| |
| Friday, September 27, 2019 |
| Pepsi, the NFL and Roc Nation announced that Jennifer Lopez and Shakira will perform during the Pepsi Super Bowl LIV Halftime Show on FOX taking place Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla. on Sunday, Feb. 2, 2020. "Ever since I saw Diana Ross fly off into the sky at the Halftime Show, I dreamed of performing at the Super Bowl," said Lopez. "And now it's made even more special not only because it's the NFL's 100th anniversary, but also because I am performing with a fellow Latina. I can't wait to show what us girls can do on the world's biggest stage." The Pepsi Super Bowl LIV Halftime Show telecast will be produced by NFL Network with Ricky Kirshner serving as executive producer, and Hamish Hamilton serving as director. Roc Nation will serve as producers and strategic entertainment advisors of the live performance. PROGRAMMING As SmackDown shifts from Tuesdays to Fridays next week to 8p on FOX, FS1 is jumping in on the action with WWE Backstage, offering viewers the latest WWE news every Tuesday at 11p starting Nov. 5. WWE broadcaster Renee Young and WWE Hall of Famer Booker T weigh in on the biggest stories in WWE, and are joined by a rotating cast of guests and personalities, including current and former WWE Superstars. FOX Sports serves up a special preview of the show on Oct. 15, following the conclusion of the ALCS Game 3 on FS1. Meanwhile, WWE Premiere Week will see new voices brought to Raw, NXT and SmackDown. Raw’s new announce team will include play-by-play from Vic Joseph with Dio Maddin and WWE Hall of Famer Jerry “The King” Lawler serving as analysts; NXT play-by-play will be called by Mauro Ranallo with Beth Phoenix and Nigel McGuiness as analysts; and SmackDown will feature Michael Cole handling play-by-play, Corey Graves serving as analyst and Renee Young as a Special Contributor. A standoff between FOX and DISH/Sling TV has seen DISH announce on Thursday that its satellite subscribers and Sling online streamers in 17 markets across 23 states plus the District of Columbia will no longer get local channels nor multiple Fox sports channels, including FOX Sports 1 and 2, the Big Ten Network, Fox Soccer Plus and Fox Deportes. ESPN detailed production plans for its live presentation of the 2019 WNBA Finals presented by YouTubeTV which starts on Sunda with the Sun/Mystics at 3p. Ryan Ruocco, Rebecca Lobo and reporter Holly Rowe will call the best-of-five game series. Each Finals game will have both coaches — Washington’s Mike Thibault and Connecticut’s Curt Miller — and one player from each team wearing a mic. ESPN will also add “above the rim” cameras to the coverage of the Finals, and feature player in-game interview during the first quarter while interviews with the coaches will be held at the end of the first and third quarter. Ahead of its two exclusive American League Division Series game telecasts this Postseason, MLB Network will air nine straight hours of live coverage of the last day of MLB’s regular season this Sunday, beginning with High Heat with Christopher Russo at 1p, followed by MLB Tonight, featuring look-ins of live games and analysis, at 2p. Quick Pitch, hosted by Heidi Watney, will recap the day’s action at 8p and an MLB Tonight Postseason preview with Fran Charles, Bill Ripken and Tom Verducci will air at 9p. Around the dial, ESPN serves up MLB Coverage with its first-ever Wild Card Baseball Tonight: Statcast AI Edition alternative viewing experience, on Oct. 2 at 8p during the American League Wild Card Game presented by Hankook Tire, with main coverage on ESPN and the ESPN App. ESPN2, meanwhile, features the play-by-play voice Jason Benetti, analyst Eduardo Perez and MLB Statcast analyst Mike Petriello delivering analytics-based commentary driven by innovative on-screen graphics, data and information provided by Statcast AI. For the first time at the Wild Card Game, ESPN will broadcast an additional hour of Baseball Tonight on ESPN2. Benetti, Perez and Petriello will provide extended Statcast-based coverage preceding the Wild Card Game at 7p. The next documentary from ESPN Films’ 30 for 30 series, Chuck & Tito, will chronicle “the hot and cold relationship between MMA fighters Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz—from the very start of the UFC, through its rise in popularity, to present day.” The film will run Oct. 15, at 9p on ESPN and will join the 30 for 30 library on ESPN+ on Oct. 18. Pac-12 Networks will carry more than 125 women’s basketball games across its platforms this season, more than ever before. For the first time, all 108 Pac-12 Conference matchups will be televised, with 104 of which running on Pac-12 Networks. Regular-season action on Pac-12 Networks will include several elite matchups throughout the year, with each Pac-12 program scheduled to appear on Pac-12 Networks at least 18 times: Arizona (18), Arizona State (19), Cal (19), Colorado (18), Oregon (18), Oregon State (18), Stanford (18), UCLA (18), USC (18), Utah (18), Washington (18) and Washington State (18). |
|
| SPONSORSHIP & PROMOTION The National Hockey League is turning to opendorse, an athlete marketing platform, in a move to help players build their brands and increase fan engagement with social media. The NHL and participating clubs will use opendorse to help players publish their most powerful moments — highlights, in-game images, and other media — to their personal social channels. The NHL enters the partnership with concerted goals for helping players and fans with an expanded presence on social media. “We owe it to our players and the fans to make their moments more accessible beyond the broadcast and the in-arena experience,” said NHL Chief Marketing Officer and Executive Vice President Heidi Browning. “Our players have some of the most passionate, engaged fans in all of sports, and we believe we can help them continue to build and capitalize on that connection on social media. With opendorse, we can grow the game and provide value to our players that will last long beyond their time on the ice.” Post Consumer Brands and WWE announced an expanded partnership that brings superstars to cereal boxes nationwide with Becky Lynch and Big Show set to be featured on the front of nearly 7 million boxes of Post Honeycomb cereal and Post Golden Crisp cereal. "Post and WWE are the perfect match, as both brands appeal to the entire family," said Roxanne Bernstei n, Chief Marketing Officer, Post Consumer Brands. "WWE programming is family-friendly, with more parents and kids watching its action-packed content together than other sports leagues. This partnership is a great way for us to engage with fans of WWE." Bleacher Report announced the launch of Playmaker, offering “elevated creative production while also extending long-form brand films as well as overarching brand strategy to partners looking to more efficiently reach GenZ and Millennial audiences.” Playmaker as an agency offering already has multiple clients on board including the Chicago Cubs, General Mills and EA. The new offering will also provide a white-label branded content vitality metric - powered by QuickFrame - designed to help inform marketers about the how and the why behind asset success to help guide future performance. Nashville Soccer Club and Renasant Bank named the bank as the club’s first jersey sponsor and official banking partner. Renasant will be featured on the club’s first team and academy home and away jerseys, which will be unveiled prior to the start of the 25th Major League Soccer campaign in 2020. In addition to the jersey sponsorship, the four-year partnership includes a strong community element as well as video content and digital activations. DIGITAL, DATA & TECH The NFL named DraftKings as the first-ever Official Daily Fantasy Partner of the league. The deal includes exclusive sponsorship of the daily fantasy sports (DFS) category with access to NFL branding and more across DraftKings’ suite of DFS products and content platforms. “This is a defining moment in the industry, and we are thrilled to become the first daily fantasy sports partner to enter into a formal relationship with the NFL,” said Jason Robins, Chief Executive Officer at DraftKings. “Throughout our discussions with the League, it was evident we share a common vision around the future of fan engagement, and we are excited to continue on this unique journey with the NFL as our Official Daily Fantasy Partner.” The Washington Wizards announced the addition of Zac Ikuma as the team’s Japanese Digital Correspondent, the first role of its kind in the NBA. Ikuma will spearhead the organization’s ongoing efforts to increase the team’s global presence with a specific focus in Japan. Ikuma will host the Wizards Global Podcast in Japanese as well as a Wizards player video content series in Japanese called Wizards Players’ Diaries. The Wizards are also launching a Japanese-language specific website. ESPORTS Evil Geniuses is returning to the North American LCS to compete in the 2020 Spring Split after reporting that its bid had been accepted by Riot Games for the open LCS spot left by Echo Fox. “Part of my experience with PEAK6 (and now, with EG) is knowing that in order to be considered the best, you have to compete where the best are. I could not imagine an EG without a push towards the LCS, and we’re happy to be able to put down roots as a franchise owner,” said Nicole Lapointe Jameson, Evil Geniuses CEO. “We’ve had nothing but a good experience working with Riot, and we’ll be expanding our operations to Los Angeles to accommodate the needs of the new roster. We’re looking forward to the new members of the EG cabal that will make all this possible.” Dignitas raised $30 million in Series A Preferred Stock as it closes its previously announced merger with Clutch Gaming and to provide expansion capital. The round was led by Dignitas’ controlling shareholders Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment and Fertitta Entertainment, and included new institutional investors Susquehanna Private Equity Investments and global hospitality company Delaware North. With the moves, Dignitas has now formed a new parent company, New Meta Entertainment operating in three primary verticals: esports teams, content and marketing, and investments. Michael Prindiville has been named the CEO of New Meta Entertainment with a focus on three complementary and integrated businesses, including: esports teams, a content and marketing business and an investment arm. Nielsen continues to crank up esports clients, announcing a deal with ESL and DreamHack for esports sponsorship valuation and media measurement. The new collaboration will focus efforts significantly across four key areas: Brand Impact; Media & Sponsor Valuation; Consumer Analytics; and utilizing standardized metrics for esports viewership measurement and benchmarking. As part of the agreement, Nielsen will provide in-depth measurement around the recently announced ESL Pro Tour; a circuit that connects more than 20 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournaments and leagues from ESL and DreamHack. Speaking of DreamHack, the gaming lifestyle festival announced the two largest community tournaments to ever take place at a DreamHack festival — “DreamHack Winter featuring Fortnite” and “DreamHack Anaheim featuring Fortnite.” Both tournaments will dangle a $250,000 prize pool. DreamHack Winter 2019 takes place from Nov. 29-Dec.1, while DreamHack Anaheim, spns Feb. 21-23, 2020. FaZe Clan is partnering with one of the world’s most visible sports brands, aligning with Premier League’s Manchester City Football Club in a new partnership that kicks off at the Manchester City vs. Wolves match on October 6 as City players enter the pitch at the Etihad Stadium wearing exclusive, co-branded Manchester City x FaZe Clan jackets. Through the partnership, the organizations will cement their relationship through multiple initiatives, including a shared training facility, retail, and fan engagement. WorldGaming Network will host the World Electronics Sports Games North American Regional Finals for the second straight year in partnership with Alibaba Sports, with respective winners advancing to the WESG 2019-2020 Grand Final in Chongqing, China in March 2020. Thousands of players across the US and Canada will compete in five events - Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive - Women division, Dota 2, StarCraft 2, and eFootball Pro Evolution Soccer (PES). In addition to battling for the opportunity to represent their countries at the WESG Grand Final, players will also be vying for a piece of the $5.5 million global prize pool. DreamSeat LLC and its affiliates, Zipchair and Zipchair Gaming, announced a deal with Nerd Street Gamers to name the seating and furniture company as the company’s official gaming chair sponsor. The Zipchair Gaming brand will be the exclusive gaming chair used throughout Nerd Street Gamers’ national network of Localhost esports facilities. The partnership also allows Localhost venues to sell chairs within their facilities nationwide. INDUSTRY & ROSTER MOVES SportsEngine Inc. announced that Brian Bell has been promoted from President to CEO. Bell joined the NBC Sports Group company and provider of sport relationship management software in 2015 as Chief Revenue Officer, and was elevated to President in 2018. THE MAIN EVENT Cowboys/Saints on NBC on Sunday at 8:15p. |
|
| ON THIS DAY in 1998 The virtual first down line debuts on ESPN. In the Know Which famed hockey player is credited with the quote “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”? (Email cpursell@cynopsis.com with your answer and be sure to include your company and city). Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question What is the highest possible score with three darts on a normal dartboard? Answer: 180. Kudos: Tori Gallarello-Alcock-Little Roosters, Inc./NY; Michael Ritz-Northwestern Mutual/NY; Vlad Ciocoi-Starz Network/NY; Mike May-PHIT America/Wellington; Nick Casanova-NBC Sports/Stamford; Synda Kollman-Charter Marketing Group/Boca Raton; Mike Seidel-CSI Sports/Jersey City; John Tingue-hulu/Chicago; Joe Lyons-ESPN/Dallas; Robert Teinowitz-Live Action Media/Chicago; Dave Sikula-San Francisco State University/San Francisco; Rich Greene-Casa Del Verde Productions/LA; Jaymz Wooden-Bottelsen American Dart Lines/Santa Maria; Brian Robin-Bear Titan Publications LLC/San Bernardino Later~~Chris |
Cynopsis Team
|
|
This message was sent to newsletter@newslettercollector.com
To ensure delivery to your inbox, add us to your address book.
Cynopsis • Access Intelligence LLC • 9211 Corporate Blvd., 4th Floor, Rockville, MD 20850 | Privacy Policy
Update My Preferences | Unsubscribe
