“We’re excited to expand our partnership with Facebook by delivering additional content for our fans,” said Chris Wandell, Vice President Media Business Development at the PGA TOUR. “This is in response to our fans’ appetite for additional coverage packaged in a way that is convenient for them to consume.”

PROGRAMMING

The NFL Pro Bowl will be carried live across four networks for the second year in a row, with ESPN, ESPN Deportes, ABC and Disney XD combining to showcase the AFC vs. NFC All-Star Game on Sunday at 3p from Camping World Stadium in Orlando. ESPN’s Monday Night Football commentator team of play-by-play announcer Joe Tessitore, analyst Booger McFarland, reporter Lisa Salters and NFL officiating analyst John Parry will call the game for ESPN, ABC and Disney XD, while play-by-play announcer Ciro Procuna, analyst Pablo Viruega and reporter John Sutcliffe will describe the action in Spanish for ESPN Deportes. This year’s telecast will also feature in-game audio of all the Pro Bowl quarterbacks. Play calls from both teams – on offense and defense – will be available to the production team in real time to bring fans closer to the action on the field. Other planned elements also include continued testing of 8K technology.

Turner Sports debuts NBA on TNT Tuesday Night presented by State Farm on Jan. 28 at 7p with the new weekly franchise highlighted by a studio team will be headlined by Dwyane Wade, Candace Parker and Shaquille O’Neal, along with host Adam Lefkoe. Steve Nash will contribute regularly on Tuesday nights, providing standalone studio segments encompassing off-the-court features, player profiles and more. Postgame studio coverage will focus on two to three notable games, while highlighting the remainder of the night’s action via quicker, tighter game recaps and trending moments from #NBATwitter. Segments are slate to include: Fit Watch with B/R Kicks and Flash it Forward.

CBS Sports announced a new, weekly one-hour golf show running Monday mornings on CBS Sports Network, titled Course Record with Michael Breed. Hosted by golf instructor and commentator Michael Breed launches Jan. 27 at 11a and will run for 35 straight weeks airing Monday’s after PGA TOUR events, all four majors and The Ryder Cup.

The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee unlocked schedule for the 2020 Team USA Champions Series, presented by Xfinity, which includes four events in both summer and winter sports throughout the year. All of the events will be carried on NBC or NBC Sports Network, featuring beach volleyball, figure skating, ice hockey and short track speedskating with programming starting today at 5p on NBCSN featuring the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. “The Champions Series is all about showcasing Team USA athletes and the Olympic sports taking place around the globe every day of the year,” said Luella Chavez D’Angelo, chief marketing and communications officer at the USOPC. “In this Olympic year especially, there are exciting sporting events and inspiring athlete journeys around every corner. We’re thrilled to partner with Xfinity to continue bringing this captivating action to fans through the Champions Series.”

FOX Sports is beefing up its college hoops all-access telecasts, and will now feature four games from three of the nation’s top conferences on FS1, showcasing Big East men’s and women’s programs in a commercial-free format, while also expanding the program to include one men’s game each from the Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences. Coaches wear a live microphone, giving viewers the chance to hear directly from the sidelines and locker rooms from tipoff through the final whistle with virtually no interruption. For the first time, FOX College Hoops All-Access features a doubleheader with back-to-back Big East men’s and women’s matchups on Sunday, on FS1 starting a 4:30p, while Pac-12 all-access opens Feb. 15 and the Big Ten begins Feb. 18.

FOX Sports scored its most-watched regular season college basketball game in FS1 history, averaging 685,000 viewers on the channel for the Iowa win over Michigan on Friday night. That tops the previous high of 683,000 scored last season for Michigan State/Iowa.

SiriusXM today announced its week of programming for Super Bowl LIV in Miami Beach, offering multiple live broadcasts of the game in seven languages, as a dedicated Super Bowl LIV pop up channel, as well as a mix of sports, entertainment and music programming. On Super Bowl Sunday, SiriusXM’s coverage of Super Bowl LIV from Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens will showcase nine different game broadcasts to choose from including: Westwood One national radio broadcast; Kansas City Chiefs radio broadcast; San Francisco 49ers radio broadcast; Spanish language broadcast; Chinese; German; French; Hungarian; and Portuguese language broadcasts. During the Pepsi Super Bowl LIV Halftime Show, Finally, Super Bowl LIV Radio launches as a special week long pop-up channel Jan. 27 (SiriusXM channel 105), serving as the home for highlights from the best programming happening across several SiriusXM channels during Super Bowl Week, and will also air the NFL press conferences; content from the NFL 100 Greatest podcast series; replays of past Super Bowls; and more.

Cumulus Media’s Westwood One offers coverage and play-by-play of Super Bowl LIV with a full schedule of game day programming leading up to kickoff. Kevin Harlan will handle the play-by-play duties for the Super Bowl for the tenth straight year, with Kurt Warner returning as the lead analyst. Former NFL referee turned rules analyst Gene Steratore will also join the radio broadcast booth for this year’s Super Bowl, after having served in a similar role for CBS Sports last season. Game day coverage begins at 2p with Super Bowl Preview, co-hosted by Scott Graham and Kurt Warner.

NHL Network will produce nine hours of live coverage dedicated to NHL All-Star festivities starting today at 6p as NHL All-Stars visit with Jamie Hersch, E.J. Hradek and Kevin Weekes during Media Day. Hosts tony Luftman and Jackie Redmond along with analyst Mike Rupp join the team on Friday as the channel features pre- and postgame coverage of the 2020 NHL All-Star Skills and the 2020 Honda NHL All-Star Game beginning both days at 6p.

Street League Skateboarding returns in its eleventh season announcing competitions across three continents leading directly to skateboarding’s inaugural Olympic debut. The 2020 WS SLS World Tour kicks off from Las Vegas from March 27-28 before moving to Beijing on May 2-3 and wrapping up with the World Championship out of London on May 22-24.

“They’re the innovators and champions of change with the skill, commitment and passion to help guide an industry during an exciting, but tumultuous time. We are honored to shine a light on these future leaders, as well as the companies that are empowering them.” – Robbie Caploe, Publisher |CYNOPSIS

View honorees here and make plans to join us in NYC on Thursday, February 6th for the Cynopsis Best Of The Best Awards luncheon.

[REGISTER]

The Pac-12 announced a new multi-year partnership with TicketSmarter that will see the ticket retailer serve as a secondary ticket retailer for several Pac-12-hosted events and an official partner of the Pac-12 Conference. The official partnership of the Pac-12 also includes TicketSmarter as an official partner of the football championship game, women’s basketball tournament and gymnastics championships.

Sungjae Im, the 2019 PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year, signed with Lagardère Sports for global management and marketing representation. Im will be represented by Lagardère Sports President of Golf, Steve Loy and Senior Vice President of Global Golf Clients Ben Harrison.

Ruffles and Anthony Davis are sealing their endorsement deal with the co-creation of a custom potato chip flavor: Lime and Jalapeño. To officially reveal the flavor, Davis joined Ruffles in Los Angeles at an exclusive gathering to showcase the new flavor. In celebration of the new flavor launch, Ruffles is unveiling three limited-edition packaging designs for the new flavor.

MLB Network has launched an Innings Fest sweepstakes through Friday, Jan. 31, allowing fans to visit inningsfestival.com/baseball and enter code “MLBNetwork” for a chance to win a trip to Tempe for Innings Fest from Feb. 29 to March 1. The sweepstakes winner will have opportunity see The Dave Matthews Band and Weezer, meet MLB Network’s Jim Thome and Ryan Dempster, as well as attend the Cubs/Mariners Spring Training game on March 1.

Leading up to the Super Bowl, AT&T will present the DIRECTV NFL Sunday Ticket Lounge, described as a high-end, ultra-VIP hospitality space in Miami that will host a variety of events including special athlete appearances and other unique experiences to Sunday Ticket subscribers and invited VIP guests. The Lounge will host exclusive programming from Jan. 29-Feb 1 and include fireside chats and meet & greets with athletes Peyton Manning, Dak Prescott, Cameron Jordan, JuJu Smith-Schuster, and many more.

DIGITAL, DATA & TECH

AppAnnie has named DAZN as the top sports app by consumer spend worldwide in 2019. Roundig our the top ten were ESPN, MLB At bat, HUNT App, NBA, UFC< GameChanger Baseball & Softball, Tencent Sports, NHL and Eurosport Player.

ESPORTS

In this week’s edition of Cynopsis Esports…
· Fortnite’s grassroots curriculum
· RLCS revs up for new season
· Overwatch League’s new host
· 2019’s top mobile esports events
· 100 Thieves’ new hideout
· Niantic’s halo effects

INDUSTRY & ROSTER MOVES

Arizona Cardinals wide receiver and businessman Larry Fitzgerald purchased a minority stake in the Phoenix Suns. Fitzgerald recently completed his 16th season with the Cardinals, a career during which he has been selected to a franchise-record 11 Pro Bowls and is the team’s all-time leader in receptions, receiving yards, receiving touchdowns, total touchdowns, 100-yard receiving games and consecutive games with a reception.

Bleacher Report promoted Stefanie Rapp to Chief Revenue Officer where she will continue to focus on building incremental revenue streams while overseeing the ongoing integration of B/R across Turner Sports, WarnerMedia and AT&T. Rapp will report directly to Howard Mittman, B/R CEO.

GumGum Sports announced the hiring of Dominic Zuccarini as Senior Vice President of Sales. Zuccarini will lead and expand the company’s domestic and international sales strategy and brings more than 20 years from companies such as Zendesk and big data and social analytics platforms Klout, Dachis Group and Involver.

Monumental Sports & Entertainment announced two appointments, with Monica Dixon promoted to chief administrative officer and president of external affairs at MSE while Bob Schneider has been named chief of staff to Leonsis.

World Golf Foundation Board of Directors voted to make several changes to the World Golf Hall of Fame eligibility and Induction process. Changes to the eligibility include lowering the age of a Male or Female Competitor from 50 to 45 years of age or three years retired from the game, as well as the elimination of the Veterans category and replacing “Lifetime Achievement” recognition with “Contributor.”

THE MAIN EVENT

Michigan State/Indiana on FS1 at 8:30p.

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Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question
John McEnroe competed for which university? Answer: Stanford. Kudos: Ben Sturner-Leverage Agency/NY; Tom Buffolano-LTN Global/NY; Steve Scheer-FOX Sports/NY; Michael Dittelman-Dedicated Sports Marketing/NY; Michael G. Hawkins-Francis Marion University/Florence; Mike May-PHIT AMERICA/Wellington; Mike Wexler-Moroch/Atlanta; Synda Kollman-Charter Marketing Group/Boca Raton; Andy Pittman-TAMU/College Station; Rich Wolfe-Lone Wolfe Press/Scottsdale; John Baghdassarian-Olympusat/LA; Peter Steckelman-Tennis Channel/Santa Monica; Andy Babb-Super League Gaming/Santa Monica; Brian “Cal Dad” Robin-Bear Titan Publications/San Bernardino