Cayla Pingel, a senior director with experience at Warner Bros, Fox Sports, and 2K Games, discusses managing FP&A for major sporting events like the Super Bowl, the impact of COVID on live sports, differences between accounting and FP&A, and the challenges of forecasting in the evolving media and entertainment industry.
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question_answer ANECDOTE
Budgeting Amid Live Sports Halt
In 2020 at Fox Sports, Cayla faced the challenge of budgeting amid COVID-19 with no live sports content.
She adapted by running daily scenario analyses and rebuilt models to handle unprecedented uncertainty.
insights INSIGHT
Ratings Drive Sports Business Revenue
Broadcast sports revenue is deeply tied to ratings, which fluctuate with game quality and excitement.
Blowouts hurt ratings, impacting advertising revenue, while extended postseason series boost financial returns.
insights INSIGHT
Streaming Enables Agile Forecasting
Streaming and online gaming provide faster, richer data that enables more agile financial forecasting.
This real-time insight lets companies react quickly to engagement trends and emerging risks or opportunities.
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Cayla Pingel has led FP&A in sports, gaming and entertainment at companies including Warner Bros, Fox Sports and most recently, 2K Games, a global video game company. At Fox Sports she financially quarterbacked the full P&L for the biggest sporting events including the Super Bowl, the World Series, and the NFL Baseball World Cup.
The senior Director, Finance at 2K describes her approach to business partnering as more like a “sports agent” (“like Jerry Maguire but more calm” says Pingel).
Pingel says “I tell my business partners to think of me as your agent. I’m going to go out and negotiate this for you from a financial perspective. Tell me what you need and let me help sell this so that we can make the case and do it.”
In this episode:
Being at Fox Sports when live sports came screeching to a halt during COVID
Show me the Money – managing the superbowl of FP&A at Fox Sports, Warner Bros and 2K and the power of ratings for finance
How blowouts affect financial performance
Uncovering the differences between Accounting vs FP&A at Fox Sports
Why I chose the FP&A direction rather than a COO role
Most important metrics in sports businesses
Heavy fixed costs and the challenges of live broadcasting
Huge tech, streaming and viewership changes in media/sports and entertainment – and how to forecast the future of the game for finance pros
Metrics in game playing: and finance discussions about whether to put new features in a game
Leading the Los Angeles chapter for women in sports and events
Flying out to Prague six weeks into a new job at Warner Bros to fix a mess and the strategic resolution
March Madness ‘Budget Season’ Challenge at Fox Sports – and why the loser has to do the waterfall charts
FP&A Today