04/05/18: ESPN/Ivy League pen deal

Good morning. It’s Thursday April 5, 2018 and this is your first early morning Sports briefing.

ESPN and the Ivy League committed to a 10-year deal that makes ESPN the exclusive national media rights holder for the conference, carrying more than 1,100 events annually from more than 30 sports on ESPN media platforms. Starting with the 2018-19 season, the majority of events will be on ESPN+ although the Ivy League will also have at least 24 events air on ESPN’s linear networks each year, including rivalries such as Harvard/Yale football as well as the men’s and women’s basketball conference tournaments.

“With this new agreement, we continue to provide fans with the most diverse content through all our networks and platforms, while also deepening our commitment to college sports,” said ESPN executive vice president of programming and scheduling Burke Magnus. “We are significantly enhancing our existing relationship with The Ivy League, providing the conference, its institutions, and fans the most comprehensive coverage of the league to date across ESPN’s networks and platforms, while also adding specific benefits that are made possible with the launch of ESPN+.”

“We are excited to announce this groundbreaking and comprehensive long-term partnership with ESPN, which will dramatically increase our exposure and reach across the League’s broad-based sports offering,” Ivy League Executive Director Robin Harris said. “This agreement preserves the Ivy League’s place at the forefront of innovation and connects the League with a partner that is driving the convergence of linear and digital sports programming.”

ON THE AIR

NBC Sports will once again feature every NHL Stanley Cup Playoff game presented nationally in the coming weeks, running as many as 105 playoff games, and possibly more than 260 hours of programming starting April 11. NBC alone is scheduled to present up to 19 exclusive Stanley Cup Playoff games, with coverage presented on NBC, NBCSN and NHL Network, as well as USA Network and CNBC, during first- and second-round coverage. NBCSN serves as the primary home of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, offering coverage of one or two games virtually every night of the first round. In addition, NBC will present a second-round Stanley Cup Playoff game immediately following live coverage of the Kentucky Derby on May 5 for the third consecutive year. Stanley Cup action, meanwhile, will see NBC broadcast Game 1, Game 4, and Games 5-7 (if necessary), while NBCSN handles Games 2-3.

NASCAR released the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule, launching the season with The Clash at Daytona International Speedway (Feb. 10) and the season-opening Daytona 500 (Feb. 17). Most of the schedule echoes this year’s lineup, with the All-Star Race in Charlotte running on May 18, and the Coca-Cola 600 set for May 26. Meanwhile, the NASCAR Playoffs will start on Sept. 15 in Las Vegas, and the season will conclude on Nov. 17 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Bolstered by record viewership for the 2018 PyeongChang Olympic Games, NBCSN posted its best quarterly performance in history in Total Day viewership, according to live plus same day data for the quarter from Nielsen. In addition, Golf Channel posted the network’s most-watched first quarter ever with PGA TOUR coverage up 41%. For the first quarter, NBCSN averaged a record 302,000 Total Day viewers – more than tripling last year (92,000), and exceeding the prior record-setting quarter of 296,000 for the Rio Olympics during the third quarter of 2016 and the channel delivered its best-ever first-quarter primetime viewership with an average of 569,000 viewers.

ESPN2 serves up the College Basketball Awards Presented by Wendy’s at 8p tomorrow night from The Novo by Microsoft in downtown Los Angeles. Debuting a brand new graphics and animations package along with a new set design and house music by DJ Hapa, the 90-minute hoops celebration will see Rece Davis, Jay Bilas, Seth Greenberg and Jay Williams along with reporter Molly McGrath interview winners, present awards and relive the season’s best moments.

Tennis Channel expanded its rights agreement for 2018 and 2019 with the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships and, for the first time, will broadcast the entire event live from Houston beginning Monday, at 4p. The network will offer nearly 50 hours of live television coverage during the week while digital subscription service, Tennis Channel Plus, will carry another 30 hours of exclusive live matches from Court 3. Tennis Channel’s on-air talent team in Houston features veteran announcers Brett Haber and Leif Shiras. Paul Annacone and Justin Gimelstob will provide analysis.

NBC Sports Group kicks off its coverage of the 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series this weekend from ISM Raceway with live coverage of the Phoenix Grand Prix on Saturday at 9:30p on NBCSN. For the first time, this season’s pre-race coverage on IndyCar Live presented by Verizon will take place from the grid in the lead up to the command, bringing viewers even closer to the action prior to the race.

NBC Sports Philadelphia will air Villanova’s Championship Parade live today beginning at 11a. Amy Fadool and Alaa Abdelnaby will anchor NBC Sports Philadelphia’s coverage, with Rob Ellis and Danny Pommells reporting from the parade route.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

The 7^th Annual Cynopsis Sports Media Awards

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

In addition to the below talented Luminary Award winners, we’re thrilled to celebrate the finalists representing over 80 companies in sports media.

GEM AWARD: Intel’s GM, James Carwana

LEGACY AWARD: SiriusXM’s President & CCO, Scott Greenstein

VISION AWARD: USTA’s Chairman of the Board & President, Katrina Adams

NAVIGATOR AWARD: Showtime’s President of Sports & Event Programming, Stephen Espinoza

Sponsored by Showtime

SPONSORSHIP & PROMOTION

After news broke that the Masters had banned the phrase “dilly, dilly” at this year’s tournament, Bud Light issued a response, where “King John Barley IV” posted that 1000 shirts with the phrase will be delivered to Georgia ahead of the tournament.

Pure Michigan is pulling out as sponsor of the August NASCAR Cup Series race at Michigan International Speedway, according to M Live. The Travel Michigan campaign and arm of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation had paid to sponsor the MIS race since 2011.

DIGITAL & STREAMING

FloSports locked in an exclusive multi-year agreement with IMG to air the 2018 FIA World Rallycross Championship in North America exclusively on FloRacing.com. The deal provides FloRacing with exclusive rights in North America to live stream each race in the series, with coverage beginning April 14 at the World RX of Catalunya – Barcelona, and continues through to the season-ending Championship event November 24 with the World RX of South Africa.

NBC Sports reports that SportsEngine utilized its massive youth sports directory to drive nearly 280,000 unique users to NGB sites during PyeongChang 2018, marking a 64% increase over Sochi 2014. In addition, more than 1.1 million unique users visited and searched SportsEngine.com during the Games experience.

Karate Combat announced the launch of a new professional combat sports league with rules developed by martial arts experts and top fighters. Viewers can access league content now through KARATE.com, as well as branded iOS and Android apps. The league will air its first live event, Karate Combat: Inception in Miami Beach on April 26. This will be followed by an all USA vs. Iran fight card in May in Dubai and a string of exotic locations and fight cards to be announced for 2018 including in Athens, Las Vegas, Hong Kong, and Tokyo.

ESPORTS

In this week’s edition of Cynopsis Esports & Gaming…

NBA 2K League makes history with “Dimez”
Supercell breaks down its Clash of esports titans
Formula One sees team mentality for esports’ season two
BTN League of Legends Championship gets ready to rumble
OpTic Arena Battle Royale gets ready to rumble
Buffalo Wild Wings enters BattleGrounds
eMLS Cup lands a heavyweight
H1Z1 Pro League’s mammoth stage

Attn: Brands and media buyers, we are going to run out of seats! Cynopsis Esports, in partnership with the Esports Advertising Bureau and Player 2, is producing the 2018 Esports Upfront presentation on April 24 at Yale Club in NYC. Joining the previously announced lineup with be ELEAGUE and WorldGaming/Collegiate Starleague. Select brands, agencies and media buyers will be shown a slate of opportunities for partnerships from around the industry to activate and engage with this key demo, from platforms to leagues to teams to mobile to streaming influencers and beyond! Previously announced presenters include: Activision Blizzard, Counter Logic Gaming, ESP Gaming, Press X, StreamHatchet, Thunder Studios and more. Space is limited and we expect a waitlist to attend. If are interested in coming, please RSVP now to [email protected] to let him know. See you soon!

THE MAIN EVENT

Round 1 of the Masters begins at 8:30a with Masters on the Range on CBS Sports Network, the Masters Live stream on CBSSports.com and TV coverage on ESPN from 3-7:30p.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

Celebrating Media’s Civic-Minded Professionals…

The Cynopsis Social Good Awards

May 22^nd | 8:30am – 10:30am |The Yale Club | New York City

We will be honoring everything from sustainability partnerships and PSA’s, to diversity campaigns, environmental initiatives, and more. Be in the room as finalists are celebrated and winners announced! Register your team today .

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

In the Know: Continuing our run on Masters trivia, what is the name of Hole 1 at Augusta National Golf Club? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company and city.)

Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question: Who traditionally selects the menu at The Champions’ Dinner before the Masters? Answer: The previous year’s winner. Kudos: Steve Higgins-Paragon Marketing Group/NY; Ged Young-GC Marketing/NY; Chris Long-DraftKings/NY; Deborah Kapetanakis-Universal McCann/NY; Paul Brewer-TV Talent Agents/North Augusta; Todd N. Teitel-Spectrum Reach/Louisville; Rick Rosenfelt-New York Red Bulls/Harrison; Mike May-PHIT America/Wellington; Kyle Krebs-KXAS-TV/Dallas-Fort Worth; Joe Lyons-SOS Global/Dallas; Will Allmendinger-Clear Channel Outdoor/Chicago; Gretchen Brady-KTVT/KTXA/Dallas; Larry Hutchings/Nipomo; Anne Wettig-Fox Cable S&P/LA; Don Surath-KPIX-TV KBCW-TV/San Francisco; Alex Falk-Endeavor/LA

Later – Chris

Chris Pursell @VegasandVine
Roberta Caploe Publisher @robertacaploe	Diane K Schwartz Senior Vice President Media Communications Group	Cynopsis Ad Sales Mike Farina \| 203-218-6480 VP, Sales	Cynopsis Job Listings Sales Trish Pihonak \| 203-899-8459 Director of Operations

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