I was at a jobsite all day and didn’t get home until after 4:30 p.m. so you didn’t get them at your regular time, but better late than never.
Starting off with a couple of posts from David Scott of Boston Sports Media Watch. He first wrote Wednesday about dueling press releases from Comcast SportsNet and NESN in regards to their World Series coverage. Next, Scott has some odds and ends in his regular Friday post.
John Powers of the Boston Globe writes about the different starting times for the World Series on Fox.
Michael Hiestand of USA Today writes about Fox preparing for its NFL broadcast in London and what ESPN is doing to pump the Breeders’ Cup.
Richard Sandomir of the New York Times isn’t enamored with the product placement in the World Series.
Bob Raissman in the New York Daily News says Hank Steinbrenner is a chip off the old block.
Phil Mushnick in the New York Post is in a hating mood. He rails against Yankees President Randy Levine and Fox Sports’ Matt Vasgerian.
Newsday’s Neil Best gives praise to SNY for its Yankees coverage, but notes that ESPN SportsCenter outrates the channel in New York. And we give you some blog posts from Best from last night into today. First, Best reports that UFC has renewed its contract with Spike TV. Best has an addendum to his column about the newsgathering operations for WFAN and 1050 ESPN Radio. Neil notes that Tennis Channel has removed “The” from its name. And Best showing his Yankees bias says Red Sox fans are the most annoying on earth. It’s the other way around, Neil.
CNBC’s Darren Rovell talks about the ridiculous World Series Taco Bell promotion that was overplayed on Fox the last two nights. And Darren writes about the reach of Allstate Insurance with its advertising on college football through the BCS and the netting behind the goalposts.
Ray Frager of the Baltimore Sun has a bunch of stuff in his Friday column including comments on Rick Reilly leaving Sports Illustrated for ESPN and Joe Torre’s overall popularity. In his Medium Well blog, Frager wonders why the World Series doesn’t get more play on Baltimore radio.
From The State newspaper in South Carolina, Doug Nye has some TV notes. His weekend TV Best Bet is South Carolina at Tennessee on ESPN. And Nye’s Friday column talks about Gamecock fans being angry at ESPN’s choosing not to show the South Carolina-Arkansas game on November 3.
The Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson writes about the tough obstacles facing WQAM in the wake of losing the Dolphins and the soon-to-be-departed Hank Goldberg.
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel picks up an Associated Press story about the challenges Fox Sports is facing by televising the first NFL regular season game in London which of course, involves the Dolphins.
Cary Estes of the Orlando Sentinel writes about the SEC college basketball media day on Thursday in which the coaches complained about a lack of TV exposure (what?). And Dave Darling of the Sentinel also writes about the “trade” of Rick Reilly for Dan Patrick between ESPN and Sports Illustrated.
From the Houston Chronicle, David Barron writes that there was more interest this year in Game 1 of the World Series than last year.
To the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s Bob Wolfley who gives us some of the things that will be shown during ESPN’s Monday Night Football broadcast involving Packers and Broncos.
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s Judd Zulgad says the Twins couldn’t be happier with first year radio flagship staion, KSTP.
Dusty Saunders of the Rocky Mountain News says Game 1 of the World Series was a hit for Fox both nationally and in Denver.
Scott D. Pierce of the Deseret (UT) Morning News says the Mountain West Conference could have had a deal to put the mtn. on Dish Network in the seven states that encompass the conference’s market, but decided to hold out for a national deal and now, it’s not on Dish, DirecTV or Comcast.
Jay Posner of the San Diego Union-Tribune has three stories today. One we now know is outdated, but I’ll link to it anyway. Posner writes that the Texans-Chargers game would be televised into the San Diego no matter where it’s played and we now know it’ll be at Qualcomm Stadium this Sunday. Posner says the USC-Oregon game will be on FSN Prime Ticket, a channel not available to San Diego cable subscribers. And as usual, Posner gives the ratings for last weekend in San Diego.
John Maffei of the North County Times writes that San Diego sports reporters turned over to news to help report on the megafires this week and Maffei also reviews the news coverage as well.
In the Los Angeles Times, Christine Daniels has her Sound and Vision column which attacks Fox for its silly virtual ads during the World Series.
Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News profiles FSN’s Andrew Siciliano who does a great job anchoring the DirecTV Red Zone Channel which is part of the NFL Sunday Ticket’s Superfan service. And Hoffarth gives
us a story on the NHL Network which is finally making its debut in the US on Comcast, DirecTV, Dish Network, Time Warner Cable, Cox and other subscription TV services.
Jim Carlisle from the Ventura County Star writes that Fox traded out less MLB postseason games in its latest TV contract and it’s paid off with hgher ratings. And in his notebook, Carlisle writes that the Lakers will open the NBA season on TNT.
William Houston of the Toronto Globe and Mail has a story on the top paid Canadian sportscasters. And Houston says Leafs TV ignored a big developing story involving the Maple Leafs. Finally, Houston writes that Greg Zaun is doing a good job analyzing the MLB Postseason on Rogers Sportsnet.
And Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star writes about Dan Schulman picking up NBA play-by-play work on ESPN which means he will drop Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN Radio which is unfortunate.
Over to the 38Cliches blog and LC says the petition requesting WRKO and the Red Sox to dump Glenn Geffner is still going strong.
To the Sport Media Watch blog and it states that while Game 1 of the 2007 World Series had a huge ratings jump from last year, it still is low compared to other Games 1. And Paulsen notes that with Game 2 in the books, the numbers for the World Series are still trending low.
Yet, with the lower ratings for Game 2, Fox still won the night.
The Biz of Baseball website says that Comcast is extending its hours in Boston so customers can pick up HDTV boxes for the World Series.
The Orbitcast blog which covers the Satellite Radio industry says that Sirius will pick up the audio from World Championship Sports Network for the World Cup Skiing Season.
That’s it for now. The Megalinks are up and I’m happy. I’ll give you Saturday links and NFL Picks tomorrow.
