Cynopsis: Sports
10/25/12

Good morning. It’s Thursday, October 25, 2012, and this is your first early morning Sports briefing. 

Brooklyn is now going to be home to another pro team. The NHL’s New York Islanders announced the move away from Long Island and to the Barclays Center beginning with the 2015-16 season. New York Islanders owner Charles Wang made the announcement yesterday and marks the team’s first new home since its inception in 1972.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

On the Air

Following a shortened season but record-breaking year for the NBA in 2011-12, the league will begin its 67th season on Oct. 30 with eight nationally televised games in four days on TNT, ESPN, and NBA TV as part of Kia NBA Tip-Off ’12. The league reports that this season, teams have sold more full season tickets than ever before, driven by its highest-ever season ticket renewal rate. NBA games and programming are now available in more than 215 countries and territories, with a record 47 languages

With college basketball season around the corner, ESPN announced programming plans for its slate of 1,450 men’s basketball games across ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN3 and Longhorn Network. The season begins with a dozen match-ups on Friday, Nov. 9 led by Michigan State/Connecticut in the Sears Armed Forces Classic at 5:30p as well as Maryland/Kentucky in the Barclays Center Classic at 8:30p. This season’s slate of games will also include around 125 exclusive contests on ESPN3, and ESPN will offer college basketball fans with live coverage of at least one game every day but five from November 9 to March 10.

The NFL’s top markets for the week of Oct. 15-21 included Pittsburgh with a 45.1/62, followed by Milwaukee at a 43.3/73, Boston with a 41.4/65, New Orleans at a 40.9/54 and Denver at number five, scoring a 36.5/55.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman admitted to reporters that a full 82-game season for the league this year was “is not going to be a reality,” due to the continued standoff in the league’s negotiations with players. An announcement is expected soon as the league set today as the deadline that would have allowed a full schedule to be played starting Nov. 2.

MLB Network announced coverage plans for the World Series, stating that MLB Tonight will air live before and after every World Series game with previews, analysis and highlights of the Detroit Tigers and San Francisco Giants matchup, as well as interviews from Comerica Park in Detroit and AT&T Park in San Francisco. MLB Network’s Intentional Talk will also air live on-site throughout the World Series.

HBO Sports will bring back the 24/7 reality franchise starting Nov. 17 at 12:15a with 24/7 Pacquiao/Marquez, in an all-new, four-episode series. The program follows the two fighters as they prepare for round four of their rivalry, which will take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Dec. 8. Episodes two and three of the program will debut on subsequent Saturdays  Nov. 24 at 12:45p and Dec. 1 at 9:30p with the finale airing Friday, Dec. 7 at 8p.

BTN locked down its studio talent for the 2012 Big Ten men’s and women’s basketball season including the return of Gus Johnson to BTN for his fifth season as a men’s basketball play-by-play announcer.  Five new faces have been added to the roster, including Justin Kutcher, who previously worked for ESPN, and will now join BTN announcers that include Eric Collins, Kevin Kugler, Dave Revsine, Brian Anderson, Tom Hamilton and Wayne Larrivee. Other new faces include Sam Vincent, Mike Kelley, Scoonie Penn, Sean Harrington. BTN has also added former ESPN and NBA TV analyst LaChina Robinson to the women’s basketball talent roster where she will join Stephanie White, Mary Murphy and Debbie Antonelli.

In addition, for the first time, BTN will offer full coverage of the Big Ten fall championships and tournaments, including live broadcasts during the 2012 Big Ten Field Hockey Tournament, Big Ten Men’s and Women’s Soccer Tournaments and delayed coverage of the Big Ten Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Championships. Coverage of the quarterfinals for men’s and women’s soccer and field hockey will be streamed live for the first time on the Big Ten Digital Network with the semifinals and finals for each event will be available on both BTN and BTN2Go.

NESN announced that Adam Pellerin and Jamie Erdahl are joining the network to serve as anchor/reporter. Pellerin joins NESN from WFXT FOX 25 in Boston where he has served as a general assignment reporter and fill-in news and sports anchor since 2007. Erdahl comes to NESN after working as a freelance reporter at Fox Sports North where she served as a live event sideline reporter on WNBA telecasts of the Minnesota Lynx.

With the NHL down, MSG Networks will telecast two Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) games this month beginning Friday, October 26 and Wednesday, October 31 on MSG. MSG’s John Giannone will call play-by-play alongside analyst Joe Micheletti from the MSG Studios at 11 Penn Plaza.

NBA TV and TNT commentators Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Reggie Miller, Chris Webber, Steve Kerr, Greg Anthony, Steve Smith, Dennis Scott, Brent Barry, Mike Fratello, Craig Sager and David Aldridge will duke it out as part of NBA TV’spresentation of theNBA.com Fantasy Draft Show on Friday, Oct. 26, at 7p.  Hosted by Johnson, the show pairs the 12 analysts into six teams as they participate in an eight-round draft to select their Fantasy Basketball squads for the upcoming season . Teams will include:

• Charles Barkley and Reggie Miller
• Shaquille O’Neal and Dennis Scott
• Chris Webber and Brent Barry
• Steve Kerr and Steve Smith
• Greg Anthony and Mike Fratello
• Craig Sager and David Aldridge

ESPN will showcase the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event Final Table virtually live (on a 15-minute delay) starting Monday, Oct. 29, at 8p on ESPN2. The final three contestants then continue play on Tuesday, Oct. 30, at 9p on ESPN until a WSOP Champion is crowned. With a total prize pool of $62,031,385, the winner will be awarded $8,531,853 and the coveted WSOP bracelet.

HRTV will present live coverage leading into, and continuing through, the 29th running of the Breeders’ Cup, taking place Friday, Nov. 2, and Saturday, Nov. 3, at Santa Anita Park. The Breeders’ Cup consists of 15 races over the two days, with purses totaling more than $25 million. On both days, the network will carry all of the Breeders’ Cup races with the exception of the Breeders’ Cup Classic, which will shown on NBC.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

Sponsorship & Promotion

FOX Sports’ coverage of the 2012 World Series last night began a Series-long homage featuring legendary band The Who. The music comes via a deal between FOX Sports and Spirit Music, The Who’s music publisher, to feature a variety of the band’s greatest hits from various albums spanning hits such as “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” “Baba O’Riley,” “Pinball Wizard,” “Who Are You” and “Behind Blue Eyes” Beginning November 1, the band embarks on a 36-city US tour.

The NFL inked a deal with SAP AG for a new multiyear marketing sponsorship that will make SAP the Official Cloud Software Solutions, Business Software and Business Analytics Software Sponsor of the league. As part of the agreement, the NFL will utilize cloud solutions from SAP to support the continued innovation and enhancement of NFL.com’s Fantasy Football platform.

World Fishing Network announced that Schooner Bay Village, South Abaco Bahamas will become the presenting sponsor of Fly Fishing Tuesday on WFN for the month of November.

Digital Fields

Topps is taking its latest step to bring the brand into the digital, mobile and social gaming world with the launch of their newest iPhone app: Topps HUDDLE. The app serves as the company’s first football mobile game, and serves as the only iOS social game officially licensed by the NFL Players Association. The launch comes after nabbing nearly 100,000 users with baseball apps Topps BUNT and Topps PENNANT. Topps HUDDLE will bring real-time stats, fantasy suggestions, locker room antics, and insider information directly to the user’s phone and allow players to collect and trade real NFL players and earning points based on their actual performance on the field.

ESPN reports that over the course of 11 days, which included 20 cricket matches, ESPNCricinfo.com averaged 1.3 million visitors per day, registering an average of 9.5 million page views, and spending an average of 34.6 million minutes up 17%, 27%, and 95% respectively compared to the 2011 edition of the CLT20. The conclusion of the CLT20 begins today with the first semifinal, and a champion will be crowned in the final on Sunday, Oct. 28.

The Main Event

Tigers/Giants World Series Game 2 on FOX at 7:30p.

ON THIS DAY in 1987: The Minnesota Twins win their first World Series for the city 4 games to 3 over the Cardinals.

Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question: What sportscaster is known to welcome audiences with the phrase “Hello friends!”? Answer: Jim Nantz. Kudos: Joe Isabella-WCBS-TV/NY; Sarah Galvin-Flashpoint Marketing/NY; Colleen Kolibas-CBS Sports/NY; Fred McGraw-McGraw and Company,Inc./NY; Mike Wood-WGBH National Marketing/Boston; Gregg Morriss-ESPN/Bristol; Rich Dubroff-CSNBaltimore.com/Baltimore; Stephane Berthet-Golf Channel/Orlando; Robert Teinowitz-Live Action Media/Chicago; Bob Ramsey-WCIU/Chicago; Bill Adusei- Comcast SportsNet/Houston; Jack Simmons-Fox Sports/LA; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA.

In The Know: The last time multiple players were awarded co-MVPs of the World Series, which athletes received the honor? (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
10.25.12

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