2016-04-01

CYNOPSISSPORTS
04.01.16

Good morning. It’s Friday April 1, 2016, and this is your first early morning Sports briefing.

Members of the US Women’s National Team upped the ante over equality issues with US Soccer, as Carli Lloyd, Hope Solo, Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe and Becky Sauerbrunn announced on Today that they have filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against the organization, citing wage discrimination when compared to the men’s team and stating that the squad drives more revenue to the US Soccer Federation than they are compensated for. "I think the timing is right," said Lloyd. "I think that we’ve proven our worth over the years. Just coming off of a World Cup win, the pay disparity between the men and women is just too large. And we want to continue to fight."

ON THE AIR

On to the Masters. Billy Payne, Chairman of Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters Tournament, stated that this year’s tournament will be offered in 4K as well as in virtual reality. The 4K broadcast will blanket Amen Corner, the 11th, 12th and 13th holes. Meanwhile, special cameras will be placed along the course to offer viewers VR perspectives for holes 6 and 16 for fans who download the free NextVR app for Gear VR on the Oculus Home app store. “This year’s presentation reflects our commitment to constant improvement in order to advance the visibility of the game and provide the highest quality content possible,” said Payne. “We remain interested in exploring opportunities to deliver coverage in the manner our fans wish to consume it, which is driven by the spirit of innovation instilled by our Founders Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts.”

CBS lined up its own plans for the Masters, beginning with live third-round coverage on April 9 at 3p with final-round 18-hole coverage on April 10 at 2p with highlights on April 7 and 8 at 11:35p. Jim Nantz once again hosts and will handle coverage of the Highlight Shows, while Sir Nick Faldo joins Nantz in the 18th hole tower as lead analyst. Meanwhile, Masters Live, offers full-day video coverage on CBSSports.com with four channels of golf action that will follow select featured groups each day throughout their entire round for the first time.

ESPN’s rounds at the Masters  will include 4.5 hours of live Round 1 and Round 2 action on April 7 and 8 from 3-7:30p with an edited encore presentation in prime time each night from 8-11 p.m. on ESPN. ESPN also will carry the traditional Masters Par 3 Contest on April 6, from 3-5p, followed by a one-hour SportsCenter at the Masters special at 5p. Mike Tirico will host ESPN’s Thursday and Friday telecasts and conduct player interviews from Augusta National’s Butler Cabin. Tirico and ESPN golf analyst Curtis Strange will join CBS’ golf announcer crew for the telecasts.

On to baseball. FOX released its MLB plans for the season, led by the new lead pair of Joe Buck and John Smoltz. The season will see a special primetime premiere on April 7, while Buck and Smoltz make their 2016 debut on April 9 on FS1 with the Dodgers/Giants. Other talent this year will include: Kenny Albert, Kevin Burkhardt, Joe Davis, Aaron Goldsmith, Len Kasper, Justin Kutcher, Don Orsillo and Matt Vasgersian as well as analysts Brian Anderson, Cliff Floyd, Mark Gubicza, Eric Karros, CJ Nitkowski, Harold Reynolds and Tom Verducci. Reporters Erin Andrews, Jon Paul Morosi and Rosenthal also contribute to game coverage.

On ESPN, the MLB season features action starting April 3 and 4. Jessica Mendoza, who became the first female analyst for a nationally-televised MLB Postseason game last October, will begin her full-time role on Sunday Night Baseball, beside Aaron Boone and joining Dan Shulman and Buster Olney to call Opening Night Baseball: New York Mets at Kansas City Royals on April 3 at 8:30p. The new ESPN Monday Night Baseball team debuts April 3, with analysts Eduardo Perez and Curt Schilling joined by Dave Flemming to call the Rays/Blue Jays opener at 4p on ESPN2, while the ESPN Wednesday Night Baseball team of Jon Sciambi, Rick Sutcliffe and Doug Glanville call the Cardinals/Pirates opener on April  at 1p on ESPN. The network’s new Baseball Tonight: Sunday Night Countdown team features Karl Ravech joined by reporter Tim Kurkjian and newcomer Dallas Braden for Sunday Night Baseball pre-game shows throughout the year.

NBC Sports Group is getting back to the sand with AVP, announcing live coverage of all eight AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour events this season, including more than 14 hours of live Pro Beach Volleyball Tour coverage on NBC, NBCSN and NBC Sports Live Extra. Coverage starts with the AVP New Orleans Open on April 17, at 1:30p on NBC.

Sports Emmy nominations were announced by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Nominations were announced in 40 categories while the Awards will be presented on May 10th at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall, located in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Top ten channels snagging noms included ESPN with 40, followed by FS1 with 27, CBS at 21, FOX and NBC with 19, TNT at 14, HBO with 13, ESPN2 with 11, MLB Network at 10 and FOXSports.com with 8.

ESPN Radio debuts First and Last with Lundberg & Golic Jr., hosted by Robin Lundberg and Mike Golic Jr., on Monday at 4a, recapping the previous night’s highlights and the coming day’s top stories. Combined with a two-hour edition of SportsCenter AllNight from 2-4a, ESPN Radio will now be live 24 hours a day on weekdays."We are constantly looking for new, aggressive ways of serving sports fans,” said David Roberts, vice president, ESPN Audio Network Content. “Providing sports talk and information LIVE around the clock during the week underscores our commitment to offering our listeners another opportunity to engage with our network through a strong opinion-based program. Robin Lundberg and Mike Golic Jr. will set the table perfectly for our flagship franchise, Mike and Mike."

Anthem Sports & Entertainment announced that Fantasy Sports Network and Fight Network have launched on Service Electric Broadband Cable in New Jersey, making the channels available to Service Electric’s base of approximately 30,000 subscribers.

FOX Sports Southeast announced that in addition to Joe Simpson celebrating 25 years in the Braves TV booth this season, where he will join Chip Caray, the network is also adding Kelsey Wingert as a game reporter. Braves coverage plans for Opening Day on April 4 will feature over 13 hours of Braves-related content throughout the day, including a special two-hour Braves LIVE! pregame show from Turner Field at 2p, followed by the Braves hosting the Nationals at 4p.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

CYNOPSIS SPORTS MEDIA AWARDS
April 21  | New York Athletic Club  | 8:15-10:30am | REGISTER NOW

CYNOPSIS SPORTS will honor 4 executives who changed the way their sports entities connected with fans around the country:

LEGACY AWARD — Eric Shanks, President, COO & EP – Fox Sports
VISION AWARD — Don Garber, Commissioner – MLS
NAVIGATOR AWARD – Rob McGlarry, President – MLB Network
GEM AWARD – Mike O’Brien, VP, Corp. & Prod. Planning – Hyundai

SPONSORSHIP & PROMOTION

Ahead of this weekend’s Final Four, the Collegiate Licensing Company, in coordination with the NCAA, is making preparations to keep the marketplace clear of potential counterfeit and unlicensed merchandise. CLC will work with Houston and Indianapolis officials, as well as local law enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations, to patrol the areas in search of counterfeit merchandise and any other unauthorized use of trademarks owned by the NCAA and the participating institutions. All counterfeit merchandise is subject to seizure. “By protecting the brands of our partner institutions, we are helping ensure that fans and consumers get high-quality, authentic merchandise, the sale of which directly benefits collegiate programs at NCAA institutions,” said Bruce Siegal, CLC’s senior vice president and general counsel. “CLC will work with a team of law enforcement officials in the Houston and Indianapolis areas to comprehensively cover the venue and event areas, stop counterfeiters, and safeguard customers from being sold inferior and counterfeit products.”

Under Armour and Full Swing Golf locked in a new partnership to introduce Full Swing Golf’s latest technology, which will be featured in the UA Chicago Brand House store. Consumers visiting the Michigan Avenue location will be able to try Under Armour’s apparel and technology on the Full Swing S4 model simulator and Virtual Green product, giving customers the ability to test UA golf products within a golf skills challenge environment.

SOCIAL MEDIA

WWE is teaming up with Twitter and Snapchat in a full push ahead of Wrestlemania. The company’s Twitter activation will include a special #WrestleMania hashtag triggered Twitter emoji from April 1-4 in addition to Twitter Moments and a Vine channel. Meanwhile the multi-year Snapchat partnership will see Snapchat cover WrestleMania via a Live Story. Fans will have the chance to contribute video and photo Snaps to one collective WrestleMania Live Story, which captures the real story of the event. The Snaps submitted from WrestleMania will be curated and packaged by Snapchat into a brief video that is available globally to Snapchat’s more than 100 million daily active users. “We are thrilled to partner with Snapchat and provide our fans with a new way to experience WrestleMania,” said Jayar Donlan, WWE Senior Vice President, Digital & Social Content. “The Snapchat Live Story allows WWE fans to share their stories from our annual pop culture extravaganza and dive into the live action of WrestleMania in more ways, and from more perspectives, than ever before.”

DIGITAL & STREAMING

Sportsnet Canada will become the first mainstream sports TV channel in North America to be offering direct to consumers with the launch of Sportsnet NOW today. The live streaming service features six Sportsnet linear channels and available for around $20 US. The OTT platform will offer live streaming of Sportsnet Ontario, East, Pacific, West, ONE, and 360 online, on tablets, and through mobile devices.

Daily fantasy sports sites DraftKings and FanDuel are voluntarily ending college sports betting indefinitely across all US states as part of a deal with the NCAA. The move kicks in following the conclusion of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. "We have made clear at every point in this national debate that daily fantasy sports competition should not be allowed to be conducted using college, high school and youth sports programs," said Donald Remy, NCAA chief legal officer, in a statement to ESPN.

WWE Network is beefing up its programming, adding Holy Foley to its lineup, “a comedic, behind-the-scenes look into the life of WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley and his relationship with daughter Noelle and the rest of the family.

The Global Poker League begins its inaugural season next week with its first live matches on April 5, livestreamed on GPL.TV and Twitch. Over the course of the next six months, 12 franchise teams will go head-to-head throughout season, culminating in a the first ever GPL Finals in November. The season will see three match days per week every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

STATS LLC will take on the 2016 NCAA Women’s Final Four, leveraging STATS SportVU player tracking technology to collect real-time tracking data of the games for use by the NCAA and its media partners. STATS SportVU data will be used to create graphics for broadcast and in-stadium fan engagement and key stats from the games will be included in post-game notes which will be sent to the media to inform coverage with in-depth statistical information.

The Basketball Tournament presented by Jack Link’s Protein Snacks officially opens the application period for the 2016 $2 million single elimination winner-take-all event today. TheTournament.com serves as the host for TBT’s social media driven application period, which runs from April 1 to June 1 with the top 12 vote getters in each region receiving "automatic" bids, while TBT will select four at-large teams per region to complete the field.

ESPORTS/GAMING

Twitch is making a play for mobile eSports. Super Evil Megacorp, maker of the leading touchscreen esport Vainglory is partnering with the social video platform for a three-year partnership in North America and Europe for the official Vainglory Championships and supporting esports structures. The collaboration will include a multi-million dollar investment from each company and a multi-pronged program across sales, promotions, broadcasts and live events. “The esports industry has been dominated by PC and console titles, but Vainglory is ushering in a new mobile games movement,” said Nick Allen, Director of Esports Operations at Twitch. “The incredible engagement Vainglory has garnered on our platform is testament that our community welcomes the convergence of esports and mobile gaming.”

The University of California Irvine is going all in on eSports, announcing an official e-sports initiative this fall, the first of its kind at a public research university. Investments will include a state-of-the-art arena equipped with high-end gaming PCs, a stage for League of Legends competitions and a live webcasting studio that will be constructed at the Student Center. In addition, as many as 10 academic scholarships will be offered to students on the team. “UCI eSportswill be built on four pillars: competition, academics, entertainment and community,” said Thomas Parham, vice chancellor for student affairs. “We hope to attract the best gamers from around the world, and our academic programs in computer gaming science, digital arts, computer science, engineering, anthropology, law, medicine, neuroscience and behavior create a strong foundation for research and inquiry related to gaming.”

ROSTER MOVES

The College Football Hall of Fame named Dennis Adamovich as its new CEO. Adamovich joins from Turner Broadcasting System, and succeeds interim CEO John Christie and founding CEO John Stephenson.

The Connecticut Open presented by United Technologies tapped Randy Master for its corporate partnerships department. Master will be charged with leveraging the success of the tournament, its WTA player field, Men’s Legends event, domestic and international television coverage and 501(c)(3) not-for-profit status to garner regional, national and worldwide partners. He joins after ten years at Tennis Channel.

THE MAIN EVENT

Final Four begins with North Carolina/Syracuse on TBS with Oklahoma/Villanova on Saturday at 6p, followed by North Carolina/Syracuse.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

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ON THIS DAY in 1991: The Duke Blue Devils beat Kansas Jayhawks to win their first NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship.

In The Know: What is the nickname for teams playing for UC Irvine? (Email Chris-Sports@cynopsis.com with your answer and be sure to include your name, company and city.)

Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question: Which MLB club did Dennis Quaid play for in The Rookie? Answer: Tampa Bay. Kudos: Art Salisch-Hearst Television/NY; Kyle Helm-CBS Sports/NY; Michael Dittelman-Dedicated Sports Marketing/NY; Jonathan Busardo-Leverage Agency/NY; Tom Wetzel-MMSI/Warwick; Jamey Vancil-NASCAR Productions/Charlotte; Michael G. Hawkins-Francis Marion University/Florence; Don Micallef-Discovery Communications/Silver Spring; Bill Robertson-WCHA/Edina; John Kukla-KDFW-KDFI/Dallas; Tom Doherty-Starcom Media/Chicago; Lucie Prann-The Richards Group/Dallas; Steven Gold-Professional Bull Riders/Pueblo; Scott Sarra-NBC Sports Group/Denver; Nick Monroe-Monroe Photography/San Diego; Adam Deverell-Cox Reps/LA; Paul Gygli-NBCUniversal Television Distribution/Universal City; Neal Stevens-Stevens & Associates/Beverly Hills.

Later — Chris
Chris Pursell for Cynopsis | Sports @VegasandVine

04.01.16

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The post 04/01/16: Soccer stars seek a balanced act; The Masters swings for 4K & VR; FOX, ESPN unveil MLB rosters appeared first on Cynopsis Media.

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