| The PGA TOUR signed BetMGM to a multi-year content and marketing relationship to become an Official Betting Operator of the PGA TOUR. BetMGM will have rights in the United States to use PGA TOUR marks, rights to advertise within TOUR media and TOUR partner platforms, plus content and video rights allowing BetMGM Sportsbook platforms to create pre-game and post-game betting programming, as well as distribution of highlights to users who have placed bets. “BetMGM is part of a premium brand that is deeply connected to golf through sponsorship of various PGA TOUR players and tournaments,” said Norb Gambuzza, PGA TOUR Senior Vice President, Media and Gaming. “Through the power of the BetMGM brand and resources, this new relationship will help accelerate our sports betting strategy, and enable the TOUR to reach new fans and further engage current fans who enjoy betting on golf.”
PROGRAMMING
The audience tally for NBC Sports’ opening weekend of the NHL Qualifying Round is in, with Nielsen numbers and digital data from Adobe Analytics averaging a Total Audience Delivery of 760,000 viewers, up 91% over the NBC/NBCSN 2019-20 regular-season average. The weekend’s six Qualifying Round cable games combined to average a TAD of 407,000 viewers, up 126%. Viewership was topped by Saturday night’s Canadiens/Penguins matchup in primetime on NBC, which reeled in an average of 1.529 million viewers.
Sunday’s coverage of the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational on CBS ranked as the most-watched round of St. Jude in 19 years, averaging 3.204 million viewers, up +38% from last year. The tournament was also the most-watched sports broadcast of the weekend. Since the return to live golf in June, CBS Sports’ overall PGA Tour viewership is up 27% from comparable events last year, averaging 2.462 million viewers.
Speaking of CBS, the network’s live airing of Sunday’s 2020 World TeamTennis Finals match delivered 556,000 viewers, making it the most watched in the league’s 45-year history. The victory by the New York Empire earned them the King Trophy and $500,000 in prize money and marked the first time that the WTT’s Finals have aired live on network television. “By almost all metrics this has been the most successful season in World TeamTennis history,” said WTT CEO Carlos Silva. “I can’t thank our partners, sponsors, WTT staff and the players and coaches enough for helping us responsibly bring tennis back in front of fans during these challenging times. Without this team effort, with safety our number one priority, we would not have been able to complete this season and crown a champion.”
Roger Penske will not allow fans to attend the Indianapolis 500 later this month, with the 104th running of the race will take place on Aug. 23. Penske told The AP on Tuesday that the reversal on the spectator policy was “the toughest business decision I’ve ever made in my life.”
Professional Fighters League opened the doors to a new OTT platform, providing fight fans with access to hundreds of hours of premium PFL content with the PFL MMA app available now for free on Apple TV, Roku, Fire, Android, and iOS devices. “With the launch of our first OTT platform, we’re excited to fulfill the growing global demand for our product by providing fight fans around the world with free access to premium PFL content wherever, whenever and however they want to consume it,” said PFL CEO Peter Murray. PFL MMA will feature exclusive, never-before-seen interviews and footage that will provide fans with unprecedented access to the league and will monetize the OTT platform through sponsorship and advertising opportunities for leading brand partners, in addition to microtransaction purchases for fans tied to gaming and exclusive content.
Meanwhile, Bellator MMA and Pluto TV partnered to launch an exclusive channel on Pluto TV featuring “iconic, action-packed past matches showcasing legendary talent and champions all from Bellator’s extensive library of content.” The Bellator MMA channel on Pluto TV officially launched with nonstop, adrenaline-rich entertainment and can be found in the “Sports” category on the leading, free streaming television service in the US. “I am excited for the launch of the Bellator MMA channel on Pluto TV that will feature unlimited access to our extensive content library,” said Bellator President Scott Coker. “This is a great way to increase the promotion’s visibility across additional ViacomCBS platforms, while giving our fans the opportunity to relive these incredible moments from inside the Bellator cage.”
As part of the broadcast enhancements for the NBA Restart, NBA Digital is offering fans alternate betting-focused telecasts on NBA League Pass and NBA TV via the NBA App and NBA.com through NBA TV’s direct-to-consumer subscription product. During select seeding games, expert talent will provide fans with unique insights while overlays featuring betting odds are displayed throughout matchups. As the presenting partner of NBABet Stream, BetMGM will be featured within graphics during each NBABet Stream and BetMGM will keep fans informed by delivering real-time betting lines and statistics.
Join us on August 12 as the leaders in sports media compete for the win at the Cynopsis Sports Media Awards. In addition to these breakout finalists (view full list here) you’ll hear from this year’s impressive Luminary Winners (Titus O’Neil – WWE, Mark Silverman – FOX Sports, Andrea Joyce – NBCSports + Doritos – Brand of the year).
ESPN+ announced plans to offer fans 12 continuous hours of exclusive Featured Group coverage from the first round of the PGA Championship on Thursday, starting at 10a. Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and World No. 1 Justin Thomas will be among the players in the Featured Group coverage, with four featured groups throughout the day.
Speaking of which, SiriusXM will deliver listeners nationwide comprehensive play-by-play and talk coverage of the 2020 PGA Championship, from Aug. 6-9. Live hole-by-hole coverage, which SiriusXM will co-produce with Westwood One, will air starting at 4p on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. On Sunday, live coverage will begin at 3p. PGA Championship programming will air nationwide on the SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio channel. For this year’s event, SiriusXM will be employing a unique broadcasting set-up that will limit the number of personnel on site at the event while maintaining a high level of coverage that fans will enjoy. SiriusXM golf play-by-play voice Brian Katrek will broadcast with analysts Mark Carnevale and Carl Paulson from remote studios in Orlando, using a bank of video feeds.
ESPN 8: The Ocho enters new territory on Saturday at 9a, as Fortnite players will be able to jump into Party Royale and watch the annual event, with cornhole, death diving, robot fights, and more, all live from Party Royale’s Big Screen. Additionally, ESPN will make a collection of Ocho programming on demand within the ESPN app.
Speaking of which, at 8p on ESPN2, Jorge Masvidal will take on American Cornhole League superstar Cody Henderson in “The Grudge Match”, which will be broadcast as a special event within the ACL’s Pit Boss Man and Woman of the Year Shootouts. |
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One Week From Today:
The Virtual Cynopsis Sports Media Awards
Join Cynopsis Sports and your peers from 2PM – 3PM ET on August 12th as we honor the best of the best, from shows to mobile apps and more, as well as the innovators making it all happen. With more than 80 companies represented, this is the perfect opportunity to meet and share insights about the past year’s success stories, as well as what lies ahead.
VIEW FINALISTS AND REGISTER FOR FREE TODAY
Sponsored by Twitch
Supporters: WWE, Blok Sports, NBCSports, SiriusXM, Showtime |
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| SPONSORSHIP & PROMOTION
Align Technology, makers of the Invisalign, entered an agreement with the NFL to make the Invisalign brand the Official Clear Aligner Sponsor of the NFL. Through this agreement, the Invisalign brand will connect with doctors, patients, and consumers through an extended network of NFL sponsored channels and support a variety of community initiatives championed by NFL Clubs – including youth focused programs. The Invisalign brand will be featured in multi-media advertising during the NFL season as well as in the off-season, including in-doctor’s office marketing available to help drive patient interest, as well as various league level events and activations to further push demand and raise awareness of doctor led orthodontic care.
Hyperice, the recovery company known for its sports massage devices, announced a multiyear partnership to become the Official Recovery Technology Partner of the NBA and will now provide NBA players with access to the custom-designed Hyperbox featuring a Hypervolt device. “Our partnership with Hyperice furthers our commitment to optimizing player performance and recovery through innovative technology,” said Dan Rossomondo, NBA senior vice president, media and business development. “We are grateful to have the opportunity to team up with Hyperice as the NBA season restarts and offer the benefits of Hypervolt devices to players while they recover courtside.”
DIGITAL, DATA & TECH
EA Sports cemented a multi-year licensing agreement with A.C. Milan and Inter Milan to serve as the exclusive Official Video Games Partner of both clubs. “Continuing to elevate strategic club partnerships in Italy is crucial to our vision and commitment to grow the love of sport, and in this case, global football worldwide through authentic interactive experiences,” said Nick Wlodyka, Vice President & GM, EA SPORTS FIFA. “We look forward to offering fans an innovative and interactive FIFA experience for years to come.”
ESPORTS
Riot Games scored by an agreement with Chinese streaming video platform Bilibili that grants the platform exclusive broadcasting rights to its major League of Legends global events. The three-year deal, reportedly valued at $113 million per Beijing News, kicks in with this autumn’s 2020 League of Legends World Championship and also include the annual Mid-Season Invitational as well as All-Star events. Bilibili will also create original streaming and on-demand video content around the competitions, and help co-produce a 10th-anniversary documentary special about the League of Legends World Championship.
Elsewhere in China, DreamHack and ESL locked in a one-year deal with DouYu, one of China’s leading streaming platforms, that will see the ESL Pro Tour for StarCraft II and WarCraft III be live streamed exclusively in 2020 and 2021, covering standard Mandarin and other Chinese languages and dialects. “Here at ESL we are always looking for opportunities to extend our distribution portfolio to reach as many people as possible”, said Frank Uddo, Senior Vice President Global Media at ESL. “DouYu is a premier streaming platform and this deal, for the StarCraft II and WarCraft 3 ESL Pro Tours, marks a significant step in our ambitions to provide the best viewing experience for Chinese-speaking fans all around the world.”
ESL also announced that IEM New York will begin on Oct. 6 as an online event. Because of travel restrictions, the event will be split up into three divisions: North America, CIS, and Europe and offering a prize pool of $250,000.
Allied Esports announced its participation in the VALORANT Ignition Series, Riot Games’ first official tournament series for the game, with the creation of Allied Esports Odyssey. The online European tournament will be produced from Allied Esports’ HyperX Esports Studio in Hamburg, Germany, from August 11-16. “The Ignition Series has allowed partners from all over the world to experiment with a vast amount of competitive formats, allowing fans of VALORANT esports to help us identify which competitive structures lead to the most exciting matches,” said Kasra Jafroodi, Esports Strategy Lead for VALORANT Esports. “The format Allied Esports Odyssey is testing with their event will provide viewers with an innovative competition that will further grow the competitive scene in Europe.”
INDUSTRY & ROSTER MOVES
Dwayne Johnson came out as part of a group of investors who agreed to purchase the XFL for around $15 million. The league declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy April 13 and has been seeking a buyer for the past three months. Other investors include business partner Dany Garcia RedBird Capital. |
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Breaking down barriers and enlivening our industry
These are the women getting things done…
The 2020 Cynopsis Top Women in Media Awards
Join us on Oct 13 – 16 for a virtual awards event celebrating the trailblazers who are powering through a pandemic with breakout campaigns, creative strategies and motivational content. Register for free today and hear from each of these honorees who are taking on the “new normal” world of media with style.
REGISTER TODAY
Sponsored by: Turnkey Search |
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On this Day
2013: MLB bans New York Yankees infielder Alex Rodriguez for 211 games.
In the Know
Alex Rodriguez wore #13 for the Yankees, and what number for the Rangers and Mariners? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company and city).
Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question
Which team did the White Sox face in the 1919 World Series that brought out the Black Sox scandal? Answer: The Reds. Kudos: John Ferlazzo/London; Michael Ritz-Lenox Advisors/NY; Denis Barry-CBS/NY; Steve Scheer-FOX Sports/NY; Matt Sautter-WideOrbit/Harrisburg; Synda Kollman-Charter Marketing Group/Boca Raton; Mike May-R2 Innovative Technologies/Wellington; Andy Pittman-TAMU/College Station; Joe Lyons-ESPN/Dallas; Tom Doherty-Starcom/Chicago; Jason Brist-Outdoor Sportsman Group/Chicago; Dory Petsrillo-CoxReps/Dallas; Dave Sikula-San Francisco State University/San Francisco; Greg Dudsic/Venice; Bob Ramsey/Palm Springs; Aditya Putcha-Autistic Art Critic/LA |
SENIOR LINE PRODUCER
Newsmax Media
NYC
Responsible for the production and execution of live political news programming, and recorded video segments for television, and digital platforms. 3+ yrs experience line producing. Full info HERE (8/17)
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER PRIMETIME >>
Newsmax Media/NYC: Responsible for designing and building prime time show, managing show hosts and production team, identifying and integrating guests, overseeing and executing the production of key video & graphic elements. 3+ yrs EP exp or political news & talk programming. Full info HERE (8/17)
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER >>
Newsmax Media/NYC: Responsible for designing and building shows, managing show hosts and production team, identifying and integrating guests, overseeing and executing the production of key video & graphic elements. 3+ yrs EP exp or political news & talk programming. Full info HERE (8/17)
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER >>
Newsmax Media/NYC: Write for fast paced news and opinion show. You are an exceptional storyteller with a command of political news and cultural trends. At least 3 years of national or large market local news experience. Full info HERE (8/17)
PRODUCER >>
Newsmax Media/NYC: Responsible for the production of live news & talk show, and recorded video segments for television, and digital platforms. 3+ yrs in TV news and/or talk production. Full info HERE (8/17)
DIRECTOR, BRAND PARTNERSHIPS >>
Omnia Media/LA or NY: Seeking individual to sell a portfolio of social and digital ad products, including custom branded content, video spons, programmatic inv and influencer mktg. With a strong grasp of video games/gaming culture, and dig platforms. 4 yrs exp in video content/dig media. Full info HERE (8/14)
VIDEO EDITOR, MARKETING >>
VICE Media/Brooklyn, NY: Seeking experienced editor for cutting trailers, TV campaigns, digital spots/campaigns, special content and in-house reels. Must have 5yrs exp, be able to thrive in a fast-paced environment as well as prioritize on-going assignments. Full info HERE (8/14)
SENIOR MANAGER, GROWTH MARKETING >>
Kanopy/Remote, USA: Seeking multi-disciplinary background candidate with mrktg, business strategy, and data analytics exp. Plus a passion and knowledge of the entire film ecosystem. Min 5yrs dir-to-consumer mktg exp at a subscription-based/video streaming co with a proven record of executing growth mktg strategies. Full info HERE (8/13)
DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS >>
The Hive/Knoxville, TN: Seeking highly qualified individual to oversee the orderly day-to-day function of production operations, with a particular emphasis on post prod operations for TN & NY offices and TN facilities management. Reports directly to the Pres and VP of Production. Full info HERE (8/13)
DIR, BRAND MARKETING & STRATEGY PLANNING >>
Nickelodeon/NYC: Seeking a group brand leader responsible for the development of mktg strategies in support of Nickelodeon and any of its related content and sub-brands. Min 7yrs exp in consumer strategy, digital, marketing or media. Full info HERE (8/11)
ASSOCIATE PRODUCE >>
Sesame Workshop/NYC: Oversee the production of 2 consecutive 30-minute animated specials and 20×5-minute animated segments. 5+yrs in Series Animation Production at a Production Co. or Studio preferred. Full info HERE (8/10)
LINE PRODUCER >>
CNBC/Englewood Cliffs NJ: Responsible for managing line production for 1 hour of a live show. 5+ exp segment producing and/or booking in a live television environment with demonstrated written communication and research skills, Full info HERE (8/10)
SENIOR PRODUCER >>
CNBC/Englewood Cliffs NJ: Support the executive producer of (show) in helping to lead and drive the editorial vision of the show, the content and management of the staff. 5+yrs exp in live TV (i.e. financial news network, morning shows, cable shows, broadcast TV) Full info HERE (8/9)
SEGMENT PRODUCER >>
CNBC/Englewood Cliffs NJ:
Developing and producing live and taped guest segments. At least 2 years of experience booking and producing in a live television environment with demonstrated writing, research, and telephone communication skills. Full info HERE (8/9)
WRITER >>
CNBC/Englewood Cliffs NJ:
Responsible for organizing and crafting accurate, unbiased, and engaging news content aligned with the stated mission of the news program. At least 5 years of general news writing experience at the local and/or national television level. Full info HERE (8/9)
COPY EDITOR >>
CNBC/Englewood Cliffs NJ: Responsible for overseeing spelling, syntax, grammar, style and ensuring consistency for written articles, video copy, graphics and social media posts. Full info HERE (8/9)
COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR >>
The Africa Channel/N. Hollywood: Digital-savvy individual, incorporating online tools and in-person networking to create relationships & build the company’s brand both online and off. 2 years’ exp, with at least three years of exp in a communications role. Full info HERE (8/8) |
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