Fantasy Sports TV Network To Launch In March

[Greg Ambrosius]

Now in its fourth year, the SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Network is well established and carries great content 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year. It's been a great addition to our industry and it's helped to spread the word about fantasy sports.

Now a new venture has come to the forefront with a similar concept for television. The owners of The Fight Network have seen this industry grown and have decided that it's time for a TV network for the fantasy sports industry, which boasts an audience of more than 35 million players. The new network will launch in March and will have a bit of SiriusXM's morning show to fill some of the early time.

The details are listed in this week's press release:

THE WORLD'S FIRST FANTASY SPORTS TV NETWORK SET TO LAUNCH

NEW YORK, NY- (Marketwire - January 14, 2014) - Anthem Media Group Inc., a global leader in operating niche television channels on linear, digital and mobile platforms, announced that the launch of the first ever 24-hour Fantasy Sports TV Network is set for March 4, 2014. The Fantasy Sports Network will begin serving its content on traditional, “over the top”, online and mobile video platforms throughout North America, offering interactive fantasy sports programming for a wide range of today's sports enthusiast in a linear stream, as a video on demand service and as an application.

Fantasy Sports Network will be the first TV network to have live studio programming, call in shows, panels, celebrity and expert drafts, reality programming, and on site commentary from sports venues, all specifically targeted towardsthe estimated 40 million people who play fantasy sports annually and on a daily basis. The channel will engage and involve the fantasy sports community as no media company has ever done before, meeting the analytical, informational and breaking news needs in an entertaining environment.

“This project has been two years in the making, and we are thrilled that it has finally all come together,” said Leonard Asper, President and CEO of Anthem. “We are combining the television experience of the Anthem team with the fantasy sports expertise of Anthem’s Rotoexperts.com, and major partnerships across the industry, to form a unique, compelling and relevant offering for our audience,” he added.

“Through an aggregation of the best fantasy content and personalities in the industry, the Fantasy Sports Network will engage fantasy sports participants and consumers with industry experts, athletes, celebrity personalities and in general be the destination channel for the exploding world of fantasy sports,” said Chad Midgley, VP Content.

“The metrics behind our mission are mind boggling,” said Louis M. Maione, Chief Strategy Officer of the Fantasy Sports Network, "With the fantasy sports industry growing more rapidly and arguably larger than the business of underlying sports themselves, the time to create a multi-faceted media property for this industry is now,” said Maione.

In addition to a daily flagship studio program, Anthem has an agreement with SiriusXM Radio to simulcast three daily hours of the widely popular morning drive-time “RotoExperts in the Morning” program from 6-9 a.m. on the new network. Regarded as the one of the best showcases of fantasy sports information and entertainment in the industry, the morning drive programming on the SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio Channel (Sirius Channel 210, XM Channel 87) has aired since the channel’s launch on July 1, 2010 and is hosted by a stable of notable RotoExperts industry stalwarts such as inaugural FSWA Hall of Famer Scott Engel, Adam Ronis, Mark "Dr. Roto" Bloom, Tony Cincotta, Mike Cardano, Lenny Melnick, Drew Dinkmeyer and Mike Leone.

Anthem programming partners also include Jon Klein, former President of CNN US and Jeff Gaspin, former Chairman of NBC Universal Television, and the company previously announced that NFL Hall of Famer Chris Doleman has also joined the Anthem group as Executive Vice President of business development.

Several programming and marketing partnerships are being finalized with industry leaders and will be announced in the coming weeks, ensuring a robust programming offering that will engage viewers while providing the necessary information for the “hard core” fantasy sports player.

The network will also be supported by itsflagship fantasy property RotoExperts.com, and its widely popular sports pop culture site SportsGrid.com, both of which were purchased in 2013 from an ownership group led by fantasy sports industry pioneer Louis M. Maione and Abrams Media founder and television personality, Dan Abrams. The two sites feature a number of popular video personalities and a family of notable industry journalists, which will all be cross promoting video content on the Fantasy Sports Network.

“With the growth of this industry exploding as technological advances in interfaces, devices and statistical data aggregation allow players to easily check scores, adjust rosters, interact and communicate from anywhere and on any device, the idea that this could be a 24/7 TV network was a logical progression for us,” said Asper.“It fits perfectly with Anthem’s strategy of building multiplatform media assets around communities of interest, and we will use our other TV properties to promote the network as well”, he concluded.

Anthem Media Group Inc. is a media company with offices and studios in New York, Toronto and Los Angeles, operating niche television channels on linear, digital and mobile platforms globally. In addition to the Fantasy Sports Network, RotoExperts.com, a leader in fantasy sports content, Fight Network, the world's premier combat sports channel now broadcasting in the US and over 30 other countries, and is a significant investor in the Pursuit Channel, one of the top outdoor channels in the U.S. Anthem also owns SportsGrid.com, a leader in general sports entertainment commentary.

[jaked2782]

This is great news, now come on DIrectv we have to get this!

[Deadheadz]

More great news!

And I was just getting used to seeing the STATS logo on my Arris PVR's SuperTicker. Now I've got something else to look forward to on my TV.


Cheers!

[the icon]

Yea that's what I'm saying come one direct tv.

[Greg Ambrosius]

More great news!

And I was just getting used to seeing the STATS logo on my Arris PVR's SuperTicker. Now I've got something else to look forward to on my TV.


Cheers!

We had a great conversation with these guys in Las Vegas this week and I think there is a mutual feeling on how we can help each other in the future. They need content and we have plenty of it, along with high-stakes live events in three sports this year. We first met with them in Chicago in June, so we've been talking about this for some time. This is going to be a good thing for the industry, for all fantasy players and hopefully for some of our players in particular.

Distribution will take time for this channel and that's why they have decided to debut online. They will show the product off, show what it can become and continue to battle for distribution. They have a history of this and succeeding, so I'm confident they will get it done. We certainly will help however we can. I can't think of anything better than having them live at our NFBC live events and using our ADPs as a ticker on TV throughout the year. The future is exciting and we hope to be involved with The Fantasy Sports Network if possible.

[The Mighty Men]

More great news!

And I was just getting used to seeing the STATS logo on my Arris PVR's SuperTicker. Now I've got something else to look forward to on my TV.


Cheers!

We had a great conversation with these guys in Las Vegas this week and I think there is a mutual feeling on how we can help each other in the future. They need content and we have plenty of it, along with high-stakes live events in three sports this year. We first met with them in Chicago in June, so we've been talking about this for some time. This is going to be a good thing for the industry, for all fantasy players and hopefully for some of our players in particular.

Distribution will take time for this channel and that's why they have decided to debut online. They will show the product off, show what it can become and continue to battle for distribution. They have a history of this and succeeding, so I'm confident they will get it done. We certainly will help however we can. I can't think of anything better than having them live at our NFBC live events and using our ADPs as a ticker on TV throughout the year. The future is exciting and we hope to be involved with The Fantasy Sports Network if possible.

As your self-appointed attorney and public relations director, here is my advice. If you get airtime, the 'stache has got to go. This isn't the new 70's porn channel. OK, maybe that wasn't legal advice, so I won't send an invoice.

[Edwards Kings]

Naah....the stache is retro...















Seriously...Fantasy Sports TV looks like a good thing!

[Greg Ambrosius]

As your self-appointed attorney and public relations director, here is my advice. If you get airtime, the 'stache has got to go. This isn't the new 70's porn channel. OK, maybe that wasn't legal advice, so I won't send an invoice.

Are you kidding me? My TV days are done. I will only negotiate to get Mikey on the air for us. Nothing else would do. I have a face for radio and will remain that way.

By the way, this week in Las Vegas there were three big conventions: The SHOT Show (guns), the Porn Convention, and the Fantasy Sports Trade Conference. Pretty cool!!!

[Deadheadz]

By the way, this week in Las Vegas there were three big conventions: The SHOT Show (guns), the Porn Convention, and the Fantasy Sports Trade Conference. Pretty cool!!!

The way things are going, I won't be at all surprised to see a future episode of CSI: Crime Scene Invstigation where the niche convention surrounding the murder scene is actually a high stakes Fantasy Football (I'd prefer baseball) Draft.

If the victim(s) and perp(s) happen to be draft participants / hosts, it will certainly fuel the message boards with speculation on whom the character(s) were based upon.

My votes:
Charlie Sheen to play Gekko
Paul Giamatti to play KJ Duke
and of course,
Bryan Cranston to play Lindy

[KJ Duke]

By the way, this week in Las Vegas there were three big conventions: The SHOT Show (guns), the Porn Convention, and the Fantasy Sports Trade Conference. Pretty cool!!!

The way things are going, I won't be at all surprised to see a future episode of CSI: Crime Scene Invstigation where the niche convention surrounding the murder scene is actually a high stakes Fantasy Football (I'd prefer baseball) Draft.

If the victim(s) and perp(s) happen to be draft participants / hosts, it will certainly fuel the message boards with speculation on whom the character(s) were based upon.

My votes:
Charlie Sheen to play Gekko
Paul Giamatti to play KJ Duke
and of course,
Bryan Cranston to play Lindy

Sheen is a no-brainer for Gekko, swing and a miss on the others. Giamatti could do a nice job playing a tortured Wayne Edwards. Meanwhile, Lindy IS James Cromwell !

[NorCalAtlFan]

i don't know kj, this is how i pictured you the final day of the season when you missed on MOY by 1/3 ip.

[KJ Duke]

... very, very close in that scene!

[Deadheadz]

Are you kidding me? My TV days are done. I will only negotiate to get Mikey on the air for us. Nothing else would do. I have a face for radio and will remain that way.

Found the guy to play Greg:

[Outlaw]

This is great news, now come on DIrectv we have to get this!

IMO This will never be able to support DircTv, Dish or Cable companies distribution fees. It will probaby just join the thousdands of other "online" niche networks. And its jsut a matter of time before the internet providors hammer them all with Bandwith usage fees. There is a major bill in Congress right now in conjunction with the FCC to allow the interent providors to start charging all these online content providors usage fees, like Hulu, Netflix, etc and guess who will pay for all that through subscription fees, the consumer. The idea and concept is decent, but 24 hrs a day and online only... time will tell