| | The Daily Insider
Afternoon News & Headlines
Thursday, August 5, 2004
4:00pm ET | |
| |
| • | NBC Today Inks Deal With EchoStar Creating Unique Preview For Olympics |
| • | Dolphins Today Ink First Imported Beer Sponsor: Dominican Cerveza Presidente |
| • | ESPN Exec VP John Skipper Now Overseeing Customer Marketing And Sales |
| • | WNBA All-Stars Tonight Face U.S. Olympic Women’s Team At Radio City |
| • | Venues Today Report Shows MSG As North America’s Most Popular Venue |
| • | Buzzer Beaters/Tonight’s Events/Channel Surfing/In Other News/The Daily Stat |
Today is our final Closing Bell for the week. We will return on Monday.
NBC ALIGNS WITH ECHOSTAR FOR PIP FEATURE FOR ATHENS GAMES
EchoStar Communications today announced a partnership between its Dish Network and NBC to create NBC Interactive TV for the Athens Olympics. Beginning August 11, viewers can monitor five NBC Universal nets on a single screen, creating the first multiple picture-in-picture application in the U.S. A sixth screen will feature highlights and a preview of upcoming Olympic events to be carried by the local NBC affiliate (EchoStar).
Meanwhile, NBC Universal’s cable nets will feature a cross promotion guide twice hourly during the Athens Games indicating previewing programming on the other NBC Universal nets. Additionally, NBC will send broadcast schedules and tune-in alerts to AT&T wireless subscribers’ cell phones (NBC).
DOLPHINS INK ANOTHER SPONSOR: DOMINICAN CERVEZA PRESIDENTE
 |
| Dolphins And Cerveza Presidente
Execs Announce Sponsorship |
The Dolphins today announced a multiyear sponsorship deal with Dominican beer Cerveza Presidente, which becomes the first imported beer to sponsor the franchise and the first Dominican beer to sponsor an NFL franchise. Presidente will work with the Dolphins and Publix Supermarkets on “Dol-Fan Experiences” sweepstakes. Additionally, Presidente will sponsor the team’s flagship radio station, WQAM-AM. Cerveza Presidente does not receive category exclusivity, and will not have signage at Pro Player Stadium. Earlier this week, the Dolphins inked a sponsorship deal with Checkers Restaurants (THE DAILY).
ESPN PROMOTES SKIPPER TO OVERSEE CUSTOMER MARKETING & SALES
ESPN today promoted Exec VP John Skipper to Exec VP/Advertising Sales, New Media & Consumer Products, giving him oversight of ESPN/ABC Sports customer marketing and sales. The move unites Skipper and ESPN/ABC Sports President of Customer Marketing & Sales Ed Erhardt to manage all sales activity across all ESPN/ABC Sports properties. Erhardt will report to Skipper (ESPN).
WNBA ALL-STARS FACE OLYMPIANS AT RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL
ESPN tonight will air an exhibition between a team of WNBA All-Stars and the U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team at 7:00pm ET. The game will be simulcast on the ABC SuperSign in Times Square. ESPN will use 12 cameras for the game, including a wireless digital RF camera allowing viewers to see the venue from the vantage point of a crowd seat (ESPN).
FORMER METS GM DISCUSSES YANKEES STADIUM PROPOSAL ON ESPN
ESPN’s Gary Thorne and former Mets GM Steve Phillips today discussed the proposal for a new Yankees’ stadium during ESPN’s A’s-Yankees telecast. Phillips said, “A sports franchise in an elite facility benefits everybody for the quality of life. And that’s worth dollars, however many dollars that is.” Thorne: “Not as much as teaching kids” (ESPN, 8/5).
PRINCE BECOMES OFFICIAL SUPPLIER OF THE ATP TOUR SAP OPEN
Prince Sports today announced a three-year sponsorship of the ATP Tour SAP Open, becoming the official racquet, footwear, apparel and ball supplier of the tournament. The SAP Open will be the first ATP event in the U.S. to use Prince tennis balls. Under the deal, tournament officials, volunteers and ballkids will wear Prince apparel (Prince).
ESPN IS NOT TO BLAME FOR GAME-WINNING SHOT SNAFU
For those like us who were watching yesterday’s U.S.-Germany exhibition basketball game on ESPN, which ended with Allen Iverson’s game-winning 30-footer, and wondering why the cameras did not capture the shot, THE DAILY learned today that ESPN was at the mercy of the world feed from a German broadcaster and not responsible for missing the last shot. ESPN viewers were shown crowd shots as Iverson’s heave went through the hoop. Luckily for sports highlight shows, a camera positioned underneath the basket captured it. The game was on ESPN as a result of an NBA TV time buy (THE DAILY).
BUZZER BEATERS
BLOOMBERG NEWS reports that the NBA's Advisory Committee today unanimously "recommended that league owners approve the sale" of the Nets to Bruce Ratner. The full ownership "should vote [on the sale] by the middle of next week" (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 8/5).
Foot Locker today reported same-store sales for the first six months of FY '04 decreased 0.1% (Foot Locker).
More than 25,000 counterfeit pieces of apparel were confiscated by Cook County sheriff’s police in a raid of New Star Trading Co.’s Northwest Chicago store yesterday. The store was “selling knockoffs of Luis Vuitton, Coach, Disney, [MLB], NBA, NFL, Nike and adidas merchandise” (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 8/5).
Wal-Mart FLW Outdoors today signed a deal with the American Forces Network to provide a live video feed from the Wal-Mart FLW Tour Championship weigh-in to U.S. military personnel serving outside the continental U.S. (Wal-Mart FLW Tour).
TONIGHT’S EVENTS
As part of the Rolaids “Bat & Win $10,000 Game,” one Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes fan will face three pitches from Baseball HOFer and Rolaids endorser Rollie Fingers during the club’s game at Isotopes Park. If all three pitches are hit out of the infield, the fan wins $10,000. The club also is expecting its one millionth fan, who will receive a “trip for two anywhere in the continental [U.S.] on American Airlines, $500 cash from the Albuquerque Journal and a digital camera from Baillio’s” (BIZJOURNALS.com, 8/3).
CHANNEL SURFING
ESPN will air U.S. Women’s National Team-WNBA All-Stars at 7:00pm ET.
ESPN2 will air coverage of the ATP Western & Southern Financial Group Masters at 7:30pm ET.
ESPN Classic’s “SportsCentury” will profile the ‘72 Olympic Gold Medal men’s basketball game at 8:00pm ET.
Jaguars QB Byron Leftwich and former NFLer Christian Okoye will appear on FSN’s “BDSSP.”
ESPN will air coverage of the X Games X at 9:00pm ET.
Actors Hank Azaria, Seth Meyers, Gail O’Grady, Amy Poehler and Jeffrey Ross will appear on Bravo’s “Celebrity Poker Showdown” at 9:00pm ET.
Former SLOC President and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will appear on CNBC’s “Dennis Miller” at 9:00pm ET.
NASCAR driver Kurt Busch will appear on CBNC’s “McEnroe” at 10:00pm ET.
Giants QB Kurt Warner and Padres 2B Mark Lorettawill appear on ESPN’s “Jim Rome is Burning” at midnight ET.
ESPN’s “OTL Nightly” will examine the fallout when athletes retire in their prime midnight ET.
HEADLINERS
Here are tonight’s headline guests on the following talk shows:
| “Late Show” | Jada Pinkett Smith |
| “The Tonight Show” | Kim Basinger |
| “The Late Late Show” | Jeff Bridges |
| “Late Night” | Brittany Murphy |
| “Jimmy Kimmel Live” | Christine Taylor (r) |
TODAY’S ARTICLES OF INTEREST
The N.Y. TIMES’ Selena Roberts writes, “The shrinkage of American dominance was not what the league hoped for when a United States team of players who were driven by patriotism - and not stopped by security fears - assembled to join the NBA's 2004 Image Reparation Summer Tour. The crime stoppers from the NBA have spent the off-season turning police officers across the nation into Maytag repairmen. What's a cop to do without an NBA star to arrest?” (N.Y. TIMES).
The MIAMI HERALD’s Kevin Baxter writes, “Baseball might have lost its influence and importance – as well as many of its personalities – on the English end of the radio dial, but the sport is enjoying an epoca dorada in Spanish broadcasting. Although many of baseball's legendary English-language radio voices have either retired or moved on to television over the past few seasons, more teams are broadcasting more games in Spanish than ever” (MIAMI HERALD).
See The Daily Insider’s Articles of Interest section for more sports business-related links.
TODAY’S TEASER…
Sports Business: Prior to ABC’s acquisition of the TV rights for all four BCS games in ’99, which game drew the highest annual rights fee in its previous deal?
1) Rose Bowl
2) Orange Bowl
3) Fiesta Bowl
4) Sugar Bowl
IN OTHER NEWS
DirecTV today reported a net loss of $13.3M for Q2 ‘04, down from a net profit of $21.6M in the year ago period, as “subscriber acquisition and retention costs offset a 21[%] jump in revenue and a record number of new subscriptions.” Revenue increased to $2.6B from $2.2B in Q2 ’03. The company added 455,000 net subscribers, 151% more than it added in the year ago period (AP, 8/5).
THE DAILY STAT: MOST POPULAR NORTH AMERICAN VENUES
The following lists the ten most popular event venues in North America, according to a recently released report from Venues Today. The report is based on concert and event ticket sales from November 13, 2003-May 15, 2004 (THE DAILY):
| RK | VENUE | TICKET SALES |
| 1) | Madison Square Garden | $24,435,412 |
| 2) | Wachovia Center | $23,479,686 |
| 3) | St. Pete Times Forum | $12,625,271 |
| 4) | The Palace of Auburn Hills | $12,550,727 |
| 5) | Thomas & Mack Center | $11,945,773 |
| 6) | Philips Arena | $10,981,521 |
| 7) | Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim | $10,554,675 |
| 8) | MCI Center | $10,214,488 |
| 9) | Staples Center | $10,181,205 |
| 10) | Air Canada Centre | $9,716,732 |
…TODAY’S ANSWER
The Fiesta Bowl signed the largest rights agreement – $19.6M annually – in a six-year deal with CBS prior to the creation of the BCS. CBS also was on the hook for $16.8M annually for the Orange Bowl, while ABC held the rights for the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl at annual averages of $10M and $16.6M, respectively.
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please let us know at:
dailyinsider@sportsbusinessdaily.com
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