Hearst-Argyle Television opens High School Playbook

Hearst-Argyle Television announced the launch of High School Playbook, a multi-platform initiative to deliver high school sports action to TV, mobile and PC screens by leveraging the broadcaster's local and national resources. According to Hearst-Argyle, High School Playbook is the first high school sports programming venture to combine social networking with music, statistics and high-definition video provided by professional TV videographers, camcorder-equipped student journalists (dubbed "Sideline Reporters") and users. The Highschoolplaybook.com site will include school information, game schedules, statistics, individual athlete profiles, interscholastic comparisons, and "game day" weather reports provided by Hearst-Argyle's local TV stations. Social networking elements will include personal profile pages, team pages, school pages, cheerleader pages, fitness and nutrition pages, SMS voting and related messaging tools to enable byplay among rival schools and fans.

Hearst-Argyle will institute the High School Playbook brand across its on-air and online station coverage of high school athletics, with regular features as part of sports coverage on its local TV newscasts. The brand will debut in seven of Hearst-Argyle's 26 U.S. markets: Orlando; Sacramento; Pittsburgh; Baltimore; Cincinnati; Greenville/Spartanburg, South Carolina; and Greensboro/Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Three Hearst-Argyle stations--KCRA-TV in Sacramento, WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh and WBAL-TV in Baltimore--will also provide High School Playbook features within their existing YouTube Channels, with four additional stations--WESH-TV in Orlando, WLWT-TV in Cincinnati, WYFF-TV in Greenville/Spartanburg and WXII-TV in Greensboro/Winston-Salem --launching YouTube pages with High School Playbook content in connection with the announcement.

"High School Playbook will become the local-community hub for men's and women's sports and promises to be a compelling internet brand that will resonate with athletes and fans," said Terry Macklin, Hearst-Argyle Television EVP. "Not only will it deliver stunning video and informative stats, it will also showcase the spirited sense of community surrounding high school sports. And while high school sports are inherently local, we have built this to have national scale … And we're empowering fans by giving them a say in the process and enabling them to show their school spirit."

For more on High School Playbook:
- read this release

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