Cynopsis: Sports
05/23/11
Good morning. It’s Monday, May 23, 2011, and this is your first early morning Sports briefing.
With the start of the 2011 French Open this week, Tennis Channel will enter the tournament bolstered by consistent ratings growth, a 3D telecast, a new tagline and campaign as well as the recent hire of former player and sportscaster Mary Carillo. This summer could be one that will define the future of the channel, however, with Wimbledon rights coming up for grabs as well as a possible FCC decision in the network’s battle with Comcast over distribution.
Tennis Channel Chairman and CEO Ken Solomon spoke with Cyn opsis Sports on the state of his channel as well as the sport.
On the growth of Tennis Channel: We’ve had an amazing run here. We were having a meeting the other day and realized that we’ve gotten used to saying, ‘Well, we are up again versus last year.’ Last weekend, we broke our all-time non-Grand Slam rating with the Djokovic and Nadal final on our air live and again in primetime. We did a .85 rating, and were the number seven rating in all of cable (within our universe), peaking at over a 1 rating, that’s huge for a tournament in Rome. We’ve been up 26 of the last 37 weeks and flat for five of rest. That said, we were up a lot in 2010 versus 2009 as well, so we are really excited coming into Paris.
On the top storyline to watch at the French Open: You’ve now got this crazy storytelling that’s developed the past couple of years in the rivalry between Federer and Nadal, and then comes this guy Djokovic who hasn’t lost a single match all year. He’s from Serbia and he is both fun and funny. He’s beaten Nadal four times this season. That said, there are a huge amount of exciting young athletes to build stories around.
On branding up and coming players: In individual sports like tennis and golf, it takes a long time to galvanize a brand, but once you do, they are burnt into the psyche of the television viewers. These guys aren’t going away from the consciousness, It’s actually a potent formula for success because they are on our air all year long.
On the channel’s new tagline ‘Where Champions Live’: ‘Home of the Slams’ was something that was terrific to say, and it got us to a certain place. But we’ve really gone beyond that. The magic is that we’ve got virtually every top 100 tournament on our air, so the natural evolution of that was to go to “Where Champions Live” because we are airing the champions who compete for the titles that are the majors, and they are on our channel all year long. It’s as if you have a favorite television series that runs 52 weeks a year with your favorite stars in it.
On the carriage complaint against Comcast: As far as we are concerned, the FCC rules are very clear; the FCC distributors can’t discriminate against program networks that compete with ones they own. They were given this special right to be vertically integrated, as long as they treated the channels they didn’t own the same way as the ones they do. We think it’s a pretty clear case when none of the Comcast sports, which we compete with in one way or another, are on the sports tier and the ones they 100% own are fully distributed, and we do it for often a fraction of the cost and have a higher quality of rights than any of them but are relegated to a lower tier. That’s a pretty clear case of discrimination. It’s not hard to guess where we would be if they owned us. All we want if for Comcast to treat the Tennis Channel the same way they treat the other sports networks.
The San Diego Padres are on the verge of a team record. Reports surfaced over the weekend that the team was on the verge of inking a deal with Fox for broadcast rights to games that would boost revenue by $10 million a year in a 20-year agreement that pays $25-30 million annually. If the deal is finalized, it would end the team’s 14-year run with Cox and Channel 4 San Diego and would likely lead to the creation of a new regional channel, Fox Sports San Diego
The unions representing the players for the NHL, NBA and MLB have announced that they are throwing their support behind the NFL players during the lockout. The players associations filed a brief with the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday, noting that because professional athletes’ careers are short, the loss of even part of a season causes personal and professional harm that can’t be compensated. Meanwhile, New York Giants owner John Mara published an essay stating that the players anti-trust strategy would lead to massive upheaval for the league, with no league minimums for player salaries, and elements designed to keep the competitive balance in the league, such as the draft, also at risk.
If there is a season, HBO’s NFL series Hard Knocks may have found a willing participant for the behind-the-scenes series. Atlanta Falcons General Manager Thomas Dimitroff said on an interview on SiriusXM NFL on Friday morning that he would not rule out the team being featured on series. While the New York Jets participates in last year’s edition, teams such as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Denver Broncos have reportedly passed on the series for 2011. Dimitroff noted that the Falcons were in a better position this season due to the development of the team.
Virgin Media is the latest carrier to bring live 3D tennis to living rooms. The company announced that for the first time in the UK, Virgin Media will showcase Eurosport’s programming from this year’s French Open tournament, including the 3D telecasts, with more than 1.5 million households already possessing the 3-D ready set-top box.
Fox Soccer will televise the Gary Neville Testimonial Match tomorrow night at 2:30p, where the former Manchester United captain, who retired in February, will suit up one last time for his club. The match will feature Manchester United and Italian Serie A giant Juventus squaring off. The testimonial match is part of FOX Soccer’s “Champions Week“ programming leading up to the 2011 UEFA Champions League Final between Manchester United and FC Barcelona at London’s Wembley Stadium on Saturday. Proceeds from the testimonial will be used by Neville to support sustainable projects within the Manchester community initiatives at home and abroad.
Sinclair has turned its attention to sports entertainment, purchasing wrestling promotion Ring of Honor. ROH is the third largest wrestling promotion in the country and will now debut a television program set to be syndicated across the station group’s lineup of channel in September. Veteran wrestling broadcaster Kevin Kelly will assume the TV play-by-play spot this fall, while promoter Gary Juster will come aboard to be in charge of live event operations
Anna Kournikova has reportedly signed a deal that will make her a judge on the next season of NBC’s The Biggest Loser. Although the series added new trainers this season, Kournikova, who had appeared on the series last year, would replace outdoing trainer Jillian Michaels. The official announcement is expected to be made on tomorrow’s finale of the show.
Sponsorship & Promotion
Ducky insurance firm Aflac has signed on to sponsor The Heisman Trophy next season in a multi-year agreement. As part of the deal, the company announced Friday it will offer its key accounts and brokerage partners access to Heisman-themed events around the country and was working with universities to line up the events.
With the countdown clocking ticking until next year’s 2012 Olympic Games, the London 2012 Organising Committee have unveiled the dates and the first 74 locations of the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay route. They will also begin searching for 8,000 people that will be selected to carry the Olympic flame around the country. The route will begin on May 19 at Land’s End, after arriving from Greece, and proceed approximately 8,000 miles around the country before the Opening Ceremonies of the Games.
The Milwaukee Bucks are all about the vodka, inking a multi-year deal with YES Vodka that includes sponsorship on the Bucks radio network, as well as in-arena signage and social media elements. The vodka will be available at the Bradley Center in time for Saturday’s Bon Jovi concert.
Swiss-owned Falcon Private Bank, has signed a sponsorship deal with Formula One team Scuderia Toro Rosso. The deal will see drivers Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari sports the bank’s logo on their outfits as well as on their cars for the rest of the 2011 racing season.
Sunday marked the first, ever live broadcast of a German sporting event on YouTube. The game, featuring TSV Hannover-Burgdorf and THW Kiel, ran on SPORT1’s YouTube Channel as part of a livestream agreement between the two companies and will also feature the TOYOTA Handball Bundesliga and the Finals from the Beko Basketball Bundesliga in coming days. The SPORT1-YouTube-Channel officially launched on February 12, 2011, and delivers YouTube users with news, interviews, reportages and background reports from the fields of soccer, handball, basketball and motorsports.
Rugby World Cup hit a milestone over the weekend, reaching one million “likes” on the sport’s official Facebook page. Fans of the page represent a global base, with the UK scoring the biggest share of the audience at 19%, followed by France at 11%. 55% of fans are under the age of 25.
Thanks to Facebook, 800 fans showed up to the airport to see off Tampa Bay Lightning players on their way to Boston for the NHL Eastern Conference Finals. Fans then assembled to form of a human lightning bolt in honor of the team, The “Be the Bolt” campaign was announced during Game 4 and organized via the team’s Facebook page.
Off the Field
Former NBC Sports Group Chairman Dick Ebersol on retirement: It has been a sincere privilege to tell so many remarkable stories that have inspired me throughout my entire career. Some of my favorite memories come from reading letters and talking to viewers who also have been moved by such powerful stories. I simply want to say thank you to all of those people who have touched me so deeply throughout my career.
Brian France, Chairman and CEO of NASCAR on the evolution of the sport: We’ll always keep our eye on the ball. But on the other hand, we’re reacting to social media, we’re reacting to the digital media landscape that’s changing quickly, and most of you in this room know it better than I. We’re reacting to how young people, in particular, are taking in their favorite sports or learning about their favorite sports. It’s very different than it was ten years ago, say five years ago.
The Main Event
Tampa Bay and Boston square off to break a 2-2 series tie in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Versus at 8p.
ON THIS DAY in 1873 – The very first running of the Preakness, with Survivor winning the race.
Answer to Yesterday’s Sports Trivia Question: How many teams did Johnny Bench play for? Just one, the Cincinnati Reds. Kudos: Chris Connaughton – Big Lead Sports/New York; Pete Gautieri – AETN/Stamford; Rick Rosenfelt – New York Jets/Florham Park; Elaine Yakos-LeBron – gkv/Baltimore; Jack Valente – ESPN Customer Marketing and Sales; Southfield; Alan Perris – The Television Academy/North Hollywood; David Chill – DIRECTV/Los Angeles; David Korduner – DGA/Los Angeles; Greg Moloznik – GLM Media Dynamics/Scottsdale
In The Know: At what age did Anna Kournikova win the Italian Open? (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 Cyn opsis | Sports
May 23, 2011
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EMAILS TO THE EDITOR:
- In My Opinion
- It will be strange to picture the Olympics next year without Dick Ebersol, who has left a legacy as the driving force behind NBC Sports, broadcasting all of the five major sports as well as the Olympics, golf, tennis, and horse racing on the channel during his tenure (we will forget the XFL for now). But between his departure and Comcast’s designs to expand its presence in the sports world, the company’s appointment of Mark Lazarus is the ideal selection to take the reins. As President of NBC Sports Cable, where he oversees Golf Channel and Versus as well as the regional sports channels, and with his roles at CSE and Turner, Lazarus brings experience in marketing, branding, ad sales, digital opportunities and programming to the table and has the background to take the NBC Sports Group to a whole new level in the digital age of programming. Branding is about content as well as marketing, and Lazarus is perfect for the role.
- (Agree or disagree? Email your comments to chris [email protected] for inclusion under Emails to the Editor on Monday)
Comcast is truly fortunate to have a very capable and talented executive in Mark Lazarus, however, he is not a Dick Ebersol, he is an icon. There are visionaries and then there are those that execute the vision – Dick Ebersol’s special talents make him the exception to that rule, he is both. Comcast has been about asset deployment and plan execution, if the departure of Ebersol is part of the plan there is an “immense” hole in the strategy. Perhaps the “hole” can be contained for the immediate future, Ebersol is leaving the house in order for Lazarus, Burke and Comcast.
I am most interested in Dick Ebersol’s future endeavors. I would think that Apple, Google, ESPN, Comcast, et al will be as well.
Wayne Casa
Dallas, TX
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