In 2004, the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) conducted a survey of its agents and found that more than two-thirds of its 800 certified contract advisors did not have any insurance. For those who said they did have  insurance, further review showed that most did not have insurance covering their activities as an agent, only for their law practice activities. When these survey results were revealed to the NFLPA Board of Player Representatives, they responded by voting in 2005 to make insurance mandatory for agents in order to maintain their certification in good standing.  Today, the NFLPA is the only major sports union to require insurance for its agents.   The insurance covers agent activity such as providing services to NFL players in the negotiation and enforcement of their NFL player contracts, and providing advice to players with respect to the protection and enforcement of their rights and benefits under the CBA The NFLPA even had been operating exclusively with Capital Professional Insurance Managers (CPIM) to provide an insurance product designed for this coverage.   Enter JLM Risk Management Group (JLM) a 

minority-owned company that provides professional risk management and insurance services.  JLM provides a complete range of advisory, risk management, and insurance services to corporate and private clients and actively participates in the global insurance marketplace through a closely integrated network of insurers and intermediaries.  

 

The principals of the Authority have been working in the sports space for over 25 years.  During that time, we have seen far too few businesses or organizations of color do any significant business in the $500 billion per year sports industry beyond providing the labor from which the billions are generated and notwithstanding the domination of minorities at the player level.  Enter the National Sports Authority.  We worked closely with the principals of JLM to ensure that the NFLPA, a union whose membership is nearly 70% Black, that the time was right, now, to fix this glaring omission.

Bucking the American system of rugged individualism and the perception that we can’t work together successfully, Black media moguls Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry have decided to join forces to form an exclusive partnership which includes two new scripted series that will premiere on the network in mid-2013. 

 

Perry will maintain his movie relationship with Lionsgate, which released the critically acclaimed 2009 movie  “Precious,” but neither the production company nor its television distribution unit, Debmar Mercury, in involved in the OWN-Perry partnership.  In Perry’s case, he decided against the idea of creating his own network.  In Oprah’s case, she decided to venture into original scripted series via their exclusive partnership, which includes two new scripted series that will premiere on OWN in mid-2013.

 

OWN will own the shows Perry produces for the channel.  Winfrey and Perry  served as executive producers of “Precious,’ and Winfrey championed the drama about an abused teenage girl in Harlem, NY.   Perry will maintain his movie relationship with Lionsgate, which released “Precious,” but neither the production company nor its television distribution unit, Debmar-Mercury, in involved in the OWN Perry partnership.

 

Perry had been toying with the idea of creating his own network and had talks with Lionsgate and One Equity Partners, the co-owners of the TV Guide Channel.  The plan under discussion would have had TV Guide becoming a platform for Perry, and there was even a name – Tyler TV – being floated.  According to sources, Perry decided that the less risky strategy was to sign a production deal with Winfrey’s OWN, hich is co-owned by Discovery Communications, Inc.  Although OWN has struggled since its launch in January 2011, its audience reach and subscriber revenue are growing and its ratings have some steady improvement.