FOX Sports South Girls Interview Hawks Players with Followers' Questions at Hawks Media Days

On October 1, the FOX Sports South Girls, Brittany and Canicka, attended Atlanta Hawks' Media Day and interviewed players with questions sent to them Facebook and Twitter followers.

Leading up to Media Day, the FOX Sports South Girls reached out to followers on Twitter and Facebook, and asked them to send their questions for the Hawks:

The Girls engaged with all fans who took part, thanking them and ultizing their questions in the player interviews. The Girls followed up with the fans after the interviews

to let them know their questions were asked:

Hawks players retweeted, followed, and responded to the Girls tweets, helping spread the word:

A series of videos were produced from the interviews, and they will be rolled out weekly on the Girls website and social media channels leading up to the start of the NBA season:

http://www.foxsportssouth.com/pages/video?videoid=f89482ee-771f-4992-89b1-75bf108f3adc&src=v5:share:sharepermalink:&from=sharepermalink

Rangers set team mark in cable TV viewership

By BARRY HORN
Staff writer
bhorn@dallasnews.com

Saturday, October 6, 2012

The Rangers just completed their best cable rating for a season on Fox Sports Southwest. They averaged a 5.9 rating, which translates to 151,706 homes.

The season boasted nine of the top 11 rated games in FSSW history, but only one came after the All-Star break, which would indicate a decrease in television interest as the team cooled down.

Another note: Yu Darvish started four of those nine, including the top two in April. Five of the top-rated cable games of all time were in the first month of season, when the Rangers finished 17-6 and averaged a 7.6 rating.

And in case you are wondering, the final three-game series of the season at the Oakland A’s averaged a 6.9.

Most-watched games

The top-10 all-time Rangers ratings on FOX Sports Southwest:

No.	Rat.	Date	Opponent
1.	10.7	April 9, 2012	vs. Seattle*
2.	10.0	April 24, 2012	vs. NY Yankees*
3.	9.7	April 25, 2012	vs. NY Yankees
4.	9.3	Aug. 11, 2010	vs. NY Yankees
5.	8.3	April 19, 2012	vs. Detroit*
6T.	8.0	April 11, 2012	vs. Seattle
6T.	8.0	June 27, 2012	vs. Detroit
6T.	8.0	Aug. 10, 2010	vs. NY Yankees
6T.	8.0	May 28, 2012	vs. Seattle
10T.	7.9	June 26, 2012	vs. Detroit*
10T.	7.9	Sept. 25, 2012	vs. Oakland

*-Yu Darvish start

 

FSSW ratings

Rangers ratings on FOX Sports Southwest the last five seasons:

Year	G	Rat.
2008	110	1.6
2009	131	2.5
2010	127	3.5
2011	127	3.9
2012	125	5.9

 

Packers Ref Controversy = Impressive Web Numbers for FOX Sports Wisconsin

The hail mary Packer fans won’t soon forget…

The chaos and conversation that followed the Monday night football match-up between Green Bay and Seattle, also just happened to provide the perfect opportunity for FOX Sports Wisconsin to “own the conversation.”

• The plan: Cover ‘Packers ref controversy’ via FOXsportswisconsin.com, FOX Sports Wisconsin social media platforms and weave the conversation into a Brewers Live pregame show.

• The result: record breaking web numbers for the month of September, thousands of “likes,” comments, shares and retweets, and an interesting Brewers Live pregame segment.

Details: 

FOX Sports South and SportSouth Celebrate the Hall of Fame Career of Chipper Jones with Special Coverage During Final Braves Homestand of the Regular Season

On Tuesday, September 25 FOX Sports South and SportSouth paid tribute to Chipper Jones with a 1 hour pregame special, which was made even more memorable with extended postgame coverage as the Braves clinched a playoff berth in walkoff fashion that night.  FOX Sports South also gave viewers live, commercial free coverage of the team’s Chipper Jones Night pregame tribute on Friday, September 28^th thanks to Georgia Best Chevy Dealers.

Through traditional media outreach, social media promotion, web content, digital billboards, and OAP messaging, FOX Sports South and SportSouth spread the word about the week of Chipper Jones telecasts and garnered a great amount of coverage and social conversation.    

Ten days before the Tribute aired, “sneak peaks” of Tom Hart’s exclusive sit down with Chipper Jones were posted daily across social media channels including YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, to heighten anticipation.

Starting on September 18, several On Air Promotions aired within all FOX Sports South and SportSouth programming, previewing Braves LIVE: A Tribute to Chipper Jones:

Digital billboards promoted tune in to the September 25 special:

Braves LIVE host and alumni of the team Brian Jordan joined FOX-5's Good Day Atlanta the morning of September 25 and broadcasters Chip Caray and Joe Simpson did radio interviews to promote the tribute:

http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/story/19630967/fox-sports-south-braves-to-honor-chipper-jones

The Braves supported the initiative by retweeting tune in messages to more than 230,000 followers:

Social media conversation throughout the tribute was incredibly positive:

The @SportSouth account reached 475,792 individuals with an overall exposure of 1,328,304 during the final home games of the season, peaking on the night of the Chipper Jones special (September 25).   

Messages for Chipper from prominent and legendary figures such as Michael Jordan, Derek Jeter, Dale Murphy, Mark Richt, Tony Gwynn, Kirk Gibson, Don Mattingly, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed that aired during the special were posted to FOXSportsSouth.com immediately following the special’s debut. 

The Atlanta Journal Constitution made a note of the Tribute and publicized upcoming re-air dates in the widely read Braves blog on ajc.com:

When the Braves clinched a playoff berth with a 4-3 Walk Off Win, SportSouth gave viewers extended postgame coverage live from the clubhouse champagne celebration. The FOX Sports South Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Viddy accounts provided followers even more behind-the-scenes coverage of the clinch celebration with in the moment photos and videos, including a postgame video of Chipper hugging his parents made it on Viddy's coveted "Featured" List. 

http://viddy.com/foxsportssouth 



To follow up Tuesday's pregame Braves LIVE Chipper Jones Tribute and coverage of the postgame clinch celebration, FOX Sports South provided viewers with live, commercial free coverage of the Braves Chipper Jones Night ceremonies on Friday, September 28th.  Social media accounts provided an extra layer of coverage, with Facebook posts, Tweets, videos and photos as the events unfolded from Turner Field. 

For the week in total, the networks' Chipper Tribute hashtag #ThanksChipper, reached more than 437,522 individual Twitter accounts, with an overall exposure of 856,681, generating a great amount of social conversation about and appreciation for FOX Sports South and SportSouth coverage.  

 

FOX Sports Ohio Girls Sara featured in Balanced Living Magazine

Sara, the FOX Sports Ohio Girl, is on the cover of this month's "Balanced Living", a new magazine and website devoted to helping women in Northeastern Ohio live healthier lives and make educated healthcare decisions for themselves and their families.

With a circulation of over 30,000 homes and businesses, Balanced Living reaches a wide audience and provides crucial health and medical information in a sophisticated and modern way.

Sara's cover story, "Off the Bench - the perils of prolonged sitting", addresses the risks involved in sitting for long periods of time, especially during a football game. She shows readers how to "stay active - without missing the game" through a variety of activities and stretches, and she shares one of her favorite healthy game-day recipes.

The complete October issue can be downloaded at balancedmag.com.

FOX Sports North Team Helps Raise Over $600,000 for Cancer Research

Raising awareness for cancer research is a TEAM effort. 

Over the past few months, FOX Sports North showed the importance of teamwork by joining forces with staff, viewers, a well-known on-air host (Marney Gellner), the Minnesota Twins and a few Twins players and their wives - to help raise awareness and funds for the the local chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

A multi-media campaign was created to promote the “Light the Night” Walk at Target Field for the third year in a row. 

The FOX Sports North team raised over $3,400 and helped the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society raise over $600,000 - here's how:

TEAM effort:

• On-air host Marney Geller served as a spokesperson and team captain. 
• The wives of two Minnesota Twins players (Brain Duensing and Glen Perkins) came onboard as co-captains
• FOX Sports North employees joined the team and stepped up to raise funds
• FOX Corporate came through to match employee donations via the 'FOX GIves' program
• Viewers/fans were encouraged to join or donate (and did!)
• Twins president Dave St. Peter and Twins legend Rod Carew endorsed the walk

Exposure:

• Custom promo was created with  FOX Sports North host Marney Gellner, Twins pitcher Brian Duensing and a very special cancer survivor

• Special video featuring interviews with Twins players Glen Perkins and Brian Duensing and their connection to blood cancer. WATCH
• Twins legend Rod Carew featured in an interview during Twins Live after the event WATCH
• Facebook and Twitter posts sent out months leading up to “Light the Night” walk encouraging fan participation and donations
• Team members retweeted and encouraged participation
• Photos from the event posted to Facebook and Instragram
• Marney Gellner hosted the pre-walk ceremony in front of thousands of participants
• FOX Sports North interacted with walkers by setting up a table at the event with games and prizes

Thanks to everyone who supported our team!

We look forward to advancing our relationship and support for the Lukemia and Lymphoma Society.

MLB To Formally Announce Rights Extensions With Fox, Turner Today

By John Ourand, Staff Writer

MLB has scheduled a press conference for 12:00pm ET today to officially announce its media rights extensions with Fox and Turner, worth $6.8B over eight years. MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, Turner President of Sales, Distribution & Sports David Levyand Fox Sports co-Presidents & co-COOs Randy Freer and Eric Shanks will be on the conference call. As part of the new deals, Fox will average $525M per year for its package, which includes the World Series, All-Star Game, one LCS and two LDS. Turner will average $325M a year for its package that includes one LCS, two LDS, 13 regular-season, exclusive Sunday afternoon games and more digital rights.

Including the $700M-per-year deal that ESPN signed in August, MLB will make $12.4B from its media rights over eight years, more than doubling its annual media rights haul to $1.55B. MLB Network will pick up at least two games from Fox' LDS package. Sources said MLB Net will pay Fox $30M per year for those games.