Sean McManus to Receive New York Festivals Lifetime Achievement Award

Sean McManus, CBS Sports chairman, will be the 2022 New York Festivals Lifetime Achievement Award recipient. The award recognizes prominent industry leaders, innovators, and driving forces in the broadcast industry whose accomplishments have advanced their field and made a lasting impression on the industry. The award will be presented at the 2022 New York Festivals Storyteller’s Gala which will be a virtual event taking place on April 26 in association with the annual NAB Show.

Sean McManus, CBS Sports, chairman, will receive the New York Festivals Lifetime Achievement Award.

“I am honored and humbled to receive the New York Festivals Lifetime Achievement Award, which is a tribute to the outstanding women and men with whom I’ve worked alongside my entire career,” says McManus.  “I have been fortunate to have some of the greatest mentors in sports television history and I owe a huge debt of gratitude to them all.  It all goes back to the enormous influence my father had on my personal and professional life. Without the guidance from him and my mom and finally the constant support and love from my wife Tracy and my children, Maggie and Jackson, I would never have been in a position to receive this incredible honor.”

McManus is in the midst of an extraordinary four-decade career as a television sports executive. Under McManus’ leadership heading up CBS Sports for the past 25 years as Chairman and President, CBS Sports has become the year-round leader in network sports television.

McManus was named Chairman, CBS Sports in February 2011 and oversees all sports properties across CBS Sports operations and also serves as executive producer of The NFL ON CBS. Serving concurrently as President, CBS News and Sports for more than five years prior to being named Chairman, McManus was named President, CBS Sports, in November 1996 and President, CBS News, in October 2005 and is only the second person at any network to hold both division titles simultaneously. (Roone Arledge held both at ABC from 1977-86.)

Throughout his career at CBS Sports, he has actively negotiated broadcast rights deals for major sports, including the NFL, the Masters, the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship, the PGA Tour, UEFA Champions League soccer, PGA of America, Southeastern Conference (SEC) football and college basketball.

As president of CBS Sports, McManus led the CBS Corporation’s efforts in returning the NFL to CBS, acquiring broadcast rights to the National Football League in January 1998. The network has retained NFL rights ever since. The ultimate dealmaker, in 1999 he led CBS to sign an unprecedented landmark agreement with the NCAA, which extended the exclusive over-the-air broadcast rights and also covered rights to the internet, marketing and corporate sponsorship, merchandising, licensing, cable television, radio, satellite, digital, and home video for the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship until 2014. The 11-year pact was the most comprehensive sports agreement in history. In April 2010, he negotiated a landmark deal, partnering with Turner Broadcasting, to extend the rights to the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship through 2024. The $10.8 billion deal is the most extensive and far-reaching network-cable sports deal ever created. And in April 2016, McManus, in partnership with Turner Broadcasting, negotiated with the NCAA an eight-year extension of its multimedia rights agreement for the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship through 2032.

As president of CBS News, McManus restructured and re-tooled the division – both in front of and behind the camera – and aggressively worked to build a strong corps of reporters as well as develop the next generation of CBS News correspondents.

McManus also serves as executive producer for the acclaimed show INSIDE THE NFL, which moved to Paramount+ this year after 13 years on SHOWTIME.

McManus is an 18-time Emmy Award-winner. In 2016, he was inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame. In 2015, he was named to The Hollywood Reporter’s list of The 35 Most Powerful People in Media and also was honored with the Legacy Award at the Cynopsis Sports Media Awards. He annually appears on the Sports Business Journal’s most influential in Sports list. And in 2010, McManus was inducted into the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame.

The 2022 New York Festivals Storyteller’s Gala will be a virtual event taking place on April 26^th in association with the annual NAB Show.

Award-winning entries will be showcased at the Storytellers Gala.