ESPN locked down a deal with the Organizing Committee for the 2015 Special Olympics World Games, LA2015, that will see ESPN becomes the Official Broadcaster of the world’s largest sports and humanitarian event around the world. The Games begin July 25, 2015 with ESPN nabbing rights to the Opening Ceremony from the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, daily competition, Closing Ceremony and other cultural activities. As part of its programming lineup, ESPN will produce the Opening Ceremony live as well as a nightly highlights program and KABC-TV will also play a role in the coverage for the Los Angeles market.

On a similar vein, NBA TV’s Game 5 between the Grizzlies and Thunder delivered a 0.6 household score and 939,000 total viewers to rank as the most-viewed program in the network’s history.

FOX Sports is hitting the green earlier than expected, locking in a multi-year, multi-platform deal for the Franklin Templeton Shootout for FOX and FOX Sports 1. Taking place this from December 11-13 and will mark the first PGA TOUR-sanctioned event televised by FOX and FOX Sports 1, with a minimum of 10 hours of live tournament coverage on deck. Joe Buck and Greg Norman make their broadcasting debut together at the event.

Meanwhile, NBCSN continues to ride the momentum of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs and Premier League games to average 165,000 Total Day viewers in April. That ranks as the most-watched April in the network’s history, according to live plus same day data released by The Nielsen Company. Overall viewership is up 126% over last April, with NBCSN’s April (March 31-April 27) Total Day growth among Adults 18-49 hit 146%. Year-to-date, NBCSN’s Total Day performance is hitting 203,000 viewers and up 208% from last year at this point.

Continuing the theme, Golf Channel also delivered its most-watched April ever, even without Tiger on the course. For 24-hour Total Day numbers, the network drew 130,000 average viewers per minute for a 2% year-over-year increase compared to April 2013. Highlights include Golf Channel’s Masters Week, Arnie, and the LPGA Tour, which posted a 38% YOY increase during the month.

Golf Channel and NBC Sports also laid out plans for The PLAYERS Championship with nearly 100 hours of combined live coverage during tournament week from May 5-11. That will be broken down via a combined 33 hours of coverage of live golf on the channels and more than 43 live hours of news coverage at golf’s biggest events with Live From THE PLAYERS. Golf Channel on NBC’s live tournament coverage will be anchored by Dan Hicks and Johnny Miller. Terry Gannon and Sir Nick Faldo will host early rounds on Golf Channel. Production will see the 17th hole and its island green will be covered by a total of nine high-definition cameras, including a microscopic lens embedded in the lip of the small bunker fronting the green. Other elements will see the Actioncam and pole-cams.

The May 6 edition of ESPN’s Baseball Tonight will take place from the Hollywood premiere of Walt Disney Pictures’ Million Dollar Arm beginning at 10p. Features will include interviews with lead actor Jon Hamm from a set on the "green carpet" just outside of the El Capitan Theater. Baseball Tonight’s Karl Ravech will serve as host alongside Barry Larkin and Tim Kurkjian.

The NBA owners’ advisory and finance committee is slated to hold a meeting today to discuss the next steps in the removal of Donald Sterling as owner of the Los Angeles Clippers. Meanwhile, a slew of sports and media players are lining up for a piece of the team with names that include Oprah, David Geffen, Matt Damon, Oscar De La Hoya, and Shawn "P. Diddy" Combs all expressing interest in ownership.

HBO Sports debuts an all-new installment of 2 Days on May 17 at 12:30a when the feature segment returns with a behind-the-scenes look at world middleweight champion Sergio Martinez. 2 Days: Sergio Martinez premieres immediately following the HBO World Championship Boxing telecast from The Forum.

Universal Sports will carry the inaugural Wings for Life World Run will be televised live on Universal Sports Network on Sunday at 5:30a with a twist. Coverage of this global simultaneous ultra-running race will showcase thousands of runners in 34 races that don’t have a finish line in an effort to raise funds for spinal cord research. The Wings for Life World Run features a unique chasing finish line comprised of "catcher cars" that pursue, catch and eliminate runners by passing the, during the race. The process continues until there is one man and one woman left running in each race, and eventually the world. Trace Worthington hosts with analysis by Toni Reavis, and reporting by Ed Eyestone and Juli Henner.

ESPN and DISH announced that Longhorn Network will be available to fans within the state of Texas and nationwide beginning Wednesday, May 28. Carriage of the network is part of recently announced agreement between DISH and the Walt Disney Company.

In addition, ESPN and Google Fiber locked in a deal for carriage of the SEC Network on Google Fiber when the multiplatform network launches on August 14, 2014. The channel will be available to fans and followers of the Southeastern Conference in Kansas City (KS and MO) and Provo (UT) at launch as well as in Austin (TX) when Google’s network is completed there.

ESPN Radio will offer all 64 games of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil live, beginning with the Brazil/Croatia opener on June 12 through the Final on July 13. All matches will also be streamed online on ESPNRadio.com and available via the ESPN Radio App and all of ESPN Radio’s FIFA World Cup broadcasts will also be featured on SiriusXM. JP Dellacamera and Tommy Smyth will pair up for the coverage again, having called matches during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Other talent will include Mark Donaldson, Ross Dyer, Shake Hislop, Paul Mariner, Shep Messing and Janusz Michallik.

The Paley Center for Media celebrates the 35th anniversary of ESPN at its annual spring benefit dinner in New York, on May 28, at 6:30p. ESPN Executive Chairman George Bodenheimer, and President John Skipper will be awarded the Paley Prize for Innovation and Excellence in recognition of their landmark achievements in media and their impact around the globe. The evening will be emceed by anchors Bob Ley and Chris Berman, and each decade in the network’s history will be hosted by prominent ESPN on-air personalities.
 

Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question: After rising to stardom as a citizen of Yugoslavia, Monica Seles wrapped up her career playing for what country? Answer: The US. Kudos: Phyllis McQuillan-MSG Media/NY; Ben Sturner-Leverage Agency/NY; Andreas Droste-NBC Sports/NY; Michael Brown-PGA TOUR/NY; Lauren Varga-HRP/NY; Ken Nice-Yoh/Silver Spring; Gordon Beck-Beck Communication LLC/Northeast Harbor; Jerry A. Kapner-Kapner Group/Montclair; Synda Kollman-Charter Marketing Group/Boca Raton; Sarah Traficanto-Turner Broadcasting/Chicago; David Hauptman/Denver; Matt Sautter-OpenTV/Golden; Mary Downey-Mary Downey Casting/Burbank; Peter Steckelman-The Tennis Channel/Santa Monica; Anne Wettig-Fox Sports 1/LA; Don Surath-KPIX-TV/KBCW-TV/San Francisco.

Roberta Caploe: Editorial Director @robertacaploe
Diane K Schwartz: Senior Vice President, Media Communications Group

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