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Cynopsis: Sports
10/29/12

Good morning. It’s Monday, October 29, 2012, and this is your first early morning Sports briefing. 

Last week’s announcement that Topps was spreading its wings into the digital space with the launch of Topps HUDDLE, marks a new chapter in the history of the iconic card brand. As youth turn to fantasy and interactive pastimes, the company made a concerted effort to embrace the culture with the launch of baseball fantasy apps Topps BUNT and Topps PENNANT earlier this year. Now the company is looking to use its stats in the world of football with the release of HUDDLE, with real-time stats, fantasy suggestions, locker room antics, and insider information pulled directly to the user’s phone.

Cynopsis Sports spoke with Michael Bramlage, Vice President of Digital at the Topps Company about the new product and how the card company is transforming into a digital trendsetter.

Bramlage on Topps’ new app: We are looking to get deeper into the mobile, social and casual space. It is our third app for iOS and we are proud of it because as of April 3 of this year, we didn’t have any apps released. Now we’ve got two full-fledged baseball apps and, with the HUDDLE announcement, we’ve got a third app in the portfolio and it really builds on what we’ve established with baseball. I think it is an important point in the historical transformation of this company into a digital company.

On the creation of Topps Digital division: It’s really been only about a year in which we’ve really had a separate digital division. We didn’t have any written code until January 1, we didn’t have any live apps until April 4. But we are very encouraged by it. Our first two apps were both very well received by critics and by consumers. Both were featured by Apple in New and Noteworthy. BUNT was actually featured twice, once in April and one in July. It feels really good to have been only doing this for less than a year and we are already featured in the app store, alongside big names like EA and Zynga.

On comparisons to other fantasy platforms: One thing that I think really sets us apart is that who you sit and start isn’t a decision you make once a week, and then you are stuck with it. Sitting and starting players can occur before the game, in-between games and it can occur during the game. So if you’ve got a quarterback that is starting and earning you points, and he gets crushed in a horrible sack, and breaks his collarbone, a savvy user in HUDDLE will be able to start another player and keep his points on the same trajectory. So it’s a modern spin of fantasy football.

On the Topps legacy: It is an incredible brand. If you mention it to anyone who is 25 or older, they immediately have an emotional connection with the brand. They are transported back to being eight years old, drinking a can of Coca-Cola, listening to a baseball game on the radio and sorting cards into binders. I felt that the brand could be used to do some very interesting things in the world of digital sports. For me it was the brand that was the most attractive element

On the Air

The NHL made it official on Friday and threw the league’s November games under the proverbial Zamboni. The cancellations bring the total number of games missed due to the lockout to 326 so far. Fortunately, the latest round of cancelations does not include the Jan. 1 Winter Classic in Ann Arbor, Michigan, or the NHL All-Star game on Jan. 27 in Columbus, Ohio.

NBC Sports Group officially announced a deal to become the exclusive U.S. media rights to the Premier League via a multi-year agreement that begins with the 2013-14 season with both English- and Spanish-language media rights. With a 380 game schedule that spans from August until May, the company will now utilize NBC, NBC Sports Network, and NBCSports.com for live Premier League coverage, with Telemundo and mun2 on deck for Spanish-language coverage.

Randy Bernard is leaving his position as CEO of IndyCar, according to the AP. The decision was announced yesterday, and will wrap up a three-year stint atop the famed series. Jeff Belskus, the president of IMS and president and CEO of Hulman & Co., will step in as interim CEO of the IndyCar Series. Bernard has two years remaining on his deal and will stay on in an advisory capacity.

FOX Sports reports that Game 2 of the World Series led the network to its second consecutive win in the key Adult 18-49 demographic. Thursday night’s game was watched by 12.3 million viewers and posted a 7.8/12 household fast-national rating/share, according to Nielsen Media Research, for a spike of 3% over Game 1. That is down, however, from last year’s Game 2, which drew a 8.9/14 and averaged 14.3 million viewers.

Time Warner Cable Sports inked a trio of key distribution deals ahead of the Lakers regular season, announcing carriage agreements for TWC SportsNet and TWC Deportes with Charter, Verizon FiOS and AT&T U-verse TV in the Southern California area. In addition, Time Warner Cable Sports announced that it will provide Korean-language Secondary Audio Programming (SAP) for live Lakers games on Time Warner Cable SportsNet this season and that Laker legend and that current sports commentator Kurt Rambis will be joining the channel in studio for select Lakers games this season. His first game will be next Wednesday, the first regular season Lakers game on Time Warner Cable SportsNet and Time Warner Cable Deportes.

CBS Sports made its selection for its afternoon SEC ON CBS football game for Saturday, Nov. 3 at 3:30p, choosing to broadcast Georgia/Ole Miss. Tim Brando, Steve Beuerlein and reporter Marty Snider will call the action from Sanford Stadium in Athens, Ga. Afterward, CBS Sports will broadcast Alabama/LSU in prime time at 8p. Verne Lundquist and Gary Danielson along with reporter Tracy Wolfson announce from Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, La.

ESPN announced that its College Gameday crew would be heading back south to Baton Rouge for Saturday’s Alabama/LSU game.

NBA TV’s fourth episode of Open Court will be shown Tuesday, Oct. 30, at 5p heading into the opening night of the 2012-13 NBA regular season. The episode will feature a panel discussion on the top five players in the league, “Super Teams” and their impact on the NBA, how they would build a team today if they were a General Manager, current coach they would have liked to play for, and more. The first three episodes of Open Court posted audience gains over last year’s tallies with a 77% spike among total viewers.

The Big East is hitting the market. ESPN reported that the league was unable to pin down a media rights extension with the company as the Big East’s 60-day exclusivity window with ESPN will expire this week. The Big East now will be free to negotiate its media rights deal with other networks.

Universal Sports Network announced multi-platform coverage of the 2012-2013 International Ski Federation (FIS) Alpine Ski World Cup events this season with 35 international ski competitions on deck. The network will offer more than 140 hours of total television coverage throughout the season. The network’s broadcast team will feature veteran play-by-play announcer Steve Porino and analyst Doug Lewis.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

Sponsorship & Promotion

Audi inked a deal to serve as the presenting sponsor for Vail and Beaver Creek’s 2015 FIS Alpine World Ski Championship, which will take place Feb. 2-15 of 2015.

The Professional Bull Riders announced a multi-year partnership with LiftMaster to be the “Official Residential Garage Door Opener, Commercial Door Operator and Gate Operator” of the PBR. The partnership includes unique in-arena and chute signage, PA announcements, JumboTron spots, and title sponsorship of a 2013 PBR Built Ford Tough Series Event.

Digital Fields

NFL players site SOTL.com announced that Don Transeth will serve as CMO of the company where he will oversee product marketing, brand management, strategic sponsorships, partnership promotion, events and business development. He previously served as VP of Sports Marketing and Brand Innovation at EA Sports before joining the site last year.

The Main Event

MNF features 49ers/Cardinals at 8:30p on ESPN.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM CABLEFAX

ON THIS DAY in 1989: Ozzie Newsome’s streak of 150 consecutive game receptions in the NFL is broken.

Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question: Who was named the first head coach of the Carolina Panthers? Answer: Dom Capers. Kudos: Jordan Goldberg-Disney and ESPN Media Networks/NY; Marc Wollis-NBC Sports Group/NY; Tim Gardner-ESPN/NY; John Totaro-Totaro Communications/NY; Tom Wetzel-MMSI/Warwick; Rick Rosenfelt-New York Jets, LLC/Florham Park; Juan P. Delgado-Telemundo/Hialeah; Jeff Miller-Meredith Corporation/Atlanta; Jim Dittemore-I Will Race You/KC; John Ward-NBC Sports Group/Chicago; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA; Daniel Harrison-Level 3 Communications/LA.

In The Know: What venue did the San Francisco Giants call home before moving to the stadium that is now AT&T Park? (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
10.29.12

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