Time to give you a few links tonight before heading to bed.
It appears that the NFL’s TV partners will not have to deal with the silly 45 seconds of online video rule for their websites. The Sports Business Journal’s Eric Fisher, Dan Kaplan and John Ourand report that the 45 second rule does not apply CBS, ESPN, Fox and NBC, but other sites such as newspaper and TV station websites still must adhere to the rule. According to the article, the networks feel that their exorbitant rights fees should buy them rights to online video. The 45 second rule is of course, supposed to direct fans to NFL.com. We’ll see if the league eventually relaxes this silly rule down the road.
Michael David Smith of the AOL Fanhouse blog reports that ESPN will lower the amount of silly guests in the booth on Monday Night Football. Kamau High of AdWeek says ESPN has begun a new promotional campaign for MNF and I have to say it’s actually not as obnoxious as other ESPN campaigns. TV Week’s Chris Pursell in his Pressbox blog talks with Keyshawn Johnson who begins his first season as an NFL analyst for ESPN. Advertising Age’s Andrew Hampp has a story on the networks scoring profitable ad deals on the NFL.
The great Gregg Easterbrook has the latest edition of Tuesday Morning Quarterback which includes railing against the Preposterous Punt, his all-haiku predictions and a look at the Appalachian State-Michigan game.
The Sports Media Watch blog has the announcing teams for college football on the Disney Sports Networks.
Kira Bindrim of Crain’s New York Business writes that ratings for the US Open are down compared to last year while attendance at the National Tennis Center is up.
Randy Petersen of the Des Moines Register reports that Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz doesn’t have the Big Ten Network at home meaning his family can’t watch his games through Mediacom. Centre (PA) Daily Times’s editor Bob Heisse in his “Back in Happy Valley” blog wonders what if Comcast decided to settle up with BTN? And Heisse adds one more post regarding overflow games. Michael Zuidema of the Grands Rapids Press says the Appalachian State upset is the first shot from BTN in its battle with Comcast.
The Appalachian State athletics department says ESPN is in town to tape a segment on the upset for College Gameday.
Last Friday, NBC Universal announced it would no longer sell shows for download on iTunes saying prices were too low. Tonight, it’s announced a deal with Amazon.com to sell downloads on that site and for higher prices.
That’s a lot of links for a Tuesday night and I like it. I’ll have more Wednesday morning.
