Time to give you some links this morning. I’ll have the NFL Wild Card Playoff Picks coming up.
Starting with Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, he writes that despite their poor season, the Rams still manage to get the ratings.
Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News has some tongue-in-cheek predictions for sports on TV in 2008.
Ray Buck of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram talks to Pat Summerall about Michael Irvin’s return to the airwaves and about his own performance in the Cotton Bowl.
Newsday’s Neil Best says the college football bowl season is really irrelevant.
Jim Williams of the DC/Baltimore Examiner is back on a regular writing schedule and we’re glad for that. In his blog, Williams has quotes from NBC’s John Madden about the Wild Card playoffs and has more about ESPN’s and Comcast SportsNet’s coverage of the Redskins.
Pete Dougherty of the Albany (NY) Times Union writes in his Best Seat in My House blog about ESPN reporting scores from events it covers and failing to provide scores from events it does not.
Alan Pergament in today’s Buffalo News has some leftovers from the NHL Winter Classic. In his story, Pergament refers to “A guy with a raspy voice who appears on cable’s SportsNet New York” and that guy is Scott Ferrall who appears nightly on Sirius Satellite Radio on Howard 101.
Katie Walsh of the Sandusky (OH) Register writes that a local sports bar is suing DirecTV for charging him to show the Patriots-Giants game while the game was free all over town on CBS and NBC. And the bar’s owner says he lost money because the game was no longer exclusive to the NFL Network and not as many patrons came into his place because of it. I don’t see other sports bar suing.
Michael Learmonth of the Silicon Valley Insider blog explains why the TV networks pay so much money to air the NFL.
An editorial in today’s Berkshire (MA) Eagle criticizes the NFL Network for playing games with cable.
Rick Bozich of the Louisville Courier-Journal talks with CBS’ Billy Packer about the Louisville Cardinals’ chances of advancing into the NCAA Tournament.
Paul Kenyon, college basketball writer extraordinaire for the Providence Journal, writes that next Wednesday’s game involving my University of Rhode Island Rams and the Dayton Flyers, a matchup of two Top 25 teams, will be on TV in both markets. It originally was not scheduled to be televised anywhere, but A-10 conference TV rights holder CSTV has finally relented to having the game carried locally.
Ben Grossman of Broadcasting & Cable has some requests for TV networks and sports leagues for 2008.
Anthony Crupi of Mediaweek tells us that USA Network topped all cable networks for viewing in 2007, but ESPN and TBS finished in 3rd and 4th based on Monday Night Football and the MLB postseason respectively.
Gayle MacDonald of the Toronto Globe and Mail previews a new drama on CBC called “MVP” which is described as a sexy, primetime soap opera based on life in the NHL, with a few added twists.
And that’s it for now. NFL Picks coming up.
