CYNOPSISSPORTS
04.18.16 Good morning. It’s Monday April 18, 2016, and this is your first early morning Sports briefing.
Coming off Glory 29 in Copenhagen over the weekend, kickboxing promotion Glory now sets its sights toward Los Angeles, home of Glory 30 on May 13, with an all-American tournament in store for fans. Recent months say the promotion partner with global heavyweights ESPN and UFC in recent months in a strategic shift that will see content now carried across ESPN2, ESPN3, ESPN Deportes and UFC Fight Pass in a move to make fights more accessible to both hardcore and casual fans. With kickboxers set to be featured on the likes of SportsCenter ahead of the LA card, Glory is hoping that increased recognition will help connect the dots with audiences and continue its growth trajectory.
Cynopsis Sports spoke with Glory Sports CEO Jon Franklin, who assumed the reigns in 2014, about the promotion’s distribution strategy, plans to grow the sport in the US, and what we can expect in the years ahead.
Franklin on joining Glory: Historically, I had been a vendor for Glory and we were helping through TV rights deals and selling some sponsorships for them. What I saw was very exciting. Everybody who sees the product, loves the product. I came from more of a boxing background but this was faster and seemed more modern in that the fights are shorter. However, while the crowds were growing, they tried to go the PPV route and were spending a lot of money to build the brand. Ultimately, they decided that the company needed a reset in a drive toward profitability. So when I came in, I knew we had to cut some costs and restructure some things and run this business properly for the size and scale that it is. Since then, we’ve really focused on keeping the television product strong and we’ve become efficient behind-the-scenes.
On potential growth in the US: I’ve seen people in the United States get very excited about this sport. It may not have worked out the way the promoters may have liked, but laid the foundation for people to watch it. For us in America, we had Spike and CBS Sports Network, the fact that we tried a PPV and it didn’t really work out didn’t scare me because I understood that the formula to have a big PPV simply wasn’t there. It was great to have a tournament with some great kickboxers, but those athletes were not yet big names in America. These things take time to build. If you look at where UFC was 18 months in, or some other promotions, they weren’t ready to run a PPV event at that time. Is there a PPV in the future? Maybe, but certain stars have to align. Of course, the way people are consuming content is changing so we decided to join UFC Fight Pass, whose model is different from the standard PPV model. We are trying to now focus on doing what we do best but in a modern way.
On new deals: On the UFC side, they tell us that we are doing really well. We have a solid base of fans that will go anywhere and love our sport. The live shows that we are doing on Fight Pass are doing, I’m told, as well as anything that they have on Fight Pass. As far as ESPN goes, we are getting pushed on ESPN3. Of course, I’m still an old school TV person and think that people need to be able to watch this on TV as well so we ultimately ended up with the best of both worlds with ESPN3 going live and then with a primetime follow-up on ESPN2. Since we are an international fight league with shows around the globe, sometimes the times are a bit odd for America, but if you are a fan you can watch it live or watch it in primetime. We also repeat primetime on Deportes, so we are on three of the four major ESPN platforms.
On the long game: We want to continue to fill holes in international distribution. We are in multiple countries around the world and probably have as as broad a footprint as any combat sports league, including the UFC, internationally. But there are holes and we are closing that all the time. We are not expanding into Latin America and have a deal we will be announcing soon in Africa. In addition, we are looking into increasing the number of shows. When the promotion started, they were doing one show at every event and now we do two shows, one that airs on Fight Pass and the other that goes to ESPN. We also do Countdown shows and Rewind shows before and after each event, and those shows are getting picked up by more and more broadcasters. So we are looking to build up our ancillary products, whether it is a reality show, a hunt for fights, etc. and drive more content into the marketplace.
Thursday night saw the NFL and its broadcast partners release the new schedule for the upcoming season, with a lineup that will see both the Giants and Cowboys slated for the most primetime games, each with six. FOX Sports, home of Super Bowl LI, launches its 23rd season and a schedule of 102 games with America’s Game of the Week beginning Sept. 11 featuring a battle between the Giants/Cowboys at 4:25p. Other matchups for the franchise will include Cowboys/49ers in Week 4, Cowboys/Packers in Week 6, Cardinals/Panthers in Week 8 and Cowboys/Steelers in Week 10. The network’s traditional FOX NFL Thanksgiving Day game will pit the Redskins/Cowboys on Nov. 24 at 4:30p.
Meanwhile, NBC comes out with two primetime packages this season with both Sunday Night Football and its new Thursday Night Football lineup for an overall tally of 24 NFL games during the 2016 regular season. The action begins on Sept. 8 with a Super Bowl 50 rematch between the Panthers/Broncos followed by the Sunday Night Football opener on Sept. 11 pitting the Patriots/Cardinals. Overall, the lineup will see four NBC games each for Seahawks and Cowboys with three games apiece for Broncos, Patriots, Panthers, Packers, Steelers, Giants, and Chiefs. Other highlights will include a trip to Minnesota’s new U.S. Bank Stadium on Sept 18 with Packers/Vikings. Elsewhere, the Raiders host their first-ever NBC SNF game on Nov. 6, facing the Broncos.
As for Thursday Night Football, the package, complete with new partners NBC and Twitter and veterans CBS and NFL Network, will see 18 games on deck beginning Sept. 15 with Bills/Jets on CBS, simulcast on NFL Network and streamed on Twitter. CBS and NBC are each scheduled to broadcast five Thursday Night Football games, while NFL Network scheduled to televise an additional eight games — including two Saturday games and two Sunday games. Twitter will stream the 10 Thursday Night Football games broadcast by CBS and NBC. NBC’s rotation launches on Nov. 17 with Saints/Panthers and runs through Dec. 8.
CBS’s Sunday package of games kicks off on Sept. 11 with Browns/Eagles; Bengals/Jets; Bills/Ravens; Chargers/Chiefs; and Dolphins/Seahawks and includes matchups such as Bengals/Cowboys on Oct. 9, Patriots/Steelers on Oct. 23 and Colts/Packers on Nov. 6 in the 4:25p window with a Thanksgiving Day game lining up Vikings/Lions on Nov. 24.
Finally, ESPN’s MNF roster begins with a doubleheader on Sept. 12 spotlighting the Steelers/Redskins and Rams/49ers and continues from there with matchups that include the Monday Night in Mexico City game on Nov. 21 pitting the Texans/Raiders. Overall, eight teams have two appearances each on the slate: Panthers, Bears, Texans, Vikings, Giants, Jets, Eagles and Redskins. ESPN Deportes will once again offer a Spanish-language production of MNF games in 2016.
Showtime Sports unveiled plans for a real-time, behind-the-scenes documentary series dedicated to the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs with All Access: Quest For The Stanley Cup. The docu-series will be “the first of its kind to nationally televise the championship of a major North American sport as it unfolds” and debuts May 20 at 9p with weekly episodes chronicling the Eastern and Western Conference Finals and the Stanley Cup Final. “Showtime has set a new standard for the sports docu-series genre with unprecedented access to teams and players at the pinnacle of their sport,” said Stephen Espinoza, Executive Vice President & General Manager, Showtime Sports. “We broke new ground with our college football series, ‘A season with Notre Dame Football, and now, for the first time on a nationally televised series, we’ll take viewers inside, to places they’ve never seen before, on the quest for the championship of a major professional sport.”
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ESPN and ABC report that viewership and ratings for the 2015-16 NBA regular season both spiked, according to Nielsen. ABC saw its 16 NBA games average 3,926,000 viewers and a 2.3 household score for a rise of 9% and 5% respectively over the previous season. Meanwhile, ESPN’s 76 NBA games averaged 1,652,000 viewers and a 1.1 US household rating to grow 10% in both categories. In addition, NBA Countdown ABC’s NBA pregame show averaged 1,556,000 viewers and a 1.0 household rating, up 26% and 11% over last season.
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http://www.cynopsis.com/?p=57172.A big day for the NBA on Friday, which saw the NBA Board of Governors approve the sale of jersey sponsorships, beginning with the 2017-18 season. The three-year pilot program will allow a sponsorship patch to appear on the front left of the game jerseys opposite the Nike logo with patches will measure approximately 2.5 inches by 2.5 inches and be adjusted to fit the dimensions of each sponsor’s logo. The NBA’s 30 teams will be responsible for selling their own jersey sponsorships. “Jersey sponsorships provide deeper engagement with partners looking to build a unique association with our teams and the additional investment will help grow the game in exciting new ways,” said NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. “We’re always thinking about innovative ways the NBA can remain competitive in a global marketplace, and we are excited to see the results of this three-year trial.”
UFC announced plans for its 5th annual UFC International Fight Week from July 5-10 in Las Vegas. Among the activities will be the UFC Fan Expo as well as three events in three nights, headlined by the landmark UFC 200: Diaz vs. McGregor on July 9 at T-Mobile Arena. UFC Fan Expo expands to three days to offer fight fans access to UFC champions, top-ranked contenders, UFC Hall of Famers, and celebrities as well as interactive activations from UFC partners that include Reebok, EA Sports, Bud Light, Harley-Davidson, Toyo Tires, Monster Energy and UFC GYM.
NBA Countdown on ABC premiered a PSA featuring President Obama and Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry designed to highlight the importance of mentoring, challenging Americans to make an impact on the life of a young person in their community. More info can be found at www.mentor.org.
Neulion announced a new analytics dashboard for its NeuLion Digital Platform to monitor in real time “every viewer’s quality of experience and for the content rights holder, business metrics showing instant feedback on the health and growth of their over-the-top (OTT) and TV everywhere (TVE) services.” The new OTT Dashboard will service the likes of BTN and Univision and serve up real-time metrics to analyze every single viewer via live and VOD content QOS/QOE monitoring as well as OTT Dashboard Global Heatmaps."The NeuLion Digital Platform and its OTT Dashboard provides all the data and more that we need to deliver the highest quality service to our viewers," said Michael Calderon, Vice President Programming and Digital Media at The Big Ten Network.
The Masters drove Golf Channel Digital to new metrics marks, including the best week ever for total video starts (3.2 million) and total unique users (4.0 million), and the second best week ever for page views (36.4 million). Overall, GolfChannel.com nabbed its six best day span of the year for unique users while Golf Channel’s mobile platforms set high marks with its three best days ever.
The LA Kings and AEG launched LA Kings Fans, a new social network app on Vixlet designed to host exclusive team content and serve as a platform for Kings fans from all over the nation to connect. The platform offers exclusive official content from the team and the players as well as the opportunity to connect with other fans, and share stories.
The International e-Sports Federation is looking to clear an Olympic-sized hurdle, and sent an “Official Letter of Request” to the IOC earlier this year in order to attain the recognition by the organization, according to the Inquirer. After receiving a response on April 8th from the IOC, IeSF will submit all related documents for the recognition process and will undergo its first evaluation in December this year. With the recognition, the IeSF would be able to be in a position to host and conduct more structured eSports leagues in member countries.
Vox sites Polygon and SB Nation launched The Rift Herald on Friday, a community site dedicated to covering League of Legends. The platform will cover both amateur and pro levels of the game, and offer an editorial team that includes SB Nation’s Pete Volk and James Dator, as well as Polygon’s Phil Kollar.
The International Surfing Association named Robert Fasulo as the organization’s new Executive Director. Fasulo will be based in the ISA headquarters in La Jolla and be charged wit the strategic direction, financial stewardship and operational management of Surfing’s world governing body.
Mavericks/Thunder on TNT at 8p.
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ON THIS DAY in 1995: Joe Montana retires.
In The Know: In which sport would you want to avoid a Barney? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company and city.)
Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question: What legendary pitcher holds the record for most career losses? Answer: Cy Young. Kudos: Phyllis McQuillan-MSG Networks/NY; Lewis Blaustein-GreenSportsBlogger/NY; Mike Donato-ABC/NY; Alexander Khilnani-NBC Sports/NY; Synda Kollman-Charter Marketing Group/Deerfield Beach; Mark Altabe-Citibank/Jersey City; Tom Wetzel-MMSI/Warwick; Allison Wright-Viacom Media Networks/Detroit; Andy Pittman-TAMU/College Station; Lance Phegley-Texas Runner and Triathlete magazine/Houston’; Gretchen Brady-KTVT/Dallas; Dennis Silva-KSTC-TV/St. Paul; Matt Sautter-Imagine Communications/Denver; Judie Henninger-Valentine Productions/Santa Monica; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA; David Westberg-SAG-AFTRA Federal Credit Union/Burbank; Alan Perris/Beverly Hills.
Later — Chris
Chris Pursell for Cynopsis | Sports @VegasandVine
04.18.16
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