Media Tip Sheet – ESPN Upfront 2015

Twitter:  #ESPNUpfront

PARTICIPANTS (in order of appearance)

Pre-Show

• Jemele Hill, Numbers Never Lie Co-Host; ESPN.com Columnist
• Michael Smith, Numbers Never Lie Co-Host
• Cari Champion, First Take Host
• DJ Kalkutta

Show

• Jordin Sparks, Singer, Songwriter with the NYC Color Guard
• Ed Erhardt, President, Global Customer Marketing and Sales, ESPN
• Eric Johnson, Executive Vice President, Global Multimedia Sales, ESPN
• Cris Carter, NFL Analyst
• Rece Davis, College Basketball & Football Studio Host and SportsCenter Anchor
• Kirk Herbstreit, College Football Analyst, ESPN
• Kenny Mayne, SportsCenter Anchor; The Mayne Event; Kenny Mayne’s Wider World of Sports
• Jon Gruden, Monday Night Football Analyst
• Mike Tirico, Play-by-Play Commentator, Studio and ESPN Radio Host
• Frank Caliendo, Comedian andSunday NFL Countdown Contributor
• Darrelle Revis, New York Jets Cornerback
• Lindsay Czarniak, SportsCenter Anchor
• Sarina Morales, ESPN’s Social Media Correspondent
• Reese Waters, SportsCenter Fan Correspondent
• Will Reeve, Reporter, ESPN
• Mike Golic, Mike & Mike Co-Host
• Mike Greenberg, Mike & Mike Co-Host
• George Stephanopoulos, Good Morning America Anchor and This Week Chief Anchor
• Robin Roberts, Good Morning America Anchor
• Amy Robach, Good Morning America Anchor
• Lara Spencer, Good Morning America Anchor
• Geri Wang, President, ABC Sales
• Hannah Storm, SportsCenter Achor
• Kevin Negandhi, SportsCenter Anchor
• Dwyane Wade, NBA All-Star and Guard for the Miami Heat
• John Skipper, Co-Chairman Disney and ESPN Media Networks and President, ESPN

GUESTS

• Lou Seal from the San Francisco Giants, Kansas City’s Slugger, Baltimore Ravens’ Poe, The Ohio State University’s Brutus the Buckeye, University of Kentucky’s Wildcat, Duke’s Blue Devil and the New Jersey Jets Flight Crew.

ANNOUNCEMENTS and HIGHLIGHTS

 Mike & Mike (Full release available here)

• Show moving to Times Square beginning Feb. 8, 2016
• Studio located above Good Morning America studios to allow for more sharing of guests and talents
• ESPN and ABC sales teams will sell packages across networks, allowing advertisers to take advantage of the scale of The Walt Disney Company and reach valuable audiences across multiple demographics and platforms

SportsCenter AM (Full release available here)

• SportsCenter adding two new hours from 7 a.m. ET – 9 a.m. ET
• Show designed to be fast-paced, designed for viewers who are on the move and don’t have much time early in the morning, the new live show will take the popular “SportsCenter Top 10” franchise and turn it into a program with the previous night’s top plays, storylines, quotes, blunders and more.

Scott Van Pelt – New Midnight Show (Full release available here)

• Scott Van Pelt has signed a multiyear extension that will see him become the solo anchor for SportsCenter’s weekday, midnight (ET) edition.
• Scheduled to launch in late summer, Van Pelt will put his own, unique spin on the day’s news and highlights while offering the commentary, guests, interviews and insight fans have come to expect from the host of ESPN Radio’s SVP & Russillo.

ESPN Films

• ESPN announces Volume Three of 30 for 30, to include 30 brand new documentaries covering stories like Tyson vs. Holyfield, polarizing football coach Pete Carroll and the Buffalo Bills’ four consecutive Super Bowl losses.

 NFL Wild Card (Full release available here)

• ESPN will again televise a National Football League Wild Card playoff game during the 2015 season.
• The game, as well as ESPN’s Monday Night Countdown pre-game show, will be simulcast on ABC for the first time during the NFL Wild Card Weekend in January 2016.

MLB Post Season

• ESPN will own the final week of the 2015 MLB regular-season by televising up to seven Postseason Impact Games, three of which are new this year.
• These games will feature matchups with direct postseason implications. This all leads into ESPN’s exclusive presentation of the American League Wild Card Game.

New Research Initiatives:

            Set Top Box Agreements with Cablevision and Rentrak (Full release available here)

• Working with Cablevision, ESPN will be able to marry significant off channel video scale and first party data with Cablevision’s census-level audience tuning data and insights on channel, creating the first true multiscreen video offering to advertisers.
• With Rentrak, ESPN will be able to describe the TV audiences in ways beyond simple demos and can match with third party sources to provide even richer targeting capabilities.
• These new data sets will also serve to enrich existing cross platform effectiveness modeling (XPe), informing partners of the best way to utilize ESPN to drive their business.

          Data Management Platform

• Application that will allow ESPN a richer and more efficient means of creating and managing ad targeting segments in a central, integrated platform.
• Partnering with BlueKai, which has an extensive list of integration partners, including all major DMP, DSP, exchanges, and agency trading desks. 

For more information:

Amy Phillips                  Amy.Phillips@espn.com                        o: 646-547-5614 m: 917-453-6502
Ana Livia Coelho           AnaLivia.C.Coelho@espn.com             o: 646-547-5778 m: 917-544-1609