Our last set of links for 2009 is coming your way. It appears my day has been planned for me on New Year’s Day so I won’t be doing links on Friday. They’ll return on Saturday.
As it’s snowing quite heavily here in Walpole, MA so I’ll do the links quickly and head home.
CNBC’s Darren Rovell looks at one of the stories that broke this morning, AT&T dropping its sponsorship of Tiger Woods.
Former Washington Times sports business writer Tim Lemke, now blogging until he gets a job (more on this later), takes a look at the AT&T/Tiger situation.
To our other big story today, the Fox/Time Warner/Bright House cable negotiations and they aren’t going very well. It appears that Time Warner subscribers will not see certain Fox channels after tonight. Some Fox-owned local stations may be pulled from cable systems including in New York and Florida. In addition, some cable channels including Fox Soccer Channel, Speed, Fox Sports en Espanol and the Fox Sports Net regional networks may be pulled as well.
Joe Flint of the Los Angeles Times says Fox is resigned to the fact that it won’t be on Time Warner systems after midnight tonight.
Anika Myers Palm of the Orlando Sentinel writes that an attorney is seeking an injunction to keep Fox stations on Bright House Cable so Florida Gator fans can watch the Sugar Bowl tomorrow night.
Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times explains how we got to this point.
Lorena Anderson of Myrtle Beach (SC) Sun News says there doesn’t seem to be any movement in the Fox/Time Warner spat.
Kellis Robinett of the Wichita Eagle says Fox Sports Kansas City could be pulled leaving Kansas State fans in the lurch.
Milton Kent of Fanhouse says the dispute is fast approaching the midnight hour.
Kelly Riddell of Bloomberg says Massachusetts Senator John Kerry is threatening Federal intervention if Fox and Time Warner don’t resolve their differences.
We’ll keep an eye on this as the deadline approaches. To the other sports media and sports business links now.
Phil Taylor of Sports Illustrated calls 2009, the Year of Sleaze.
Back to CNBC’s Darren Rovell who looks at the most influential sports tweeters of the year.
Richard Sandomir and Ken Belson of the New York Times write that the NHL Winter Classic has become a cash cow for the league and NBC.
Richard writes that boxing has been thriving over the last ten years despite its glamor heavyweight division not producing any big names.
Jim Motavalli of the New York Times writes about ESPN’s airing of a human sacrifice tonight.
Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union says ESPN will use USC coach Pete Carroll as a guest analyst for the BCS National Championship Game.
Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call writes that the Lehigh University public address announcer saw a long streak come to an end this week.
Dave Hughes from DCRTV.com writing in the Baltimore-centric Press Box says MASN and Comcast have settled a carriage dispute.
Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner says ESPNU will be airing plenty of lacrosse games in 2010.
Brian McNally of the Examiner says skier Lindsay Vonn’s wrist injury gave NBC a big scare as the network is using her to help promote the Winter Olympics.
Noah Feit of the Aiken (SC) Standard says ESPN Classic is being sent to a lower subscribed tier on the local cable system.
Sarah Talalay of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel looks at some of the gift items for the Orange Bowl teams and the ticket prices for the Super Bowl in Miami.
David Barron of the Houston Chronicle writes about ESPN Regional Television taking ownership of the Texas Bowl.
Victor R. Martinez of the El Paso Times says the Sun Bowl hopes to renew its rights agreement with CBS.
Michael Rand of the Minneapolis Star Tribune talks with a Fox Sports North exec on the decision to drop high school hockey games in 2010.
Tom Carothers of the Woodbury (MN) Bulletin says one high school is particularly sad about Fox Sports North’s decision.
Russ Mitchell of the Spencer (IA) Daily Reporter writes residents won’t be watching today’s Insight Bowl on NFL Network as Mediacom doesn’t carry the channel.
Jeff Hutton from the Ottumwa (IA) Couirier says fans of Iowa State will have to go a sports bar or find other means of watching the Insight Bowl.
Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star says Wednesday’s CTV webcast of the Canadian Olympic men’s hockey team went well with a few gltiches.
Chris says technical advancements are changing the way we’re watching sports.
Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail says the Canadian Olympic men’s hockey team announcement was pure entertainment. I watched it online and wonder what Bruce was watching.
William Houston at Truth & Rumours gives TSN the edge in covering the Canadian Olympic team announcement.
Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says Monday Night Football ended 2009 with record ratings.
Mike says NHL Network and Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia have developed plenty of wraparound programming for the Winter Classic.
Thomas Umstead of Multichannel writes that cable including ESPN increased its dominance over the broadcast networks in the last ten years.
Tom Ziller of Fanhouse looks back at the last ten years in sports blogging.
Michael David Smith of Fanhouse also looks at the last ten years of sports and the internet.
Back to Tim Lemke who gives us his first blog post of his post-Washington Times era. Someone hire this man. Great sports business and media writer.
Former Times NBA beat reporter Mike Jones tries to make the best of his firing.
Maury Brown of the Biz of Baseball is sad to see the elimination of the Washington Times sports section.
Steve Lepore of Puck The Media wishes you all a Happy New Year.
The Sports Media Watch looks at the biggest NHL stories of the last ten years.
Keith Thibault of Sports Media Journal is making some changes at his blog. Best of luck, my friend.
Chris Byrne of the Eye on Sports Media breaks news that ESPN will use Bob Davie to replace Craig James on the Alamo Bowl.
Dave Kohl of the Major League Programs blog looks at the last ten years in televised sports.
The Stiles Points blog remembers the late ABC Sports college football host, Dave Diles.
Well, this is certainly more than a quick linkfest. But since this is the last linkage of 2009, I wanted to go out with a bang rather than a whimper. I’ll post some press releases before the year is out.
Tomorrow, you’ll have the viewing picks, maybe some late night linkage and a slew of press releases. Have a Happy New Year and I’ll see you in earnest in 2010.
