My apologies for not doing what was the bread-and-butter of this site and that has been the linkage. A change of schedules in the morning have prevented me from gathering links and they have hurt the content. I hope to get back to a normal publishing schedule. Here is what we have today.
Tripp Mickle of Sports Business Journal has NBC being optimistic about turning a profit on the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Christopher Botta of SBJ writes that Major League Soccer saw an attendance jump in 2013, but took a TV ratings hit on ESPN and NBCSN.
Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch talks with Fox Sports’ Bill Raftery about joining the network for Big East games and has an update on Michelle Beadle’s status with NBC Sports.
At SI’s MMQB site, Richard is touting ESPN2’s Fantasy Football Now as the best Sunday NFL pregame show.
Over to Variety where Maane Khatchatourian says Red Bull Media has signed a deal to provide a slew of original programming for Outside Television.
Tim Baysinger of Broadcasting & Cable reports that the Bears-Vikings Packers game on Monday Night Football gave ESPN a season-best rating.
Jon Lafayette at Multichannel News says spending to launch Fox Sports 1 and FXX cost 21st Century Fox some of its net income in the first quarter of its fiscal year.
To Adweek where Anthony CrupiCrupiCrupi tells us that NBC just loves the flex scheduling option for Sunday Night Football.
Alex Barinka at Bloomberg says DirecTV saw a better-than-expected third quarter thanks to gaining subscribers at Time Warner Cable’s expense over the CBS dispute in August.
Bill Cromwell of Media Life Magazine notes that AMC’s The Walking Dead beat Sunday Night Football for the second straight week.
Ed Sherman at the Sherman Report writes that Bob Knight is back with ESPN for another season of college basketball.
Ed has a column at the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center handicaps the race for the Baseball Hall of Fame J.G. Taylor Spink Award.
Michael Bradley writing for the IU National Sports Journalism Center says the World Series isn’t the TV draw that it used to be.
To Sports Media Watch where Paulsen writes that the Breeders’ Cup overnight ratings were down from last year.
Brad Gagnon at Awful Announcing looks at the Eight Biggest Moments in the history of NFL Network. NFL Network is celebrating its 10th anniversary tonight.
Cynopsis Sports has its daily media and marketing roundup.
At the New York Times, Richard Sandomir writes that the New York Mets are moving from WFAN to WOR severing a relationship that goes back to the 1980’s.
Pete Dougherty at the Albany Times Union says Buffalo Bills fans in the Capital Region will have to find alternate methods of watching their team this Sunday.
David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun who is not a fan of CBS’ NFL coverage talks with fans on how to filter out their announcers and follow reporters whom he feels give the entire picture of a Ravens game.
Tom Jones at the Tampa Bay Times has the review of the weekend on sports television.
David Barron of the Houston Chroncle writes that AT&T U-Verse is refusing to carry a free preview of the embattled Comcast SportsNet Houston.
Mel Bracht of The Oklahoman says Oklahoma State-Texas Tech topped the local TV ratings over the weekend.
Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says the Green Bay Packers could be flexed in and out of NBC’s Sunday Night Football.
Big news out of Chicago. Robert Channick of the Tribune reports that the Cubs will opt out of their contract with WGN-TV after the 2014 season. Their relationship dates back to 1948 and the early days of television.
Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has the college football TV schedule for SoCal this week.
And Tom has the NFL schedule in LA as well.
A Rouge Point, formerly known as the Canadian Sports Media Blog, has the Canadian sports TV ratings for MLB, NFL, NHL and Curling.
Dave Kohl in the Broadcast Booth handicaps the future bidding for NFL Thursday Night Football games.
And a good set of linkage. I hope to bring back a regular schedule of linkage after today. Enjoy.
