Sun Sports’ HEAT Week a South Florida Success

Four months removed from a championship parade celebrating the Miami HEAT’s back-to-back NBA World Championships, FOX’s Sun Sports turned up the temperature on South Florida in the days leading up to Miami’s regular season opener. 

HEAT Week, a week-long celebration on the network, began on Tuesday, Oct. 22 with a robust programming lineup and a grass-roots activation that kept HEAT fans buzzing about their favorite basketball team. Read on for an in-depth recap:

Memorable #BrownsExpress Trip to KC

The SportsTime Ohio Browns Express just completed its third road trip of the season as it returned from Kansas City this morning.

Despite the Cleveland Browns loss to the Chiefs, the Browns Express bus provided fans and Browns Backers another stylish ride and a fun, unique experience.

Cleveland Plain Dealer Browns writer Branson Wright was among the fans who rode the luxury charter, and he documented the trip along the way via Twitter using #BrownsExpress and #backerbus.

 (scroll down to see a sampling of his and other fans' tweets and photos.)

He also promoted his trip HERE on Cleveland.com and shared three VIDEOS about the trip.

• Interviewing a fan
• Departing for KC
• Stop at the Negro League Baseball Museum

 



‘PTI’ and ‘Around the Horn’ losing viewers — or are they?

By John Ourand & Austin Karp, Staff Writers

Published October 28, 2013

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On Oct. 4, Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon opened “Pardon the Interruption” with a three-minute discussion of the Pirates-Cardinals NLDS Game 2 that was played earlier in the day.

The Friday afternoon show looked much the same as it did when it launched on ESPN 13 years earlier, with two well-known former newspaper columnists discussing the day’s sports news with quick, witty banter and a level of camaraderie that few TV hosts can duplicate.

But only 753,000 viewers tuned in, the show’s smallest audience so far this fall.  

NBA near deals to allow live local streaming leaguewide

Fox- and NBC-owned RSNs on board

By John Ourand & John Lombardo, Staff Writers

Published October 21, 2013

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http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2013/10/21/Leagues-and-Governing-Bodies/NBA-streaming.aspx

The NBA is poised to become the first major U.S.-based sports league to allow its games to be streamed live locally.

The league is finalizing TV Everywhere deals with Fox Sports Media Group and NBC Sports Group, the country’s two biggest owners of regional sports networks. Other RSNs, such as Root Sports, MSG, Time Warner Cable Sports, and Altitude Sports and Entertainment, are expected to offer live in-market streaming later this season. 

NFL Explores New Slate of Thursday Night Games

By 

MATTHEW FUTTERMAN and 

SHALINI RAMACHANDRAN

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303376904579138091683799998?mod=WSJ_business_LeadStoryCollection

The National Football League is considering selling another slate of Thursday games to a media outlet to increase the audience for football on one of television's most competitive nights, according to a person familiar with the league's strategy.  

USC Corporate Partners Activating Around Thursday Night Game

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  By Michael Smith, Staff Writer
  USC’s first mid-season Thursday night football game at L.A. Coliseum is generating more than just fan enthusiasm. It has been a marketing bonanza for the Trojans’ multimedia rights partner, Fox Sports, which manages USC Sports Properties. Dan Shell, VP & GM of USC Sports Properties, said 10 of the school’s corporate partners are activating with special events and employee hospitality. LG signed to be the presenting sponsor of the Arizona-USC game, which will air on FS1 at 10:30pm ET.
  
  Honda will activate its “Helpful Honda” campaign, where representatives of the automaker help fans find their seats and offer Honda drivers complimentary car washes. Honda also will be setting up free bag checks, and hosting chariot rides. Barclays Center will be holding a hospitality event for current and prospective clients, while Fidelity will stage a pregame tailgate for USC faculty with USC AD Pat Haden speaking. “Our corporate partners are buzzing about it. They are really maximizing the client hospitality opportunities and activating around the game,” Shell said.

Mobile Advertising Begins to Take Off

By 

SUZANNE VRANICA and 

CHRISTOPHER S. STEWART

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304066404579125292312208918?mod=wsj_streaming_latest-headlines

Marketers are finally convinced that there's money to be made peddling everything from soap to salad dressing to the legions of consumers glued to their smartphones and tablets: Spending on mobile advertising more than doubled in the first half of the year.

Mobile-ad spending in the U.S. totaled $3 billion in the first half, up from $1.2 billion a year earlier, the Interactive Advertising Bureau estimates. 

CSN Houston's bankruptcy filing shows multipartner RSNs aren't all smiles and profits

Friday, October 04, 2013 4:13 PM ET 

By Adam Gajo

Can a subsidiary of a media giant really go bankrupt? It appears so, with a boardroom battle leading Comcast Corp.to dip the parent company of its 22%-owned Comcast SportsNet (CSN) Houston into Chapter 11 bankruptcy Sept. 27 — a move the Houston Astros (which own 46%) and the Houston Rockets (31%) will almost surely contest. At stake is a 10-year, $1 billion rights deal signed by the network last year. CSN Houston is reportedly three months in arrears on payments to the two teams. 

Comcast SportsNet Houston: A cautionary tale

Tuesday, October 01, 2013 4:46 PM ET 

By Sarah Barry James

Owning a regional sports network is not all fun and games.

While this fact has been made clear several times in recent years — especially during the drawn-out negotiations forTime Warner Cable Inc.'s RSNs in Los Angeles — the point is once again being hammered home by the recent battle over Comcast SportsNet Houston.

Three units of Comcast Corp. — Comcast Sports Management Services LLC, Houston SportsNet Finance LLC and Comcast SportsNet California LLC — plus National Digital Television Center LLC, have filed an involuntary Chapter 11 petition against CSN Houston, the regional sports network jointly owned by the Houston Astros MLB team, the Houston Rockets NBA team and Comcast that was launched in 2012. 

Smallest MLB markets show ratings boost

By John Ourand, Staff Writer

Published September 30, 2013, Page 4

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MLB saw its largest local ratings gains in its smallest markets this season. Six of the league’s eight smallest TV markets posted double-digit ratings jumps this year.

On the flip side, the poor on-field performance of many of the league’s big-market teams led to ratings declines, with numbers down sharply in four of MLB’s five biggest TV markets. In fact, five of those big-market teams saw their local ratings drop by more than 20 percent.