A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM CBS SPORTS NETWORK

Cynopsis: Sports
10/22/12

Good morning. It’s Monday, October 22, 2012, and this is your first early morning Sports briefing. 

Oct. 1 marked the launch of two new Southern California channels, Time Warner Cable SportsNet and Time Warner Cable Deportes which entered the programming lineup abuzz not only for the reported 20-year, $4 billion deal for rights to local pre-season, regular season, and post-season Lakers games, but also for the launch of the first ever Spanish-language regional sports network. With the LA Galaxy, the LA Sparks as well as the likes of Mountain West football and basketball games and local high schools sports also on deck, the channel is looking to quickly make a heavy dent in the highly-contested regional marketplace.

Cynopsis Sports spoke with David Rone, President, TWC Sports about the launch, the move toward a growing Latino audience as well as advertising and audience reception to the channels three weeks into the game.

Rone on the birth of the channels: The discussions started in the winter of 2010, and the deal was consummated on Valentine’s Day 2011. The genesis of the deal was that, at Time Warner Cable, our focus is really about delivering the greatest experience for our customers and we realized that sports programming is of the utmost concern and interest for them. The most important sports programming in Southern California is the Los Angeles Lakers. So we saw an opportunity to strike a direct relationship with the Lakers as opposed to having the delivery of Lakers content by way of another person or network, and we moved to strike this groundbreaking partnership to have a direct relationship and proximity to the organization, the team and the brand. By doing so, we also had the ability to create this specially tailored, first-ever Spanish language regional sports network so that we were delivering to our Latino customers a product that would give them the kind of content they desired in a language that they were comfortable and familiar with.

On the creation of the first-ever Spanish language regional sports network: If you look at the numbers, first you have this burgeoning, growing population with an unbelievable dynamic here is Southern California with the robust nature of the Spanish language speaking marketplace. Traditionally, they have been given their sports content by way of secondary audio programming, SAP, that is not produced for them. They are getting an English-language story that is being told to them by some voiceover in Spanish. That is not the way to properly deliver the content. Since Time Warner Cable is the largest cable operator in Southern California, we wanted to give them that content in the best way possible and that way was to create a Spanish-language regional sports network that would give them this product as well as other product that was germane to their interests, such as soccer, boxing lucha libre, etc. We could do all that with the creation of Time Warner Cable Deportes, which we have done.

On advertiser reception: We have been-knock on wood-very successful in what we term the acquisition of advertiser and sponsor relationships. We were fortunate that the Lakers and Galaxy already had relationships with certain advertisers and we’ve been able to capitalize upon those. We also, because of the assistance of Time Warner Cable Media Sales, which has relationships all throughout the region, have been able to bring those relationships to our sports business in a seamless transition.

On points of differentiation: We have been getting ratings for preseason Lakers games that exceed regular season ratings for other sports in the marketplace and we only have one third of the distribution. The resonance has been very strong with what we like to think of as our point of differentiation. The games are one thing, but what we are bringing to the networks and fans that are following them, is non-event content and programming that is related to the programming partners that we have. So when you have a passionate fan base, like the Lakers and the Galaxy have, the ability to bring that fan base more depth and access around those teams and brands is what we saw as that real opportunity. It is also what helped attract those teams into getting into business with us. They have had their games telecast to this fan base for quite some team, but pretty much the only programming they had was the games, the pre- and post-game shows. Our promise to those organizations as well as the fans, is that we are giving them more programming. We are taking them behind-the-scenes and exposing them to things about these teams and brands that they’ve never been exposed to before.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

On the Air

The NHL officially scrapped more games due to the ongoing lockout. The league announced that all games through Nov. 1 were now off the table, marking a total of 135 regular-season games that have been cut by the league.

TBS’ wrapped up its coverage of the ALCS, between the Detroit Tigers and New York Yankees, with an average of 5,924,000 total viewers, marking an increase of 28% over last year’s coverage of the NLCS on the channel. The network’s ALCS games averaged a 3.8 household rating, according to Nielsen, up 31% over the NLCS last year. Game four of the sweep drew a 3.5 household rating and 5,251,000 total viewers. Locally, the telecast drew a 30.6 metered market rating in Detroit – the highest local rating for any market during the 2012 MLB Postseason on TBS – as well as an 8.7 metered market rating in New York.

NFL Network’s Thursday Night Football broadcast of the Seahawks/49ers game was watched by an average of 7 million viewers, not including over-the-air stations in Seattle and San Francisco. Through six games of its expanded 13-game schedule,Thursday Night Football is averaging a 4.6 household score up 28% compared to the 2011 lineup, as well as 7.1 million viewers (a 15% boost).
 
CBS Sports Radio announced that John Feinstein would play host to “The John Feinstein Show” on the network’s upcoming lineup from 9a-noon on weekdays. The show will be heard on over 50 stations nation-wide, including many in major markets. In addition to hosting duties, Feinstein will continue to contribute his personalized musings on the world of sports to the hourly CBS Sports Minute feature that is heard on CBS Sports Radio stations. The show will debut on Wednesday, Jan. 2, and will be followed by The Jim Rome Show.

FOX Sports Media Group locked in a multi-year extension with the Automobile Racing Club of America for media rights, with a minimum of 10 ARCA Racing Series set to be presented by Menards events either live and/or same-day delay each season. In 2013, ARCA television coverage begins with the series’ 50th appearance at Daytona International Speedway in February. Year-over-year broadcast ratings have grown by 24% in 2012.

iN DEMAND reports that the September 15 PPV featuring Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. against the Sergio Martinez, drew buys that were 60% higher than projected. In addition, the company noted that this year’s WWE SummerSlam, headlined by the former UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesner on August 19, delivered 30% more buys than the 2011 PPV.

Mark Rubinstein, President and CEO of World Fishing Network, announced that he is leaving the company, effective immediately. As a result of his departure, the channel announced the immediate creation of a new President & CEO position that will be located in Denver, Colorado and oversee WFN LLC’s operations in the United States and the Caribbean.

MSG Networks named Ocean MacAdams as Senior Vice President of Programming and Acquisitions where he will be responsible for MSG Networks’ overall content strategy including the development and production of original programming, acquisitions and scheduling for MSG and MSG+. MacAdams most recently served as the General Manager of The Warner Sound, Warner Music Group’s premium YouTube channel, where he developed the outlet’s editorial direction and oversaw its launch.

Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic revealed coverage plans for the 37th Marine Corps Marathon, highlighted by a live 90-minute marathon-day show as well as expanded coverage across its news and digital platforms. The channel will offer Live from the Marine Corps Marathon on Oct. 28 from 7 to 8:30a, with host Brent Harris and analysis from Chas Henry. The coverage will include exclusive interviews, behind-the-scenes access and live coverage of the official MCM start at 7:55 a.m.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

Sponsorship & Promotion

Pepsi and the NFL are expanding their national campaign that brings originally created anthems for NFL teams around the league. The Pepsi NFL Anthems program will now include Lenny Kravitz, who wrote “Like a Jet” for the Jets, as well as Aerosmith, who penned “Legendary Child – Patriots Anthem” for the Patriots. The new tracks are currently available for free download and now join other anthems that include artists such as Kid Rock, Kelly Clarkson, Ice Cube, Travie McCoy, as well as a Wiz Khalifa remix.

IMG Worldwide locked in a 10-year partnership with CCTV-IMG to expand the reach of the Chinese Football Association Super League. The deal will look to “bring global best practices to capitalize on the enormous popularity of football in China” and includes developing the CSL, helping improve management of Chinese football clubs, advising on development of training programs for young and future players, as well as bring in corporate sponsors for CSL events.

Digital Fields

The Los Angeles Kings won the award for the Best Mobile Entertainment for Sports category at the 5th annual Mobile Excellence Awards last week. Other nominees included: Electronic Arts, FIFA 12, StepLeader, Duck Commander iPhone App and Vibes Media, Wrestlemania XXIX Sweepstakes. The Kings launched their first official LA Kings Mobile App on January 27 with features that include daily news and updates along with the latest standings, schedule and an interactive roster as well as video features, gamification elements, podcasts, photo galleries, exclusive offers and more.

The Main Event

MNF features the Lions/Bears on ESPN at 8:30p.

ON THIS DAY in 1992: Famed sportscaster Red Barber dies at the age of 84.

Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question: What team drafted Jalen Rose out of Michigan? Answer: The Denver Nuggets. Kudos: Phillip Park-CBS sports Network/NY; Keith Marder-Halstead Property/NY; Bob Melvin-NBC Sports Group/NY; Ben Sturner-Leverage Agency/NY; Doug Drotman-Drotman Communications/Commack; Zack Malet-ESPN/Bristol; Synda Kollman-Charter Marketing Group/Boca Raton; Peter SP Gimber-WBZ-TV & myTV38/Boston; David Hauptman/Denver; Judie Henninger-Valentine Productions Inc./Santa Monica; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA; Patrick Kang-20th Television/LA.

In The Know: Red Barber ended his career as calling plays for what MLB team? (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
10.22.12

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