I’m not really at the US Open at Oakmont, but thanks to US Open.com, I’m able to watch ESPN’s early round coverage plus watch a channel devoted to Tiger Woods’ play and now Phil Mickelson. Using NBC’s cameras, ESPN has had good coverage of the round. Mike Tirico, doing his first tournament of the year, has been supplemented by Andy North, Terry Gannon, Karl Ravech, Tom Rinaldi, Billy Krazert, Judy Rankin, plus NBC’s crew of Dottie Pepper, Mark Rolfing, etc. Tirico was a very good anchor at 18 when he was doing golf regularly for ESPN/ABC, but now that ESPN only has the USGA tournaments and the British Open, I actually miss the guy. His work developing Nick Faldo led CBS and the Golf Channel hiring Faldo this year.
With NBC slated to come in at 3 p.m. ET, I look forward to hearing what Johnny Miller has to say. I do not look forward to hearing Chris Berman on ESPN at 5 p.m. He has no business doing golf and he’s quite awful at the 18th hole. There’s nothing wrong having Tirico picking up coverage when NBC is done.
And NBC Sports.com will have online coverage of the Open on its website plus have a postgame show as well.
A couple of links this afternoon.
XM Satellite Radio continues to make major in-roads in college sports. It’s signed up the Big 12 Conference for football and men’s and women’s college basketball.
It hasn’t been a good month for ESPN/ABC. First, the ratings for the NBA Finals have been awful and that’s been chronicled here. Second, the Belmont Stakes which had no chance for a Triple Crown winner this year had low ratings as one would expect.
Joanne Gerstner of the Detroit News recaps Justin Verlander’s no-hitter for the Tigers on FSN Detroit and says the ratings for the game went up as the night progressed.
And a big thanks to the Sports Media Watch blog for linking to us. Much appreciated.
Primetime viewing choices coming up later.
