gather for Team Send-Off
2.      Behind-The-Scenes at Villanova Promo Shoot
3.      Behind-The-Scenes at UNC Promo Shoot 
4.      Texas A&M Live In Locker Room Following Comeback
5.      Oregon’s Mascot Taking Over    
6.      Live Q&A Session with Syracuse Players
7.      Stephen F. Austin Live in Locker Room Following Win  
 

DIGITAL & STREAMING

WWE announced that WWE Network reached a record 1.82 million total subscribers following Sunday’s WrestleMania. That marks a 39% increase from March 30, 2015, the day after WrestleMania last year. “History was made last night with both a record-setting crowd at AT&T Stadium and more households than ever before watching WrestleManiaon WWE Network,” said WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon. “WWE Network continues to drive transformative growth for our company.”

Before this weekend’s season-opening of the 2016 VIVO Indian Premier League, ESPN is launching ESPN Cricket Pass, a dedicated app offering full live and on-demand coverage of the most popular domestic T20 tournament in the world. In addition to the ESPN Cricket Pass website, subscribers will be able to view matches on the ESPN Cricket Pass app for iOS, Android and Roku devices. ESPN Cricket Pass will also be available on Apple TV via Airplay.
 
Time Inc.’s Golf also launched a new app, dubbed the Golf Fix Finder, designed to help golfers improve their game. The digital service leverages the instructors by tapping the network of GOLF’s Top 100 Teachers in America for more than “140 sharply edited video lessons and drills, optimized for mobile viewing.” The slate of new videos will be available across Golf digital platforms and downloadable for offline viewing on your device.

Elsewhere in the golf world, Callaway Golf Company added on-air personality Amanda Balionis to its Callaway Media Production team. Balionis joins Callaway from the PGA TOUR, where she hosted several successful online video series, including the popular ‘Trending on Tour’ and ‘Buy a Mulligan’ segments. Balionis will handle on-air duties for much of Callaway’s original and partnership content and will contribute to the company’s multimedia and editorial efforts on www.CallawayGolf.com.
 
The next-gen lineup from Topps, Topps Now, has been released, designed to “depict the greatest moments and milestones from the 2016 Major League Baseball season almost as soon as they happen.” After a feat has been accomplished, physical cards will be available the very next day to purchase through Topps.com, for just 24 hours, and will not be available for purchase again. “Topps Now was inspired by input from our passionate baseball fans,” said Clay Luraschi, Topps Vice President of Product Development. “Magical moments will be captured on baseball cards the very next day, giving fans everywhere a chance to own a piece of history almost immediately.”
 

ESPORTS/GAMING

Machinima is leveraging its ties to the gaming community to launch Inside eSports, described as a seven-day-a-week SportCenter-style show that covers news, highlights and analysis from the industry’s biggest tournaments. Machinima CEO Chad Gutstein told VideoInk that the show will post content “every day across all the major social platforms,” with a soft launch in May, and a full-fledged debut the following month.

ESL locked in another distribution partner, inking a two-year deal with livestreaming platform Hitbox to stream ESL-organized events. The deal began with last weekend’s Intel Extreme Masters tournament. Hitbox now joins the likes of Twitch, Yahoo eSports and Azubu as partners.

ROSTER MOVES

Ahead of the Olympics, Discovery Communications announced two new appointments. Dominic Baillie has been named Chief Technology Officer, Olympics & Sports, while Simon Farnsworth has been appointed Senior Vice President, Olympic Technical Distribution. According to the company, Baillie and Farnsworth will build “the technical foundations necessary to drive innovation and significant competitive advantage, ensuring every Olympic event is available to fans whenever and wherever they choose to watch it.”

Tennis Channel tapped advertising sales veteran John Ward to the position of director of advertising sales, Midwest and Central regions. In the position, Ward will oversee linear and digital sponsor-revenue growth for Tennis Channel across an 18-state territory.

THE MAIN EVENT

UConn/Syracuse for the NCAA Women’s National Championship at 8:30p on ESPN.


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ON THIS DAY in 1984: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar broke Wilt Chamberlain’s record for total career regular season points.

In The Know: Name two 2015 feature films that WWE’s John Cena appeared in. (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company and city.)

Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question: Which city has hosted the most NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship games? Answer: Hmm, another question prone to confusion: Kansas City has hosted the most “championship games” while Dayton has hosted the most “games for the championship.” Kudos: Lewis Blaustein-GreenSportsBlogger/NY; Michael Ritz-BucStar Consulting/NY; David Stern-BARD Entertainment/NY; Mark Darnell-Golf services/Augusta; Synda Kollman-Charter Marketing Group/Deerfield Beach; Allison Lerer-Turner Sports/Atlanta; Shirley Egner-University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point/Stevens Point; Andy Pittman-TAMU/College Station; Jeremy Bowman-ESPN/Chicago; Lance Phegley-Texas Runner and Triathlete magazine/Houston; Judie Henninger-Valentine Productions/Santa Monica; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA; David Westberg-SAG-AFTRA Federal Credit Union/Burbank; Doug Kelly-Foster Farms Bowl/South San Francisco.

Later — Chris
Chris Pursell for Cynopsis | Sports @VegasandVine
04.05.16

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