CynopsisSports

Good morning. It’s Tuesday October 23, 2018 and this is your first early morning Sports briefing.

Discovery and the PGA TOUR are launching GOLFTV, powered by the PGA TOUR, a new live and on-demand international video streaming service, which will launch globally outside the United States on Jan. 1, 2019. GOLFTV will present more than 2,000 hours of live action each year as well as premium content on-demand. Live coverage will include the six Tours operating under the PGA TOUR umbrella and nearly 150 tournaments annually - including THE PLAYERS Championship, the FedExCup Playoffs and the Presidents Cup.

Discovery is already working to execute on a distribution and broadcast partner strategy for the portfolio, optimizing reach across free-to-air, pay-TV and digital, and will explore partnering with existing PGA TOUR and golf broadcasters to continue to grow the game. Live PGA TOUR coverage will become available via GOLFTV in line with the market-by-market rights activation date. GOLFTV will supersede PGA TOUR LIVE across global markets (outside the United States).

ON THE AIR

The Premier Lacrosse League formally debuted to deliver a “true home for the sport with the best players, a strong business model, significant financial support, national media coverage through an exclusive agreement with NBC Sports Group, and a unique touring structure that will better serve players and fans,” according to the release. The league is co-founded by Paul Rabil and his brother, serial entrepreneur and investor, Mike Rabil, and will offer players full-time wages, equity in PLL, and benefits. The inaugural 2019 Premier Lacrosse League season will launch on June 1 with a 14-week season and stops in 12 major-market cities across the country, concluding with the championship weekend on Sept. 21. NBC Sports will present 17 games on NBCSN, and two on NBC, all of which will also be streamed via authentication on the company’s digital platforms. Investors in the league include The Raine Group, Creative Artists Agency, The Chernin Group, and Blum Capital.

Meanwhile, NBC Sports also made the addition of Paul Azinger official, announcing that he will become NBC Sports’ lead golf analyst in 2019, following Johnny Miller’s retirement. Additionally, Azinger will contribute to Golf Channel’s portfolio of platforms, ranging from Golf Central’s Live From the Masters alongside former colleague Mike Tirico; develop instructional content for both on-air and via Revolution Golf; and develop documentary projects for Golf Channel’s Golf Films. Azinger’s NBC Sports schedule in 2019, which will regularly include all four days of tournament coverage on Golf Channel and NBC, will kick off at the WGC-Mexico Championship on Feb. 21-24. NBC Sports will allow Azinger to continue to call The Masters for the BBC, as well as the U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open on FOX.

CBS Sports’ Week 7 NFL doubleheader average on Sunday drew an increase of 14% in Nielsen metered markets to hit a 12.0/25 average household rating/share. CBS’ national game window at 4:25p earned CBS’ highest rating-to-date in the 2018 NFL season with an average household rating/share of 14.4/28, also up 14% from last year with games spotlighting Dallas/Washington and L.A. Rams/San Francisco. CBS’ regional game window earned a rating/share of 9.5/21, up 12% from last year.

Around the dial, NBC saw its SNF blowout of the Chiefs over the Bengals nab an 11.0/19 in overnight markets. Top markets for Bengals-Chiefs on NBC SNF: Kansas City 47.9/67; Cincinnati 28.1/41; Dayton 18.6/31; New Orleans 17.8/26; Denver 15.5/27

CBS Sports has locked in its SEC on CBS primetime football game for the doubleheader on Nov. 3 at 8p, picking up Alabama/LSU from Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge. The first game of the SEC ON CBS doubleheader on Nov. 3 will be announced next week as a six-day selection.

BTN laid out its talent lineup for the 2018-19 Big Ten basketball season with new faces that include play-by-play announcer Dave O’Brien, who joins Kevin Kugler, Brian Anderson, Brandon Gaudin, and Cory Provus in calling games. They accompany analysts that include Robbie Hummel, basketball reporters Andy Katz and Mike DeCourcy; Shon Morris; Jon Crispin; Stephen Bardo, and Dave Revsine. Alongside Mike Monaco and Lisa Byington, the Network’s lead play-by-play voice for women’s basketball, BTN is also home to a strong group of women’s basketball analysts, including Christy Winters Scott, Vera Jones, Shelley Till, Brenda Van Lengen and Julianne Viani.

ESPN’s Around the Horn – which has been on the air for close to 3,600 episodes – will celebrate its “Sweet 16” on Nov. 5 by a new look. The weekday sports news and debate show featuring host Tony Reali will then introduce augmented reality, new graphics and animations, a new logo and color palette, a fresh musical theme, and more. In addition, Reali will now host the show from ESPN’s New York Seaport District Studios. For the AR, as the show progresses, panelists’ images will appear in-studio with Reali and can be enlarged, shrunk, isolated and more. In addition, the higher scoring panelists who advance through the daily competition will transition forward closer to Reali.

ESPN Events locked in the field for the inaugural St. Pete/Clearwater Elite Invitational with the addition of California, Minnesota and Ohio State to complete the 16-team line-up. The teams previously announced as participants include Florida Atlantic University, reigning national champions Florida State, Hofstra, James Madison, Kentucky, LSU, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas and Utah. The company’s first owned and operated softball invitational will be held at the Eddie C. Moore Complex in Clearwater from Feb. 14-17, 2019. Each team is guaranteed four games but could play in as many as six, with the majority of the teams playing in five games. A total of 39 games will be played over the course of the four days.

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TOMORROW’S THE FINAL DEADLINE (OCT 24^th at 11:59PM ET)

The Cynopsis Short Form Video Festival

The Cynopsis Short Form Video Festival is searching for the most cutting-edge creatives from individuals and teams worldwide, including: production companies/studios, producers, networks, composers, lyricists, animators, video game developers/producers, website developers, mobile & app developers/producers, marketing companies, PR firms and more. Click here to check out our sizzle and be sure to submit by tomorrow, October 24^th!

SUBMIT

SPONSORSHIP & PROMOTION

The San Francisco 49ers and SAP are partnering to “transform the way that professional sports organizations use data and analytics to enhance the in-venue sports and entertainment experience.” The project, called Executive Huddle, is powered by SAP Leonardo and Analytics and is designed to offer the business strategy and analytics team with real-time data and visualizations spanning multiple data sources, to track, sense and respond in the moment during games to optimize operations and enhance the fan experience. Executive Huddle pulls real-time data from nine different sources, including attendance, parking, food and beverage, retail, ticketing, social media and more. Displayed on interactive screens, team officials can see and monitor data visualizations and identify an issue or opportunity, act on it, and see immediate results across venue operations and the fan experience.

ASICS announced a multi-year sponsorship deal with Spanish football star Andres Iniesta. The deal was announced at a press conference today in Tokyo, Japan, as part of the brand’s vision to expand its football business and reach more audiences across Asia. The football player will support the brand through product placement and promotions, as a nod to the brand’s growing focus on the football category across the region.

DIGITAL & STREAMING

With the World Series off and running tonight, Twitter reports that since the MLB Postseason began on October 2, there have been nearly 10 million playoff related Tweets. The Red Sox David Price is the most mentioned World Series player on Twitter with over 152,000 mentions since the playoffs began. Twitter and MLB will live stream two special playoff pre-shows this during the Fall Classic, offering playoff highlights, matchup breakdowns and analysis.

Olympic Channel serves up “the personalities, camaraderie and underdog journey behind the Argentinian men’s basketball victory” at the Olympic Games Athens 2004 in The Golden Generation, the third film in the Olympic Channel’s signature series Five Rings Films. The feature-length documentary directed is available on the digital channel and its mobile apps. It will also debut in the US on NBCSN on Oct. 31.

FloSports and the Big 12 Conference announced that fans can access live and on-demand coverage of the Big 12 Conference Cross Country Championship exclusively on FloTrack.com. This marks the third consecutive year that FloTrack has partnered with the Big 12 Conference to broadcast both the men’s and women’s races, which take place on Oct. 26, at the Iowa State Cross Country Course.

PBR and INFR are offering a full slate of coverage for the 43rd annual INFR Finals on Oct. 23-27 at South Point Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. RidePass, the PBR’s western sports digital network, will bring fans live coverage of the ten rounds of competition each day of the five-day. Anthony Lucia will serve as lead play-by-play announcer.

SB Nation and the Vox Media Podcast Network launched It Seemed Start, SB Nation’s first storytelling podcast series. Hosted by SB Nation Editor-at-Large Spencer Hall, listeners will enter the world of sports trickery and mayhem in six different episodes: absurd stories of stolen bats, pirated play calls, renegade cross-country road racers, and fantasy football's own insider trading scandal.

ESPORTS

FOX Sports unveiled new esports programming for new acquisition Caffeine, announced that FS1 and the FOX Sports app along with social broadcasting platform will air the Continental Cup 2018 presented by PlayStation. The event will see global gamers compete for a FIFA 19 championship during Paris Games Week 2018. FOX Sports Reporter Alex Curry hosts the live event, which runs on Sunday at 10a. In addition, FOX Sports will also celebrate the journey to the tournament with the series, “eSports Athletes Rising,” a behind-the-scenes look at gaming pros. The program follows “underdog FIFA 19 players from the US as they look to upset the competition on international turf.

Hershey’s announced plans to partner with top streamers Ninja and DrLupo at TwitchCon 2018. The deal marks the brand’s first foray in the gaming world as the duo will teams up for a Twitch stream ahead of TwitchCon 2018. Ninja and DrLupo will be partnering with Hershey’s to promote the launch of the new Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bar with Reese’s Pieces candy by live streaming together on Oct. 23 at 4p on their own respective Twitch streams. Fans will be able to visit both personalities at the Hershey’s booth on Oct. 27 from 10-11a where samples of the new candy will be distributed.

Psyonix is partnering with Tespa to launch the first-ever live Collegiate Rocket League National Championship. Set to take place on Dec. 8 at Arlington’s new Esports Stadium, the CRL National Championship will pit the top four collegiate teams from across North America to compete for their share of a $25,000 scholarship prize pool.

NHL player Zach Hyman announced plans to launch new esports team E11 Gaming. The squad will be based in Toronto, with Oliver Silverstein serving as the COO. NHL.com writes that E11 Gaming has now signed three players, Garvin “BlooTea” Chen, Jake “Vicaros” Lyonns, and Chris “TheGeneral” Lee.

ROSTER MOVES

Monumental Sports & Entertainment named a slate of key promotions and new hires across the company. Moves include Monica Dixon now serving as Executive Vice President and Chief of Staff, Kelly Skoloda as Chief People Officer, Quentin Addison, Vice President of Technical and Broadcast Operations, Ketsia Colimon as Vice President of Communications, Jeff Newman as Vice President of Global Partnerships, Grant Hastings, Vice President of Network Operations, Monumental Sports Network, Cassidy Lien as VP of Game Entertainment and Amanda Tischler as VP of Marketing, Washington Capitals.

THE MAIN EVENT

Dodgers/Red Sox on FOX at 8p.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

Talk About a Breakfast of Champions…

The Cynopsis Model D Awards

NOV 9 | ThreeSixty | NYC

Join Cynopsis and your peers for the ultimate gathering of the industry's innovators pushing boundaries in digital media. The awards breakfast will include a celebration of The 2018 Cynopsis Model D Awards Finalists, and a salute to inductees on the Cynopsis Digital "It List." Register before October 30th to save $100 on your ticket!

ON THIS DAY in 1921: Green Bay Packers play their first NFL game.

In the Know: Which World Series winner was the last to sweep the series? (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: The infamous “Black Sox Scandal” of 1919 came after which team beat the White Sox to win the World Series? Answer: The Reds. Kudos: John Ferlazzo/London; Joe Lavine-Trenton Makes Productions/NY; Michael Ritz-BucStar Consulting/NY; Denis Barry-CBS/NY; Mark Lehman-Atlanta Braves/Atlanta; Synda Kollman-Charter Marketing Group/Boca Raton; Mike May-PHIT America/Wellington; Matt Sautter-WideOrbit/Harrisburg; Andy Pittman-TAMU/College Station; Matt Fumagalli-NBC/Chicago; Jason Brist-Outdoor Sportsman Group/Chicago; Rich Wolfe-RichCraft/Scottsdale; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA; David Westberg-SAG-AFTRA Federal Credit Union/Burbank; Willie Price-American Forces Network/Riverside

Later - Chris

Chris Pursell @VegasandVine
Roberta Caploe Publisher @robertacaploe	Diane K Schwartz Senior Vice President Media Communications Group	Cynopsis Ad Sales Mike Farina \| 203-218-6480 VP, Sales	Cynopsis Job Listings Sales Trish Pihonak \| 203-899-8459 Director of Operations

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