12/21/18: ESPN goes Mega for CFP

Good morning. It’s Friday December 21, 2018 and this is your first early morning Sports briefing.

ESPN laid out plans for its most extensive New Year’s Six presentation ever, bringing back the MegaCast production and now offering up to 12 presentations for the College Football Playoff Semifinals at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic featuring Clemson/Notre Dame at 4p and the Capital One Orange Bowl between Alabama/Oklahoma at 8p on Dec. 29. The lineup will now see ESPN2 added as a viewing option, along with multiple ESPN3 streams, for the Rose Bowl Game and Allstate Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1 while the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl on Dec. 29, and the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 1 will also have alternate camera angles available on ESPN3.

ESPN will station more than 50 cameras inside AT&T Stadium and Hard Rock Stadium which will be available to the traditional telecast and offer key vantage points for the MegaCast production. The CFP Semifinals MegaCast will be showcased across ESPN2 (with Command Center), ESPNEWS (Coaches Film Room), ESPN Goal Line (DataCenter), ESPN Deportes, ESPN3 (SkyCam, All 22 and Hometown Audio Feeds), ESPN Radio, and ESPN Deportes Radio. SEC Network will have a presentation for the Orange Bowl.

PROGRAMMING

FOX Sports is bringing in ringers with the addition of Lennox Lewis and Joe Goossen to join blow-by-blow announcer Kenny Albert to call FOX PBC Fight Night on Dec. 22 at 8p on FOX, FOX Deportes and streaming on the FOX Sports app. Adrian Garcia Marquez, Erik Morales andJ aime Motta call the fights in Spanish on FOX Deportes. In addition, the broadcast features former lightweight champion Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini as an analyst, and hosts Chris Myers and Kate Abdo. Veteran combat sports journalist Heidi Androl reports and interviews fighters, while Jimmy Lennon Jr. and Larry Hazzard Sr. join the show as ring announcer and FOX Sports PBC rules expert/unofficial scorer, respectively.

CBS Sports and The Alliance of American Football revealed the announce teams for the inaugural 2019 season, which debuts on CBS on Feb. 9 at 8:30p with regional coverage featuring the San Antonio Commanders hosting the San Diego Fleet and the Atlanta Legends visiting the Orlando Apollos. Spero Dedes, Trent Green and Tiki Barber, along with reporter Jamie Erdahl, call the action from the Alamodome in San Antonio, while Andrew Catalon and Gary Danielson announce from UCF’s Spectrum Stadium in Orlando. Feb. 10 then sees CBS Sports Network begins its 11-week run televising The Alliance’s best matchup each week on Sundays at 4p with Ben Holden, Adam Archuleta and John Schriffen serving as the announce team for all games airing on CBS Sports Network.

The NBA announced that the Indiana Pacers and Sacramento Kings will play in two preseason games in Mumbai in 2019, marking the first games the NBA has played in India and the first games staged in the country by a North American sports league. The NBA India Games 2019 will take place Oct. 4 and 5 at the NSCI Dome. In addition to the games, the league and its partners will conduct interactive fan activities, Jr. NBA youth basketball programming and NBA Cares community outreach events that will bring the NBA experience to fans in Mumbai.

Dec. 28 will see NFL Network debut The Way Up – Chris Long & The Waterboys, a two-hour documentary produced by NFL Film and narrated by Uma Thurman. The program chronicles what it means to play for a cause for Super Bowl Champion and Eagles Defensive End Chris Long, whose service stretched from villages in Tanzania to communities across the US.

Major League Baseball and WAPA Television locked in a new multi-year rights agreement that will extend the network’s broadcast privileges in Puerto Rico. The extension continues WAPA’s current rights agreement, which includes select spring training games and regular season games. WAPA Television serves as the exclusive television broadcast partner in Puerto Rico of MLB jewel events including the World Series, League Championship Series, Division Series, Home Run Derby and the All-Star Game.

Pro Bowlers from the AFC and NFC will compete against each other in unique competitions at the Pro Bowl Skills Showdown for the third consecutive year on Jan. 24 at 9p on ESPN and Disney XD. New this year, the Pro Bowlers will compete in a 40 Yard Splash presented by McDonalds, where players participate in a football-inspired take on a fire bucket brigade, and a revamped Gridiron Gauntlet presented by Castrol EDGE, which showcases strength, speed and agility. Other event include: Best Hands presented by Madden NFL Overdrive; Precision Passing presented by Madden NFL Overdrive; and Epic Pro Bowl Dodgeball presented by Skittles.

SiriusXM’s Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo will share his top ten sports stories from 2018 on a special edition of his daily show, Mad Dog Unleashed, airing throughout the holidays on Mad Dog Sports Radio. The annual special will debut December 24 at 6p and will replay several times through the end of the year. The program will feature Russo listing his top ten sports stories on and off the field of play in 2018, with discussion of each and commentary from some of the people involved or in-the-know.

New York’s SNY signed on to become the home of New York City’s first professional rugby franchise, Rugby United New York and will televise nine games of RUNY’s inaugural season, with the premiere game on Jan. 27 at 5p. RUNY is set to join Major League Rugby after the League’s launch in 2018 with seven teams.

Discovery and the Ladies European Tour have locked in a new partnership that will see GOLFTV showcase the players and events in European women’s golf. The deal includes live rights to all Ladies European Tour events, as well as the next two Solheim Cups in 25 countries in Europe – including Denmark, Germany, Italy, Norway, Poland, Russia and Sweden.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

The 8^th Annual Cynopsis Sports Media Awards

[ENTER BY 1/25]

Entries are now open for the 8th Annual Cynopsis Sports Media Awards. This awards program is dedicated to celebrating the work of talented producers, hosts, sponsors and executives alike, and saluting the initiatives that drove audiences and turned sports viewers into fans over the past year. The best and brightest will be gathering on April 25th in NYC to watch as winners are announced, and the best of the best are celebrated in style, so save the date!

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SPONSORSHIP & ACTIVATION

The Players’ Tribune is partnering with Prime Video for a marketing collaboration designed to promote Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan over the holiday season. The campaign sees TPT tap the talents of Boston Celtics’ Jayson Tatum, Philadelphia 76ers’ Markelle Fultz and Los Angeles Lakers’ Kyle Kuzma to highlight “a new set of unexpected heroes” – their mothers. The new content will release around the NBA’s marquee Christmas Day games,

World Wide Technology extended its sponsorship agreement with Richard Petty Motorsports and driver Bubba Wallace. The deal sees World Wide Technology continue to be a primary sponsor of the No. 43 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 driven by Wallace and will be a major associate sponsor throughout the upcoming Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season. In addition, World Wide Technology will continue to provide Richard Petty Motorsports with data analytics, consulting and technology solutions.

DIGITAL, DATA & TECH

NBC Sports is launching a new, free-to-play NBC Sports Predictor games app in partnership with Boom Fantasy. The app gives eligible fans the chance to win hundreds of thousands of dollars in prizes over the next year. The free contests will feature weekly cash prizes across a variety of NBC Sports properties and debuts Dec. 26, alongside the Premier League’s Boxing Day matches.

Meanwhile, NBC Sports also announced that NBC Sports Gold is now available for digital gifting in the US, offering 10 sports passes that can be gifted immediately, including: PGA TOUR LIVE, Premier League, Cycling, Supercross, the new Supercross & Pro Motocross Bundle, Track & Field, Rugby, Figure Skating, Snow and Speed Skating.

The Olympic Channel is now available on connected TV devices for Android TV and Apple TV and will also launch on the Roku platform in January 2019. “As the Olympic Channel continues to grow and evolve, we are dedicated to making our content available wherever our audiences are watching in efforts to create more personalised experiences for our viewers,” said Mark Parkman, General Manager of the IOC’s global Olympic Channel. “With more and more consumers using connected TV devices, fans now have more options to discover our content and engage with their favourite sports and athletes.”

ESPORTS

Global esports organization Gen.G is renewing its partnership with Nighthawk Pro Gaming a purpose-built high-performance gaming network product line by NETGEAR. Through this partnership, NETGEAR will power Gen.G’s teams and headquarters, including its current Seoul Headquarters and its future Los Angeles headquarters, with its Nighthawk Pro Gaming router and switches. This partnership sets the gold standard for esports sponsorships, between two industry leading organizations. In addition, NETGEAR is also the official and exclusive gaming network equipment sponsor for Gen.G’s Seoul Dynasty Overwatch Team and will again be the jersey patch sponsor for the Dynasty as well as Gen.G’s PUBG and Heroes of the Storm World Championship teams.

Skillz announced that Quicksand Playground has generated over $1 million in annual esports revenue, generating over $0.30 in average revenue per daily active user via Skillz-powered competitions. Through the integration of Skillz technology, Quicksand has seen as much as a 14x increase in daily active users per game over the past year.

ELEAGUE, in partnership with Psyonix, will continue bringing fans the best moments from its recent professional Rocket League tournament with the second episode of a three-part feature series tonight at 11p on TBS. The program’s second edition will pick up just before the tournament’s last semifinal match, in which Cloud9 battled Dignitas.

INDUSTRY/ROSTER MOVES

The Premier Lacrosse League announced the formation of the PLL Academy with the goal of connecting PLL’s world-class athletes with the next generation of lacrosse players. PLL Academy will operate year-round instructional and specialty events in over 30 states, with participation from over two dozen PLL players.

THE MAIN EVENT

Chiefs/Seahawks on NBC at 8:20p on Sunday.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

Congratulations to the 2019 Cynopsis Rising Stars

To be honored at the Cynopsis TV Awards on February 6^th in NYC

The experience of these young superstars spans research, sports, digital, content and marketing – join us in congratulating them for jobs well done and register your team for the TV Awards celebration, which will include a spotlight on this year’s Cynopsis Rising Star Honorees. Be there for the industry’s ultimate gathering as we celebrate these talented finalists and honorees on jobs well done!

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ON THIS DAY in 1959: Tom Landry becomes coach of the Dallas Cowboys.

In the Know: Which original Pac-10 team is the only one to never appear in the Rose Bowl? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company and city.)

Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question: In football, what penalty is being represented when a referee touches both of his shoulders with their fingertips? Answer: Illegal touching of the ball. Kudos: Michael Ritz-BucStar Consulting/NY; Jonny Codalata-CSM Sport & Entertainment/Indianapolis; Michael G. Hawkins-Francis Marion University/Florence; Chris Faulds-Eyereturn Marketing/Toronto; Wayne “World B.” Otto-Pro-Am Sports/Boone; Lance Phegley-Texas Runner and Triathlete magazine/Houston; David Westberg-SAG-AFTRA Federal Credit Union/Burbank; Jaymz Wooden-Bottelsen American Dart Lines/Santa Maria; Willie Price-American Forces Network/Riverside

Later — Chris

Chris Pursell @VegasandVine
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