Cynopsis: Sports
10/04/12

Good morning. It’s Thursday, October 4, 2012, and this is your first early morning Sports briefing.

After a suspenseful end to the regular season early game, MLB post-season schedules are now in place, with the two one-game wild card contests set to begin tomorrow with the Cardinals/Braves set for 5:07p on TBS, followed by the Orioles/Rangers at 8:30p. Saturday will feature the first game of the AL Division Series in Detroit at 6:07p with the Reds/Giants contest in Game 1 of the NLDS set for 9:37p.

On the Air

Expect the NHL to begin scratching regular season games within the next few days as talks once again broke down in the latest meeting between the league and the National Hockey League Players’ Association on Tuesday. NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said the NHL has already suffered $100 million in losses after the cancellation of all preseason games. Opening night of the 2012-13 regular season is slated to begin on Oct. 11 and no further meetings are scheduled.

The Ryder Cup continues to pay dividends for broadcasters as Golf Channel is now reporting that the matchup was not only the network’s most-watched Ryder Cup week ever, but also its most-watched September and third quarter of all time. Nielsen numbers show that Golf Channel averaged 120,000 viewers during September, which represents a boost of 58% over last year and 90% over 2010 numbers. For the third quarter, the network averaged 102,000 viewers and bested the past two years by 20% and 38%, respectively. GolfChannel.com and the network’s mobile platforms also rose in the third quarter with 63 million website page views, up 89% year-to-year, with 52 million mobile page views for a rise of 166%.

NBC Sports Group inked Carolyn Manno to a long-term deal, following her Olympic debut last August. Manno initially joined the NBCUniversal family in August of 2009 as an anchor/reporter for Comcast SportsNet New England, but will now serve as a reporter on Football Night in America, as well as on NBC and NBC Sports Group coverage of college football and basketball. In addition, she will be a host on NBC Sports Group’s MLS coverage, and SportsDesk updates, and will serve as a correspondent for NBC Sports Group’s action sports coverage, including the Dew Tour. Manno will also have a role in the new NBC Sports Radio Network as well as a role with NBC’s coverage of the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games.

MLB Network’s telecast of the Red Sox/Yankees game on Tuesday generated an average audience of 605,000 viewers to rank as the most watched program ever on MLB Network, and peaked at 878,000 viewers from 10 to 10:15p. The channel’s post-game studio show MLB Tonight also generated its best night of 2012 with an average audience of 259,000 viewers. That bodes well for MLB Network’s Postseason coverage, which is slated to include editions of MLB Tonight before and after every game, as well as MLB Network’s first-ever Postseason game telecasts on Sunday, October 7 and Wednesday, October 10.

The Red Sox/Yankees game on YES averaged 698,000 total viewers for a 6.87 TV household rating in the New York DMA, to mark the most-viewed program on YES since September 1, 2011. The evening’s telecast peaked during the 10:00-10:15 quarter-hour, when 1,132,000 total viewers tuned in.

The NFL revealed top markets for the past week’s games, with viewership for all of the network’s primetime packages up vs. 2011. Top NFL markets for the past week included New Orleans with a 49.7/68, followed by Milwaukee, Baltimore, Buffalo and Denver.

Believe it or not, ESPN is already set to go with its weekly BCS Countdown series, starting Sunday at 8:30p on ESPN and 9p on ESPNU. Rece Davis hosts the discussion and analysis show with analysts that include Jesse Palmer and David Pollack in studio and Kirk Herbstreit via satellite.

The Mid-American Conference announced this year’s men’s & women’s basketball television package, which will mark the largest in the history of the league. Overall, 53 games will be aired live nationally and regionally this upcoming season including a total of 40 games that will be produced and distributed by SportsTime Ohio. In addition, there will be a minimum of 13 other men’s basketball games that are scheduled to be televised on ESPN platforms. The men’s basketball television schedule will begin on Tuesday, November 13 with Northern Illinois/Valparaiso to play in the ESPN College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon at 8a.  The MAC men’s regional basketball package will tip-off on Wednesday, January 9th with Ohio/ Buffalo. The women’s basketball television schedule launches Thursday, January 10 with Central Michigan/Toledo at 7p.

CBS Sports’ national college football coverage this weekend features a doubleheader on Saturday, starting with Navy/Air Force at 11:30a and followed by a good-looking LSU/Florida matchup at 3:30p. Play-by-play announcer Spero Dedes joins analyst Steve Beuerlein in the broadcast booth for the Armed Forces matchup while Verne Lundquist and Gary Danielson call the action for the SEC game.
 
NBC Sports Group counters with a pair of games on NBC and NBC Sports Network. The company announced that Tom Hammond will handle play-by-play duties for Notre Dame/Miami at Soldier Field on Saturday at 7:30p on NBC. He will join Mike Mayock in the booth with Alex Flanagan reporting from the sidelines. NBC Sports Network will feature Towson/JMU in Harrisonburg as Randy Moss dons the microphone for play-by-play alongside analyst Anthony Herron and sideline reporter Carolyn Manno.

FOX’s coverage offers doubleheader coverage of a Pac-12 and Big 12 matchup featuring Arizona/Stanford at 3p, followed by West Virginia/Texas at 7p. Craig Bolerjack, Joel Klatt and reporter Petros Papadakis call the early action while Gus Johnson, Charles Davis and Julie Alexandria handle the nightcap.

ESPN’s college football schedule will include telecasts of three matchups between ranked teams in prime time on Saturday, Oct. 6, including Georgia/South Carolina at 7p followed by Washington/Oregon at 10:30p. The ABC Saturday Night Football Presented by Windows broadcast at 8p pits Nebraska/Ohio St.

Newborn channel beIN SPORT will host its first El Clásico on Sunday at 1:45p featuring La Liga’s Real Madrid CF and FC Barcelona live from Spain. El Clásico is one of the most-watched sporting events in the world.

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Sponsorship & Promotion

For the second-consecutive year, NASCAR is bringing back the NASCAR Acceleration Weekend, a fan-friendly season-launching event designed to celebrate the past, present and future of the sport. Next year’s event will again take place at the NASCAR Hall of Fame and Charlotte Convention Center from February 8-10, 2013. Plans include the NASCAR Hall of Fame’s Class of 2013 induction into the Hall of Honor on the 8th. The next day, the NASCAR Preview 2013 begins at 7a in the Charlotte Convention Center featuring autograph and on-stage Q&A sessions by top drivers from all three national series. On Sunday, the newly inducted NASCAR Hall of Famers will be on hand for the unveiling of the granite markers on the Ceremonial Plaza.

ESPN listed the top-selling NFL player jerseys on NFLShop.com from April 1 through Sept. 30. Topping the rankings was Peyton Manning’s Broncos jersey, followed by Robert Griffin III, Tim Tebow, Aaron Rodgers, and Eli Manning.

World Fishing Network is launching two initiatives to introduce itself to the Philadelphia, New Jersey and Northern Delaware region via Xfinity. On Friday, Oct. 5 from 69p, WFN is participating as a supporting sponsor for an evening at Adventure Aquarium on the Camden Waterfront with Variety  The Children’s Charity of Philadelphia. In addition, the channel is launching the Get Hooked on WFN Sweepstakes, where local viewers can win one of five fully-guided, 1-day local fishing trips being offered throughout the region.

Digital Fields

Turner Sports is launching TBS Social Dugout, a social TV experience for the channel’s upcoming MLB postseason coverage. The app will be made available for iOS and Android platforms and allow fans to engage and compete with one another during TBS’ live MLB telecasts by answering game-related questions and trivia. Features will allow fans to select at game and connect with Facebook friends following the same game. Turner executives announced the initiative yesterday, noting that the company was looking to develop “complementary experiences” to drive engagement across the screens and an announcement on a sponsor would come shortly.

EA announced that the launch of EA Sports FIFA Soccer 13 sold over 4.5 million games across all platforms worldwide in just five days. That marks the biggest videogame launch of 2012 and biggest sports videogame launch of all-time with FIFA 13 ranking as the top-selling game in at least 40 countries around the world.

The Main Event

Tune in to NFL Network for Cardinals/Rams at 8p.

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ON THIS DAY in 1922: The entire World Series is broadcast on radio for the first time.

Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question:  From what school was Drew Brees drafted? Answer: Purdue. Kudos: Kevin McIntyre-Leverage Agency/NY; Amanda Rykoff-espnW.com/NY; John Miller-NBC Sports Group/NY; Mitch Burg-Syndicated Network Television Association/NY; Holly Goode-KFC NCAC/Louisville; Rob Caravello-NBC Golf Channel/Orlando; Rick Haan-CommuniConcepts/New Jersey; Glenn Schineller-Time Warner Cable/Charlotte; Jennifer Anderson-Henry-Comcast Spotlight/Indianapolis; Chuck Gordon-WABM-TV/Birmingham; John A Sardelis-ESPN Audio/Chicago; Lance Williams-Comcast Spotlight/Chicago; Michael Jaquet-U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association/Salt lake City; Greg Moloznik-GLM Media/Scottsdale; Harry S. Vested, Jr.-Gravity Collection/Denver; Jack Simmons-Fox Sports/LA; Justin Stockton-Muve Music/San Diego; Mindi Sue-black & blue star/LA; Anne Wettig-MundoFox/LA

In The Know: What athlete played Thunderlips in the movie Rocky III?(Email Chris-Sports@ cynopsis.com 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.)

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Later — Chris
Chris Pursell for Cyn opsis | Sports
10.04.12

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