Courtesy Greenwich Post

(May 11, 2009) Despite a rough economy, new stadium and competition from a growing demand for regional sports networks on television, Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network president of production and programming John Filippelli, a Greenwich resident, is still raising the bar to record highs.

“The economy is pretty tough, but we seem to be weathering it pretty well,” said Filippelli, from his office on the 36th floor of the Chrysler Building. “Our sale ads are solid in a difficult time and we have over 13 million subscribers which will always give us a sound base financially. We have a solid fan base and a solid ball club and it speaks to the strength of the brands, the Yankees and YES. They are both performing very well and I am comfortable where we are right now.”

And the proof is in the pudding. During this year’s 52nd annual New York Emmy Awards show, which took place March 29 at the Marriott Marquis’ Broadway Ballroom, Filippelli and the YES Network came away with 13 Emmys, including five for the popular Yankeeography series and one each for Yankees on Deck and The Penn State Football Story. YES also picked up awards for promotion, on-camera talent, set design, lighting, technical achievement and advanced media.

“That speaks to the breadth and scope of our on-air productions, but also our auxiliary programming like Yankeeography and CenterStage or This Week in Football or the Mike Francesa Show,” said Filippelli, who is in his eighth year with the YES Network and is the only original executive wtih the channel since it was born back in September 2001. “We were the leader. WNBC, WABC, WCBS, SNY and MSG we beat. We were No. 1.”

This year put Filippelli in uncharted waters. Snagging 31 Emmy nominations made him the only known person to have 100 national and 100 regional Emmy nominations.

“Whether it wins or doesn’t win, it’s about people recognizing that your network does a high quality of work,” Filippelli said. “That’s more important than the statues. Statues are nice, but to be looked at and hear that you’re the leader in Emmy nominations really speaks to the breadth, depth and quality of your product, whether it’s the on-air talent or game day production or your entertainment production.”

Although the majority of the programs get ratings during prime time or when people aren’t normally working, Filippelli is still able to draw in fans to the YES Network during the day due to his ability to land New York sports talk show host Mike Francesa’s show Mike’d Up for the simulcast of its WFAN 660AM radio show.

“Mike Francesa and Chris Russo have been one of the pioneers of talk radio,” Filippelli said. “When they both decided to go their separate ways, we worked out a deal with Francesa and it has been great. The ratings have held solidly and it’s something nice to have on during the day.”

Another program that has stayed as one of the flagships of YES is CenterStage. The hour-long program in which host Michael Kay has a one-on-one interview with a special guest has really taken off, with A-list celebrities like Larry David, Bobby Flay, Dwyane Wade, Robin Williams, Yogi Berra, George Forman, Billy Crystal, Bernie Williams, Tony Danza, Quentin Tarantino, Vince Carter, Tom Brokaw and Jay-Z, among others, making appearances.

“The guests on CenterStage would be the envy of [David] Letterman, [Jay] Leno and Jimmy Kimmel,” Filippelli said. “To say that is a bold statement from a regional sports network.”

However, with all the shows on the YES Network, the main event is obviously Yankee baseball. Giving the fans what they want, Filippelli has stepped away from the norm during ballgames. Instead of having the traditional two-man broadcast booth where the same people broadcast the game, the Yankees have a three-man booth and a plethora of talent for added insight and commentary.

In addition to broadcasters like Kay and studio host Bob Lorenz, Filippelli has mixed in a handful of former professional baseball players like David Cone, John Flaherty, Ken Singleton and Paul O’Neil. Filippelli said that having the former players in the booth gives the fans a unique look at the game, whether it’s analyzing pitchers with Cone, or the outfield with O’Neil and Singleton, or the art of catching with Flaherty.

“I care about what our audience likes and they seem to like, very strongly, the idea of being able to see the likes of Paul O’Neil and David Cone,” Filippelli said. “John Flaherty has come a long way in a short time and Al Leiter has made some strong contributions to what we do. Michael Kay has kind of become his own brand, whether he’s on YES or on ESPN radio in New York. I don’t think there’s any combination that we can put out there that can’t give a good representation of who we are. It’s an eclectic group, but it’s a group our fans readily accept, and that is what’s important to me.”

With the new $1.5-billion Yankee Stadium now officially the new home of the Bronx Bombers, there are many opportunities in the near future for Filippelli. There are more new robotic cameras in more diverse places, so now people watching the game on YES can see intimate shots of the bullpen and other angles that were just a dream in the old park last year.

“The old stadium and new stadium are two entirely different facilities,” he said. “The new stadium was designed to be the greatest fan experience that it could be, but in order to do that we had to move around some camera boxes. Most of the cameras exactly mirror where they were in the old stadium.”

With the Yankees not playing a home game until April 16, Yankee fans got a rare treat April 3 and 4, seeing their team play an exhibition game against the Chicago Cubs in the new ballpark. Filippelli was hard at work during those games, and used them as a much-needed test run for the lighting in the park, use of the cameras, camera angles and tinkering with new cameras for the television audience on YES to enjoy.

“It was a run-through to see what kind of stadium issues, if any, there are,” Filippelli said. “There could have been some things with lighting, glare and batters’ eyes among other things. There were all sorts of little things in the stadium that came out of those games against the Cubs. We got most of those issues taken care of and the few that are left will be addressed. It has become a little work in progress.”

Whether it’s finding new angles to shoot a game from or new angles for a television show, Filippelli has spent the past eight years working on making the network the ideal spot for New York Yankee fans, and doesn’t plan on stopping any time soon.