CYNOPSISSPORTS
04.10.14 Good morning. It’s Thursday, April 10, 2014, and this is your first early morning Sports briefing.
The battle of undefeateds for the NCAA Women’s National Championship paid dividends for ESPN, which saw its highest overnight rating for a women’s college basketball game since 2004. Despite a blowout, Tuesday’s game drew a 2.8 household rating with an average of 4.27 million viewers tuning in. Digital platforms saw WatchESPN’s traditional telecast and the special ESPN3 Surround production of the matchup delivering 3,800,000 minutes, the highest amount for a women’s college basketball game on the platform this year.
The NFL laid out its preseason plans for the 2014 season, with games beginning Sunday, August 3 with the NFL/Hall of Fame Game between the Giants and Bills on NBC at 8p. NBC also closes out national TV coverage of the preseason on Sunday, August 24 with the Bengals/Cardinals at 8p.
FOX Sports announced that preseason action this year would begin Aug. 17 at 8p with Chiefs/Panthers. Kevin Burkhardt, analyst John Lynch and sideline reporter Erin Andrews call the game. The following week, FOX will then offer Chargers/49ers at 4p with Joe Buck joining Troy Aikman and sideline reporter Pam Oliver to call the action
Around the dial on CBS Sports, preseason games will begin Friday, Aug. 22 with Raiders/Packers and continue the next day with Saints/Colts. Both games are at 8p.
ESPN also gets a pair of preseason games as part of its 2014 NFL slate. The action kicks off Thursday, Aug. 14 with Jaguars/Bears followed by Browns/Redskins on Aug. 18, with both games starting at 8p. Mike Tirico and analyst Jon Gruden call the games with reporter Lisa Salters in anticipation of ESPN’s MNF regular-season opener on Monday, Sept. 8. ESPN Deportes will once again offer a Spanish-language production of MNF preseason and regular-season games in 2014.
Speaking of the NFL, the league announced that next year’s Pro Bowl will join the Super Bowl in Arizona. The game will be played on Sunday, Jan. 25 and carried live on ESPN at 8p from University of Phoenix Stadium. The following year, the game will return to Hawaii, set for Jan. 31, 2016.
Platinum-selling recording artist Drake announced on Twitter that he will host The 2014 ESPYS on Wednesday, July 16. The Awards will be televised live starting at 9p on ESPN. "Drake is an unbelievably talented entertainer who truly has a passion for sports. We are thrilled to have him to host this year’s show," said Connor Schell, Vice President, ESPN Films and Original Entertainment, who oversees the ESPYS.
Sold out!!! Tickets to the Cynopsis Sports Media Awards are now gone. See you next week as I co-host with Campus Insiders’ Bonnie Bernstein to honor the year’s best and brightest work from across the sports industry. Special awards will be presented to NASCAR’s Brian France, NBC Sports Group’s Mark Lazarus and Turner Sports’ Christina Miller. Presenters will include some of the hottest names in sports as well as some of the most powerful people driving the business today. Click here for more info.
MLB Network’s investment in Chris Russo appears to be paying off. The channel’s new series High Heat with Christopher Russo delivered sharp spikes in its first week on the air, with the first five shows jumping 118% over the same time period in 2013. Average viewership for the show in its first week hit 85,000.
NBC Sports coverage of the first night race in Bahrain Grand Prix history ranked as the most-watched non-domestic Formula One race on cable in three years. Sunday’s race averaged 594,000 viewers and scored the most audiences for a non-domestic F1 race on cable since the 2011 Monaco Grand Prix on SPEED. That is also up 435% over NBCSN’s third race a year ago. So far, the first three F1 races are averaging 364,000 viewers, making this season the most-watched through the first three races on cable in a decade.
Outside Television launches for the first time this week in San Diego, Orange County and Southern California via a free preview with Cox Communications. The preview runs April 11-24 and completes a full national roll-out across Cox’s footprint that also includes recent launches in New Orleans and the rest of Louisiana, Las Vegas, and still other key cities.
Action-sport content company Gravity Collection, Inc. announced the creation of an extreme action sports channel set to run as an over the air/free-to-air broadcast to Southern California and surrounding region. The programming includes extreme, actions sports athletes in its 24/7 broadcast platform.
A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE
CYNOPSIS SPORTS MEDIA AWARDS
Thank You to Our 2014 Sponsor – Electric Sheep
View the impressive list of finalists that will be honored
NEXT WEEK at the Yale Club in NYC! 2014 Sports Luminaries
LEGACY AWARD: Mark Lazarus, Chairman of the NBC Sports Group
VISION AWARD: Brian France, CEO & Chairman of NASCAR
NAVIGATOR AWARD: Christina Miller, NBA Digital’s SVP & Turner Sports’ GM
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FOX Business News is sponsoring pro golfer Jason Dufner starting this week in a new endorsement deal. Dufner will wear the network’s FBN logo on his shirt collar. According to Variety, the deal comes after Fox Business established a partnership with Tennis Channel that sees Fox Business delivering updates to Tennis Channel audiences while Tennis Channel gives information to FBN’s viewers.
College basketball’s famed Great Alaska Shootout nabbed a title sponsor, with GCI, Alaska’s number one telecommunications company, signing on. The GCI Great Alaska Shootout will take place Nov. 25-29, at the Alaska Airlines Center, with schools that include University of Alaska Anchorage; Washington State, Pacific University, Colorado State, Mercer, Missouri State, Rice and UC Santa Barbara. For the women’s division, University of Alaska Anchorage will host Boise State, Long Beach State and Yale.
The Association of Volleyball Professionals locked in a renewal with Wilson to extend its association with the tour this season with its designation as the official volleyball of the AVP Tour. The deal will see Wilson volleyballs will be used for AVP tournaments, AVP open qualifiers and grassroots and developmental tournaments associated with the AVP. Wilson will also appear in the AVP’s on court promotions, in national television advertising, and at special on-site activations during all seven of the AVP’s tournaments across the United States. As part of the deal, which runs through 2015, Wilson will also sell AVP-branded volleyballs at retail.
This sounds like a good idea. Chevrolet announced plans to support the NASCAR Race to Green initiative by having first graders at Darlington Speedway to visit the Team Chevy Display today around 11:45a to build wildlife nesting houses from Chevrolet Volt parts.
A couple of moves were unveiled for writers on the digital front. CBSSports.com announced that Jon Solomon will join the site as a national college football writer. Solomon previously served was the sports enterprise reporter at AL.com/The Birmingham News for the past eight years, where he largely focused on the SEC and national college sports issues.
Meanwhile, Bleacher Report revealed that award-winning baseball columnist Scott Miller will be anchoring the site’s MLB coverage for the 2014 season. Miller joins Bleacher Report after 14 years as a national baseball columnist at CBSSports.com.
MLBAM launched R.B.I. Baseball 14 yesterday, the first console video game developed by the NY-based media and technology company. R.B.I. Baseball 14 is available for a one-time price of $4.99 from the App Store on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
Tennis Channel named Adam Ware to the newly created position of Senior VP, Head of Digital Media. There, he will look to continue the network’s mobile growth, including its Tennis Channel Everywhere app and the ongoing rollout of TV Everywhere accessibility. In addition, Ware will focus on utilizing the network’s tennis rights to expand its video-on-demand (VOD) library of content.
Online sports retailer Fanatics, Inc. named Doug Mack as the new CEO of the company, where he will also join the company’s board of directors, effective April 21. Mack replaces Fanatics founder Alan Trager, who is retiring as CEO nearly two decades after launching it. Mack was previously CEO of One Kings Lane.
The Western Collegiate Hockey Association selected Bill Robertson as the new commissioner of the long-time college hockey conference. He succeeds Bruce McLeod who has served as WCHA Commissioner for the past 20 years and is retiring in June. Robertson previously served as Vice President of Communications and Broadcasting for the NHL’s Minnesota Wild and parent company Minnesota Sports & Entertainment from 1999-2011.
First round of the Masters today on ESPN starting at 3p.
A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE
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Cancun? Panama Beach? Punta Cana? Daytona Beach? Cynopsis wants to know – what’s your favorite spring break vacation spot?
You’ll have a chance to win a $25 Groupon gift card by answering our poll.
The winner will be announced on April 23.
DEADLINE: Tuesday, April 22
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ON THIS DAY in 2005: Tiger Woods wins his fourth Masters.
In The Know: What golf legend competed in 50 consecutive Masters? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and time zone. Unofficial rules: Only the second four correct answers from each time zone will be mentioned; and once you’ve been mentioned in any of the Cynopsis editions, you can’t be mentioned again that calendar week.)
Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question: Which former NBA player and current broadcaster was known as "The Jet"? Answer: Kenny Smith. (Jason Terry isn’t a broadcaster.) Kudos: Andrew Feingold-Nielsen Sports/NY; Fred McGraw-McGraw & Company, Inc./NY; Heath Price Khan-WWE/NY; Lon Samuelson-HSS/NY; Mike Gathagan-Maryland Jockey Club/Baltimore; Darren Magarro-The DSM Group/Franklin Lakes; Mike Wexler-Moroch/Atlanta; Melissa Pattillo-Turner Sports/Atlanta; Brennen Tamerlano-Continental Television Sales/Chicago; Steve Hebel-Continental Television Sales/Chicago; Michael Jaquet-U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association/Park City; Curtis Nettles-CBS TV Stations/LA; Jack Simmons-Fox Sports/LA; Judie Henninger-Valentine Productions Inc/Santa Monica; Adam Deverell-Cox Reps/LA.
Later — Chris
Chris Pursell for Cynopsis | Sports @VegasandVine
04.10.14
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