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SBJ/July 25-31, 2011/Media
Big Lead strikes deal with SiriusXM
Published July 25, 2011, Page 10
Big Lead Sports has signed a multiyear partnership with SiriusXM Radio to develop nightly fantasy sports-related programming.
The pact, roughly six months in development, will begin with three nights a week of co-branded fantasy programming, generally running from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. ET, and featuring editors and analysts from key Big Lead Sports sites such as KFFL.com, HoopsHype.com and BaseballHQ.com. The effort will focus on fantasy football and basketball to start. It will expand to baseball next spring with a move to content on all five weeknights.
The shows will debut Aug. 2 on SiriusXM’s Fantasy Sports Radio, its channel dedicated to fantasy sports that launched in July 2010.
“This gives us another key outlet to take our experts, give them a platform, and expose them to additional audiences,” said Chris Russo, Big Lead Sports chief executive. “This also builds out an important multiplatform component to our ad sales between online and radio.”
Financial terms were not disclosed, but both Big Lead Sports and SiriusXM will sell advertising around the content and participate in a revenue-sharing plan. SiriusXM has previously aligned with other fantasy outlets such as Rotowire.com and FantasyGuru.com to help program the channel.
SiriusXM executives said Fantasy Sports Radio, and the addition of the Big Lead Sports analysts, will be buttressed by a fantasy football season made much more unsettled and wide open as a result of the NFL lockout of the past four months.
“We have become a much more important product as a result of the lockout,” said Steve Cohen, SiriusXM senior vice president of sports programming. “We’re in uncharted territory, and having this talent to help our audience work through all of that will be tremendously beneficial.”
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The pact, roughly six months in development, will begin with three nights a week of co-branded fantasy programming, generally running from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. ET, and featuring editors and analysts from key Big Lead Sports sites such as KFFL.com, HoopsHype.com and BaseballHQ.com. The effort will focus on fantasy football and basketball to start. It will expand to baseball next spring with a move to content on all five weeknights.
The shows will debut Aug. 2 on SiriusXM’s Fantasy Sports Radio, its channel dedicated to fantasy sports that launched in July 2010.
“This gives us another key outlet to take our experts, give them a platform, and expose them to additional audiences,” said Chris Russo, Big Lead Sports chief executive. “This also builds out an important multiplatform component to our ad sales between online and radio.”
Financial terms were not disclosed, but both Big Lead Sports and SiriusXM will sell advertising around the content and participate in a revenue-sharing plan. SiriusXM has previously aligned with other fantasy outlets such as Rotowire.com and FantasyGuru.com to help program the channel.
SiriusXM executives said Fantasy Sports Radio, and the addition of the Big Lead Sports analysts, will be buttressed by a fantasy football season made much more unsettled and wide open as a result of the NFL lockout of the past four months.
“We have become a much more important product as a result of the lockout,” said Steve Cohen, SiriusXM senior vice president of sports programming. “We’re in uncharted territory, and having this talent to help our audience work through all of that will be tremendously beneficial.”
