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Sports & Entertainment

HBA attorneys have a deep understanding of the sports, media and entertainment industries, honed through years of experience working with these classes of properties. 

Our sports and media clients include professional leagues, teams and franchises, event producers, professional athletes, and sponsors. Our informed perspective on new media and digital distribution platforms allows our sports clients to take full advantage of their entertainment product. 

Our media practice is mainly transactional, encompassing the representation of film and television companies in strategic activities, such as joint ventures, financings, long-term sales arrangements, and exits, including library sales. 

In addition, HBA has significant experience in putting together “branded” projects both online and offline. In traditional television, we have worked on projects for NBC, Bravo, CW, Starz/Encore, The Cooking Channel and Sundance Channel, including Top Chef, Top Chef: Just Desserts, Stylista, Fashionista Diaries, Iconoclasts, In The House and Full Frontal Fashion.  Online, we have worked with Mindshare, Mediacom, and many other notable agencies to create branded web programming for clients as diverse as Martha Stewart, Unilever and WalMart.

Notable clients/representations include:

Sports

Entertainment

American Express Publishing and Top Chef/Top Chef: Just Desserts, representing American Express Publishing and Gail Simmons in arrangements between Food & Wine Magazine and Bravo network with respect to Amex’s sponsorship of the reality cooking show Top Chef and Gail Simmons’ role as a judge on Top Chef and as the host of the spin-off, Top Chef: Just Desserts.

Film Nation, in connection with the company’s financial and strategic joint venture with Samuels Media, as well as its equity and sales partnership with Media Rights Capital.

Hachette Filippachi Media US, in all non-print media partnerships, including Raving and Stylista.

Madison Square Garden Entertainment, in connection with venue and production joint ventures and partnerships, most recently with Cirque de Soleil’s Banana Schpeel production.  HBA has also worked with MSG on “preferred booking” arrangements with non-owned venues.  

One Beat, in connection with initial corporate and financial structuring , implementation of a vertical advertising network and advising on all aspects of original content production and distribution, including agreements with Google and Microsoft.

RayV, Inc., in connection with their branded programming production activities, including the financing package for the Encore series In The House, now in Seasons 3 and 4, the Ovation series My Design Life, and Boys In The Hall on FSN stations around the country.