Championing some extraordinary executives who are scoring big time in the world of sports TV

-- Broadcasting & Cable, 6/4/2012 12:01:00 AM

There is a common thread among the talented producers, execs, strategists and researchers, investors, and operations and business affairs execs who populate the 2012 B&C/MCN Women in the Game honorees. It is this: In a sports TV world for which the word "exploding" remains an understatement, these women are the consummate multitaskers. They're not just busy keeping the TV world chock full of exciting action; they are often balancing several plates in the air, inspiring creativity or fostering fertile environments where great sports TV ideas can happen. When it comes to making sure viewers can always watch the best and the most, these women are ultimate fighting champions. And that's what truly makes this a list of industry All-Stars.

Karen Brodkin

Executive VP, Business and Legal Affairs, Fox Sports Media Group

Last year, when she earned her first Women in the Game honor, Karen Brodkin, then senior VP, business and legal affairs for Fox Cable Networks, was busy finishing up a 10- year deal with the Pac-12 conference. This year, as she is being honored once again, Brodkin has an even bigger title, and has been even busier, inking new and renegotiated major sports media rights deals for Fox Sports Media Group.

In the past year Brodkin was directly involved in finalizing a seven-year multimedia rights deal for Fox with Ultimate Fighting Championship, the world’s largest mixed martial arts organization. She also took part in renegotiating with Major League Baseball to get the league to schedule more games on Saturday nights for Fox’s new live sports block, and with the NFL on a nine year extension to the current TV rights deal that was set to expire after the 2013 regular season.

“I’ve become a lot busier,” says Brodkin, adding that the length of these new deals and the digital components make negotiations much more complex.

And as a good leader always does, Brodkin is quick to praise her team. “I have a group of extraordinarily talented lawyers working for me, handling the day-to-day stuff. That allows me to think more big-picture.”

	Marie Donoghue Senior VP, Global Strategy, Business Development and Business Affairs, ESPN Marie Donoghue went to law school at Columbia University even though she didn't plan to practice law. "I thought of it as continuing my liberal arts education -- I wanted to learn how to think differently," she says. More
	Christy King VP, Digital, Technology Research & Development, UFC The Ultimate Fighting Championship had a busy 2011, with the sport's burgeoning popularity resulting in a landmark deal with Fox, giving mixed martial arts its widest reach yet. As part of the agreement, the UFC was set to increase its original programming output from 90 to 350 hours per year. More
	Paula Madison CEO, Los Angeles Sparks; Investor, Africa Channel Retirement has been anything but quiet for Paula Madison, who one year ago departed her post as executive VP of diversity at NBCUniversal. More
	Bernadette McDonald Vice President of Broadcast Operations, Major League Baseball Millions of Americans move repeatedly as they change jobs again and again across a lifetime. But Bernadette McDonald, Major League Baseball's VP for baseball operations, has been in her current role since 2001 -- amazingly, she had her career path figured out by the end of high school and managed to live it. More
	Christina Miller Senior VP and GM of NBA Digital; Senior VP, Turner Sports Strategy, Marketing and Programming Christina Miller knows how to multitask. Given the opportunity to join Turner Sports in 2009, she jumped at the chance. "Change is good," she says, adding that she grew up in New York City in a die-hard sports family. More
	Robyn Miller Senior VP of Marketing, Tennis Channel Robyn Miller's life choices did not seem like they were leading to the post of senior VP of marketing for Tennis Channel. And it's not just that she's "a little embarrassed" to admit she's one of the few employees who doesn't play the game. ("I've taken a few lessons, but I suck," she says.) More
	Lydia Murphy-Stephans VP and General Manager, Pac-12 NetworksLydia Murphy-Stephans has been busy in her new role at Pac-12 Networks. She has spent the past four months putting together an infrastructure of engineering, operations and facilities people. Now she is getting into the planning of programming and the hiring of on-air talent for the one national and six regional TV networks she oversees that will televise more than 800 hours of live Pacific 12 conference college sports events annually when they premiere in August. More
	Deanna O'Toole Executive Director of Business Affairs, CBS Sports To say that Deanna O'Toole wears many hats as CBS Sports' executive director of business affairs is like saying the Super Bowl has a fair amount of fans. More
	Molly Solomon Coordinating Producer, NBC Olympics; Executive Producer and Senior VP, Production and Operations, Golf Channel Molly Solomon's life is "a little chaotic" right now. Of course, any working mom might say that...especially if she has triplets...and especially if her family is about to relocate...and especially if it's an Olympic year and she is producing the television coverage for NBC...and especially if she was just named executive producer of the Golf Channel (the first woman to be executive producer for a national sports network) and is doing that job while producing the Olympics. More
	Sharon van Zwieten Senior Executive Producer of News, Univision Deportes When Sharon van Zwieten was hired as senior executive producer of news at Univision Deportes last August, she was given eight months to launchUnivision Deportes Extra, a one-hour nightly Spanish-language sports newscast. Both Univision Deportes, Univision's new 24/7 sports network, andExtra premiered on April 7. More
	Melinda Witmer Executive VP and Chief Video and Content Officer, Time Warner Cable Time Warner Cable has long been a reluctant player in the sports arena. The MSO was the lone major holdout on the NFL Network, and it traditionally would not spend big on sports rights. But when executive VP and chief video and content officer Melinda Witmer decided the company needed to step up to the plate