Good morning. It’s Tuesday April 17, 2018 and this is your first early morning Sports briefing.

FOX Sports lined up its 2018 USGA Championship television schedule, locking in over 150 hours of live linear coverage across nine championships, including more than 45 hours of coverage of the 118thU.S. Open Championship from Shinnecock Hills Golf Cub in Southampton in June. Programming will run across FOX, FS1, FOX Deportes with concurrent streaming on FOX Sports GO, covering nine 2018 USGA championships in 2018 starting with the 73rd U.S. Women’s Open Championship starting May 30 with live practice round action on FS1. June 12 sees the Celebration of Champions, a brand new event featuring the USGA’s reigning champions in a unique team competition on-site at Shinnecock Hills, while live U.S. Open championship coverage begins June 13, with practice rounds, before competition officially begins on FS1 from 9:30a-4:30p on June 14. FOX jumps in with third-round competition on June 16 starting at 11a and June 17, from 10a-7p.

ON THE AIR

NBC Sports reports that the company’s opening weekend of Stanley Cup Playoff coverage grew 25% this year over last year’s tally, averaging a 1.39 overnight Nielsen score. Through five days on NBC, NBCSN, CNBC and USA, the postseason has posted a .6 overnight ratings, up 7% over 2017 numbers for the same span. Sunday’s matchup between the Penguins/Flyers notched a 1.62 score to rank as the company’s highest-rated for the opening weekend of the playoffs since 2015.

In other ratings news, Golf Channel’s Shotmakers – which takes place from TopGolf Las Vegas – saw 1.2 million viewers tune in to the network’s two-night premiere on April 9-10. The show also marked the youngest primetime audience for a premiere on the cable network since 2016, with more than 50% of the audience between the ages of 25-54, according to Nielsen.

Elsewhere in golf numbers, CBS Sports reports that its coverage of the RBC Heritage- Final Round drew a 2.0/4 from 3-6p, for a markup of 33% over last year’s numbers. That number is also the highest-rated final round for this event in the metered markets since 2 6/6 in 2015 when Jim Furyk won in a play-off.

Rounding out our ratings news, ESPN reports that its telecasts of the WNBA Draft 2018 on Thursday, which aired on ESPN2 and ESPNU, earned a combined average audience of 212,000 viewers, up 25% over last year. ESPN2’s telecast of the first round, which saw new franchise Las Vegas Aces select South Carolina’s A’ja Wilson with the first pick, was the most-watched ESPN2 telecast since 2014 and garnered an average audience of 308,000, up 13% over last year’s viewership.

UFC inked a deal to return to Singapore, starting June 23 with UFC Fight Night Singapore: Cerrone vs. Edwards presented by AirAsia. The announcement also signals a multi-year event deal that will see UFC make annual stops in Singapore over the next three years. This marks the first multi-year live event agreement for the global brand in the Asia-Pacific region.

BTN unveiled its 2018 Spring Championships schedule, beginning with coverage of the Big Ten Women’s Golf Championship at 5p on April 30. The following week, the Big Ten Men’s Golf Championship will air on Monday, May 7, at 5p. The Big Ten Women’s Tennis Championship will air on April 30 at 6p, followed immediately by the men’s championship at 8p. Other action will include championships for lacrosse, softball, outdoor track and field, rowing and baseball.

NBC Sports Philadelphia reports that Game One of the Sixers NBA Playoff matchup against the Miami Heat on the channel delivered a 6.1 HH rating to rank as the highest-rated Sixers game broadcast on the network since May 10, 2003. Saturday’s live stream also saw 20,000 uniques, streaming 1.3 million minutes. During the regular season, the Sixers on NBC Sports Philadelphia averaged a 2.4 HH rating, up 45% over the 2016-17 season, making this season the highest rated since 2011-12.

YOU ASKED, WE DELIVERED.

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SPONSORSHIP & PROMOTION

The PGA of America and Anheuser-Busch named Michelob ULTRA as the Official Beer Sponsor of the Ryder Cup and PGA Championship. The new partnership includes rights for the Ryder Cup through 2020, as well as the PGA Championship through 2019 and will commence with the 2018 PGA Championship at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis, Aug. 6-12. In addition, the beer brand will be presenting sponsor of the International Pavilion for the 2020 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin.

The Harlem Globetrotters and Tum-E Yummies fruit-flavored water drinks announced a partnership that will make Tum-E Yummies the Official Juice Drink of the team. As part of the partnership, Tum-E Yummies will also become the presenting sponsor of the Globetrotters’ pre-game Magic Pass, an interactive event that enables families to meet the players, get autographs and learn basketball tricks and skills. Tum-E Yummies will also become the title sponsor of the Globetrotters Experience summer theme park tour that is set to visit Cedar Fair parks across the U.S. from May through July.

DIGITAL & STREAMING

FloSports is adding 63 cycling events to its lineup, covering 188 days of racing, on FloBikes.com. Races include the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de Suisse, as well as the 2019 editions of Milan-San Remo and the Tour of Flanders. Races on FloBikes.com will be available to audiences in the U.S. and Canada.

Today will see Yahoo Sports launch a new MLB podcast hosted by a trio of its baseball writers – Jeff Passan, Tim Brown and Mike Oz. The Yahoo Sports MLB Podcast will bring fans a weekly mix of interviews, analysis and observations about the sport with an inaugural episode that features an in-depth interview with Albert Pujols.

Roku announced the availability of ESPN+ through the new ESPN channel on the Roku platform. The service will be available within the newly updated ESPN channel. “Roku customers have enjoyed the ESPN channel for years. The launch of ESPN+ marks an exciting moment for the OTT sports experience, giving consumers more sports content from their favorite pastimes than ever,” said Scott Rosenberg, General Manager of the Platform Business at Roku. “Roku customers that subscribe to ESPN+ will enjoy access to more live sports events, original shows and films, exclusive studio programs and ESPN’s unmatched on-demand library.”

ESPORTS

Activision Blizzard is partnering with Nielsen to measure and value esports brand investments across the company’s slate of leagues and titles. As part of the deal, Nielsen will measure brand exposure in esports events representing a variety of Activision Blizzard titles, event formats and geographic locations based on the same methodology that Nielsen uses to quantify value and benchmark performance for traditional sports rights holders and brands. Nielsen will begin tracking Blizzard Entertainment’s Overwatch League, Overwatch World Cup and Overwatch Contenders this year, as well as Activision’s Call of Duty World League, with plans to expand to other programs in the coming year. “As esports continues to mature and reach its potential as a stand-alone business, we’re determined to lead the way and develop best practices for brands and advertisers,” said Pete Vlastelica, CEO of Activision Blizzard Esports Leagues. “We’re excited to partner with the most experienced and respected measurement service in Nielsen and continue building on our foundation of the best esports leagues in the world.”

Unikrn added tournament platform ChallengeMe.GG to its house, where it will be leveraged to continue to offer both casual & skill-based competitive gaming across tournaments, ladders, leagues and direct challenges with friends. Once integrated into the Unikrn platform, CME will extend the utility of UKG with buy-in tournaments to start as soon as this May and other skill-based, blockchain-powered challenges coming in the near future. The acquisition will also lead to the integration of the Unikrn Wallet into CME’s functionality so users will be able to enter tournaments, make trades and use UKG on the CME platform.

ROSTER MOVES

Former Lagardere Sports US COO Jay Danzi joined WME as a partner. Danzi will be joined by his team including Jordan Lewites and Laura Moses; various consulting clients; and golf star Jordan Spieth, who will be represented by both WME and IMG. In addition to managing Spieth and continuing his work in golf and consulting, Danzi will also look to cultivate new business opportunities across the entire Endeavor network.

THE MAIN EVENT

Can the Golden Knights clinch their first-ever Stanley Cup Playoff series? VGK/Kings on NBCSN at 10:30p.

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ON THIS DAY in 1983: Nolan Ryan strikes out his 3,500th batter.

In the Know: Which four MLB teams did Nolan Ryan play for? (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 is the name of the famous incline located at mile 20 of the Boston Marathon? Answer: Heartbreak Hill. Kudos: Matt Meachem-Gracenote/NY; Conor Moran-Pixability/NY; Nicki McIntyre-Showtime Networks/NY; Jackie Mahon-Freelance/NY; Larry Kahn-Golf Channel/Orlando; Mark Lehman-Atlanta Braves/Atlanta; Michael Narracci-NESN/Watertown; John Langermann-WINK-TV/Fort Myers; Andy Pittman-TAMU/College Station; John Kukla-KDFW/Dallas; Will Allmendinger-Clear Channel Outdoor/Chicago; Gretchen Brady-KTVT/KTXA/Dallas; Rick Pike-InterMedia Advertising/Woodland Hills; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA; David Westberg-SAG-AFTRA Federal Credit Union/Burbank; Don Surath-KPIX-TV/KBCW-TV/San Francisco

Later - Chris

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