Primetime Players

Why This MattersTurner Sports' David Levy and Lenny Daniels have found a successful strategy in focusing on the category's highest-profile events.

Turner sports shocked the sports TV world this past August when it secured exclusive, multiplatform U.S. rights to UEFA European soccer games starting in 2018 and running through 2020.

Turner further set industry heads spinning by announcing it would put a majority of its 340 yearly UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League matches on a new over-the-top subscription sports service to launch next year. That service will offer other yet to be defined sports content to draw in hard-core, cord-cutting sports fans.

Turner's bold move, led by president David Levy and Turner Sports president Lenny Daniels, capped a year in which the programmer solidified its sports prowess in traditional linear cable with strong ratings performances across multiple networks - from TNT's exclusive regular-season and postseason NBA coverage, to TBS' MLB postsea son telecasts to Turner's multi-network coverage of March Madness, aka the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament, with partner CBS - while putting a stake in the digital future with its 2018 OTT service and its push into the e-sports arena. Making these moves earned Levy and Daniels recognition as two of B&C's Sports Executives of the Year.

We really just want to secure, build and maintain the current ecosystem we have and were able to do that and keep the quality as high as it can be, Daniels said. The UEFA deal and the new OTT product allows us to start doing things in the new ecosystem, and we really like where we are in that space.

A Thriving Ecosystem

Turner's nurturing of the current ecosystem paid off in 2017 as it enjoyed one of its strongest ratings years across the board.

TBS hit a ratings home run during its coverage of the recently completed Major League Baseball postseason, averaging 6.2 million viewers for its coverage of the Chicago Cubs-Los Angeles Dodgers National League Championship Series, up a whopping 88% versus its 2016 LCS coverage.

Overall, the network's 14-game 2017 live, postseason baseball coverage drew 6.2 million viewers, up 44% from 2016, according to Nielsen.

Not to be outdone, TNT's Oct. 17 NBA opening night coverage of the Boston Celtics-Cleveland Cavaliers game drew 5.6 million viewers to make it the second most-watched opening game performance in TNT's 29-year history of televising NBA games, and a 95% improvement over last year's league opening tipoff game.

The opening night numbers built on the momentum generated from TNT's Eastern Conference Finals coverage last spring, in which Turner posted a 12% year-over-year ratings gain from the 2016 playoffs.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver attributes the league's success with Turner to the leadership of Daniels as well as Levy, whom Silver said he's known for two decades and called one of the most accomplished and influential executives in sports media.

Lenny Daniels shares David's passion for developing and distributing premium programming, which makes Turner's sports properties among the very best places to consume content, especially live sports, Silver said. David and Lenny are terrific partners of the NBA and continue to play a critical role in the growth of our game. Daniels, a veteran Turner executive who took over the Turner Sports presidency in July 2014 after having served as chief operating officer of the division since 2009, said that Turner's relationship with the NBA has only blossomed over the years.

TNT's successful Monday-night Players Only package of games added last year - in which ex-NBA players handle all play-by-play and analyst duties - will return in 2018 to complement the network's exclusive Thursday-night lineup of NBA games and the network's popular Inside the NBA pregame and postgame series.

I think we work together so well that people don't really differentiate the two entities, which I think is what makes it work, Daniels said, referring to Turner and the NBA.

Levy, who has had oversight of the business operations of Turner's domestic entertainment network properties since 2013, added that the network's association with the NBA goes beyond its linear channels. Turner Sports also manages the league's network, NBA TV, and its NBA League Pass out-of-market package of live games that stream on mobile phones, laptops and tablets.

Turner this season added a package of virtual reality games that extends the NBA experience into emerging technologies.

Turner has also proven it can also play well with other media companies as witnessed by its six-year partnership with CBS on the NCAA men's college basketball tournament, affectionately known by most sports fans as March Madness.

The past spring, the two companies produced the second-most watched tournament in 23 years, with ratings for the three-week tournament generating a 16% increase over the year prior, according to Nielsen.

In addition, Turner and CBS's March Madness Live digital interactive streaming suite of products, which includes live radio coverage of all 67 games of the tournament and other up-to-the minute game coverage, generated a record 98 million live video streams.

I think it has worked better than any of us could have predicted, with respect to growing the ratings, growing revenue, creating innovative production and very effective branding, CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus said. Together, I think we've grown the event tremendously, and I give a lot of the credit to the way David and Lenny have worked so seamlessly with CBS.

Daniels said the relationship between CBS and TBS to distribute the tournament, which runs through 2032, has been mutually beneficial, as both companies work toward

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