Cynopsis: Sports
04.04.13
Good morning. It’s Thursday, April 4, 2013, and this is your first early morning Sports briefing.
The current Big East Conference is officially rebranding and will be renamed the American Athletic Conference, according to the league. The facelift will run across all platforms, associations and media once the 2012-13 sports seasons are over.
“We engaged our fans through social media and focus groups in multiple cities, and we conducted extensive quantitative research,” said Commissioner Mike Aresco. “We also received terrific input from our partners at ESPN and CBS Sports. Our name is a nod to tradition, but at the same time makes clear our determination to be a Conference with national impact and appeal. The American Athletic Conference will represent core American values of optimism, energy, growth and innovation. We have a broad geographical footprint that represents unity as well as diversity.”
MLB Network hits the new season on a high note, growing 2013 first quarter prime time viewership by 149% over the same quarter a year ago. Of course, that came on the back of the 2013 World Baseball Classic, along with over 150 Spring Training games and the weekday offseason morning show Hot Stove. In addition, March 2013 ranked as the network’s most-watched month ever with an average of 254,000 viewers in prime time. The channel now looks to keep that momentum going with a double-header today featuring the Angels/Reds at 12:30p, followed by Red Sox/Yankees at 7p.
Around the dial, with 2012 scoring as the most-watched year in Golf Channel’s 18-year history, the network carried that momentum into 2013 with its most-watched quarter ever. For 24-hour Total Day (6a-6a), 129,000 average viewers per minute were tuned into Golf Channel in first quarter of this year, up 10% versus the comparable numbers a year ago. March ranked as the network’s most-watched March ever with 138,000 average viewers per minute for 24-hour Total Day.
Golf Channel hits the weekend with LPGA action featuring top-ranked Stacy Lewis and No. 2 Yani Tseng at the Kraft Nabisco Championship, the first major of 2013. The network will carry more than 20 hours of live tournament and wraparound news coverage. Tournament action starts Thursday at noon.
FOX Sports launches its 18thseason of MLB coverage with three matchups on Saturday starting at 3:30p. Coverage begins with the FOX Saturday Baseball Pregame Show hosted by Matt Vasgersian who is joined this week by analysts Harold Reynolds and Kevin Millar. Joe Buck, Tim McCarver, Ken Rosenthal and Eric Andrews handle microphone duties for the Yankees/Tigers game that will be carried in 48% of the country. Justin Kutcher and Eric Karros will call Cardinals/Giants, set for 32%, while Thom Brennaman and Tom Verducci hit the broadcast booth for Angels/Rangers in 19%.
ESPN reports that Yankees/Indians has been selected for the April 10 Wednesday Night Baseball at 7p on ESPN2.
As we hit the Final Four this weekend, CBS Sports Network announced coverage plans that start today with news, highlights and analysis, as well as live coverage of Final Four Friday Team Practices on Friday, April 5. Programming begins at 6:30p with Courtside with Seth Davis, who will interview NCAA President Mark Emmert. On Monday, the network airs NCAA March Madness 360 at 6:30p, heading in to CBS Sports’ and Turner Sports’ exclusive live coverage of the 2013 NCAA National Championship.
While Turner Field boasted the Braves highest Opening Day attendance since 2010 with 51,456 on hand, FOX Sports South reports that it posted the channel’s highest rating for a Braves game in over 12 years with an 8.87, and a peak rating of 11.25 in the 10p quarter-hour. The Braves have not had a higher rated Opening Day game since April 3, 2000, against the Colorado Rockies, which registered an 11.80 for TBS.
NESN entered an alliance with Tribune-owned FOX CT (WTIC) for a content sharing partnership that echoes NESN’s content sharing arrangements with stations in other New England markets. The deal will include regularly scheduled live pre-game reports from Fenway Park and all NESN road telecasts to FOX CT News. The live shots will primarily feature NESN’s Red Sox play-by-play announcer Don Orsillo, NESN’s Red Sox color analyst Jerry Remy, and NESN’s Red Sox reporter Jenny Dell. The FOX CTweather team, including Joe Furey, Rachel Frank and Dan Amarante, will deliver weather updates for NESN’s Red Sox pre and post-game shows.
MSG Networks and WLNY-TV 10/55 announced that Saturday’s New York Islanders/Tampa Bay Lightning game will be broadcast live on WLNY-TV 10/55 starting at 7p. MSG Networks will telecast the game on MSG+2.
Awards, networking and breakfast! Join us for the Cynopsis: Sports Media Awards on April 17. The event takes place at Yale Club in Manhattan. Click here for more info.
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Sponsorship & Promotion
In a move to boost attendance, the NFL will install TV cameras in their teams’ locker rooms this season, according to multiple reports, so footage of the home team in the locker room can run on replay screens and team apps however they like. League execs said that the move is designed to give fans attending the games something unique and extra so they will come back.
The BBVA Compass Bowl is no more, with bank officials stating that they will end sponsorship of Birmingham’s college football bowl game after the 2014 game, according to local reports. Executives said the company will look to move sponsorship dollars toward something more flexible.
CBSSports.com and Masters.com revealed that Masters Live, live full day video coverage from the Augusta National Golf Club, will return for the 2013 Masters Tournament. The platforms will feature four live channels of golf action from April 8-14, with more than 90 hours of live video from Augusta National. Features will include the original series Masters on the Range, live streaming video of the 11th, 12th and 13th holes from Augusta National, and streaming video of selected grouping as they play hole Nos. 10-18.
ESPN3 will carry the 2013 National Collegiate Boxing Championship Finals live April 6, at 7p, with a re-air set for April 7 at 7p on ESPNU. John Brickley and Larry Rawson will call the action.
ESPN’s SportsNation revealed third-round results for the Madden NFL 25 Cover Vote, with 35 million votes now cast throughout the campaign. In the Old School bracket, Joe Montana will take on Barry Sanders, while Jerry Rice and Deion Sanders will square off in the other matchup. In the New School bracket, Arian Foster faces Russell Wilson, while Robert Griffin III and Adrian Peterson will square off.
Technology & Production
FIFA announced that GoalControl has been tapped to provide goal-line at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. GoalControl utilizes 14 high-speed cameras in elevated positions around each goalmouth that are connected to the GoalLine system, which removes players, the referee and other objects from the images.
CORE’s Internet Media platform blinkx entered into an agreement with XOS Digital to give blinkx users access to a original sports content from teams throughout the country.
EVS, a provider of live video production systems, is teaming up with Sporting Innovations, a provider of software and technology solutions for the sports and entertainment industry, to test out a second-screen experience at Sporting Park, home of MLS team Sporting Kansas City. The trial integrates C-Cast, EVS’ second-screen solution with the venue’s existing Cisco and EVS infrastructure, the result allowed a test group, made up of fans, to access action replays and alternative angles on their tablets and smartphones over the stadium’s Wi-Fi during the game.
The Main Event
Spurs/Thunder on TNT at 9:30p.
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ON THIS DAY in 1974: Hank Aaron ties Babe Ruth’s all-time HR record with his 714th.
In The Know: What country has won the most World Cups? (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.)
Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question: What famed member of the Phillies holds the team’s all-time HR record? Answer: Mike Schmidt. Kudos: Jon Latzer-CineSport/NY; Darren Carew-NBC Sports/NY; Adam Waxman-Fox Sports Digital/NY; David Stern-BARD Entertainment/NY; Jeff Miller-Meredith Corporation/Atlanta; Matthew Meachem-Tribune Media Services/Queensbury; Synda Kollman-Charter Marketing Group/Boca Raton; Ryan Nolan-Sportsman Channel/New Berlin; Ross Reardon-WJTV-TV/WJTV.com/Jackson; Lisa Fikeys-Zimmerman/Chicago; Chris Hartweg-Wunderman3/Chicago; David Hauptman/Denver; Matt Sautter-OpenTV/Golden; Rick Pike-InterMedia Advertising/Woodland Hills; Alan Berkes-The Ballpark/LA; Chris Loprete-ABC/Hollywood; Anne Wettig-MundoFox/LA.
Later — Chris
Chris Pursell for Cynopsis | Sports
04.04.13
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