05/22/17: NHL on the importance of Access

Good morning. It’s Monday May 22, 2017 and this is your first early morning Sports briefing.

Friday saw the return of Showtime’s acclaimed behind-the-scenes documentary series ALL ACCESS: Quest for the Stanley Cup, once again showcasing the pressure of the postseason through exclusive access to the four final NHL teams in contention – Anaheim Ducks, Nashville Predators, Ottawa Senators and Pittsburgh Penguins. After season one of the series became “the first of its kind to nationally televise the championship of a major North American sport as it unfolded,” the program’s return continues the league’s content strategy of humanizing its faces to connect with fans. Cynopsis Sports spoke with NHL Chief Content Officer Steve Mayer to discuss the second season of the show and how it fits into the league’s engagement strategy, convincing teams to take part, and what types of content are connecting with fans.

Mayer on the NHL’s approach to content: In any season, your biggest interest is to reach as many fans as possible – both the huge hockey fans as well as the casual fans – and provide them with content that they find compelling, and, at the end the day, they can consume in the long-form as well as in the short-form. This was a unique year for us because of the centennial, we knew that content needed to be a huge part of how we celebrated 100 years, and we’ve put out close to 1300 new original pieces of video so far, so we’ve taken a very thought-out and huge approach when it comes to content to get as many things out there to our fans to help understand the history of the game, as well as to highlight what’s going on in the league and put our stars out there in a compelling way.

On successful content: We are seeing a variety of content connecting with audiences. Of course, everybody loves game highlights, they love players being mic’d up and some of our more successful pieces have been about giving fans that deeper level of access within a game. The combination of music and content in highlights also works extremely well. Taking a popular song and blending it with the action gives us huge numbers. There are also those moments when players become human, whether it is inspirational stories or doing something off the ice or having fun, which also resonate extremely well. History pieces, showcasing the top 100 players or games, etc. are also very popular. It is amazing how the true, lifelong hockey fan can’t get enough of the great stories and memories and they love to hear from those alumni.

On the role of ALL ACCESS: This show is something that our fans have really enjoyed. We think we give a little more access in this show than you may see in other sports, so our players, coaches, managers, etc. are all used to it. When it comes to the Stanley Cup, we wanted to show the quest for a championship in a major sport like it’s never been done before. Last year, we were pleasantly surprised how much material ended up being incredibly compelling for this show. It shows the drama of the sport and how much these players want to win the Stanley Cup.

On getting teams involved: The key is to understand the benefits of doing a show like this and reassuring them that our cameras would be flies on the wall. We are not going to disrupt or change anything that they would normally do and because we have done so many of these shows and Ross Greenburg and his team have consistently been our producers, there is a trust factor that you cannot discount.

ON THE AIR

FOX Sports is giving a new spin to its racing coverage, announcing plans for a live broadcast of the June 10 NASCAR XFINITY Series race that will be called entirely by active Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers, marking the first time that a nationally televised live sporting event has featured an on-air team comprised strictly of athletes actively competing in that sport. Kevin Harvick serves as the play-by-play announcer alongside analysts Joey Logano and Clint Bowyer. Meanwhile, Ryan Blaney, Erik Jones and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. cover pit road, while Danica Patrick and Denny Hamlin host FOX race coverage from the Hollywood Hotel mobile studio.

The NHL lined up dates for the 2017 Stanley Cup Final, announcing that play will begin on May 29. Game 2 will take place on May 31, with subsequent dates set for June 3, 5, 8, 11 and 14.

ESPN inked a deal with Management Plus Enterprises, creators and owners of The World Series of Beach Volleyball to telecast the WSOBV President’s Cup from July 13-16 from Long Beach. The President’s Cup features the top eight beach volleyball teams from the USA, including Kerri Walsh Jennings, competing against the eight best international teams in the world. Matches will run on ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2 with the telecast kicking off the start of a new relationship with MPE, in which the network will support MPE’s new initiative to expand the WSOBV platform by developing a minimum of three major tent pole beach volleyball events that will take place in the summer of 2018 and be telecast by ESPN.

The NBA unveiled finalists for six major awards that honor top performers from the 2016-17 regular season: Kia NBA Most Valuable Player, Kia NBA Rookie of the Year, Kia NBA Sixth Man Award, Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year, Kia NBA Most Improved Player and NBA Coach of the Year. The winners for these awards will be revealed during the inaugural NBA Awards on TNT, taking place on June 26 at 9p. Among the contenders will be which will be James Harden, Kawhi Leonard, and Russell Westbrook for the Kia NBA Most Valuable Player award. The NBA Awards will feature six new fan-voted award categories: Dunk of the Year, Best Style, Block of the Year, Assist of the Year, Game Winner of the Year and Top Performance of the Year.

MLB Network is set to launch Faces of Baseball Week today, featuring five straight days in which the channel will profile a top player who will be featured on a game telecast on MLB Network that day. The schedule includes Chicago Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant (today), Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout (May 23), Miami Marlins outfielder Giancarlo Stanton (May 24), Boston Red Sox outfielder Mookie Betts (May 25), and Seattle Mariners second baseman Robinson Cano (May 26). MLB Network will break down each player’s individual skillsets, their engaging personalities and positive off-the-field contributions, and their impact to the game on a national and local level.

Major League Soccer locked in new international TV deals, adding partners in New Zealand, Indian and Honduras to its growing map. In South Asia, the league is partnering with India’s DSport to offer five MLS regular season matches per week, as well as select MLS Cup Playoff games and the MLS Cup. In Honduras, the league will partner with R-Media to televise one live regular season match per week, as well as the MLS All-Star Game and postseason contests. Television New Zealand, meanwhile, carry at least one live MLS regular season matches per week; the MLS All-Star Game, select MLS Cup Playoff games and MLS Cup. Overall, MLS is now distributed in more than 170 countries and territories around the world.

AXS TV announced plans to be the exclusive television broadcast home of New Japan Pro Wrestling’s first-ever U.S. event, titled the G1 Special in the USA. The telecast takes place on July 1 at 8p from the Long Beach Convention Center. Following the live event broadcast of the G1 Special, AXS TV will premiere the second night of the event through a four-hour showcase on July 7 at 8p that will feature every match from night two in Long Beach with limited commercial interruption. “New Japan is coming to the U.S. for the first time in its illustrious 45-year history,” said AXS TV Fights CEO Andrew Simon. “The timing for the first-ever US event and live TV broadcast is perfect—the weekly NJPW television show on AXS TV is a hit and the tickets for the G1 SPECIAL in the USA sold out within hours. We are excited to see how fans respond to this historic live broadcast.”

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

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SPEAKERS INCLUDE:

Shelly Diamond, Chief Client Officer – Young & Rubicam

Brynne Dunn Jones, Sr. Manager of Corporate Responsibility – AT&T

Belle Frank, Chief Strategy Officer – Young & Rubicam

SPONSORSHIP & PROMOTION

Sir Richard Branson and Virgin Sport CEO Mary Wittenberg, joined Gene McCarthy, President and CEO, ASICS Americas to announce the launch of Virgin Sport San Francisco : Festival of Fitness. The event serves as the latest activation designed to “bring people together and make challenge fun” and will mark Virgin Sport’s first US event, including the Virgin Sport SF Half marathon on Oct. 15. ASICS will serve as its global performance sport partner and sponsor.

DIGITAL & STREAMING

Roy Jones Jr. Boxing Promotions is teaming with Linacre Media and Facebook for “FIGHTNIGHT Live.” The program will run on Facebook on July 15 at 9p from Wild Horse Pass Casino and Hotel to bring the action, along with behind-the-scenes interviews and other content to fans. The card is promoted by Roy Jones Jr. and Keith Veltre of Roy Jones Jr. Boxing Promotions, featuring a main event of NABA Super Welterweight Champion John “The Phenom” Vera Jr./Daniel Rosario.

ESPORTS

The Automobile Club de l’Ouest and Microsoft a revving up for a 24 Hours of Le Mans esports event, lining up the Forza Racing Championship Season 3: The Porsche Cup Elite finals for June 17-18 where it will run beside the famed endurance race. To open the partnership, ACO is launching an Official Endurance esports Category. Meanwhile, the victors of the Forza RC finals will be awarded their trophy on the same 24 Hours of Le Mans podium as the victors of the race. Over a hundred gamers will be present in the Race Village at Le Mans to take part in the event.

Gfinity locked in its schedule for this summer’s Gfinity Elite Series, announcing that the Elite Series Draft will take place on June 16, with the tournament beginning July 7 and running for nine consecutive weekends. . The league will be made up of eight professional eSports teams, allowing ‘challenger series’ and ‘Elite series draft’ amateur gamers to qualify to play for some top teams.

THE MAIN EVENT

Warriors/Spurs on ESPN at 9p.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

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ON THIS DAY in 1990: Andre Dawson receives a record five intentional walks in a game.

In The Know : Andre Dawson’s nickname is derived from what bird? ( Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company and city.)

Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question: The biggest hit from the Jerry Maguire soundtrack was Secret Garden, performed by which artist? Answers: Bruce Springsteen. Kudos: Pete Gautieri-A&E Networks/NY; Traci Liner-WME/IMG/NY; Holli Sarner-Home Team Sports/NY; Rick Ramage-United Talent Agency/NY; Chris Schwartz-ISC/Charlotte; Rick Rosenfelt-New York Red Bulls/Harrison; Synda Kollman-Charter Marketing Group/Deerfield Beach; Mike Wexler-Moroch/Atlanta; Lucie Prann-The Richards Group/Dallas; Robert Teinowitz-Live Action Media/Chicago; Lance Davis-ESPN Milwaukee-Good Karma Brands/Milwaukee; Kevin Micklo-Pinnacle Advertising/Chicago; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA; David Westberg-SAG-AFTRA Federal Credit Union/Burbank

Later — Chris

Chris Pursell @VegasandVine
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