I have some releases in the Fang’s Bites inbox that I need to post before they become outdated and to be honest, I want to clear up some room. So let’s put them up here and you can be up to date on what’s going on in the sports media.
First, Versus will be airing a series of NBA D-League games starting January 16.
VERSUS ANNOUNCES AGREEMENT WITH NBA D-LEAGUE TO AIR 16 GAMES THIS SEASONSchedule To Feature 10 Regular Season and Six Playoff Games
NEW YORK, N.Y. (January 4, 2010)-VERSUS today announced an agreement with the NBA Development League, the NBA's official minor league, to air 10 regular season and six playoff games throughout 2010.
The NBA D-League regular season games will air on VERSUS on Saturday nights at 11 p.m. ET, beginning Jan. 16, when the Fort Wayne Mad Ants meet the Sioux Falls Skyforce. VERSUS will tip off NBA D-League playoff coverage on April 10. All regular season and postseason games will be presented in HD.
"We are very excited to announce this new partnership with the NBA D-League and to have the opportunity to showcase the league's future stars to a national audience," said Marc Fein, Executive Vice President of Programming, Production and Business Operations for VERSUS. "As we do with all of our partners, we also look forward to super-serving basketball fans by surrounding the high-paced NBA D-League game action with many hours of complementary NBA programming."
"Teaming up with VERSUS provides us with another great outlet to showcase the incredible talent of the NBA D-League throughout the season," said Dan Reed, President of the NBA D-League. "Last season, 20 percent of NBA players had NBA D-League experience and, through this agreement with VERSUS, more fans than ever will have the opportunity to see many future NBA players in action."
VERSUS' NBA D-League coverage will provide fans with even more access to the game and the players including micing players and coaches during the games, in game interviews, airing locker room and pre-game, halftime and post-game speeches, and increased camera angles.
In addition to VERSUS' 16 NBA D-League games in 2010, the network will air 25 hours of exciting NBA programming. Some of the programming will include profiles of the league's top players as well as former iconic players and coaches. Other additional specials will highlight historic moments from recent regular seasons and playoffs. The complete schedule for the additional programming will be made available on www.VERSUS.com .
VERSUS' COMPLETE REGULAR SEASON SCHEDULE OF NBA D-LEAGUE GAMES INCLUDES:
DATE GAME
January 16 Fort Wayne Mad Ants at Sioux Falls Skyforce
January 23 Fort Wayne Mad Ants at Iowa Energy
January 30 Bakersfield Jam at Idaho Stampede
February 6 Reno Bighorns at Rio Grande Valley Vipers
February 20 Dakota Wizards at Sioux Falls Skyforce
February 27 Bakersfield Jam at Austin Toros
March 13 Tulsa 66ers at Rio Grande Valley Vipers
March 20 Dakota Wizards at Erie BayHawks
March 27 LA D-Fenders at Rio Grande Valley Vipers
April 3 Erie BayHawks at Maine Red Claws
Schedule subject to change
This story broke yesterday. Tennis Channel has filed an FCC complaint against Comcast in regards to being on a sports tier.
TENNIS CHANNEL FILES FCC COMPLAINT AGAINST COMCASTLOS ANGELES, Jan. 6, 2010 – On Tuesday, January 5, Tennis Channel filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission demonstrating that Comcast Cable Communications is violating the FCC’s program carriage rules, which prohibit cable system operators from discriminating against unaffiliated cable programming services in favor of networks they own. According to the complaint, Comcast isolates Tennis Channel on a premium sports tier received by a small fraction of Comcast subscribers while it carries Comcast-owned networks that compete with Tennis Channel on basic tiers available to far more subscribers at no additional charge.“We did not want to file this complaint, but Comcast has left us with no choice,” said Ken Solomon, chairman and CEO of Tennis Channel. “After steadily building the most comprehe
nsive single-sport network in television over the past few years, in the first half of 2009 we had numerous discussions with Comcast. We made offers with added incentives for it to move us to a competitive, broadly penetrated service tier, as it has done recently with the MLB, NHL and NBA channels, in which it has financial interests. But Comcast declined to do so.”According to evidence included in the complaint, Tennis Channel’s ratings performance is comparable in its service area to that of Comcast’s leading sports services, the Golf Channel and Versus; it offers coverage of all four of tennis’ Grand Slam events, while the Golf Channel and Versus offer little or no comparable coverage of the major events in the sports they cover; it charges a per-subscriber rate that is about half the rate charged by the Golf Channel and Versus, but broadcasts more than 2,700 hours per year of event coverage – compared to 2,400 hours on the Golf Channel and 1,350 hours on Versus; and it offers a full-time high-definition service.Comcast’s Golf Channel and Versus are among the most broadly distributed channels on Comcast systems, reaching almost all of Comcast’s 23.8 million subscribers, according to the complaint, while Tennis Channel is limited to the added-cost premium sports tier that reaches only about 2.6 million homes. “This ten-to-one disparity in carriage seriously impedes our ability to grow and compete in the sports cable marketplace,” said Solomon. “It results solely from Comcast’s decision to protect the services it owns from legitimate competition.”The complaint notes that Comcast executives have conceded that they give special carriage consideration to their owned services and that advertiser-supported services like Tennis Channel cannot succeed if they are carried on the Comcast sports tier. The complaint also establishes that only unaffiliated sports networks are carried on that tier and that all of the services in which Comcast has an interest enjoy considerably broader coverage.“This case is truly the litmus test for unaffiliated programmers everywhere, and the future of the public’s interest in having a wide variety of voices and choice in the media marketplace,” said Solomon. “Ultimately, we simply want to be treated comparably to the way Comcast treats the sports program services it owns.”
ESPN’s Friday Night Fights series returns this Friday on ESPN2.
ESPN Friday Night Fights Returns for 12th SeasonESPN Friday Night Fights will kick off the first of 29 boxing cards in 2010 on Friday, Jan. 8. In its 12th season, Friday Night Fights will feature a consistent high-definition telecast on ESPN2 in addition to complimentary coverage on ESPN Deportes and ESPN360.com.As in 2009, this year’s studio portion of the telecast will feature a rotating quartet of analysts. The four are Bernard Hopkins, ESPN.com columnist Dan Rafael, Bernardo Osuna and BJ Flores. Brian Kenny will primarily serve as host from the studio.In the booth ringside, Joe Tessitore will host while Teddy Atlas will continue to offer his unique insight and perspective.“We look forward to showcasing some entertaining matches in the 2010 season and are pleased to offer fans a number of ways to be able to enjoy Friday Night Fights content,” said Doug Loughrey, ESPN’s boxing programming director.The ESPN2 studio portion will focus on hot topics in the industry with the guest analysts offering their opinions. Hopkins added an entertaining element to FNF telecasts in 2009. The future Hall of Fame middleweight is best known for his 10-year reign as Middleweight World Champion, during which time he defended his title a record 20 times. He is the oldest man to have held the Middleweight Championship in professional boxing.Rafael began writing for ESPN.com in March 2005 after working for five years as the boxing writer for USA Today. Rafael will continue to cover boxing for ESPN.com in addition to his television role.In line with Friday Night Fights’ continued focus on the U.S. Hispanic sports fan, the panel will include two accomplished Hispanic personalities: Former WBF Cruiserweight champion Flores, who is undefeated, will add cache as an active boxer.Additionally, Osuna is one of the most respected boxing journalists to appear on Spanish-language television. His professional achievements include the prestigious Sam Taub Award for excell
ence in broadcast journalism presented by the Boxing Writer’s Association of America and three Emmy awards.Friday Night Fights will air throughout the year on select Fridays, showcasing some of the best bouts in the industry, beginning at times ranging from 8:30 to 10:30 p.m. ET.The Jan. 8 season-opening fight, which will begin at 10 p.m. ET, will feature former junior middleweight titlist Roman Karmazin (39-3-1, 25 KOs) of Russia squaring off against Colombia’s Dionisio Miranda (20-4-2, 18 KOs) in Glendale, Calif., in a middleweight title elimination bout. The winner will receive a mandatory title shot against Sebastian Sylvester of Germany.Other fighters featured in the opening weeks of FNF include Jesse Brinkley (34-5, 22 KOs), formerly of “The Contender,” on Jan. 29 and Guillermo Rigondeaux (3-0, 3 KOs), a two-time Cuban Olympic gold medalist and top-notch prospect, on Feb. 5.
And Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia will be all over the Eagles-Dallas Cowboys NFL Wild Card playoff game.
COMCAST SPORTSNET PROVIDES FANS WITH THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE EAGLES PLAYOFF COVERAGEDaily Reports, Live Specials, Pre and Postgame Shows Plus Web-Only Exclusives Highlight Weeklong CoveragePHILADELPHIA (January 6, 2010) – Comcast SportsNet, the leader in local sports coverage, is providing Eagles fans with the most comprehensive playoff coverage anywhere, including daily “Believe in Green” playoff reports, exclusive interviews and insider access to players and coaches during Daily News Live and within special “Believe In Green” editions of SportsNite.For in-depth daily coverage of the Eagles, fans can tune into Comcast SportsNet beginning at 5 p.m. each weekday with Daily News Live, as well as SportsNite every evening at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m., plus SportsRise every morning for complete team coverage.For up-to-the-minute information about the Eagles, fans can log onto www.CSNPhilly.com where Comcast SportsNet’s talented team of writers provide extensive coverage of the team via exclusive feature stories, video exclusives and live chats. Fans can also download and print “Believe in Green” cheer cards from the site.Saturday’s game day coverage kicks off at 6:30 p.m. on The Comcast Network with Eagles Pregame Live with Michael Barkann, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, NFL Hall of Fame writer Ray Didinger and former Eagle Vaughn Hebron. Kathy Romano will cover the fans’ perspective leading up to game time, while Derrick Gunn reports live from Cowboys Stadium.At halftime, Barkann, Didinger and Gunn join fans online at CSNPhilly.com to discuss the Eagles’ first half performance and answer fan questions about the game.Immediately following the game, Eagles Postgame Live will air on Comcast SportsNet.On Monday, January 11, Comcast SportsNet will air Eagles Extra at 11 p.m., featuring the latest news from the team, plus exclusive player interviews. Eagles Locker Room, which recaps the Eagles’ player and coaches’ press conferences, will air on Wednesday, January 13 at 4:30 p.m.
Finally, Golf Channel has released its LPGA Tournament schedule for 2010. Much of the coverage will be live.
Golf Channel and LPGA Announce 2010 Tournament Schedule
ORLANDO, Fla., Jan. 6, 2010 – Today Golf Channel and the LPGA unveiled their current event broadcast schedule for the 2010 season – the first as part of a landmark agreement signed in early 2009.Of the 12 tournaments scheduled to be played in North America that will air on Golf Channel, nine will have live coverage, with seven tournaments entirely live. Event coverage will consist of two to three hours per telecast, with same-night replays scheduled for 10 events. International events will be televised on tape delay and will air on Saturdays and Sundays.“As we do with all our tour partners, we have worked hard to maximize airtimes and drive ratings for the LPGA Tour,” said Page Thompson, President, Golf Channel. “We are excited to be the exclusive cable partner of the LPGA and look forward to a great 2010 season and beyond.”The 2010 LPGA Tour season marks the first year of a 10-year partnership between the LPGA and Golf Channel, the new exclusive cable home of the Tour. In addition to typical tournament coverage, Golf Channel will utilize a variety of production elements to showcase the individual personalities of LPGA Tour players, helping to introduce and familiarize its viewers to the stars of the women’s Tour. Popular elements include player profiles, the “At the Turn” feature and fitting players with microphones during competition.Golf Channel will also provide enhanced news coverage of the LPGA Tour and will produce several programs with LPGA stars throughout the year, which will be announced at a later time.“We are looking forward to a year of strong coverage on the Golf Channel – both in-telecast and in the news. Showcasing the talent and diverse personalities of our Tour players is our goal, and Golf Channel will be the ideal partner with which to realize this goal,” said Mike Whan, LPGA Commissioner.
DATE EVENT ROUNDS BROADCAST2/18-21 Honda PTT LPGA Thailand TBD2/25-28 HSBC Women’s Champions 3-4 TD*3/25-28 LPGA Classic ALL LIVE5/13-16 Bell Micro LPGA Classic ALL LIVE/TD6/10-13 LPGA State Farm Classic ALL TD6/18-20 ShopRite LPGA Classic ALL LIVE6/24-27 LPGA Championship ALL LIVE7/22-25 Evian Masters TBD8/20-22 Safeway Classic ALL LIVE8/26-29 CN Canadian Women’s Open TBD9/10-12 P&G NW Arkansas Championship ALL LIVE10/7-10 Navistar LPGA Classic ALL TD10/14-17 CVS/pharmacy LPGA Challenge ALL LIVE10/29-31 LPGA China 3-4 TD11/11-14 Lorena Ochoa Invitational ALL LIVE/TD11/18-21 LPGA Tour Championship ALL LIVENumber of events, schedule and times subject to change*Tape Delay
That’s it. I have more to post later.
