| | The Daily Insider
Afternoon News & Headlines
Tuesday, Febuary 17, 2004
4:00pm ET | |
| |
| • | NBC’s Coverage Of Daytona 500 Earns 10.6/24 National Nielsen Rating |
| • | MLBP Today Announces It Will Create And Produce Indians’ TV Ad Campaign |
| • | Masterfoods USA Today Announces Renewal Of FLW Outdoors Sponsorship |
| • | Host Communications Reaches Five-Year Agreement With Univ. Of Arizona |
| • | K2 Reports 313% Increase In Q4 ’03 Profit As Result Of Rawlings, Worth Deals |
| • | Buzzer Beaters/Tonight’s Events/Channel Surfing/In Other News/The Daily Stat |
NBC’S COVERAGE OF DAYTONA 500 IS SECOND-MOST WATCHED EVER
NBCtoday announced that its coverage of the ‘04 Daytona 500 earned a 10.6/24national Nielsen rating and was watched by 33.5 million viewers, making it thesecond-most watched and second-highest rated in the 26-year live TV history ofthe event. This year’s ratingrepresents an 8% improvement over the 9.8/21 rating for Fox’s rain shortenedbroadcast last year. In ‘02, NBC’s inauguralDaytona 500 set a record with 35 million viewers and a 10.9/26 national ratingduring the middle Sunday of NBC’s coverage of the Salt Lake Olympics (NBC).
Becauseof the Presidents’ Day holiday, ratings for TNT’s coverage of the NBA All-StarGame are not yet available (THE DAILY).
MLBP TO CREATE, PRODUCE INDIANS’ TV AD CAMPAIGN FOR ‘04
MLBPtoday announced that it has been selected by the Indians to create and producethe team’s ’04 TV ad campaign, which will be based on the team’s current marketingeffort. The focus is the team’s script“I” logo and statements by Indians players about the connection to the team andits fans, such as “I believe” and “I play for the fans.” MLBP created the Pirates’ TV ad campaignlast season (MLBP).
MASTERFOODS USA TO TOUT SNICKERS MARATHON BAR ON FLW TOUR
MasterfoodsUSA today officially announced the renewal of its sponsorship of FLW Outdoorsfor the ’04 tournament season, where it will promote its Snickers MarathonBar. The energy bar will be featured onOutdoor Life Network’s FLW Outdoors program, in FLW Outdoors Magazine newsfeatures and on FLWOutdoors.com. Masterfoods USA also receives product displays in the Family Fun Zone,signage at tournaments and angler-award programs as well as other promotional andPR material. Masterfoods USA has been aFLW Outdoors sponsor since ’01 (FLW Outdoors).
HOST COMMUNICATIONS INKS FIVE-YEAR DEAL WITH UNIV. OF ARIZONA
BullRun today announced that its Host Communications subsidiary has reached afive-year agreement with the Univ. of Arizona to administer radio broadcasts ofgames, radio and TV coaches’ shows and printing and publishing of gameprograms, beginning in the fall. HostCommunications recently reached a three-year extension on a similar deal withthe Univ. of Tennessee that runs through ’07 (Bull Run).
K2 Q4 ’03 PROFIT UP 313% AS RESULT OF RAWLINGS, WORTH DEALS
TheL.A. BUSINESS JOURNAL notes that sporting goods company K2 reported a 313%increase in Q4 ’03 profit “as a result of its newly acquired Rawlings SportingGoods and Worth Inc. divisions.” K2’sprofit rose to $2.1M from $521,000 for the year ago period. Sales increased approximately 52% to $193.8Mfrom $127.7M in Q4 ‘02. During thefourth quarter, Rawlings and Worth “generated sales of nearly $48[M] for thecompany.” Yearly profits dropped 5.4%for the company to $11.4M, though sales were up 23.4% to $718.5M (BIZJOURNALS.com,2/17).
BUZZER BEATERS
On WFAN-AM's "Mike and the Mad Dog,"
Mike Francesa this afternoon calledthe Yankees for tickets to demonstrate that the Yankees already have a tapedmessage from
Alex Rodriguez asking fans to wait patiently for the nextavailable operator. Francesa: "They're dumb like foxes over there" (
"Mikeand the Mad Dog," Yes Network, 2/17).
MLBAMannounced yesterday that it has already sold more than one million ticketsonline for ’04 spring training and regular season games, reaching the marknearly a month earlier than last year. Last season, 7.4 million tickets were sold online (MLBAM).
AllstateInsurance today announced that it will serve as the presenting sponsor of theJohn R. Wooden Award, given annually to the nation’s best men’s collegebasketball player. Allstate also willpresent an on-air segment featuring the All-America team during CBS’ April 3“The Road to The Final Four” broadcast (Allstate).
IMGAcademies today announced that it will build a 400-acre sports academy inHyderabad, India. The academy, whichwill house 600 athletes training in sports such as tennis, golf, basketball,soccer and cricket, is slated to begin taking students in summer ’06. The campus will also provide trainingfacilities for Olympic athletes (IMG).
A LIGHTER BUZZ
Thehead of the Phillie Phanatic today was returned to WYSP-FM deejay TommyConwell. The head was stolenFebruary 6 during the club’s Veterans Stadium auction (Phillies).
TONIGHT’S EVENTS
TheGreater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce will host its inaugural Sports CouncilEvening of Champions at 6:00pm ET at the Embassy Suites in Cary, NC, where NCState QB Philip Rivers and former UNC men’s basketball coach DeanSmith will be presented the Athlete of the Year and Lifetime Achievementawards, respectively (BIZJOURNALS.com,2/17).
CHANNEL SURFING
ESPNwill air NCAA men’s basketball: Purdue-MichiganState at 7:00pm ET and Florida-Georgiaat 9:00pm.
ESPN2will air NCAA men’s basketball: Louisville-TCUat 7:00pm ET.
ESPNClassic’s “SportsCentury” will profile GordieHowe at 8:00pm ET.
Yankees 3B Alex Rodriguezwill appear on MSNBC’s “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” at 8:00pm ET.
RangersOwner Tom Hicks, Yankees RF Gary Sheffield, Raiders S Rod Woodson and talk show host Bill O’Reilly are scheduled to appearon FSN’s “BDSSP.”
NBATV will air Trail Blazers-Lakers at10:30pm ET.
NASCARdriver Dale Earnhardt Jr. will appear on CBS’ “Late Show” at11:35pm ET.
ESPN’s“OTL Nightly” will examine the Yankees-Rangers trade at midnight ET.
Dennis Rodman will appear on CBS’ “TheLate Late Show” at 12:35am ET.
A&E’s“Biography” will profile Andrew Cunanan at8:00pm ET.
E!’s “True Hollywood Story”will profile Sharon Stone at 8:00pmET.
HEADLINERS
Hereare tonight’s headline guests on the following talk shows:
| “Late Show” | Kelly Ripa |
| “The Tonight Show” | Cast of “The View” |
| “The Late Late Show” | Dennis Rodman |
| “Late Night” | Meg Ryan |
| “Jimmy Kimmel Live” | Simon Cowell |
TODAY’S ARTICLES OF INTEREST
TheST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH’s Bernie Miklasz writes, “Hockeyplayers think they’re baseball players now. They’re just as arrogant and out of touch with reality. And this is supposed to be a humble,working-class sport? Please. Not anymore. I hope all of the boys in the NHL locker rooms get on a Zamboniand follow [NHLPA Exec Dir Bob Goodenow] straight over that metaphoricalcliff” (ST. LOUIS POST DISPATCH).
TheFT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM’s Gil Lebreton writes of Tom Hicks, who owns theRangers and Stars, “Hicks’ sports empire, once golden in these parts, is only afuzzy shadow of its former self. Evenif he knows what he’s doing, Hicks is going to have to prove it all over again.… A-Rod’s record contract is expected to end up costing Hicks $145.1[M]. For three seasons oflast-place finishes and a 23[%] drop in attendance. … What’s Tom Hicksgoing to do with the $115[M] Alex Rodriguez just saved him? If he doesn’t have a good answer, it’s timeto sell to somebody who does” (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM).
SeeThe Daily Insider’s Articles ofInterest section for more sports business-related links.
TODAY’S TEASER…
Sports& Entertainment: Which installment of the “Rocky” franchise generated the largestdomestic box office haul?
IN OTHER NEWS……
REUTERSreports that Comcast “is not interested in raising its bid for Walt Disney tomatch the current stock price of the media conglomerate, a source close to thecompany” said today. The move “dampenedexpectations that Comcast may significantly raise its $48.8[B] bid forDisney. Comcast is also leaning againstrunning a shareholder consent solicitation to replace all or part of Disney’sboard while Disney’s stock price continues to trade at these levels” (REUTERS,2/17).
THE DAILY STAT: TOP SPORTS SITES FORWEEK ENDING FEBRUARY 1
Thefollowing are the top five sports Web sites ranked according to home uniqueaudience for the week ending February 1, according toNielsen//NetRatings. Unique Audience = the number of persons in thousandsaccessing the site or network, with each counted only once. Average timespent = the average amount of time a visitor has spent at that property for theweek. This data is based on 37,000 home users with Internet access (Nielsen//NetRatings).
| RK | BRAND OR CHANNEL | UNIQUE AUD. | AVG. TIME SPENT (HH:MM:SS) |
| 1) | ESPN | 4,335 | 0:15:07 |
| 2) | NFL Internet Network | 2,818 | 0:07:03 |
| 3) | eBay Sports | 2,732 | 0:11:56 |
| 4) | Yahoo! Sports | 2,289 | 0:13:03 |
| 5) | AOL Sports | 1,343 | 0:09:40 |
…TODAY’S ANSWER
“Rocky III” earned just over $125M domestically,placing it $8M above the original as the highest-grossing installment of thefranchise.
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