Chris Bevilacqua
Chris Bevilacqua is the founder and CEO of Bevilacqua Media Company (BMC), whose mission is to become a principal investor and strategic advisor for media and entertainment assets. BMC and its investors seek to make investments in these sectors as well as provide management services, advisory services and oversight capabilities for its partners. BMC is based in New York, N.Y. and partners with professional, collegiate and amateur sports leagues, teams and governing bodies, entertainment entities, as well as marketing and media companies.
Prior to BMC, Bevilacqua served as Chairman and CEO of Creative Artist Agency (CAA) Sports Media Ventures, an affiliate of CAA and Evolution Media Capital (EMC), where he served as a media rights advisor for several sports and entertainment entities including the Pac-12 Conference, International Olympic Committee (IOC), the Tennis Channel, the Big East Conference, the Big 12 Conference, Conference USA, the National Hockey League, the Pittsburgh Penguins, San Diego Padres and the ION Television Network.
Bevilacqua was the architect of the recent Pac-12 Conference media strategy, including the FOX/ESPN media rights agreements-- the largest and most comprehensive in college sports history. He also quarterbacked the groundbreaking Pac-12 Network (and its six regional sports networks and digital network) agreements with Comcast, Time Warner, Cox and Brighthouse. Bevilacqua constructed last year’s Texas Rangers–FOX media rights agreement, which has been reported as among the largest and most comprehensive local TV agreements in Major League Baseball history.
In 2003, Bevilacqua co-founded CSTV, the first-ever 24-hour cable TV network dedicated to college and amateur sports. His vision and efforts for CSTV led to the acquisition of the digital media company, OCSN (Official College Sports Network), which eventually became the industry-leading CSTV.com portal. After raising $100 million in private equity financing from blue chip investors during the period of 2002-2005, CSTV was acquired by CBS Corporation in early 2006 for $325 million and is now known as the CBS Sports Network, which currently has nearly 50 million subscribers. Additionally, in 2006, Bevilacqua created the first-ever 24-hour collegiate conference sports network, the MountainWest Sports Network, which served as the model for the highly successful Big Ten Network and soon to be launched Pac-12 Networks.
During the period of 2002-2007, Bevilacqua was an early investor and advisor to online ticketing pioneer, StubHub, which was sold in 2007 to eBay for $310 million dollars.
From 1994 through1999 Bevilacqua was the Global Director of Negotiations for Nike sports media, licensing and marketing rights. He played an integral role in helping drive annual sales for the ubiquitous company from $3.5 billion in 1995 to $9 billion in 1998. At Nike, he worked closely with the top teams, coaches, athletic directors and broadcast executives at the NBA, NFL, NHL and NCAA in reaching these deals. One of the many deals for which Bevilacqua was responsible was the landmark agreement between Nike and the Dallas Cowboys in 1995.
Early in his career, Bevilacqua was a senior executive at The Baseball Network where he secured partnerships between The Baseball Network and and Chevrolet, Anheuser-Busch and MCI WorldCom.
He began his career in the marketing department of NBC Sports where he was instrumental in the network’s coverage of the 1998 Olympic Games and where he was awarded an Emmy Award and an Associate Producer for Best Live Special.
Bevilacqua graduated from Penn State University with honors from the Smeal College of Business. He lives in Westchester, NY New York with his wife, Kristen, and their four children, Caleigh, Tess, Lucy and Billy.