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CYNOPSISSPORTS
04.14.14
Good morning. It’s Monday, April 14, 2014, and this is your first early morning Sports briefing.
After going bankrupt in the middle of the 2010 season, the AVP Tour is now is now under the watchful eye of owner Donald Sun, who bought the famed tour two years ago, and is now readying for the 31st year of its existence. The company operated seven tournaments in 2013 and this season it will hold the same number of events, this time with recently-announced sales/operations partner IMG in tow, starting May 30 in St. Petersburg on CBS Sports Network. All seven tournaments will be shown on TV, topping the five from 2013, with both the men’s and women’s championship matches shown live. In addition, AVP will live stream all of the other matches throughout the year at AVP.com.
Cynopsis Sports spoke with Sun, AVP Managing Partner, about taking on the tour, connecting with fans and his plans for keep the momentum moving forward.
Sun on his decision to buy the company: Early on, the AVP definitely looked great on TV and on site, but the motivation of the ownership was to sell it off. They got to a certain level where there was some equity value to the AVP, it was just that they couldn’t flip the company over. So they had to go and get a private investor to help fund the rest of the year. Then they changed ownership, forced the old owners out, and the new owners came in and tried to cut costs and change some things but after the middle of 2010, they decided to pull the plug. That was the big challenge that I unfortunately inherited, with all the bad feelings from the tour being stopped abruptly in 2010. The challenge for me has been to overcome the issues that happened previously.
On version 3.0: I’m not here to flip the house. I followed the AVP when I was younger and even had my own aspirations of being on the AVP Tour. But I always thought the brand resonated still with brands, media partners and fans. So now we are trying to have more organic growth. We’re not trying to overstretch. There’s no point of saying this year we are going to do seven events, and next year ten and the year after, we’ll have 12. That exhausts people. So we are trying to make sure that this is a real, sustainable business. We don’t need to expand and outreach so quickly. It doesn’t make sense. Going to locations that we can establish ourselves and making tent pole events will help create a following on both the local and national side. We won’t overpromise and under deliver. Because of that, people are coming around and we are very positive moving forward.
On media: This season you will see more live steaming, as we will be doing all day Friday and all day Saturday leading up to the finals. Last year, out of the seven events, we televised five of them. This year, it will be all seven of them with two of them being taped delay due to programming conflicts, but it will all be on CBS Sports. I think from a programming standpoint we are trying to provide more hours of content for our fans. In addition, from a content standpoint, we are making a push on the social media side. We are creating a YouTube Channel and are partnering with someone, who we haven’t announced yet, but they will help drive traffic and help us create content strategy. We are also exploring other programming that the casual person would want to tune in and watch.
On the future of the sport: Our initiative starting this year and going forward is to build that pipeline. I think that’s what’s been lacking. There’s not a clear path to being a professional AVP athlete, other than the Olympics. So, what is that? That’s why we are partnering with the Southern California Volleyball Association to create programming for kids and youth. Those are the things that we are building so kids can have an easy guide to know that first they need to do this, then they can go do that and become a professional player. I see that its growing and we would like to be a part of the sport’s trajectory.
On future stars: There isn’t a lack of talent on the AVP and growing that pipeline will only solidify that talent, not only for us but on a world scale as well. We are trying to be the breeding ground of gold medals to come.
With Tiger out and Rory and Phil struggling early, the opening rounds of the Masters Tournament saw audience declines from 2013. ESPN’s live telecast of the event opened on Thursday an average audience of 2 million viewers and a 1.5 household rating, according to Nielsen Media fast national data, off-pace from year ago numbers, which hit a 2.0 rating with 2.8 million viewers. That number grew on Friday, as the tournament hit a 1.8 and 2.5 million viewers, but was again down from a strong 2013. "With its iconic nature and grand tradition, the Masters is one of the world’s great and beloved sporting events and as recently as last year, our viewers have responded to the Masters in record numbers," said John Wildhack, ESPN executive vice president, production and programming. "While viewership was down this year, the Masters has a value to us that goes well beyond ratings."
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is mulling an overhaul of the NBA Playoff system, telling a broadcast crew that he might eliminate the division of seeds by conference and instead accept teams based on their overall record, no matter what region or conference they play. "It was very difficult when we moved teams around the country," Silver told Fox Sports Southwest’s Bill Land and Sean Elliott. "And in this day and age, where every team in the league is flying charter, it changes everything." The 2014 NBA Playoffs start on April 19.
Meanwhile, Al Jazeera America is getting out of sports and has effectively disbanded its sports division amid cuts throughout the network. According to multiple reports, there were estimated to be around 60 layoffs overall, with the LA Times writing that "Al Jazeera America executives realized few viewers were coming to the network for scores and highlights."
The SEC Network reached a multi-year deal with Maria Taylor to serve as studio host for the upcoming channel. Taylor will be a sideline reporter for SEC football games as well as an analyst for volleyball and select women’s basketball contests. Taylor is the first studio host named for the network, which launches August 14. In addition, she will report from SEC stadiums every Saturday in tandem with the SEC Network’s lead college football commentating team of Brent Musburger and Jesse Palmer. She previously served as reporter on ESPN2’s Saturday night primetime telecast.
In other talent news, for NFL player Shawne Merriman apparently has a new gig. The former Charger will, according to company employees Michael Cole and John Layfield in a podcast, head to WWE waters. Early reports state that he will likely serve as a broadcaster initially, and could hit the ring after training.
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.
On Tuesday, ESPN’s news magazine series E:60 makes its Spring 2014 debut with a look at the one year anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombings. E:60 Presents Dream On: Stories from Boston’s Strongest will air at 7p on ESPN, hosted by Bob Woodruff and look at five stories of survivors, narrated by celebrity voices of Boston including New England Patriots quarterback, Tom Brady. In addition, the show will feature an appearance from Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry who, along with the Southern California Children’s Chorus, perform a version of "Dream On," specifically arranged for the show.
Longtime MSG Networks hockey analyst Glenn "Chico" Resch has retired from the New Jersey Devils broadcast booth. Sunday’s Devils/Bruins matchup at 3p on MSG marked his final hockey telecast on MSG Networks. "I never thought of this as a profession because at the end of the day I’m talking about hockey, a sport that I love and have a tremendous amount of respect for," said Resch. "That’s why I’ve always had a special relationship with the people watching on TV and cheering in the arena – I’m an extension of them. I’ve been lucky to do this for 18 years and I’ve enjoyed every handshake and conversation I’ve ever had with Devils fans." Resch joined MSG Networks in 1996.
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
||| CLICK HERE TO ENTER.ESPN is looking at "significantly" higher ad sales for June’s 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, according to Ad Age. Compared to four years ago, sales are spiking, bolstered by a friendlier time zone, more domestic media play for soccer as well as more exposure for international stars. ESPN execs say that FIFA sponsor Adidas is coming in heavy, with other sponsors expected to include Coca-Cola, Visa, Budweiser, McDonald’s and Hyundai. In addition, movie studios, telecoms, men’s grooming products, beer brands and technology companies are also buying ad time.
The Telegraph writes that Subway is mulling a "ground-breaking" sponsorship deal with Formula One which would see teams and superstar drivers teaming up to promote the brand. A global partnership of F1 averages $20 million annually with team agreements required in addition to that.
Spurs/Rockets on NBATV at 8p.
A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE
2014 NewFronts Special eReports
NewFronts Preview [4/24] We’ll review the past few NewFronts and talk to Digital Publishers, Programmers & Agencies/Brands to find out what worked, what didn’t, and what are the 2014 expectations.
NewFronts Wrap-up [5/9] We’ll take a look at all of the breaking news that came out this year, as well as all of the highlights + new buying strategies that were presented.
ON THIS DAY in 1960: The Montreal Canadiens win their fifth consecutive Stanley Cup.
In The Know: What NBA team made the Finals as an eight seed? (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: How long is a regulation NHL hockey rink? Answer: 200 feet. Kudos: Ian Young-Wieden + Kennedy/NY; Steve Bitterman-Cross MediaWorks/NY; David Stern-BARD Entertainment/NY; Art Salisch-HEARST Television/NY; Tim Overmyer-20th TV/Atlanta; Mike Antolini-Tiger Woods Foundation/Boston; Bob Eisenstaedt-Granite Springs Productions/Tampa; Matt Deprey-Discovery Communications/Silver Spring; Eric Jackson-Playtri/Dallas; Loren Steck-Loren Steck & Associates/Carmel; Doug Kelly-S.F. Bowl Game Association/South San Francisco; Neal Stevens-Stevens & Associates/Beverly Hills; Eric Bates-Tennis Channel/Culver City.
Later — Chris
Chris Pursell for Cynopsis | Sports @VegasandVine
04.14.14
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