Cynopsis: Sports
11/09/12

Good morning. It’s Friday, November 9, 2012, and this is your first early morning Sports briefing. 

ESPN appears determined to nab the upcoming college football playoff, offering nearly $500 million a year for rights to the trio of games, according to a CBS Sports report. The deal, if signed, could be worth as much as $5-$6 billion for a 12-year package and far more than conference commissioners were prepared for when the playoffs were created. ESPN has an exclusive 30-day negotiating window to land the playoff before the rights head to market, according to the report, although it remains unclear if that window has even started.

On the Air

The NHL Players’ Association made two different offers during Wednesday’s negotiating session, according to ESPNNewYork.com and the proverbial ball (puck?) is now back in the league’s court. The report states that the union made proposals on two key issues: one focused on revenue sharing and another on the “make whole” concept designed to honor existing player contracts. The offer reportedly would see the players’ share of drop to a 50/50 split of revenues by Year 3.

With the college basketball season set to begin today, ESPN released its list of the top markets for its men’s games from the 2002-03 season through 2011-12. Last year’s top markets included Louisville at the top with a 4.5 rating, followed by Greensboro, Kansas City, Columbus and Raleigh-Durham. Louisville was the top market every year of the tally, averaging a 4.1 rating or higher the past five seasons, including a 5.3 in 2009-10. Louisville, Greensboro, Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte are the only markets to be among the top 10 every year since 2002-03.

Showtime announced the debut date for Jim Rome’s debut on the channel as part of his multi-year deal with CBS. The network announced that Jim Rome on Showtime will premiere on Wednesday, Nov. 21 at 10p as a one-hour series. Weekly episodes will feature a combo of monologues and interviews, along with in-depth features and profiles of figures in the world of sports and entertainment. The show will tape in Los Angeles.

ESPN reports that its season-opening NBA doubleheader scored as its best ever in viewership on Nov. 2, with the Heat/Knicks game drawing 2,783,000 viewers and the Clippers/Lakers game delivering 3,062,000 for an average of 2,925,000 for the evening.

The MLS’ rescheduling of the Eastern Conference Semifinal match on Wednesday due to the weather caused some programming changes for NBC. The MLS Eastern Conference Championship match, featuring the Houston Dynamo hosting either the New York Red Bulls or D.C. United, has been moved to Sunday, Nov. 11 at 4p on NBC Sports Network. In place of the MLS match on Saturday, NBC will now air a 90-minute version of the Ironman World Championship at 3:30p, followed by an encore edition of Onward Notre Dame: South Bend to Soldier Field at 5p.

Tennis Channel, Bloomberg and the FCC each filed briefs with the US Court of Appeals asking the court to block Comcast’s appeal of the FCC’s program carriage ruling, which stated that Comcast would have to give Tennis Channel equal treatment with its own channels sports in its tiers. In Tennis Channel’s intervenor’s brief, the network contends that “Unable to rebut the Commission’s finding of discrimination, Comcast seeks to transform this discrimination case into a vehicle for challenging Section 616 under the First Amendment. But the statute and the Commission’s Order are consistent with, and indeed advance, values central to the First Amendment by ‘assuring that the public has access to a multiplicity of information sources.'”

NESN announced today that Leah Hextall will join the channel as an anchor/reporter. She comes to the company from CTV, where she has served as a sports anchor/reporter since 2005.

Universal Sports Network has its schedule for the 2012-2013 Bobsled and Skeleton World Cup in place with the season consisting of nine World Cup stops in six countries including the World Championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland. Coverage begins today at 10a with the Men’s Skeleton and Women’s Bobsled from Lake Placid.

MSG Networks released its 2012-13 college basketball schedule, lining up more than 100 games for the season on MSG and MSG+ with a slate that includes 22 SEC game, 21 Pac-12 matchups and 18 Big East contests. The schedule tips off with Indiana St./USLA at 11p tonight.

NBC Sports Network has added the Governor’s Holiday Hoops Classic, two additional Atlantic 10 games and three new Colonial Athletic Association matchups to its 2012-13 college basketball lineup, bringing its tally to more than 60 college basketball games this season.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

Sponsorship & Promotion

The NBA is teaming up with the Department of Defense for Veterans Day weekend in order to honor our nation’s service men and women and their families. As part of “NBA Cares Hoops for Troops,” teams will host events in-arena and in the community on Nov. 8 to recognize active and retired troops with NBA and WNBA players and legends will visit military medical centers, and NBA players will wear special adidas on-court apparel to commemorate the holiday.

MSG Network and the Garden of Dreams Foundation will be hosting a fundraiser to support the relief and rebuilding efforts for those affected by Hurricane Sandy tonight during the channel’s telecast of the Knicks/Mavericks game. Net proceeds, along with money raised through an online auction, will be split between the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City and the American Red Cross. As part of the efforts, starting at 7p, during the pregame show, and running through the entire game and postgame, viewers can purchase $100 raffle tickets that enter them for the chance to win prizes and help those who are dealing with the aftermath of last week’s storm.

Digital Fields

Bellator and Spike TV are giving fans a shot to pick the first fight that will air on Spike Network inside the Bellator cage when the promotion jumps to the channel in January. Fans can log onto Spike.com where they will be able to select the two fighters they want to see square off in the first ever Bellator bout on Spike TV, choosing between four fighters at the 170lbs mark, including Paul Daley, Ben Saunders, Douglas Lima, and the infamous War Machine. In addition, the website will carry a webseries showcasing the welterweight competitors on Thursday, November 8 with new webisodes running each Thursday evening.

The Main Event

Looking forward to Texans/Bears on SNF on NBC at 8p.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

ON THIS DAY in 1953: The Supreme Court rules the Major League Baseball is exempt from anti-trust laws.

Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question: What sportscaster famously proclaimed “Do you believe in miracles? Yes!” Answer: Al Michaels. Kudos: John Watkins-ABC Regional Sports and Entertainment Sales/NY; Kyle Helm-CBS Sports Network/NY; Leslie Gittess-Blue Sky Media/NY; Barbara Behrins-Captivate Network/NY; Christopher Doyle-CBC Sports/Toronto; Patty Youngross-Media Biz/Atlanta; RT Harris-WideOrbit/Detroit; Max Nelson- Millennial Media/Baltimore; John Ward-NBC Sports Group/Chicago; Andy Lee-ESPN Audio/Chicago; Mary Ryan-Raycom Media/Dallas; Dory Melman Petsrillo-Petry Media Corp./Dallas; Greg Moloznik-GLM Media/Scottsdale; David Hauptman/Denver; Matt Sautter-OpenTV/Golden; John Sutton-Charter Digital Media/LA; Alan Perris-The Television Academy/North Hollywood; Miriam Aardahl-OMD/LA; Randy Posner-DIRECTV/LA.

In The Know: What university has won the most titles from the College World Series? (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.)

Later — Chris
Chris Pursell for Cynopsis | Sports
11.09.12

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