Women in the Game

All-Star Group of Execs Make the Ever-Exploding World of Sports TV Stronger Than Ever

By MCN Staff -- Multichannel News, 7/11/2011 12:01:00 AM

The traditional picture of sports television has long suggested that men dominate the top positions in anything from C-level posts, to master control producers, to those who buy and sell the games we love. The picture, thankfully, hardly holds true, as the ladies listed below prove.

The 2011 B&C/Multichannel News Women in the Game honorees have much in common. They rose to their high positions through perseverance, determination and a willingness to bring a teamwork philosophy to whatever they^'ve had to overcome. And they stretch across all areas of the industry, including legal affairs, creative services, operations, production and sales; they've overseen everything from network launches, to providing the trucks that will film Olympics action, to marketing a smaller sports network in a big way. Most importantly, they share a love for the game of bringing the best of competition to sports-hungry viewers.

KAREN BRODKIN

Senior VP, Fox Cable Networks

When the Fox Sports execut ive team headed to Lausanne, Switzerland, in June to make its official bid for TV rights to the International Olympic Committee for the 2014 and 2016 Games, it had in hand a contract that was in large part put together by Karen Brodkin, senior vice president of business and legal affairs for Fox Cable Networks.

While Brodkin didn't accompany the team, she was the person behind the scenes who interacted with IOC lawyers over a period of months to put the bid together.

It's the latest TV-rights bid that Brodkin has helped to fashion. Prior to that, she figured prominently in Fox's 10-year, $220 million TV rights deal with the Pac-12 conference that was signed in May. In that deal, she was part of the team that determined things like which sports rights Fox would acquire, which networks within the Fox Sports Group the games would appear on and how much they would pay.

David Hill, Fox Sports Group chairman and CEO, Fox Sports president Eric Shanks, and Fox Regional Sports Group president Randy Freer are all regularly prominent in media coverage, but the under-the-radar Brodkin is always right in the mix behind the scenes.

Brodkin oversees and manages all business affairs and legal matters for Fox Sports, the broadcast TV division of FSG. She manages all network rights agreements for the National Footbal League, Major League Baseball and NASCAR, as well as legal and business affairs for Fox Sports Interactive Media. She also handles similar duties for Fox Regional Sports Networks on the cable side. And when TV-rights deals come up for renewal, she is part of the strategy-business plan team.

Though Brodkin has never experienced any problems with being a woman in a mostly male environment, the highest ranking sports business executive at Fox admits, "you have to have a thick skin and "not be easily offended."

"You have to be tough, aggressive and resilient," says the first lawyer hired by Fox to work with the Sports Group, in 1998. "And you have to be an asset in the room."

What has it been like working for Hill for more than a decade? "I think I have a very good working relationship with David," Brodkin said. “He has a vision and my job is to help frame that vision through acquisitions, to help create a path for him to get deals done.

- John Consoli

APRIL CARTY-SIPP

Senior VP, Creative Services, Comcast Sports Group

Growing up in a house with five stepbrothers (and a sister), April Carty-Sipp almost had to dive into sports "if I hoped to get attention."

Now the senior vice president of creative services at Comcast Sports Group, Carty-Sipp played soccer throughout college " when she also managed to break into the sports world on the business side.

Carty-Sipp landed an internship and then a job with Major League Baseball's Philadelphia Phillies, working on slowmotion replays and other scoreboard displays at Veterans Stadium during the Phillie's wild ride to the 1993 National League pennant. "My family was beyond thrilled when I got that job," she said. "[The fact that] I was the only female who applied to it kind of helped me, because I stood out."

Carty-Sipp worked her way into the television side of the business, doing promotional spots for the Phillies and Flyers and then in 2000 joined Comcast SportsNet, then just one network in Philadelphia.

Carty-Sipp has played an instrumental role in developing a fresh and innovative look while maintaining a stable feel for the rapidly growing brand since 2000, Comcast Sports Group has expanded to a group of 14 regional networks that are home to 18 pro teams.

One of the biggest challenges, she said, has been keeping up with the rapid changes in technology on the creative side, especially in graphics. "Digital media has changed the way we create visuals," she said, adding that she is as fascinated by the technological part of her job as she is by the sports side. "I always want to know what we can invent next."

Among the major recent projects has been an overhaul for Comcast network's opening animation, which now features a "city of sports" logo that features graphics morphing from the logo into a city skyline, an arena and a baseball, with customized touches for markets ranging from Philadelphia to Chicago to San Francisco.

In the next few months, Carty-Sipp will face a new challenge but one filled with opportunities, thanks to the merger of Comcast's programming assets with NBCUniversal. "We have not defined how things will change," she said, "but it will be coming in the next month or so."

-  Stuart Miller

THERESA CHILLIANIS

General Manager, MSG Varsity Networks

Overseeing the launch of a sports network requires wearing a lot of hats " programming, production, scheduling, marketing, operations" but in 2009, when general manager Theresa Chillianis helped start MSG Varsity, Cablevision System'snetwork for high-school sports in metropolitan New York, she faced an array of challenges beyond what might normally be expected.

For starters, there were the logistics of covering 700 schools within the Cablevision footprint (as well as games between those schools and those in schools served by neighboring cable operators, such as Time Warner Cable or Comcast).

"This is different than covering pro sports, where rosters and schedules are smaller and more straightforward," Chillianis said.

MSG Varsity also had to assuage schools that were quite wary of allowing cameras in, worried about potential damage to children who perform poorly in games. "They had an unsettled feeling, and we had to make them comfortable," she said.

The network explained that its agenda is different than that of a typical sports network or journalism outfit (it even shuts its cameras off during on-field altercations). "We don't want to embarrass kids and the whole staff knows about our tone and our approach," Chillianis, the mother of three young daughters (who just finished her first year coaching softball), said. She cited a blowout hockey game where the announcers "transitioned our coverage"to focus on strong individual performances.

Once the network proved itself, schools began embracing the concept. "Sometimes, the coaches will even say, "Don't bother with our next baseball game, it won't be close but the school has a great girl's lacrosse matchup," Chillianis said.

The network's first 20 months were a resounding success, as MSG Varsity reached 85% of the schools in its territory and covered 3,000 games " mostly live-to-tape, with a new live football game every Friday night " across multiple platforms. They range from such old-school outlets as a quarterly print magazine to online content, to which the students themselves can contribute as writers, producers and broadcasters.

"There's no way to get all those games on the linear channel and this generation is all about online," Chillianis said. (There's also an on-demand channel on television.) The network has given schools video equipment and grants for their media programs so they can tell their stories themselves while giving other students real-life media experience.

The network also established a sports information director program that is like an apprenticeship and started the "V Awards" for best game coverage, best on-air talent, and eight other categories among the student sportscasters/producers. Though just 700 entries were submitted in the first year, by year two the awards had grown to 3,600 submissions.

And the students weren't the only ones winning awards. In April, MSG Varsity captured six New York Emmy Awards in its first year of eligibility.

"Winning the Emmys was such a thrill," Chillianis said.

- Stuart Miller

CHRISTINE GODLESKI

Chief Operating Officer, WNBA

For Christine Godleski, leaving the television industry to head up day-to-day operations for a sports league is less of a challenge than summiting Mt. Kilimanjaro both of which the WNBA's chief operating officer has done.

Godleski spent twelve years at ESPN and The Walt Disney Co. in various roles with ESPN Outdoors, ESPN the Magazine and Disney Consumer Products. After leaving her position as vice president and general manager for ESPN Outdoors, Godleski took a brief hiatus to live in Africa and teach elementary school.

Her travels took her to the foot of Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, where she was volunteering. Spending two months in the shadow of the mountain pushed Godleski to attempt to reach the peak â€" and she succeeded.

"I've always loved sports. Passion and enthusiasm in and around sports is really what drives me. There are plenty of times where you want to challenge yourself and try new experiences," she said.

That thirst for a challenge led Godleski to join the WNBA as COO in January 2010, where she experienced a "huge learning curve" while familiarizing herself with league operations.

But her experience at ESPN gave her an advantage when it came time for the 2011 WNBA Draft, which was held at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Conn., marking the first time the network hosted a pro draft. The partnership included a live telecast ESPN, which boosted ratings 47% from the 2010 coverage on ESPN2.

"Having the knowledge of ESPN and knowing how they worked certainly helped," Godleski said." It was a huge team effort" one, they're great broadcast partners, they put out a terrific product; and two, we wanted to figure out how to get their employees and content executives to really push the WNBA's brand and understand the draft."

As the league enters its fifth season, Godleski is looking to promote it through digital platforms, with games available on mobile phones for the first time, and enhancing the LiveAccess feature on WNBA.com under a partnership with NeuLion. She has also led the WNBA's expansion internationally, bringing the league to Europe for the first time in the hopes of continuing its growth.

The league has made great climbs in Godleski's first year; to her, success has less to do with gender than with leadership.

"It's about surrounding yourself with great, passionate, smart and talented people."

-  Lindsay Rubino

DEBRA HONKUS

CEO, NEP Broadcasting LLC

When NBC swings into high gear for the London Olympics production in 2012, NEP Broadcasting and CEO Debra Honkus will once again be in the middle of the games, continuing a relationship that dates back to 1988.

"We have a very deep relationship with NBC for years and we have a truck division in London that will be working with NBC on the Olympics," Honkus said.

That work is one example of how Honkus and NEP play a crucial though largely behind-the-scenes role in TV sports production. As the top executive at the largest mobile production company in the U.S., Honkus and her team provide crews and trucks that are used by most of the major networks, including NBC, CBS, Fox, ESPN and Turner, for everything from the Olympics and the National Football League to golf's PGA Tour and NASCAR. "On any given weekend, we could have as many as 1,000 [employees and freelancers] and 50 trucks in the field," she noted.

Honkus, who quipped that "it seems like I've always had trucks in my life," got her operational experience at a construction company, managing a fleet of trucks that serviced power plants, and then moved into the sports business, managing Total Communications Services from 1978 to 1987.

Back then, it was much harder for women to get into the game. "I met a lot of resistance at first," she recalled. "So you continuously have to prove yourself but you have to prove yourself as a man every day nowadays, also. In this industry, if you don't want to be there and it shows and you don't perform, you get run over by a Mack truck."

After TCS merged with NEP, Honkus continued to prove herself as general manager of NEP, handling day-to-day operations under NEP's president, legendary mobile sports executive Tom Shelburne.

Under their leadership, NEP rapidly expanded as the sports business exploded. In the mid-1990s, first NBC and then other networks began outsourcing their mobile productions, signing long-term contracts with NEP, who would purchase or build the necessary trucks.

Meanwhile, a number of new network and cable players expanded their sports productions, driving the kind of growth that has now propelled NEP to the top of the mobile production business, with around 57 trucks, including three 3D vehicles, around the world.

Today, women face less resistance than when she started, Honkus noted, especially given all the new programming, networks and digital platforms. "There is more opportunity, period," she said.

-  George Winslow

JODI MARKLEY

Senior VP, Operations, ESPN

Jodi Markley wanted to break into the film world after college, so she moved from her native Miami to... Connecticut. It wasn't Hollywood or New York, but it did get her working on some documentaries and on the B unit of a picture "so awful it was never released."

Still, Markley's choice of home was fortuitous, because Connecticut in the late 1980s was home to a rapidly growing sports network named ESPN (which was still just one network).

ESPN needed freelancers for occasional work on its mobile unit for events at the Hartford Civic Center. Markley jumped at the offer and soon was working every night. In 1989, she landed a full-time job.

Before long, she had moved well beyond Hartford and even Connecticut, becoming production coordinator for ESPN International in 1990. Within five years, she was director and by 1997 she was vice president overseeing all international operations. In that role, she launched some 35 different networks for ESPN International.

"We would deal with production and operations, where to build the facility, how it would look on the air and how to get the signal in and out," she said.

She then served as senior vice president of international production for ESPN Classic and ESPNEWS. Finally, after 18 years on the international side, in 2007 she was named senior vice president of operations for ESPN. "This August is the fourth anniversary, but it has been a whirlwind with something new happening every single day," she said, adding that she is glad to see how many more women there are now in leadership roles and on the operations side than there were when she started. (She cites ESPN chief financial officer Christine Driessen as one of her mentors and says she tries mentoring young women today to give back.)

One of her biggest projects has been launching ESPN in 3D.

"We're not the first or the only network, but we've taken a leadership role," she said, adding that after some initial progress, she's hoping to learn how to make things work smarter and more efficiently. "We are in there working with the vendors on developing the new equipment. It's exciting being in at the beginning because you can help shape everything."

Her plate is not only always full, but her challenges are always diverse  beyond developing 3D further and new shows originating from Los Angeles and Miami, she is overseeing the launch of a new network, the Longhorn Network, in partnership with the University of Texas.

"We're installing a facility, hiring new staff , working out new programming," she said. While doing all of this in Texas presents fewer obstacles than she faced in her international days, "nothing is ever easy. Th ere may be fewer challenges, but it is still challenging."

-  Stuart Miller

LORIE MCCARTHY

Senior VP, General Sales Manager, Turner Sports Ad Sales 

When Lorie McCarthy joined Turner Sports as part of the sales team 10 years ago, Turner was televising Atlanta Braves baseball games, the Goodwill Games and some professional golf. 

Today, as senior vice president and general sales manager for Turner Sports Ad Sales, McCarthy heads a team of more than 35 in offices in five cities across the country, and oversees sales efforts across Turner sports properties that include the NBA, MLB, NASCAR, the PGA Tour and the recently-added NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. 

McCarthy, the highest ranking female executive in Turner Sports Ad Sales, now reports to longtime Turner exec Jon Diament, executive vice president of sports ad sales, who three years ago succeeded Trish Froman, who hired McCarthy. 

"Women thrive at Turner," McCarthy said, adding that there are female execs selling sports advertising for Turner across the country. "I've been here for 10 years and most of the women who come here wind up staying." 

After first working at Lifetime television and then as vice president and media director at BBDO, McCarthy joined Fox ad sales in 1994, shortly after the network had won its first National Football League TV rights deal. In her eight years at Fox, she had sold various types of advertising, including primetime entertainment, kids and sports.

"I love sports and I wanted to specialize, so when the job opened up at Turner, I jumped at the chance," she said. 

She adds that her goal when she joined Turner was to help elevate cable sports sales to where it was on par with broadcast - a goal that was clearly helped by Turner acquiring all the additional TV sports rights along the way. 

Today, McCarthy serves as the main bridge between the professional sports leagues and Turner, and also as sales liaison with CBS, Turner's partner in televising the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. 

She said there are so many more women on the media agency side who are involved in buying sports advertising for their clients. "Today, the women I negotiate with from the agencies all understand the value of sports advertising for their clients and are open to and embrace innovative ideas we offer." 

While McCarthy sees a good mix of male and female sports sales people at Turner, she admits that growing up with four brothers taught her how to work in a male environment. 

And she credits her male sales colleagues for helping contribute to her success. "I've been surrounded by great men here who have offered me great support, shown patience and helped me sharpen my sports skills."

- John Consoli

DEBORAH MONTIEL 

VP of Marketing, GolTV

Deborah Montiel doesn't work for a mammoth cable operator or a network that is part of a giant corporate family. Montiel, known as Didi, is vice president of marketing for GolTV, the tiny, independent soccer network founded by soccer star Enzo Francescoli back in 2003. 

She has often been the only woman executive in the room, but she said she's never been treated differently. Instead, what is most striking about her job is dealing with the fiscal constraints she constantly faces. (Similarly, she is glad that the network's first women's soccer game ever drew big ratings - not because she thought it was breaking ground for women, but because it could eventually build new audiences, and thus bring in new advertisers.) 

"I don't have a big budget so I have to make sure we are consistent with our message of who we are," she said, adding that with such a small staff , she also pitches in on ad sales and affiliate sales and that everyone in the office remains open to ideas from their colleagues. "We all have input here," she said. 

Recently, the network developed a branding campaign that would show everyday situations and how passionate fans will go to great lengths to get their soccer fix. But when the estimate for the four spots to be produced came in at well over $100,000, Montiel was forced to scramble - someone let them use her house instead of a studio, they used the network's own equipment and they got two spots shot for a total of $20,000. "And they're darned good spots too," she said. The campaign launches in August. "I'd rather spend that other money putting the spots in front of consumers." 

Montiel, who recently became a soccer mom, as her son plays on a travel team, has another idea to get the brand in front of people without spending money. She is in negotiations to bring out a child-friendly soccer ball with the GolTV brand on it. 

"That would get us into Wal-Mart and Target and other places we aren't usually seen," she said. 

- Stuart Miller

REBECCA SCHULTE

Senior VP and GM, CSN Mid-Atlantic

After Rebecca Schulte worked her way up the ladder in Fox Sports' marketing department, she told her bosses that since the promotions she'd been producing were the equivalent of mini-programs, she wanted a crack at being a producer on an actual show. "I had really terrific bosses there and they gave me a shot on Best Damn Sports Show Period," Schulte said.

Now the senior vice president and general manager of Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic, Schulte said each step along that path was crucial to her current success. "The only reason I have this job now is that I did all those things along the way," she said. "It's good for a general manager to have multiple disciplines."

Of course, once she earned the spot in the boss's chair, she had to learn to shift her focus. "It was an adjustment," she said. "For a type-A, detail-oriented person, you have to learn to pull yourself out of the weeds and look at the big picture."

And it remains tempting to plunge back in headfirst. "For my staff , it's a great thing and a horrible thing that I have all this promotional and production experience," she laughed. "Last week, someone asked me to look at a promotion and I said, "Really, are you sure you want me to?' I don't want to do drive-by work on their projects."

These days, Schulte is too busy to really indulge in such hands-on fun. Over the last two years, she has overseen a studio upgrade that was part of a full-scale switch to high definition and has launched two websites, CSNwashington.com and CSNbaltimore.com, while also expanding the network's presence in social media and on mobile outlets. "It's like running two businesses," she said of juggling the network and the online businesses, adding that she is now just as likely to be looking over blog content as video production. "There are some bridges but there is different talent, different sales staff ."

Schulte, who also helped map out a new relationship making CSN "the official cable network of the Baltimore Ravens" (to complement its relationship with the Washington Redskins), said that as a woman she has encountered some "skeptical good ol' boys" on the sports side but that in the television industry she has always been judged only on her work, not her gender.
 
"I never felt I had to break new ground for women."

 - Stuart Miller

SUZANNE SMITH

Producer/Director, CBS Sports

Suzanne Smith has been around long enough to know that when it comes it sports, gender doesn't have to matter.

Considered a true pioneer for women in television sports broadcasting behind the cameras, the producer/ director at CBS Sports has had a hand in virtually every major sports broadcast her network has covered for the past 28 years. "I have a passion for sports, I love working  live television," Smith said. "It's exciting to have that kind of challenge every time you go out to work."

A four-time Emmy winner, Smith currently is the only woman in television producing or directing the National Football

League, a distinction she prefers to shy away from. "During the games, I consider myself a director," she said. "Not just a female director in the NFL."

Smith points to a lack of female interest as one of the key reasons there are not more women in her position. "Quite frankly, a lot of women don't want to do the job," Smith said. She also mentions the perception that sports is a male-dominated environment can scare some women away, but argues that there are numerous factors, stating that it's "a complicated answer to a complicated question."

No stranger to big stages, Smith has directed events such as Super Bowls (including producing the "Baghdad Bowl" segment from Iraq during Super Bowl XLI), NCAA Men's Basketball Championships and U.S. Open Tennis Championships; she is also a member of the network's production team for the Masters. In addition, Smith has directed the NBA Playoff s for Turner Sports and the WNBA for Oxygen.

Outsid e of sports, Smith has directed a live Academy Awards special for WE tv, a holiday special for Martha Stewart and Pavarotti in the Park, a live concert in Central Park and accompanying documentary.

As a way to get to know other women in the industry (and college students looking to break in), Smith formed the Girls Nite group with famed CBS sports analyst Leslie Visser and tennis legend Billie Jean King. "I love to be able to help people," Smith said. "But I'm just one person, my experiences are only what I had." Starting out as just a small group of her friends, Girls Nite expanded into a network of industry professionals ranging from researchers to those in senior management in TV, radio and print.

"If you are surrounded by good people, you are able to produce and direct a good TV show," Smith said. "Whether male or female, it doesn't matter."

- Tim Baysinger

MOLLY SOLOMON

Coordinating Producer, NBC Olympics & Talent Development, NBC Sports Group

When Molly Solomon told a woman from the International Olympic Committee that she would be speaking during
NBC's winning pitch to retain the Olympics, the IOC rep was shocked. "We don't get many women who speak in this
room," Solomon, coordinating producer for NBC Olympics, recalls her as saying.

After the presentation, which resulted in NBC wrapping up the U.S. rights to carry the next four Olympics, the woman gave Solomon an IOC scarf to express her admiration. To Solomon, it was a reminder of the role she plays as a top female executive in the male-dominated world of sports. "You don't even think there are barriers, but sometimes there are," she said.

Solomon has worked at NBC her entire career, first hired as an Olympics researcher for the 1992 Games right after graduating from Georgetown University. The program's legacy- both Dick Ebersol and Jeff Zucker started there - has produced many NBC lifers, with 14 current or former researchers working on NBC's 2012 coverage. "It's kind of like a fraternity," Solomon said.

This year was Solomon's first involvement in an Olympics bidding process, as the last time NBC bid, in 2003, she was in the hospital on bed rest, expecting triplets. Solomon is thrilled that NBC kept the Games, adding that their perceived underdog status inspired them to fight even harder. "We really rallied as a team in the weeks after Dick resigned."

Ebersol, who was her boss, mentor and close friend for 21 years, gave Solomon her first production job when he named her coordinating producer for cable coverage in 1998; at the time, she had never produced anything before.

"He gave me a new opportunity before I was ever ready for it," she said of Ebersol.

In between Olympic years, Solomon remains busy producing other sports like figure skating, as well as heading talent development for NBC Sports Group, finding and training commentators for obscure Olympic sports like handball and badminton. In 2012, Solomon will expand her role to include producing NBC's primetime programming, including the Opening Ceremony. To prepare, she'll travel to London once a month for the next year.


The travel schedule is hard on her kids, but she manages with help from her husband as she balances the inherent conflicts of working motherhood, embodied by a saying posted over her desk - "Happiness is equilibrium. Shift your weight" - by the playwright Tom Stoppard.

"It's not fair to yourself if you think you can have it all," said Solomon. "Now I've come to a good place where you have to identify what's important and seek that."

- Andrea Morabito

ELINDA WITMER 

Executive VP and Chief Video and Content Officer, Time Warner Cable 

There are television executives who spend their whole life dreaming of working in the TV field, gradually working their
way up from the mailroom to the top. Melinda Witmer took a different approach.

When Witmer, now executive vice president and chief video and content officer at Time Warner Cable, was in law school, she didn't think about television or even entertainment law in general. "I wanted to be a realestate mogul," she said, adding with a laugh, "I wanted to be the next Donald Trump."

Witmer, a Southern California native, returned home after finishing law school at the University of Pennsylvania and begun practicing real-estate law when love and geography changed her life. "Love brought me east," she said. "I  got engaged and moved to New York." There, she began working in a remote area of the law, dealing with aircraft financing. 

It was quite a jump from there to HBO - a friend suggested she interview for a job there. "I knew absolutely nothing about the cable business," she recalled. "During the interview I asked how the picture gets through the cables into televisions." They hired her anyway and upon arrival, she asked, "Hey, do we own Showtime?"

But thanks to an "amazing series of mentors," Witmer not only caught on but also crossed over - when she would sit in on studio deals or licensing agreements, she gradually began giving input not just on legal issues but on the projects themselves, a practice she got to continue when she jumped to TWC in 2001, before moving over to the programming side.

Recently, Witmer has devoted increasing attention to sports. Last year when, when TWC's deal with ABC/ESPN/Disney was up for renewal, she negotiated a new pact that incorporated the "TV Everywhere" philosophy to enable the MSO's subscribers to access ESPN live simulcasts and a multitude of ESPN networks via computer.

This year, when she learned that the Los Angeles Lakers' local-TV deal was expiring, she stepped in and came up with  a unique plan, creating not one but two regional sports networks for the National Basketball Association franchise - one in English and one in Spanish, featuring game coverage as well as original programming.

"The Hispanic community is important for us and they have a real desire for sports content in Spanish," Witmer said.

Witmer's most recent move was closer to home but will have an even bigger long-term impact. In the spring, TWC hired former Fox Sports executive David Rone to be president of sports, reporting to Witmer.

"To continue growing we need leadership, someone with a presence in the sports world," she said.

- Stuart Miller