Sports agency IMG and Hollywood talent firm Endeavor have formed a joint-venture company, called Transcend, which will use IMG’s media arm, TWI, to sell entertainment programs around the world.
Endeavor’s “relationships and contacts will allow this new venture to acquire the television rights to a number of programs that will be sold by the TWI international sales team,” said Bill Sinrich, CEO of TWI. “These [television programs] are almost, without exception, not sports programs.”
The joint venture’s first projects include a reality show about NBA star Shaquille O’Neal and “Vegas Law,” a reality series about a flamboyant defense attorney who insists on getting paid in cash, Sinrich said.
The new joint venture will help TWI expand beyond a sports-only broadcast production and distribution company, Sinrich said.
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| Golfer Tim Clark signed with Williams & Connolly, known for its NBA clients. |
Endeavor profits by having access to TWI’s sales force of more than 100 employees in more than 40 offices around the world. “They are local people speaking local languages who have day-to-day contact with the content buyers in the market,” Sinrich said.
Ian Moffitt, former head of programming at Target Entertainment, has been named managing director of Transend.
WILLIAMS & CONNOLLY SIGNS CLARK: Washington, D.C., law firm Williams & Connolly, which is best known for representing NBA stars such as Tim Duncan and Grant Hill, has signed its first PGA Tour player, Tim Clark.
Clark, who tied for third in this year’s U.S. Open, was No. 19 on the PGA Tour money list last week. He will be represented by Jim Tanner.
GUILD WILL NOT SUPPLY ALL DOCUMENTS: Jockeys’ Guild CEO Wayne Gertmenian did not supply some of the documents subpoenaed by a congressional subcommittee by a deadline last week, including tax returns for Gertmenian’s company, the guild’s attorney said.
Lloyd Ownbey, outside counsel to the guild, said that he did supply the committee with contracts between Gertmenian’s firm, Matrix Capital Associates, and the guild, but not the company’s tax returns, which the U.S. House of Representatives subpoenaed.
“Why should I?” Ownbey said. “That is none of their business.”
The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations has been examining the issue of jockey insurance since April. Jockeys lost their $1 million medical coverage for racetrack accidents when the guild allowed the policy to lapse in 2002.
Jeff Miles, a spokesman for Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., chairman of the subcommittee, said that based on conversations with Ownbey it did not appear that Matrix and the Jockeys’ Guild produced all the documents covered by the subpoenas by the Oct. 3 deadline.
The subcommittee staff was not able to review the documents the Jockeys’ Guild supplied early last week because the package containing the documents, like all mail sent to Capitol Hill, had to be screened for anthrax and other hazardous materials.
In a statement, Whitfield said he would work closely with the subcommittee’s ranking member, Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., to determine their next course of action.
“On-track injury insurance for jockeys and other track workers is a very serious and important issue,” Whitfield said. “Dr. Gertmenian’s continued lack of cooperation is troubling.”
Meanwhile, the subcommittee has scheduled a hearing for Oct. 18. Gertmenian, Ownbey and guild vice president Albert Fiss have received invitations to the hearing and have sent back notices that they will appear, Ownbey said.
Liz Mullen can be reached at lmullen@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
