In the midst of a busy week, I can settle down for a bit to offer a few sports media thoughts for you. In bullet form, of course.
- I’ve been impressed with how NBC has produced the Stanley Cup Final. In the past, I would find a feed of CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada’s production and stay with that to the conclusion. No more. NBC has shown over the past two years that it is truly in the hockey business to stay.
Mike Emrick could call open heart surgery and make it thrilling. Ed Olczyk has been spot on with his analysis. The camerawork and replays have been stellar, especially showing Game 3’s first goal by the Los Angeles Kings, stuck underneath New Jersey Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur’s pad.
Liam McHugh has been solid as the studio host and Keith Jones has been good as analyst. I do wish Jeremy Roenick and Darren Pang would be given bigger roles while Mike Milbury and Pierre McGuire would be jettisoned off the broadcasts, but for the most part, NBC has been getting the job done whether it be over the air or on NBC Sports Network.
I’d rather have NBC Sports Network start the Stanley Cup Final with Games 1 and 2 with NBC taking the rest of the series. Any Cup clinching game should be on network television. As it stands now, the Kings could clinch the Stanley Cup on NBCSN and access is still an issue for the network.
- Speaking of CBC, I had gotten in the habit three years ago of watching its online postgame show at its website, seeing Jeff Marek and Scott Morrison co-host from what it calls the “I-Desk!” short for “Information Desk”. Using the resources of the full network, CBC produced a 20-25 minute show complete with analysis, player interviews, postgame press conferences and highlights. Jeff and Scott were very good on the I-Desk and they became appointment viewing.
Last year, during the Boston Bruins’ run to the Cup, I had gotten out of the habit of going to CBC.ca and watched NESN’s or Comcast SportsNet New England’s B’s coverage instead.
Now flash forward to 2012 and I’m back to watching CBC.ca for the Hockey Night in Canada postgame show, now hosted by Andi Petrillo. Both Marek and Morrison jumped to Sportsnet after last season, but CBC picked up Petrillo from LeafsTV and really hasn’t missed a beat. While I do miss Jeff and Scott, Andi has been quite impressive as the host throwing to the game sites for analysis, then smoothly transitioning to highlights and the press conferences. I’m quite happy that CBC did not impose the dreaded territorial restriction on the postgame show allowing fans in the US to watch.
- Interesting development in the MLB media rights negotiations. Eric Fisher of Sports Business Journal/Sports Business Daily tweeted on Monday that the exclusive negotiating windows for all of MLB’s TV partners, ESPN, Fox and TBS have expired and now, the sport can open up the bidding to anyone. This now leaves the door ajar for NBC to get its foot back into baseball. I do expect TBS to remain in MLB, possibly taking one of ESPN’s primetime windows. However, don’t expect MLB to throw out ESPN unless NBC or Fox come up with the motherlode of cash to boot the Alleged Worlwide Leader out.
This should be an interesting negotiation.
And that will conclude the thoughts post for today.
