Weekend Sports Media Notebook — 01/03-04/2015

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Let’s give you some news, linkage and maybe some news you can use. Figured you could use some Sunday reading today.

NEWS

You’ve probably heard it already, but the College Football Playoff semifinals, the Rose and the Sugar Bowls on New Year’s Day set cable viewing records. Both games broke the previous record for cable viewing which was the 2011 BCS Championship Game on ESPN (27.316 million).

The Rose in which Oregon laid a 50 burger on Florida State garnered 28.164 million viewers and a 14.8 rating while the Sugar which saw Ohio State upset Alabama averaged a massive 28.271 million people with a 15.2 rating.

The Rose’s viewership was up 51% from 2014’s game while the Sugar’s increase was 150%.

In its press release ESPN says “ESPN programming now holds the largest 18 audiences in cable television history, and 36 of the top 40.”

This certainly bodes well for the College Football Playoff National Championship Game between Ohio State and Oregon on Monday, January 12 in Arlington, TX. ESPN has to be thinking that game will top the Rose and Sugar Bowls’ viewership.

LINKAGE

We have another carriage dispute, this time involving DirecTV. The satellite provider has pulled ten CBS and NBC affiliates owned by Cordillera Communications as of January 1. These stations are scattered throughout the country. Mike Farrell of Multichannel News has the story.

Tom McGinty of the Wall Street Journal looks at the music playlist for the bumpers which take NBC’s Sunday Night Football to break. And the music is good.

Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo’s Puck Daddy says the NHL Winter Classic’s rating is the lowest in the history of the event.

Paulsen at Sports Media Watch writes despite that despite the low rating, the NHL Winter Classic is still the highest-rated regular season game.

Tony Manfred of the Business Insider’s Sports Page notes that the Ohio State fan who was caught on ESPN during the Sugar Bowl stroking her boyfriend’s neck and was part of an internet conspiracy theory that was she was cheating, said she did not know she was on TV.

Joe Lucia of Awful Announcing has praise for NBCSN’s inaugural “Breakaway” program that was utilized on the English Premier League on New Year’s Day.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times says while the Rose and Sugar Bowls scored for the ESPN, the real test will be the National Championship Game.

Richard writes that while the New York Knicks have been horrible this season, the fans have not stayed away from Madison Square Garden.

Tom Jones at the Tampa Bay Times has his 10 athletes to watch in 2015.

The Toronto Sports Media Blog has a look at some of the things happening in the US and Canada this weekend.

That will do it for the linkage for today.

NEWS YOU CAN USE

Tennis Channel begins its 2015 coverage tonight with the Hopman Cup from Perth, Australia. The annual team competition is one of the tournaments leading up to the Australian Open later this month. The Hopman Cup involves doubles teams from various countries and the US will be involved once again.

Tonight’s coverage starts at 8 p.m. ET.

Here’s the schedule:

Sunday, Jan. 4:
8 p.m. – Canada v. Czech Republic

Monday, Jan. 5:
8 p.m. – Italy v. USA

Tuesday, Jan. 6:
8 p.m. – Canada v. USA

Sunday, Jan. 11:
10 a.m. – Championship

I never list it in the Viewing Picks, but if you’re into the Professional Bull Riders tour, CBS has announced its schedule for 2015. Some 50 events will be aired between CBS Sports Network and CBS. This marks the fourth year the PBR has aired on CBS/CBSSN. The first event aired last night.

2015 PBR TV SCHEDULE
(ALL TIMES EASTERN)

*Additional CBS Broadcasts will be announced in Spring 2015

The first edition of 60 Minutes Sports on Showtime will have a feature on Bobby Mitchell, the first African-American star of the DC Football Team. James Brown will do the story and interview with Mitchell.

60 Minutes Sports airs on Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET on Showtime.

And that wraps up the notebook for today. Enjoy your Sports Sunday.

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