Cynopsis: Sports
03/05/12

Good morning. It’s Monday, March 5, 2012, and this is your first early morning Sports briefing.

Universal Sports Network’s recent multi-year, multi-platform distribution agreement with DISH Network continues to cement a revised strategy for the cable channel that finds it converting to a license fee based service. The channel, which is a joint venture between NBC Sports Group and InterMedia Partners, had previously been carried as multicast service in a slew of the top DMAs.

With the Olympics just months away, the channel is looking to capitalize on coverage of the most year-round Olympic-related programming of any network. Cynopsis Sports spoke with Universal Sports CEO David Sternberg about the reasoning behind the strategy shift, how the channel will generate awareness for its programming slate as well as how they plan to maximize its ties to the Olympics this year.

Sternberg on plans for 2012: This is a big year for us. Obviously, 2012 is an Olympic year, so we are going to have a great deal of programming that is adequately targeted to the London games including a lot of qualifying and trial events and a weekly countdown to London news program that will be starting in April previewing all of the top stars and competitions that will take place in the summer games. So, there is a lot going on in a content standpoint. From a distribution perspective we have changed our business model. We’ve converted the network to a more traditional subscription-based cable and satellite network and we are beginning to enter into licensee-based affiliation agreements directly with cable, satellite and telco distributors.

On the change in distribution strategy: DIRECTV marked the first big step there they come onboard back in August 2011, and now we have DISH Network. We have also signed up about a dozen smaller cable operators around the country and are in pretty advanced conversations with most of the big cable MSO’s. We have been available as a digital broadcast channel since 2008 when NBC sports came in as a minority partner, so we had effectively a three-year free preview of the channel in about 50 markets nationwide reaching a phenomenal audience of about 40 million households.

The issue was really two-fold. First of all, very few people knew that they got us even if they had access, and there wasn’t really any promotion by the distributors because we didn’t have a direct relationship with the cable companies. Nor did we get a lot of promotion from the broadcast stations and we were very often grouped in a no man’s land, if you will, of channels. We weren’t in a neighborhood of sports networks where it would be easy for a sports viewer to discover us. The second problem was that we felt it was time for us to start getting compensated for our programming investments and to establish the dual revenue stream.

On leveraging the Olympics: The Olympics are going to help us immensely with our distribution efforts and, as we are getting deals completed, the promotional lift that we get around the games will help to get those deals done and will hopefully make more and more distributors aware that there is a more meaningful audience for this content on a year-round basis and not just every four years. And I think that we will also step up our own promotional push and try our best to hang onto those viewers that come to us for the buildup of the games and beyond. We are very active in social media we have a lot of athletes that we have good relationships with and that would help to promote us. Lindsey Vonn is one name who has worked with us on promotional campaigns in the past. So we look forward to tapping into that as well.

On the Air

With two more wild card teams officially on deck this season, MLB is now on the hunt for a broadcast partner for the league’s playoff expansion. The league told reporters that no decision has been made on who, exactly, will air the single-game elimination for the American and National Leagues. The deal between MLB and the Players Association, was formally finalized on Friday.

More outlets are apparently jumping at the chance to build a brand around the Dodgers, with reports over the weekend from the LA Times and NY Times that CBS and MSG are both mulling a bid for a media rights deal with the team that could potentially lead to a regional sports network dedicated to the franchise. Of course, the Dodgers can’t begin talking with outside broadcasters until Nov. 30, when FOX’s exclusive negotiation window expires.

NBA TV’s Fan Night presented by Sprint will feature the New York Knicks taking on the Dallas Mavericks tomorrow night at 8:30p. This match-up was selected by fans who voted via nba.com, NBA’s Facebook page, and Yahoo.com.

Univision announced that its live coverage of the international friendly featuring the Mexican National Team against the Colombian National Team touched 8 million viewers who tuned in to all or part the broadcast. The match up averaged 4.3 million viewers to score as the most-watched sporting event on all of Spanish-language television this year so far, according to Nielsen. In the key demos, that game drew 1.4 million A18-34 and 2.6 million Adults 18-49.

After Golf Channel’s early round coverage of The Honda Classic generated the highest-rated and most-watched round one ever in the history of the event on Thursday with a 1.0 and 1,044,000 viewers, NBC carried the momentum into the weekend, to score the best Saturday overnight delivery for the tournament since 2005, with Nielsen reporting a rise of 27 percent over the same round in 2011. Coverage of round three of tournament earned a 1.9 household rating and 5 share for the channel.

A literal firestorm that delayed Daytona has prompted NASCAR officials to announce that the organization will now bring in an extra pace car that will run behind the last jet-dryer truck for all races in all three series, the Sprint Cup, Nationwide and the Camping World Trucks Series, according to the AP.

The WWE’s plans to launch a branded cable channel is hitting a speed bump, according to The New York Post. The article stated that although WWE Network had reportedly once planned to have the channel up and running by Wrestlemania next month, the company has not yet inked a deal with any carriers for the channel. 

IMG Media has launched EDGEsport, the first 24-hour premium action sport channel dedicated to the Asian market. The channel is “aimed specifically at the active and athletic urban young adult,” and will feature top action from key sports disciplines such as surfing, snowboarding, BMX, mountain biking, skateboarding, Supercross, skiing, base jumping, freestyle motocross and wakeboarding. IMG Media is producing the programming and has already locked down deals in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Malaysia.

MMA promotion Bellator has announced that Eddie Alvarez and Shinya Aoki will headline its upcoming Bellator 66 broadcast on MTV2 and on EPIX. The bout will take place from Cleveland on April 20.

Sponsorship & Promotion

ESPN is bringing in John McNamara as Vice President of Multimedia Sales where he will lead national advertising sales strategies across the spectrum of ESPN media assets for Midwest-based clients and agencies. McNamara most recently served as Vice President, Business Development at IMG Worldwide.

The Professional Bull Riders announced that the company has pinned down a multi-year partnership with Sheplers to be the “Official Western Retailer” of the PBR. The agreement also makes Sheplers an “Official Western Retailer” for PBR Brazil  as well as PBR Australia. Through the deal, the PBR and Sheplers will develop a micro-website on PBR.com that will feature all of Sheplers online merchandise, and opportunities for PBR Western-wear partners Ariat Boots, Dickies, Montana Silversmiths and Wrangler.

Congrats to our friends at Catalyst Public Relations in winning “Small Agency of the Year” honors at the annual 2012 PRWeek awards.

CALL FOR ENTRIES: Think you’re an MVP in the world of sports media or will your rivals steal the spotlight? Enter the Cynopsis Sports Awards and bring home a crystal award for your shelf, recognizing the grit and strategy you’ve shown all year long. The awards will cover the best of 2011 from the world of television, radio and online, with categories that range from news shows to apps to marketing campaigns.

Digital Fields

There was a slight “oops” on Facebook for the MLS, according to Deadspin, in which the league reportedly commented on a picture of a billboard that advertised strippers, simply stating “You had me a strippers.” According to the site, the “photo appeared on the MLS facebook page around 2:00 p.m. and remained up for about an hour before finally being taken down.” Methinks that someone forgot to change accounts before giving personal commentary.
 
The American Society of Magazine Editors recognized some of our fellow sports media outlets as finalists for the 2012 National Magazine Awards for Digital Media. Among the finalists are Golf Digest, nominated for three awards including General Excellence, Tablet Edition and Multimedia. Meanwhile, Sports Illustrated was tapped as a finalist for Website Department.

The Main Event

East and west coast mid-major fun is set for tonight. CAA Championship at 7p featuring VCU and Drexel. Then, the WCC Finals pitting longtime foes Gonzaga/St. Mary’s at 9p on ESPN.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

ON THIS DAY in 1991: Indiana’s Reggie Miller begins an NBA free throw stream that spans 52 games.

Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question: What NFL team boasted players known as “The Killer Bees”? The ’82 Miami Dolphins. Kudos: Giorgio Sestito-ICON International/Stamford; Kevin Byrnes-NBC Sports Group/NY; Keith Allo-Golf Channel/Orlando; David Danowski-Fox Sports Cable Networks/NY; Mary Ryan-Raycom Media/Dallas; Bill Robertson-Tunheim Partners/Bloomington; David Hauptman-Katz Television Group/Denver; Kristine Stevens-Journal Broadcast Group/Idaho; Miriam Aardahl-OMD/LA; Nick Monroe-Monroe Photography/San Diego; Joe Soehn-Freelance/San Diego; John Chavez-Fresh Air Productions/LA.

In The Know: The CAA has delivered as many or more different teams to the Final Four of the Men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament since 2006 then any conference except the Big East and the SEC. What two teams represented the conference? (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
03.05.12

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