SVG is profiling this year's 10 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame inductees in the weeks leading up to the ceremony on Dec. 13 at the New York Hilton. For more information, visit sportsbroadcastinghalloffame.org.
Sean McManus
If a person is the company he keeps, it's easy to understand why CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus is being inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame. His mother, Margaret, and father, legendary broadcaster Jim McKay, instilled in him core values and ethics that have served him well personally and professionally. And then there were his professional mentors: from the start of his career as a production assistant at ABC Sports, a veritable who's who of the greatest sports, news, and TV professionals of the past 50 years.
McManus's journey into sports TV began when he was a youngster, spending summers traveling with his father and experiencing not only the world's greatest sports events but also those that would make ABC's Wide World of Sports such fascinating viewing week after week.
I traveled a lot with my father to sporting events in the summer at a time when the men and women at ABC Sports were inventing sports TV with Wide World of Sports. And, by the time was 11 years old, I knew that was what I wanted to do for a living.
By the time he was 15, McManus was working on a freelance basis as a gopher, had worked his way into the production department, and was sure of what he wanted to do. But his parents insisted that he spend a summer interning with Solomon Brothers on Wall Street to at least open his eyes to other careers.
I was bored, he recalls. By then, I was used to the world of sports TV production.
McManus began his career in 1977 at ABC Sports as a production assistant and associate producer. Two years later, he joined two of his ABC mentors, Geoff Mason and Don Ohlmeyer, at NBC as associate producer assigned to the NFL, Wimbledon, the PGA Tour, and more. He then transitioned into a production/management position, where he had free rein.
It was an ideal job, McManus says. I had a great run there, and I owe Geoff and Don a lot for that time. And it was the right thing to do because being at the same company as my father was a bit awkward.
At 27, McManus became the youngest vice president at NBC Sports, overseeing program planning and development. He was instrumental in the rights negotiations for the Olympics, the NFL, Wimbledon, the Orange Bowl, auto racing, and NCAA college basketball and held that role from 1982 to '87.
Sean received an uncompromising sense of passionate curiosity from his parents, Jim and Margaret, and that has served him well throughout his successful career, says Mason. The word no was never part of his vocabulary, and that is what we needed at NBC Sports at that time.
In 1987, he took the next step in his career, becoming SVP, U.S. television sales and programming, at Trans World International (TWI), the television division of International Management Group (IMG). The division was growing rapidly, and the move gave McManus a chance to round out his skill sets on the sales side of the industry. He also learned how to work with athletes like Arnold Palmer and Greg Norman and with sports entities like All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club and the Olympics.
It was a good experience and a good step in accomplishing my ultimate goal, which was to be the president of a sports network, says McManus. And I went from working with men like Roone [Arledge], [ABC director] Chet [Forte], and Mason and ABC and NBC to work with [IMG's] Mark McCormack and Barry Frank. It was really incredible.
With an understanding of both the selling and the buying side of the industry, McManus also understands a lot about negotiating a deal: If a deal isn't good for both parties, it probably isn't a good deal, and you need to leave a little on the table for the next round of negotiations. You can't be afraid to do that.
In 1996, he fulfilled his life-long dream of becoming the president of a network sports division.
Landing the job took a bit of kismet. McManus was outside the Post restaurant in midtown Manhattan when he ran into CBS TV Network President Peter Lund and his wife and some other CBS executives. We spoke for about 30 minutes, says McManus. Peter later told me that, afterwards, he was talking to his wife about not knowing who to hire to be CBS Sports president and she said, What about that nice young man we were talking to on the sidewalk?' Peter called me up, and I accepted the job without even knowing the salary.
Since that day in 1996, McManus has called CBS Sports home. In 1998, he played a key role in the return of the NFL to CBS Sports, and the network has retained NFL rights ever since. He also worked closely with the NFL on creation of Thursday Night Football in 2015.
Getting the NFL back on CBS was a year-long process, and not a day went by when I didn't work on some way to get it back, he says. I was fortunate enough to get the financial support that was key to getting the rights back.
In 1999, he led CBS to sign an unprecedented landmark agreement with the NCAA, which extended the exclusive over-the-air broadcast rights and also covered rights to the internet, marketing and corporate sponsorship, merchandising, licensing, cable television, radio, satellite, digital, and home video for the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship until 2014. In 2010, that deal was renegotiated to bring Turner Sports on as a partner, and it now runs through 2032.
His tenure at CBS has plenty of highlights, including the launch of CBS Sports Network in 2008 and a five-year stint, from 2005 to '10, as president of both CBS Sports and CBS News. Only McManus and the legendary Arledge have held the sports and news division titles simultaneously (A
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
SVG is profiling this year's 10 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame inductees in the weeks leading up to the ceremony on Dec. 13 at the New York Hilton. For more information, visit sportsbroadcastinghalloffame.org.
