CYNOPSISSPORTS
09.15.14 Good morning. It’s Monday, September 15, 2014, and this is your first early morning Sports briefing.
The countdown is on for Back9Network, which bows on a national TV stage on Sept. 29 via its new deal with DIRECTV channel 262. The golf-lifestyle channel hits the airwaves with nearly 1,100 hours of original programming in its first year, including ten original primetime series, live morning, midday, and evening shows, and a slate of golf lifestyle programming covering travel, real estate, food, fashion, courses and equipment. The launch comes after the brand established a successful digital presence that offers a taste of the network’s flavor.
Cynopsis Sports spoke with Carlos Silva, President and COO of Back9Network, about the launch, the challenges of creating a network and filling voids in the marketplace.
Silva on the state of the channel: As you know, it’s not easy to launch a TV network but we’ve had a pretty good digital presence and we’ve continue to grow the audience. The center of the wheel of course has been the network and we’ve been hard at work behind the scenes. Launching on DIRECTV has always been part of the dream and they are a terrific partner, giving us a national footprint so we’ll be in 20 million homes. Over the last couple of months, we’ve been building out our studios and bringing on some more talent.
On taking the job: For me, it was about the marketplace. With so many golfers out there and us feeling like there’s a lot of them who are not consuming television, we just think there is a great mass market that hasn’t been addressed. The great golfers and their birdies and bogies have been covered, but the whole lifestyle, travel, vacations, equipment and the clubhouse mentality hasn’t been addressed.
If we went and played golf, we’d probably talk about Rory or Bubba and those guys for a hole or two. But for the other 16 holes, we’d talk about cars, food, travel and fun. That’s a big part of what everybody thinks about all week long, waiting for a Saturday to go hang out with their friends. The other piece of this is bringing everybody into the fun of golf. We think the game needs it and we want to invite everybody in and enjoy the game whether they play three times a year or 50 times a year.
On building networks: You’ve got to be there every day and get a little lucky. I’m a big believer that building digital presence while you’re working is vital. I think the distributors like to see that audience, even more so now than 5 years ago. It’s fine to have a good story and a good pitch, but if you can say you’ve got 2 or 5 million uniques coming every month, they raise an eyebrow and know that audiences like your message. You’ve also got to have a marketplace, and you’ve got have a lot of advertisers who support you. We’ve gotten a lot of confirmation on that front. Golf is a healthy marketplace and that helps us as well.
On programming: We have really taken a strong stance around the primetime shows we’ve got that are very character driven. In the case of some of the other popular shows, such as Duck Dynasty, you don’t have to be into fishing or hunting to enjoy the show. There’s a lot of that with the shows here. For example, we’ve got a show called Ball Hogs, which is about a guy who dives into the lake to reclaim the balls. That’s very much a similar type of show because he has such a strong personality. Ahmad Rashad is also part of the network and he will be bringing his friends as guests for his show where they’ll play golf and he will offer his own style of interviews for the series with guys like Michael Jordan and Bill Murray.
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Wednesday, September 17, 2014 | 1:30 PM – 3PM
CBS and NFL Network’s simulcast of Thursday Night Football kicked off on the right foot, as the Pittsburgh/Baltimore game pulled an overnight household rating/share of 13.7/23. That is up 108% from last year’s comparable game on the NFL Network alone in the 56 metered markets. Versus primetime programming on CBS a year ago, the matchup was up 215% at a 12.9/22 and marked CBS’s best primetime Thursday delivery since May 18, 2006. TNF returns Sept. 18 with Tampa Bay/Atlanta.
Coverage of the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League group stages launches next week. FOX Sports has lined up nearly 20 games over three days on the FOX Sports family with coverage that includes the premiere of FOX Sports’ Multimatch 90, a live whip-around show which brings viewers every goal and big play in near-real time. The UEFA Champions League kicks off Match Day 1 on FOX Sports 1 with Arsenal/Borussia Dortmund at 2p on Tuesday and continuing on Wednesday at 2p with Manchester City/Bundesliga. Meanwhile, Liverpool and Chelsea will be featured on FOX Sports 2 on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. The UEFA Europa League returns with group stage play on Thursday at 12:30p with Tottenham Hotspur/FK Partizan. Rob Stone hosts pregame, halftime and postgame UEFA Champions League coverage from Los Angeles with analysts Eric Wynalda, Warren Barton and Brian McBride.
Meanwhile, ESPN also offers live coverage of the UEFA Champions League group stage on Tuesday and Wednesday at 2:30p. The company is delivering Spanish-language telecasts of eight matches on ESPN Deportes TV, ESPN Deportes+ and WatchESPN, including Real Madrid/FC Basel 1893 on Tues. followed by Bayern Munchen/Manchester City on Wed. ESPN3 will carry ten addition live matches at the same times. Overall, ESPN Deportes, ESPN Deportes+ & ESPN3 will showcase 62 matches group stage and knockout round on the networks.
Mark your calendars for our Cynopsis Sports social media conference for Dec. 8 in NY, and see first-hand the pivotal direction of brand engagement via our Social Media Leaderboard honors, terrific keynotes, insightful case studies and panels on measuring social analytics, the future of interactive technology and more!
Warner Bros. is reportedly looking to snatch up the WWE’s library, which features an estimated 150,000 hours of content that dates back to the 1950s. The Wrap also writes that which the promotion’s home video library is currently managed by Cinedigm but remains unclear if the talks would affect the material in their collection.
Speaking of the WWE, the company locked in an extension with Ten Sports in India to broaden their television distribution agreement for another five years through 2019. The deal will also see the partnership now include localized content, more languages and live events. Ten Sports will now introduce a new one-hour fully customized version of Raw tailored specifically for the Indian audience and add WWE Main Event to its programming lineup as well as air WWE content in multiple Indian languages for the first time and bring WWE live events back to India in 2015.
The Campbell Soup Company made its feelings clear over the Ray Rice controversies in the NFL, according to ABC News Radio. In a statement, the company said “Domestic violence is abhorrent. We are watching developments closely and look forward to the findings of the independent investigation underway. Upon completion of the investigation, we expect the NFL to take appropriate action." The league said last week that former FBI Director Robert Mueller would lead an independent probe into the entire matter, including the NFL’s handling of the investigation.
Meanwhile, Nike, after dropping Ray Rice a week ago, has now ended its relationship with South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius, according to ESPN. The contract termination formally ends the brand’s relationship with the athlete. In February of last year, Nike suspended Pistorius’ contract after he was charged with murdering his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. On Friday, Pistorius was found to have killed his girlfriend out of negligence. Pistorius will now be sentenced on Oct. 13.
Join us on Sept. 17 for our newest webinar, “Engaging with Teens and Millennials Across Platforms.” The session will break down how sports are tapping the power of broadcast, digital, and the second (third, and fourth) screens to cultivate and empower young consumers, showcasing best practices to learn how they’re attracting and engaging teens and millennials in the games they play, watch and consume. Click here for more info.
NBC Sports Live Extra’s stream of the final rivalry game between Michigan and Notre Dame delivered the most-streamed Notre Dame game ever among all key metrics. The stream delivered 95,000 uniques and 4.8 million minutes watched, for markups of 175% and 223%, respectively, compared to last season’s per game average.
The Whistle has added Deirdre Lester to the roster, where she will serve as Executive Vice President of Advertising and Sponsorship for the company. She previously worked as VP of Sponsorships at Major League Baseball Advanced Media and has worked at ESPN, Rivals.com and Yahoo! Sports.
Eagles/Colts on ESPN at 8:30p.
ON THIS DAY in 1996: The Texas Rangers retire their first number, Nolan Ryan’s #34.
In The Know: Only one kicker has ever won the AP NFL MVP Award. Who was he? (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: Hunter star Fred Dryer played on two NFL teams. Name one. Answer: Rams and Giants. Kudos: Joe Lyons-Back Nine Productions, Inc./Amsterdam; Jay Goldstein-AdMore/NY; Carl Schellenberger-VCA/NY; Tim DeLaney-Showtime Networks Inc./NY; Kyle Helm-CBS Sports Network/NY; Ken Nice-Yoh/Silver Spring; Joe Guarnieri-ESPN/Bristol; Barbara Linebarger-Turner Broadcasting/Atlanta; John Miller-NBC Sports Group/Stamford; Andy Pittman-Texas A&M University/College Station; Bob Ramsey-Weigel Broadcasting/Chicago; Rhett Grametbauer-Foam Finger Nation/Austin; Bill Robertson-WCHA/Minneapolis; Greg Moloznik-GLM Media/Scottsdale; David Hauptman/Denver; Mary Downey-Mary Downey Casting/Burbank; Lawrence Fan-San Jose State University/San Jose; Jack Simmons-Fox Sports/LA; Anthony Masucci-FTM Productions/Valley Village.
Later — Chris
Chris Pursell for Cynopsis | Sports @VegasandVine
09.15.14
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