Brian Bedol
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Brian Bedol is an American television executive, entrepreneur,
Bedol has since sold off both channels, to ESPN and CBS respectively, who have renamed the channels
Early career
Brian Bedol is a "maverick entrepreneur in an increasingly mature industry dominated by conglomerates",
While an executive at Quantum, Bedol, Pittman, and another partner,
In 1990, Quantum was sold to
Classic Sports Network
He left Time Warner at the end of 1992 to strike out on his own. While working on the launch of
Unfortunately for the company, very few people could see the network. Because it was independently owned and not part of a media conglomerate, the roll-out of the network was slow. But Bedol persevered, and raised an additional $20 million from Warburg Pincus to keep the company afloat.[15] An innovative marketer, Bedol recognized the value of using some of the greatest names in sports history to help grow the network. Since he couldn't afford to pay them in cash at the time, he formed the Classic Sports Network "Board of Champions", and gave each of its members a slice of equity in exchange for helping to promote the channel. The board's members included Joe Namath, Magic Johnson, Mary Lou Retton, Wilt Chamberlain, Gale Sayers, Ernie Banks, and Ted Williams.[16]
The strategy was successful, and Classic Sports Network attracted a lot of attention and favorable publicity. It also attracted some unfavorable attention. After the company rejected Cablevision's approach to acquire the network in 1997, Cablevision decided to launch a competitive service called "American Sports Classics".[17] In March, 1997, Bedol and Greenberg filed the first complaint with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) under the 1992 Cable Act.[18]
Bedol's aggressive response succeeded, as American Sports Classics never launched, and Classic Sports Network was sold to ESPN later that year for around $175 million.[19] Bedol oversaw the integration and transition to ESPN Classic (originally ESPN Classic Sports), and left the company in early 1999.
College Sports Television (CSTV)
After a hiatus of a few years where he was primarily an investor in early-stage media businesses (See Other Business Ventures), in 2002 Bedol announced that he was returning to the cable industry with a new network featuring primarily college sports, called (at the time) NCSN, or National College Sports Network. It was the first sports network that recognized the power of sports to help promote the cable industry's recently introduced digital programming tiers. Bedol was quoted as saying "It's a marketing tool disguised as a programming service.
Similar to the Classic Sports strategy, CSTV acquired the television and internet rights to thousands of collegiate sporting events from over a dozen athletic conferences, including the
Although the events CSTV acquired were not big enough for ESPN or Fox Sports, Bedol was one of the first media executives to recognize the value that could be created from aggregating niches using the internet. CSTV brought the long-tail theory to the internet. The creation of CSTV led to Bedol's selection by Sports Business Journal as one of the "20 Most Powerful People in College Athletics" in 2004.[21]
Later that year, acquired the internet sports division from Student Advantage. This became the centerpiece of the broadband distribution strategy that set apart from all the other players in sports, and established the company as a pioneer in the broadband distribution of live sports. This led to the selecting to distribute the national Men's Basketball Championship over the internet in 2005. The tournament has since become the internet's largest annual online sporting event.
CSTV was acquired by CBS in 2006 for $325 million, and Bedol was named the President and CEO of the division.
Bedrocket and Sportsrocket
In 2012, Bedol founded Bedrocket,[22] to invest in, and incubate, digital media properties. Through Bedrocket, Bedol co-founded NowThis News with Ken Lerer.[23] Bedrocket also incubated Sportsrocket, a provider of strategy, technology, and operations to sports rights holders. Sportsrocket created KickTV, in partnership with Major League Soccer, and helped build it into the leading YouTube channel for North American soccer fans.[24] KickTV was sold to Copa90 in 2015.[25] The company also created and operates Network A, a leading global, multi-platform action sports property.[26]
Bedrocket has also collaborated on several projects including the digital destination, Flama,[27] with Univision, the first comedy channel on Spotify,[28] Mike Birbiglia's film Sleepwalk With Me[29] and an interactive interview with Jon Hamm for ESPN.[30]
Other business ventures
Bedol also helped pioneer the trend of sports teams owning their own regional sports networks. As a minority shareholder in the New Jersey Nets, he was a central participant in the negotiation of the deal that led to the formation of YankeeNets, the co-ownership of the New York Yankees and the Nets. He also worked very closely with Allen & Company to develop the media strategy and structure that led to the launch of the YES Network.
He also was head of the American-based venture capital group Fusient Media Ventures; Fusient is known primarily for an aborted deal to purchase World Championship Wrestling. In October 2010, he joined the Series A round financing of ticket management software firm Spotlight Ticket Management.[31]
Bedol earned his
References
- ^ Global Entrepreneurship Institute. "Famous Entrepreneurs". Archived from the original on 2008-06-12.
- ^ Mike Reynolds (2008-01-03). "CBS Integrates CSTV into Sports Division". Multichannel News.
- Sports Business Journal.
- ^ Peter Kafka (2012-03-27). "Stealthy Startup".
- ^ Keith Dunnavant (2007-01-08). "Life of Brian Bedol: Serving the Underserved and the Passionate". Mediaweek. Archived from the original on 2007-02-07. Retrieved 2008-02-23.
- ^ Sean Gregory (2003-04-27). "Lacrosse at 11". Time. Archived from the original on June 12, 2008. Retrieved June 9, 2022.
- ^ Steve Erlanger (1987-12-14). "TV Host Sneers to Succeed". The New York Times.
- ^ "Cast and Crew of Pictionary".
- ^ Fraser, C. Gerald (1987-08-16). "Hagler vs. Leonard Home Video Review". The New York Times.
- ^ Rudy Martzke (2003-02-05). "Stay Tuned for CSTV". USA Today.
- ^ Robert La Franco (2000-05-31). "Entertaining the Future". Red Herring. Archived from the original on 2008-06-13.
- Sports Business Journal. Archived from the originalon August 18, 2004.
- ^ Whitford, David (2010-05-25). "The king of the sports deal". Fortune. Archived from the original on 2010-05-22. Retrieved 2010-06-02.
- ^ Richard Sandomir (1994-04-04). "A Channel for Lovers". The New York Times.
- ^ Richard Sandomir (1996-09-03). "Classic Sports Network Gets $20 million in New Capital". The New York Times.
- ^ "Classic Sports Network launches on Direct TV". Business Wire. 1996-01-15.
- ^ Richard Sandomir (1997-03-23). "New Competition for Old Clips". The New York Times.
- ^ Mark Landler (1997-03-03). "Distribution Dispute Ensnarls Cablevision and Classic Sports". The New York Times.
- ^ Richard Sandomir (1994-04-04). "ESPN Unit Buys Classic Sports". The New York Times.
- ^ Jon Lafayette (2002-06-10). "Bedol's Back with a College Sports Net". Cable World.
- ^ Rudy Martzke (2005-01-27). "March Madness Could Take Byte out of Work". USA Today.
- ^ "Bedrocket". Retrieved 8 January 2014.
- ^ "Now This News launches an app to grow its global audience". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved 2019-10-30.
- ^ Bell, Jack (1 May 2012). "KickTV Is on the 'Air' on YouTube". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 January 2014.
- ^ Patel, Sahil=https://thevideoink.com/mls-sells-kicktv-to-copa90-creating-premium-soccer-video-network-fee410bbd390/ (29 January 2015). Videoink.
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(help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "Network A". Archived from the original on 26 January 2014. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
- ^ Spangler, Todd (15 October 2013). "Univision to Debut 'Flama,' Its First Online-Only Video Network, on YouTube". Variety. Retrieved 8 January 2014.
- ^ Zax, David (1 August 2013). "Didja Hear the One About Spotify's Comedy App?". Fast Company. Retrieved 9 June 2022.
- ^ Bercovici, Jeff (4 September 2012). "Bedrocket's $15 Million Bet on Gatekeeper-Free Video". Forbes. Retrieved 8 January 2014.
- ^ Kafka, Peter (17 July 2013). "ESPN's Website Lets You Ask Jon Hamm a Question, and Get an Answer". AllThingsD. Retrieved 8 January 2014.
- ^ "Best Corporate Ticket Management System".