NEW YORK, Dec. 15, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Sports Video Group has partnered with the Alma Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, to launch the industry's first charity fund dedicated to providing assistance to industry professionals and their families in need.
"The sports-television industry is a family of talent, creatives, techs, and crew who depend on each other in the studio and the field and now, with the SVG Sports Broadcasting Fund, at home," said Ken Aagaard, SVG Broadcasting Fund Advisory Board chairman. "In a business underpinned by a freelance workforce, it is especially important that we develop a process for helping out our peers and their families when they are struck by serious misfortune."
As its first support effort, the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame will donate all table and individual ticket proceeds to the newly created tax-deductible fund.
"The underwriting of the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame, which makes possible the seed donation to the Sports Broadcasting Fund, has been made possible by the support that nearly 200 year-round sponsors have given the SVG organization," says SVG Chairman Steve Hellmuth. "The Fund will become a lasting testament to SVG's commitment to serving the needs of the international sports-television community."
This year's Hall of Fame inductees include legendary broadcaster Jack Buck; former NBC executive Dick Ebersol; Bill France Jr., who transformed NASCAR; NEP Supershooters' innovative Deb Honkus and George Hoover; IMG founder Mark McCormack; NFL Films great Steve Sabol; and visionary audio mixer Ron Scalise, a linchpin at ESPN.
The SVG Sports Broadcasting Fund is a designated fund of the Alma Foundation Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit charity. For more information or to view its 990 tax return, visit www.almafoundation.net
For more information about the SVG Sports Broadcasting Fund, contact: Paul Gallo, SVG Executive Director, at paul@sportsvideo.org or 212-696-1799 or visit www.sportsbroadcastingfund.org
Founded in 2006, the Sports Video Group (SVG) is an international association for sports-television professionals with the mission to advance the creation, production, and distribution of sports content. As producer of the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame and 12 other industry events, as well as numerous media properties and industry initiatives, the organization represents a membership of more than 4,000 active participants in the creation of sports content for TV, the Internet, mobile devices, and in-venue distribution.