CYNOPSISSPORTS
March 16, 2016
The NCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball Championship is poised to set another record, according to Kantar Media, which announced that the tournament also produced a record-setting $1.19 billion of TV ad spending in 2015, according to its estimates. The 2015 numbers marked a 4.8% rise over the previous year and includes pre-game, game and post-game programming, as well as studio shows. During the past few years, annual spending growth has been pacing at 2 to 5 percent with about 90 marketers buying air time per year, according to the report. The average price of a :30 spot in last year’s championship game was $1.56 million, up 5%.
ON THE AIR
NBC Sports Group it putting its racing plans in perspective as its coverage gets ready to roar, detailing plans to offer nearly 1,800 hours of motorsports content across NBC, NBCSN and CNBC this year, as well as on NBC Sports Live Extra. Overall, the lineup features more than 800 hours of NASCAR content, nearly 100 hours of exclusive cable coverage of the Verizon IndyCar Series on NBCSN, coverage of the 2016 Formula One season, which begins Sunday, at 12:30a. NBC Sports Group’s unprecedented motorsports coverage will also feature more than 500 hours of Mecum Auctions programming this year as well as season-long coverage of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship, Red Bull Global RallyCross, NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and NASCAR K&N Pro Series.
Veteran personality Robert Flores is heading for double duty, locking in a deal with MLB Network and NHL Network to serve as a studio host and appear across both networks’ programming. Flores will debut on MLB Tonight on Monday at 7p and is slated to host NHL Tonight for the first time on March 23 at 7p. Flores will also have a key presence across digital media properties, including MLB.com and Sports On Earth. Flores most recently anchored SportsCenter, ABC’s College Football Studio Updates, and ESPN2’s Fantasy Football Now.
Univision Deportes saw an average of 2.9 million total viewers tune in for El Super Clasico on Sunday on UniMas. That marks the highest rated regular season club soccer match on any network, regardless of language since 2010. The telecast also grew 1% among Total Viewers 2+ and 5% among Adults 18-49 over the Clausura 2015 Súper Clásico on Univision Deportes.
Part two of the season premiere of Feherty on Golf Channel, featuring an interview with Jordan Spieth, drew 351,000 average. viewers on a Live+Same Day basis, and became the second most watched Feherty premiere ever. Part II also ranked as the most-watched premiere of any Golf Channel Original production. The episode premiere earned a .36 HH Cvg rating, up 9% vs. last week’s season premiere.
ESPNU and SEC Network are producing the SEC Gymnastics Championship live on television for the first time, running Saturday, and are unveiling a new scoring interface adjusted for the quad-meet format, as well as new graphics and a real-time stream of each individual apparatus. The afternoon session (2p ESPNU) and the evening session (6p SEC Network) airings on March 19 will mark the first time the tournament is live in its entirety on national television. Bart Connors, Kathy Johnson Clarke and Courtney Kupets will provide commentary.
The NHL will place cameras on the blue lines for this year’s postseason games to assist officials on offside calls. Executive vice president of hockey operations Colin Campbell stated that the tweak should lead to more consistency and give officials another angle to review if an offside call is challenged following a goal, according to the AP.
Source: Cynopsis Sports
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