Neal H. Pilson

nealsuit Neal H. Pilson, a senior industry executive and former president of CBS Sports, formed his own sports television consulting company, Pilson Communications, Inc., on June 1, 1995. Located in suburban Chappaqua, New York, PCI is active in all areas of sports television, media and marketing, and provides representation, negotiation, and consulting services for U.S. and international companies and organizations. Pilson was included among the top 20 most influential media executives by the Sports Business Journal and was the only independent consultant on the list. During his 35 years in sports television (while at CBS and as an independent consultant), Pilson has negotiated over $15 B in rights agreements.

He is a member of the faculty at Columbia University’s Graduate Program in Sports Management and is in his second year teaching the course on Leadership and Management in the Sports Industry.

In recent years, PCI has provided services for numerous clients including Churchill Downs Incorporated (Pilson has been retained to consult on the license of television rights to the Kentucky Derby), NASCAR (Pilson worked with NASCAR negotiating its historic $2.4 B network television agreements with Fox, NBC and Turner and also consulted on the recent $4.5 B extension and renegotiation of those agreements with Fox, Turner, ESPN and ABC), the International Olympic Committee (Pilson was the IOC Consultant in connection with the license to NBC of U.S. television rights to the 2010 and 2012 Olympic Games for $2 B), International Association of Athletics Federations (Pilson was engaged to provide consulting and negotiating services for the license of USA broadcast rights to the 2005, 2007 and 2009 World Track and Field Championships to NBC and Versus), Rose Bowl Management Committee (Pilson consulted on the negotiation of the Rose Bowl’s eight year, $300 M television agreement with ABC Sports and now serves as the television advisor to the Committee), World Series of Poker (Pilson consulted for Harrah’s on the negotiation of its initial long term program agreement with ESPN).

Also, LiveTV (provides in-flight television programming for jetBlue, Continental and other airlines), Major League Gaming (Pilson negotiated their program license agreement with USA Network in 2007 and serves on the MLG Advisory Board), Official Sports Reports (Pilson is a consultant, shareholder and Board Member of this emerging company which provides daily email sports reports to college ticket holders, boosters and alumni), RallyPoint (Pilson consults for and is a Board Member for this new venture that provides technology to display Internet functions in an interactive widget format direct to consumers’ television sets), Demand Sport Limited, based in Melbourne, Australia, which has recently licensed technology to ESPN which places relevant contextual advertising linked to game events into VOD sports clips and highlights, PlayItOver, which offers unique technology that provides digital content management and real time sports video highlights to mobile phone customers and Arena Football 1 (the new indoor league that will begin plan in April 2010). Pilson is also a member of the Executive Forum at the Coleman Research Group.

Also, PCI and L.E.K. Consulting, Inc., the worldwide consulting firm based in Los Angeles, have a working relationship to pursue sports-related projects that will maximize the assets and resources of both companies.

Clients who have engaged PCI for consulting work since the company was launched include the NCAA, Major League Baseball, Collegiate Images, the Arena Football League, US Bowling Congress, AltaView, NeuLion, Sorpresa, Teletrax, Wasserman Media Group, College Sports TV, UBS Bank, FIBA, The University of Michigan, EchoStar, Thoroughbred Championship Tour, the WTA, RazorGator, Action Sports Media, Scarborough Sports Marketing, WUSA, Family Circle Cup Tennis, Blue Gray All-Star College Football game, Virtual Spectator, The Bonham Group, the LPGA, Daytona International Speedway, the WNBPA, Vans Triple Crown Series, The University of Notre Dame, Eyetide Media, Celebrity Players Tour, Convizion Inc., Interactive Sports Signals, BeHere.com, Winstar New Media, Dentsu USA, Airia Inc., Penske Motorsports, World Team Tennis, StadiaNet Sports, Pac-10 Conference, YankeeNets LLC, Minnesota Timberwolves, iBEAM Broadcasting, Primestar, Classic Sports Network, ISL United States, Scidel Technologies, National Office of the March of Dimes, Petersen Publishing, Long Beach Grand Prix Association, Big 10 Conference, Core Digital Technologies, SWTV and others.

“Since I first joined CBS in 1976, sports on television has undergone a remarkable transformation,” Pilson said. “Where all roads once led to the three broadcast networks, now you need a map and often a guide to know where to go and how to get there. Pilson Communications, Inc. provides that service for its clients.”

A frequent speaker, panelist and moderator at sports conferences, Pilson addressed the Knight Commission on College Athletics in Miami on October, 26, 2009 on the subject of television and college sports. He was a member of a Digital Media Panel at the Wharton School and led the Paley Center Dialogue on Sports and the Media. He also addressed the NACDA Conference in New Orleans, the Conference of US Sports Commissions in Jacksonville, the Annual Meeting of the Division 1A Athletic Directors in Dallas, the Blue-Gray Association in Montgomery, numerous Street & Smith Media conferences in New York, the SG Cowen Investors Meetings in Florida, the NACMA Convention in Dallas, the Sky Forum in New York, numerous Sports Summits in New York, Atlanta and Rome, the GAISF Congress in Seoul, Sports Marketing Seminars at the University of Oregon and at the University of Kentucky, the NBA Players Association in Nassau, the Sportel meeting in Monte Carlo, the Institute of International Sport at the University of Rhode Island, various Paul Kagan Seminars, the Institute for Sports Advancement, the IEG conference in Chicago, the World Congress of Sports, the New York Law Journal Sports Seminar, the Josephthal Motor Sports Conference, the Strategic Research Institute and the International Motorsports Marketing Summit in Las Vegas. Pilson is also a Sports Power 100 selection panelist for Business Week magazine.

Pilson has also lectured at his alma mater Hamilton College, Yale Law School, Stern School of Business at New York University, Washington University in St. Louis, at Fordham’s Graduate School of Sports Marketing, at a Columbia University MBA conference, the DeVos Sports Management Program at the University of Central Florida, Seton Hall University, Phillips Exeter Academy and other institutions including the Chappaqua school system. He is a frequent on-air contributor and is often interviewed by the broadcast networks, sports radio stations, ESPN, CNN, Fox Business, PBS, Bloomberg News and CNBC, and quoted in The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Sports Illustrated, Sports Business Journal and other newspapers and publications. He participated in the State Department cultural exchange program in a live television interview with Czech sports journalists located in Prague. He has also been retained as an expert witness in numerous industry cases.

In two terms as President of CBS Sports (November 1981 – September 1983 and December 1986 – March 1994), Pilson was responsible for negotiating broadcast agreements for all of CBS’s major sports franchises including the NFL, the NCAA Basketball Tournament, The Masters, PGA Golf, the U.S. Open Tennis, college football and basketball and he handled the acquisition of domestic television rights to the 1992, 1994 and 1998 Olympic Winter Games. During his tenure, the CBS production unit won major Emmy Awards for coverage of the Final Four, NFL Football, Major League Baseball, the Daytona 500 and other events, as well as a George Foster Peabody Award for The Masters. In December 1994, the International Olympic Committee awarded Pilson the Olympic Order, the highest honor given by that organization.

Previously, he was Executive Vice President, CBS/Broadcast Group from September 1983-December 1986. Reporting to him during that period were the CBS Radio, CBS Television Stations, CBS Sports and CBS Operations Division. Representing CBS, Pilson also sat on the Board of Cablevision’s Rainbow Programming unit from 1986 to 1989. Pilson first joined CBS Sports as Director, Business Affairs in July, 1976. Before joining CBS, Pilson was in private law practice in New York and served as an executive at Metromedia, Inc. and the William Morris Agency, Inc.

Pilson received an A.B. in history from Hamilton College in 1960, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and played varsity basketball, and an LL.B. from Yale Law School in 1963. He is the former Chairman and President of the Executive Committee of the Yale Law School Association and was a Board member of the USA Hockey Foundation and the Greater New York Chapter of the March of Dimes. In May 1991, he received the March of Dimes Sports Luncheon Founder’s Award and continues to serve on the Executive Committee for the Luncheon. He also serves on the Advisory Committee for the town of New Castle Cable TV committee, is a former Ardsley (N.Y.) Village Trustee and remains active with the USA Deaf Hockey Program based in Chicago.

Pilson and his wife Frieda live in Chappaqua, NY and Berkshire County, MA. They have three grown children and six grandchildren. Mrs. Pilson is past president of the Board of Trustees of the Katonah Museum of Art.