Cynopsis: Sports
02/09/12

Good morning. It’s Thursday, February 9, 2012, and this is your first early morning Sports briefing.

The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau ruled that the FCC should turn down Comcast’s request for a stay from a ruling that the company’s placement of the Tennis Channel on a lower tier violated the government’s program carriage rules. Comcast had claimed that the enforcement would violate constitutional rights and confuse viewers if the company was forced to immediately change its lineup, but the bureau found no merit to those assertions. Comcast will now look toward the FCC commissioners for a decision.

“Despite being ordered to treat Tennis Channel the same as its own similarly situated Golf Channel and NBC Sports Network (Versus), Comcast’s filings and its continuing discrimination demonstrate that it’s not challenging whether or not it violated Section 616; it’s challenging the statute itself and the Commission’s authority to enforce it. Whether or not it wants to see the rules changed is irrelevant to the end result of the hearing. Tennis Channel won, and Comcast must abide by the FCC regulations in place today,” Tennis Channel said in a statement.

On the Air

As expected, the Big East has another new member with the formal announcement that Memphis would join the conference beginning with the 2013-14 academic year. The addition was made by a unanimous vote by its presidents. Memphis sponsors 19 sports, 10 men’s and nine women’s.

Houston is officially the home of the 2013 NBA All-Star game, with the city playing host to the annual event for the third time. The 62nd NBA All-Star Game will be played on Sunday, Feb. 17 at the Toyota Center, which is also scheduled to host the NBA Rising Stars Challenge as well as the NBA All-Star Saturday Night presented by State Farm. NBA All-Star Jam Session will be held at the George R. Brown Convention Center.

2013 could also find a big event taking place at Michigan Stadium. The University of Michigan Board of Regents authorized athletic director Dave Brandon on Wednesday to lockdown a contract with the NHL that would bring the Winter Classic to the venue, according to the AP. According to report, the Winter Classic would be scheduled for Jan. 1, 2013, with an alternate date of Jan. 2, and the NHL has offered to pay up to $3 million for a license to use the venue.

ESPN and ABC continue to outpace last year’s audiences for the NBA this season, with ESPN drawing a 31% percent ratings increase, according to Nielsen and the network, for a 1.7 average so far this season. The channel is also up 27% in household impressions and up 20% among viewers when comparing Christmas-to-date with last season. NBA games on ABC, meanwhile, are up 18% percent in ratings with a 4.7 and viewers and up 16% in households with an average of 5,347,000.

NASCAR Now is set to return on ESPN2 on Monday at 3p, for the show’s sixth season. The Mon.-Fri. series is adding AJ Allmendinger as a guest reporter for the weekend edition programs. Meanwhile, Mike Massaro will continue as the primary host with ongoing hosts Allen Bestwick, Nicole Briscoe, Marty Reid and Shannon Spake. Ricky Craven will continue as an analyst for NASCAR Now while Dale Jarrett, Rusty Wallace, Andy Petree, Tim Brewer and Brad Daugherty will contribute as well.

Academy Award winner Clint Eastwood has been named creative board chairman and founding shareholder of the Back9Network, a new channel dedicated to golf lifestyle and culture that will launch this spring, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The NBC Sports Group will hit the ice with five NHL games across four days next week beginning with Sunday’s NHL Game of the Week on NBC when the Rangers host the Capitals at 12:30p. Later that evening, the NBC Sports Network will air primetime coverage of the Flyers/Red Wings game at 7:30p. Other games lined up for the week on NBC Sports Network, Sharks/Caps on Monday, Ducks/Wild on Tuesday and Bruins/Canadians on Wed.

Bellator announced that Douglas “The Phenom” Lima will take on reigning, undefeated Welterweight Champion Ben Askren for a shot at the world title during April’s Bellator 64 event. The battle will take place Caesars Windsor in Windsor, Ontario, Canada on Friday, April 6 with the broadcast starting at 8p on MTV2 and commercial-free on EPIX. The preliminary card will be streamed around the world on Spike.com.

The shortened NBA season put the squeeze on The Madison Square Garden Company, pushing second-quarter profit down nearly 22%, according to various reports. With the start of the season delayed two months due to the lockout, the Knicks were only able to a combined six preseason and regular season games during the span, compared with 40 in the same period a year before, which cut into its revenue. The company reported earnings of $25.6 million for the quarter, marking a drop from $32.7 million during the same timeframe a year before.

Universal Sports Network will offer the 2012 International Skating Union (ISU) Four Continents Figure Skating Championships this weekend, beginning today. The broadcast team will include play-by-play announcer Andrea Joyce, Tara Lipinski, Tanith Belbin, and Peter Carruthers.

For the fifth year in a row, BTN is televising seven winter Big Ten Championships, which will include men’s and women’s swimming and diving, wrestling, men’s and women’s indoor track and field and men’s and women’s gymnastics. Coverage begins at 11a on Saturday, Feb. 25, with the Big Ten Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships from the University of Iowa.

FUEL TV announced the UFC’s upcoming summer crop of televised events, with an FX show set for June 22 from Atlantic City as well as UFC on FOX set to take place in LA on Aug. 4, against the Olympics. Meanwhile, UFC 148 will be held on July 7 from Las Vegas.

The Chicago White Sox announced the team’s broadcast schedule for the upcoming season, with Comcast SportsNet televising 101 regular season games, beginning April 13. WGN-TV will showcase 30 games this year, and WCIU-TV is on deck for a 25-game run. Ken “Hawk” Harrelson and Steve Stone will call 156 regular-season games across CSN, CSN+, WGN and WCIU once again this season.

Sun Sports announced yesterday that it will produce and televise 150 Tampa Bay Rays games during the 2012 MLB season. Coverage begins on Opening Day, when the Rays play host to the Yankees on April 6 at 3:10p. This year, the channel will offer a half-hour Rays LIVE pregame show ahead of the telecasts.

Golf Channel announced the return of series The Haney Project on Feb. 27 at 9p, with a celebrity showdown anchoring the new season. The one-hour special premiere episode will feature four celebrity projects looking for the guidance of Hank Haney including Adam Levine, Sugar Ray Leonard, Mario Batali and Angie Everhart. The series moves to a new night as well, taking over the Monday 9p time slot.

Sponsorship & Promotion

USA Sevens LLC announced the addition of national broadcast sponsors Subway, Caesars Entertainment, 5-hour ENERGY, and DHL for the upcoming USA Sevens International Rugby Championship, round 5 of the HSBC Sevens World Series at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas beginning Feb. 10. Sponsorship for each partner will include signage on and surrounding the field, jumbotron messaging and virtual in-broadcast signage. The event will be broadcast on NBC, NBC Sports Network and Universal Sports.

PRO Sports Communications is launching a new strategic legal crisis management division designed to address the “unique communications needs of corporate and individual clients facing high-profile legal crisis challenges.” The division will be managed by PRO affiliate, lawyer and legal crisis expert, Rich Nichols has designed and executed strategic crisis communication plans for clients the include Marion Jones during the BALCO performance enhancing drug scandal.
 
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

On the Monday after Super Bowl XLVI, ESPN reports that usage on the ESPN mobile Web and ScoreCenter saw significant gains, marking an average minute audience of 57,000  up 41% compared to the same day last year. NFL content on the ESPN mobile Web also had 1.6 million unique visitors with an average minute audience of 7,000  up 76% and 69%, respectively. Locally, ESPNNewYork.com logged over one million unique visitors and an average minute audience of over 7,000, while ESPNBoston.com recorded its second-most-trafficked day ever with 1.4 million unique visitors and an average minute audience of nearly 9,000.

The company also reports that ESPN3 on WatchESPN enjoyed its second-best month ever in the unique viewer and total minutes categories in January. Viewership for the month was led by double-digit growth from the BCS Bowl games as well as the Australian Open. For the month, ESPN3 on WatchESPN logged 4.2 million unique viewers and 507.2 million minutes online, up 21% and 53%, respectively compared to the same month last year.

The Main Event

I’m always in the mood for some Lakers/Celtics action on TNT at 8p.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

ON THIS DAY in 1942: MLB’s Philadelphia franchise changes its name from the Phillies to the Phils. The change was temporary.

Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question: What college coach did “Forrest Gump” play for? Paul “Bear” Bryant. Kudos: G. David Brown – FOX Sports Carolinas/Charlotte; Ann Johnson – Turner Sports/Atlanta; Charlotte Sweet – Foster Television/Atlanta; Gabe Alfaya – XL Worldwide NYC/NY; Lance Williams – Comcast Spotlight/Chicago; Bill Goodfriend – Charter Media/St. Louis; Mike Patterson – Turner SI Digital/Chicago; Mary Ryan – Raycom Media/Dallas; David Hauptman – Katz Television Group/Denver; Michael Fleming – Contendo Vici LLC/Sunnyvale; Rick Qualliotine – Windowpane Productions/LA; Brian Sullivan – KHQ-TV/Spokane; Roman Saienni – FOX Sports/LA.

In The Know: Who beat Memphis in the finals of the 2008 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament? (No, answers about “vacating” will not count) (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
02.09.12

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