Giving you some links tonight before I check out some late night TV programming.
The Sports Media Watch notes that the NBA All Star Game ratings dipped below a 4 for the first time ever. However, while the NBA All Stars did not get a great number of eyeballs, the newly named “Big Cactus” did for ESPN.
CNBC’s Darren Rovell has his own “sleeper” pick for the NFL Scouting Combine. Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune says the once-mysterious Combine can now be seen in its full glory on the NFL Network.
Laura Nachman reports that Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia’s Michael Barkann has been honored for his work.
The arbitrator who ruled in the Time Warner Cable-MASN dispute has now been removed from the case as John Eggerton of Broadcasting & Cable reports. And Eggerton tells us that the NFL has lifted the restrictions on churches that want to show the Super Bowl on a super-sized TV screen.
Roger Van Der Horst of the Raleigh (NC) News & Observer writes that the removal of the arbitrator now casts doubt whether MASN will be seen at all in North Carolina.
Mike Shields of Mediaweek writes that SI.com is seeing a spike in traffic thanks to the magazine’s annual swimsuit issue.
No surprise here, Danny King of TV Week reports that LCD TV’s were responsible for more than three quarters of the TV’s people bought for the Super Bowl this year.
Bryan Mullen of The Tennessean says the appearance of ESPN’s College Gameday adds to the hype for the Tennessee-Memphis game.
Brett McMurphy from the Tampa Tribune writes that the University of South Florida will get two Thursday Night Football games on ESPN this fall.
Ron Kantowski of the Las Vegas Sun says it’s better late than never for the mtn. to get a deal with DirecTV. Kurt Kragthorpe of the Salt Lake Tribune says the new deal will boost the Mountain West Conference’s image. Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says the channel will be on DirecTV in time for football season.
While the mtn. scored a big win this week, the Big Ten Network remains in limbo. Michael Zuidema of the Grand Rapids (MI) Press writes that the standoff between BTN and the major cable providers has yet to be resolved.
The Boston Herald’s Inside Track girls tell us that Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia got some revenge on Comcast SportsNet anchor Gary Tanguay.
I’ll be back in the morning with the Saturday links.
