New B1G Commissioner - a TV/videogame/MLB guy with a Harvard Law degree

[Carm]

Video Games & Baseball too!

Tony Petitti​

Tony Petitti is the former president of sports and entertainment of Activision Blizzard. He was formerly the chief operating officer of Major League Baseball. He succeeded Rob Manfred in the position on January 25, 2015, after Manfred became Commissioner of Baseball. He previously served as the president and chief executive officer of the MLB Network, where he oversaw all of the network's day-to-day operations.

Career​

Petitti attended Haverford College, where he majored in economics before attending Harvard Law School. He worked for two years at the law firm of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft before joining ABC Sports in 1988 as general attorney. After being named vice president of programming, where he was responsible for acquiring and scheduling ABC Sports programming, he was hired by CBS in 1997 as senior vice president of business affairs and programming. In December 2005, Pettiti was named executive vice president, CBS Sports and is "responsible for all day-to-day operations of CBS Sports, "[1] where he was largely responsible for the network's NFL coverage. "Basically, I’m responsible for everything you see on Sunday."[2]

It was announced on January 3, 2008, that Petitti would be placed in charge of day-to-day operations of CSTV, the college sports network that was absorbed into CBS sports, effectively replacing network co-founder Brian Bedol, who had been serving as president of CSTV since the network was purchased by CBS Corporation in 2005. CSTV was renamed the CBS College Sports Network on March 16, 2008, and eventually evolved to become CBS Sports Network.
In April 2008 Pettiti left CBS to become the head of MLB Network, which launched in January 2009.[3]

 

[Fargo Husker]

 

[Carm]

much better hire than hiring some other conference's commissioner based on his resume.

 

[HuskerGarrett]

Big Ten targets Tony Petitti as commissioner: League expected to hire former TV, MLB executive, per reports

Petitti previously served as the Chief Operating Officer of Major League Baseball

www.cbssports.com

 

[Sous Chef]

JFC

 

[SOHusker11]

 

[Bootleg11]

All about selling your tv rights

 

[Carm]

All about selling your tv rights

This guy has the kind of experience necessary to absolutely max media revenue

 

[BIGSTICK67]

Is this good or bad? I like that he has ties to a media group.

Although it can't be assumed that he'd be well-versed in that area. I'd say it'd be difficult to not have an upgrade over Warren.

 

[Link-]

If he was the president of Activision Blizzard, then our conference is fucked. Blizzard ruins everything. IYKYK

 

[Kaladin]

tv exec

 

[CornHub]

If he was the president of Activision Blizzard, then our conference is fucked. Blizzard ruins everything. IYKYK

Blizzard has been one of the most poorly ran video game companies in existence.

 

[BorWhiskey]

If he was the president of Activision Blizzard, then our conference is fucked. Blizzard ruins everything. IYKYK

We’re going to really ramp up our in-game purchases. If we want to win the conference, it’ll be behind the pay wall.

 

[CornHub]

We’re going to really ramp up our in-game purchases. If we want to win the conference, it’ll be behind the pay wall.

$100,000 per touchdown.

 

[iruletheskool]

Blizzard has been one of the most poorly ran video game companies in existence.

Been a steady plummet since Diablo II

 

[CornHub]

Been a steady plummet since Diablo II

Overall yes, especially recently. They did do good things with Wrath of the Lich King.

 

[BorWhiskey]

Mandel tweeted what I’ve been trying to guess. Why hire a tv guy after you’ve closed the 7 year contract for tv? We’ve all heard the rumors about Oregon and Washington. The current contract has escalators for expansion but I wonder if there is a limit to that and we are already knowing we will need to renegotiate.

President of a video game division tells me that he’s got some fiscal responsibility and knows how to manage a big business. They think up new ways to make money by offering more options so who’s knows what kinds of experiences we’ll be able to pay for. I would say that this experience likely comes with an M&A know-how but no acquisitions were made in sports while he was there.

So much connection with CBS indicates something. My guess is that we’re interested in making a big partnership with them along with Fox and splitting our tier1 inventory, assuming it’s bigger than 18 schools, amongst them.

 

[Carm]

he left Activision after working there only 11 months

 

[Kaladin]

At first glance this is an L on the conference

Tv exec

He’s hired to make tv deals and bring $$&

 

[Link-]

Been a steady plummet since Diablo II

Literally playing D2: Resurrected right now to bide time until D4.