Let’s do a notebook tonight, shall we? If I can’t do linkage and it always seems something gets in the way these days, I might as well do a notebook.
I’ll try to provide as many links and stories as possible here.
- Interesting story from The Big Lead. The daily 9 a.m.-3 p.m. ET SportsCenter block on ESPN is going to get a bit of a facelift. Jason McIntyre reports that instead of two shifts of three hours, ESPN will go to three two hour blocks. Kevin Negandhi and Hannah Storm will continue to be the combination to start off the block, but instead of going from 9 a.m.-noon, they’ll be reduced by one hour. Chris McKendry/Jay Crawford and Sage Steele/David Lloyd will be the other two weekday teams. ESPN has not confirmed the report, but The Big Lead’s confidence on this story is quite high.
- Here’s another story from The Big Lead. This upcoming season is the last year in Tim McCarver’s contract with MLB on Fox. Jason McIntyre gets comment from Fox on this.
- Add Cablevision to DirecTV and Verizon Fios to the providers tacking on a surcharge on subscribers who have packages with sports regional networks. In Cablevision’s case, it’s a $2.98 monthly fee that begins in April. Mike Farrell of Multichannel News says the surcharge is for subscribers who have the MSG Networks, SNY and YES RSN’s. This is the providers’ pushback on increasing subscriber fees from RSN’s which come as a result of high media rights for various professional teams. We’ll see if there’s any outcry from subscribers.
- ESPN Radio hack Colin Cowherd continues to say stupid things about the Midwest, this time about Indiana Pacers fans. This guy really needs to shut up.
- Joe Posnanski has been officially hired by NBC Sports to become its main columnist on its website and be featured on its multiple platforms. Ed Sherman of The Sherman Report wonders if this is the right move for Posnanski who left the fledgling Sports on Earth site after less than a year.
- Speaking of Ed, he speaks with Jim Romenesko about blogging for little to no money, something I’m quite familiar with.
- From David Goetzl of MediaPost comes this analysis of a lawsuit brought forth by Dish Network against ESPN. Very good background on a dispute that has been simmering for quite some time.
- To Sports Video Group where we have an interesting look at how ESPN3 produces a women’s college basketball that will be streamed on its platform.
- A few items from Paulsen at Sports Media Watch. First, NBA All-Star Saturday on TNT hit a three-year low, but still is among the best ratings ever for the event. Despite Danica Patrick, still not a good start for Fox for the Daytona 500 Speedweeks. And Paulsen has some various ratings news and notes.
- Ken McMillan at the Middletown (NY) Times Herald has the Arena Football League schedule on CBS Sports Network for the 2013 season. CBSSN takes over the rights after the AFL had been on NFL Network from 2010-2012. CBS will have the Arena Bowl in August.
- Robert Feder at TimeOut Chicago notes that Comcast SportsNet has ended its partnership with the Chicago Tribune and will rebrand its roundtable show as SportsTalk Live.
- Bruce Dowbiggin at the Toronto Globe and Mail reviews the first week of TSN’s new radio format and its new afternoon drive host.
- Could the NFL move the Draft to May into a ratings sweeps period? Tim Baysinger of Broadcasting & Cable says it’s entirely possible.
- By the way, this is not necessarily sports media, but it’s related. NBC definitely misses Sunday Night Football. Since the NFL season ended, the Peacock is having a hard time attracting viewers. The network will finish in 5th place in the 18-49 demographic for the February sweeps. Dominic Patten of Deadline notes that NBC will finish below CBS, Fox, ABC and wait for it…. Univision for the first time in its history. It’s not been a good 2013 for NBC thus far.
- This week, Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss passed away at the age of 80. He was first in the L.A. market to televise all of his team’s games creating the Prime Ticket regional sports network to air all of the Lakers’ home games and putting the road games on an over the air station. Before his passing, the Lakers went a step further in creating another RSN, Time Warner Cable SportsNet and doing two feeds, one in English and another in Spanish, another innovation. Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star looks at the impact Buss had on sports television.
- Media Life Magazine notes a new study which shows low recall of Super Bowl ads, something the NFL TV partners and its sponsors do not want to hear.
- Jonah Keri at Grantland says MLB has opened up the vault and released some of its old highlights.
- Formula 1’s ratings are down worldwide, a concern for the sport.
I think that’s where I’ll end things for now.
