Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. announced that it has acquired the "Ring of Honor" wrestling (ROH) franchise.
"We are very excited about this acquisition," said Steve Marks, COO of Sinclair's Television Group. "Television and professional wrestling have a long history of successful partnerships and driving viewership. Unfortunately, the broadcast networks have not protected that relationship, allowing professional wrestling to migrate to cable network distribution. We believe that the powerful promotional platform that our TV stations provide, coupled with our 22 percent coverage of the U.S. TV households, will allow ROH to achieve name brand recognition and grow its share of the wrestling market. When you consider the make-up of our station mix and the number of CW, MYTV and FOX affiliates we operate, this is a perfect fit for our viewer demographics."
Marks continued, "We believe that ROH will provide us with multiple revenue opportunities. In addition to the advertising component, there are product sponsorships, Internet pay-per-view, live wrestling tour events, and sales of DVDs and other merchandise. Longer-term, we can envision syndicating ROH wrestling to broadcasters in markets where Sinclair does not have a presence and even internationally. We believe there are opportunities to broadcast ROH wrestling on our secondary tier channels or in a mobile environment. The acquisition also means less syndicated product that we will be required to purchase, and since we own the franchise, we control how many times, which dayparts and on which affiliates we want to air the matches without having the limitation on the number of runs or license fee costs."
"We have been waiting and working for this opportunity for quite some time," said Cary Silkin, owner of ROH. "Of our 9 years in business, there has been no better roster of wrestlers than this one to expose the ROH product to the masses. With Sinclair's resources and many avenues of distribution, we believe many new fans will be as captivated as those who have followed Ring of Honor over the years."
ROH will be headed by Joe Koff, COO of Ring of Honor. Koff, who has been with Sinclair since 2003 and most recently served as Director of Sales, has a long established career in television broadcasting sales and management, as well as managing wrestling content. Koff was responsible for personally creating, producing, marketing, syndicating, and selling barter inventory in what was to become "The Battle of the Belts I, II, III."
While the Ring of Honor acquisition includes primarily intellectual property and equipment, several existing ROH employees will be hired including longtime pro wrestling personality and matchmaker, Jim Cornette, who will serve as VP of Creative. Veteran promoter, Gary Juster, will join as VP of Operations, and Cary Silkin will remain in an advisory role. Ring of Honor features such stars as ROH World Champion, Eddie Edwards; World Tag Team Champions, Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin; and top contenders Davey Richards and the Kings of Wrestling. In addition, to Ring of Honor's '"best-in-ring" wrestling talent, ROH fans can expect to see other familiar faces such as longtime wrestling broadcaster Kevin Kelly, already the voice of ROH internet pay-per-views, who will assume the TV play-by-play chair this fall, ring announcer Bobby Cruise and senior referee Todd Sinclair.
A press conference, open to the wrestling press and mainstream media alike, is being planned for in Baltimore, Maryland on Friday, June 24th. This event will feature a number of the ROH staff and wrestlers. The press event will kick off a weekend which includes ROH's next internet pay-per-view event, "Best in the World 2011," live from the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City on Sunday, June 26th at 4PM EDT. In addition to all the top stars on the ROH roster, this event will feature the return of some favorite stars from Ring of Honor's past, and can be ordered through Gofightlive.tv.
Ring of Honor wrestling, synonymous with best-in-ring action in the sport, organized in 2001 and was most recently syndicated on the cable network, HDNET. ROH is known for its athleticism and professional wrestling style while providing fans an entertaining, hard hitting performance.
Ring of Honor produces weekly 1-hour television wrestling match programs and stages more than two dozen live events in various cities per year.
Sinclair Broadcast Group, a television broadcasting company.
More Information:
www.rohwrestling.com
www.sbgi.net
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