CYNOPSISSPORTS
09.08.15
Good morning. It’s Tuesday September 8, 2015, and this is your first early morning Sports briefing.
With the launch of the new college football season underway and all eyes looking to dethrone Ohio State atop the championship mantle, Big Ten Network now finds itself hitting its ninth season on the air bolstered by its own hot run. After launching nearly a decade ago to resistance from MSOs, the network now finds itself in more than 60 million homes, and is scoring viewership records that include the launch of Scarlet and Gray Days: Inside Ohio State’s Training Camp, which marks the highest-rated August original program in the channel’s history. Meanwhile, streaming platform BTN2Go continues to grow its own reach.
Cynopsis Sports spoke with channel President Mark Silverman about the network’s own journey, and what we can expect to see in the years ahead.
Silverman on the evolution of the channel: Our strategy is to keep building our brand. With the expansion of adding Rutgers and Maryland most recently and Nebraska before that, we really have a great opportunity to grow significantly into the eastern seaboard, New York/New Jersey area and Baltimore/DC area to help establish the Big Ten as the preeminent national conference across the country. We have the subscriber base, the alumni base and the programming to enable us to go out and do that. So our key focus moving ahead will be to grow the BTN brand in these additional areas. We know we are well distributed in the Midwest, but the Midwest is only 30% of our subs. So have now have this great opportunity to expand our sphere of influence across the country.
On new additions: We are way ahead of where we thought we’d be with the new schools both in terms of distribution but also in terms of ratings and acceptance from the viewers in those areas. We thought it was going to be a longer period of time and fortunately there is such a large alumni base of Big Ten fans already in those areas. It was a great opportunity to interact with the alums in those areas as well as with the new alums. We’ve been able to do a few things with them, we did a game day at Rutgers last year where we had tremendous success and now we are doing game day this year at Maryland for when they play Michigan and hope to have similar results.
On Ohio State’s football championship: The last year was really an important year for the conference and therefor for the network establishing itself in football. As we were covering the season, there was a lot of speculation about how well the conference was performing. A lot of what we try to do now is talking to college football fans, not just the fans of Big Ten schools. We put the conference in context and the challenges they were having and then we were able to cover Ohio State’s fantastic finish as then Michigan State and Wisconsin’s big bowl victories. Being there for all of those games and being able to report form those sites gave us an opportunity to cover football longer than we have in the past. It became a natural lift to the overall mood in the office and the way the Big Ten was talked about.
On launching Scarlett and Gray Days: This type of show has obviously been growing as a result of the Hard Knocks show and the success HBO has had for that, as well as The Journey, which has been very successful for us and is probably our biggest and most important show that we do outside of the games. So we were looking for opportunity that made sense and when Ohio State indicated that they were open to doing a show of this magnitude, we quickly evaluated it and thought we could do a show like this. Ohio State was not obligated to do anything like this. They obviously have a lot of media attention surrounding them so we tried to make sure that they and BTN were on the same page and we were able to work together that made them happy. Of course, the viewers bought in to having unprecedented access to a national champion and it was a great next step for BTN and we will evaluate this going forward. Every single episode grow over the previous one.
On coaches: We definitely have some extremely high-profile coaches in both football and basketball and when you can have those coaches be on our air, it is going to help grow your viewership. That is especially true when you have superstar-level interest from the media and the fans in them and it helps having those coaches in the conference and on our television.
ON THE AIR
Speaking of college football, the season’s kickoff saw viewership spikes around the dial. NBC Sports reports that Saturday’s Texas/Notre Dame blowout generated a 2.56 in Nielsen metered market overnight numbers. That marks the channel’s highest rated Notre Dame Football season opening game since 2008. Top markets included: Austin (15.70); San Antonio (6.48); Indianapolis (6.15); Oklahoma City (6.11) and Dallas Ft. Worth (5.22).
ESPN’s 2015 Thursday night doubleheader pitting North Carolina/South Carolina and TCU/Minnesota scored a 40% and 27% overnight rating increases versus the 2014 Thursday night opener. South Carolina’s win handed the channel with a 2.1 overnight rating, while TCU’s victory garnered a 1.9 overnight rating.
Jim Harbaugh’s return to college coaching helped propel FS1 to new audience highs for the Michigan/Utah faceoff. The Utes’ win marked the highest-rated and most-watched college football game on FS1 since launch, posting a 1.73 household rating, with 2.868 million viewers tuning in, according to Nielsen. That is up a huge 518% in rating over last year’s FS1 season-opener and 628% in audience and became the highest-rated, most-watched event on FS1 since the NASCAR Sprint Cup race from Sonoma on 6/28/15. Michigan/Utah also became the most-streamed college football telecast in FOX Sports GO history with 73,000 unique viewers tuning in.
Univision Deportes’ reports that flagship sports news program Contacto Deportivo notched ratings records in August. The series averaged 542,000 Total Viewers 2+ in August, and has seen viewership swell 213% year-year among viewers and 170% among Adults 18-49 in the month.
FS1 tapped its talent for the networks upcoming Premier Boxing Champions series Toe-to-Toe Tuesdays, which debuts tonight at 9p. Kenny Brian hosts with blow-by-blow announcer Gus Johnson, analyst Paulie Malignaggi and reporter Claudia Trejos. The two-hour inaugural episode features a 10-round junior middleweight headliner between Austin “No Doubt” Trout/”Twinkle Fingers” Hernandez. (24-3-1, 14 KOs).
Speaking of talent assignments, with Curt Schilling on the sidelines due to suspension, ESPN formally announced that Jessica Mendoza will take over analyst duties on Sunday Night Baseball for the rest of the MLB season.
The Big 12 Conference revealed its 2015-16 women’s basketball telecast schedule on FOX Sports networks. The league will see 28 appearances on the channels, including 19 regular season games and all nine Phillips 66 Big 12 Women’s Basketball Championship matchups. Twelve games will be televised nationally on either FS1 or FS2, with 14 slated for FOX Sports Regional Networks (FSN) and two will be on FOX College Sports (FCS).
beIN SPORTS saw an average of 593,000 total viewers across both English and Spanish language cable networks for its telecast of the La Liga match between Real Madrid and Betis on August 29, per Nielsen. The network also saw the Barcelona/Malaga match on the same day score an average of 537,000 total viewers across both networks.
SiriusXM will play host to Jimmy Connors, who will host a series of US Open specials airing on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Sports Radio, channel 82. Connors will broadcast live from the SiriusXM studios in Manhattan alongside Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo starting today at 5p. On Saturday, Connors joins SiriusXM’s Dan Graca at 9a to preview that day’s Women’s Singles Final and Men’s Doubles Final, as well as the next day’s Men’s Singles Final.
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"Mean Joe" Greene has returned. Coca-Cola brought back the iconic commercial during Sunday’s NASCAR race featuring the Steelers’ legend giving up his jersey after receiving a coke. Adweek broke the story, stating that Greene knew right away the ad, which first ran during the 1979 Major League Baseball playoffs, was good but had no idea it would take on "a life of its own." "Prior to the commercial I was known as a mean guy. Not just ‘Mean Joe,’ but as a mean guy," he said in the article. "But afterward, I remember prior to a ball game, leaving a hotel on a road trip, a little kid came up to me and asked for an autograph. I tend not to give autographs, and I kind of snarled at him, and he just looked at me and smiled and said, "That’s ‘Mean Joe.’"
DIGITAL & STREAMING
Just ahead of kickoff, NFL Digital Media announced an overhaul for its platforms. Highlights include a completely redesigned NFL Mobile from Verizon app offering fans simplified navigation along with a “Gameday” and “Non Gameday” view. On Thursdays, Sundays, and Mondays of the regular season, NFL Mobile will take fans directly into a matchup/scoreboard page so they can immediately get insights into the upcoming games. NFL Now also got an upgrade and will now feature NFL Now Live, offering a streaming wheel of content providing the latest news, updates, extensive highlights from NFL games, and trending topics from around the league. Live programming will include GameDay Blitz and Around the NFL, along with events and team content. This offseason also saw the league created NFL Game Pass, replacing pre-existing subscription products such as NFL Game Rewind, Audio Pass, Preseason Live and the premium tier of NFL Now video, NFL Now Plus. The platform offers replays of all 256 Regular Season Games On-Demand, and include features such as Coaches Film and condensed games, plus live audio of every NFL Regular Season and Playoff Games for $99.99.
PRODUCTION TECH
In other NFL news, the league signed on for three more years with RR Media, a provider of global digital media services to the broadcast and media industries. The contract covers live and non-live delivery into Asia, Europe and, for the first time, an opportunity to deliver games into South America. RR Media will be delivering the NFL pre-season, regular season and playoffs as well as a variety of magazine-style and highlights programming that includes NFL RedZone. Games and programs will be managed and delivered through service infrastructure built to support premium sports. Between eight and twelve games per week will be delivered by RR Media during the regular season, with the capability to distribute up to nine games simultaneously and the capacity to extend to additional games simultaneously as required by the NFL.
ROSTER MOVES
CBC Sports has a new topper, announcing that Greg Stremlaw will now lead the brands as Head of Sports as it implements its sports strategy, “placing emphasis on multiplatform sports journalism, amateur sports and a collaborative partnership approach to marquee events.” Stremlaw previously served as CEO of Curling Canada,
IMG College named Ben Sutton as Chairman Emeritus of the company. Sutton was appointed President of the newly formed IMG College in 2010. “For quite a while, I’ve wanted to devote more time to partner relationships and work on strategic initiatives with Jason that we believe are important to the future of college sports,” Sutton said. “We created the best family of partners and the finest sports marketing team in America at IMG College, and I’m profoundly honored to be part of it. I’m by no means slowing down, but at this point in my career, I am interested in investing some of my time and energy in other projects.”
The New York Red Bulls named Amy Scheer as Chief Commercial Officer of the club where she will oversee all of the club’s revenue driving departments including Ticket Sales, Fan Services & Ticket Operations, Partnership Marketing and Red Bull Training Programs. She previously served as Vice President of Marketing, Media and Fan Relationship Management for New York City FC.
THE MAIN EVENT
Check out FS1’s take on Premier Boxing Champions with Toe-to-Toe Tuesdays tonight at 9p.
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ON THIS DAY in 1985: Pete Rose ties Ty Cobb with 4,191 hits.
In The Know:
Mean Joe Green became on the second Steeler to have his number formally retired by the franchise. Who was the first? (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: What Notre Dame athlete won a Heisman with Lou Holtz as coach? Answer: Tim Brown. Kudos: Andrew Feingold-Nielsen/NY; Michael O. Brown-Lagardere Unlimited/NY; Matt Meachem-Gracenote, Inc/NY; Denis Barry-CBS/NY; Tom Haidinger-Advantage International/Norwalk; Jonathan Norman -Bespoke Sports & Entertainment/Charlotte; Christian Matthews-Washington Redskins/DC; Pamela Wise-The E.W. Scripps Company/Cincinnati; Andy Pittman-TAMU/College Station; Steve McNair-KUBE TV/Houston; Joe Lyons/Dallas; Gretchen Brady-KTVT/Dallas; Kevin Micklo-Pinnacle Advertising/Chicago; Harry S. Vested Jr.-GCSN/Denver; Daniel Hanson/Vail; Scott Sarra-Universal Sports Network/Denver; Matt Sautter-Imagine Communications/Denver; Judie Henninger-Valentine Productions Inc/Santa Monica; Adam Deverell-Cox Reps/LA; John Baghdassarian-Olympusat/LA; Willie Price-American Forces Network/Riverside.
Later — Chris
Chris Pursell for Cynopsis | Sports @VegasandVine
09.08.15
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