Fang's Bites

Tuesday Morning Holiday Week Links

As we get closer to Thanksgiving, let’s get to the links.

Neil Best of Newsday has a column today and he writes about WFAN beefing up its news organization. And in his blog, Neil says Yankees manager Joe Girardi signed a three year deal to appear on the FAN. Neil also reviews the first two shows of Frank TV which premieres tonight on TBS.

The New York Daily News’ Bob Raissman says the constant Eli Manning talk on the NFL pregame shows and during the game broadcast bored him to death.

USA Today wants your help in a story regarding the NFL Network. And Michael Hiestand from the Gannett-owned newspaper looks at the TV ratings for selected weekend events.

Jim Williams of the DC/Baltimore Examiner says XM Satellite Radio has helped to fill the void for hockey fans shut out from local radio.

In his Four DVRs, no waiting blog, the Houston Chronicle’s David Barron says the NFL dominated viewership on Sunday and the MLS Cup also did well before the football games came on.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell touches on a bunch of subjects today.

Jim Peltz of the Los Angeles Times has NASCAR President Brian France not worried about sinking TV ratings.

George M. Thomas of the Akron Beacon Journal says if it’s Thanksgiving, then it’s time for fans to be shut out of the NFL Network.

John Colbert of the Wisconsin Radio Network reports that one state legislator is calling the state university’s contract with the Big Ten Network, “a disaster”. Mark Alesia of the Indianapolis Star writes that a state legislator in the Hoosier State is proposing arbitration to settle the NFL Network and Big Ten Network disputes.

Jeffrey Flanagan in today’s Kansas City Star says the rotating Thanksgiving night NFL game was the late Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt’s idea.

Kevin Noonan of the Wilmington (DE) News Journal writes that ESPN has selected the Delaware-Delaware State matchup as the only I-AA playoff game it will air this weekend because the two schools have never played.

Clay Travis of CBSSports.com is happy to see Lincoln Financial sell off its sports production arm to Raycom.

That’s it for now.

Holiday Afternoon Links

Some more links to give you on this Veterans’ Day afternoon.

Thanks to being off today, I can check out some daytime programming on the various sports networks. I already gave you my quickie opinion on ESPN’s First Take. Some Regional Sports Networks will just air programming from FSN, but in the case of YES and MASN, they’ll simulcast local sports radio talk shows. YES will air Mike & the Mad Dog, Mike Francesca and Chris Russ from WFAN while MASN simulcasts the Anita Marks Show from ESPN Radio 1300 in Baltimore. It’s a cheap way to fill time and also to sell ads.

As far as Mike & the Mad Dog, they’re the Gold Standard as far as sports radio is concerned. They have been together since 1989 and every sports talk show has to be compared to them. While some of their rants sound uninformed, Francesca and Russo do have their loyal listenership.

Anita started in Baltimore last year, but has quickly acclimated herself to the sports scene. She came over from Miami where she hosted an afternoon drive show. I’ve seen her off and on and have enjoyed hers show. Today, she’s hosting a post-mortem on the Ravens which lost to the Steelers and Bengals in a span of six days. She lets the callers talk and doesn’t interrupt. Anita also knows what drives sports radio and she allows the opinions to breathe.

Ok, let’s get to some links for you.

Neil Best of Newsday is back to blogging today. He has an entry on former Giants coach Jim Fassel who’s doing some color commentary for Westwood One Radio on NFL games. Best gives us some quotes from the Sunday NFL studio shows. And finally, Best has a brief blurb on Kevin Burkhardt of SNY who has some expanded duties at the RSN after signing a new contract.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News writes in his Farther Off the Wall blog about the new programming schedule for 710 KSPN.

From the Sports Media Blog, Paulsen writes that it’s not time to shovel dirt on the NBA as its TV ratings are doing quite well.

The NFL Media website tells us that there will be no change in the Sunday Night Football game for Week 12 (November 25) which is Philadelphia at New England, but there is one slight change in the afternoon schedule:

The final Week 12 NFL schedule was announced today with the originally scheduled Philadelphia at New England Sunday night game on NBC remaining in place. The only game time change, as was previously announced, is the Denver Broncos at Chicago Bears game on Sunday, November 25 moving from 1:00 PM ET to 4:15 PM ET on CBS.

So there will be three late games on Sunday afternoon on Thanksgiving weekend, the Denver-Chicago game, Baltimore at San Diego and San Francisco at Arizona.

Jeffrey Flanagan of the Kansas City Star writes that the announcers for the Broncos-Chiefs game had little good to say about the local team on Sunday.

Jason Schwartz of Boston Magazine blogs that Patriots fans may get shut out of Week 17 game against the Giants as it’s on the NFL Network.

Multichannel News reports that Fox Soccer Channel will carry the next two international matches for the men’s US Soccer national team.

Rick Kissell of Variety writes that Sunday Night Football performed well for NBC last night.

Michael Malone of Broadcasting & Cable reports that Raycom has bought Lincoln Financial Group’s TV stations including its sports syndication arm. Raycom and Lincoln Financial Sports are partners for the ACC and LFS is the lone syndication partner for the SEC. Andrew Edwards of the Wall Street Journal says the deal totals $863 million.

The Birmingham News says the annual Iron Bowl, the clash between Alabama and Auburn will be picked up by ESPN on November 24 in primetime after CBS passed. Also from that date, the UConn-West Virginia game is in limbo because ESPN has to decide what time (noon, 3:30 p.m. or 8 p.m.) and which network (ESPN, ESPN2 or ABC) will carry it.

Richard Oliver of the San Antonio Express-News talks with ESPN’s Dick Vitale.

That’s it for today. Back with Primetime Viewing Picks and Videos of the Week.

Wednesday Links and Maybe Some Other Stuff

Let’s get to some links. We had a lot late last night so let’s see what we have now.

Starting with USA Today, Michael Hiestand writes that CBS will not do any extra hype for Sunday’s New England-Indianapolis game which is good. If Fox or ESPN had the game, you would see hype up the ying-yang, but CBS prefers to let the game speak for itself.

Mike Mulligan of the Chicago Sun-Times writes that Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher should talk to the media instead of by-passing reporters.

James Day of the Salem (OR) Statesman Journal says ESPN and the Pac 10 decided to make Saturday’s Arizona State-Oregon a national broadcast.

Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times says if Joe Torre is hired by the Dodgers as manager, he would bring back a celebrity quotient to the games.

From the Raleigh News & Observer, Tim Simmons writes that Taco Bell got plenty of publicity for some mentions of free tacos thanks to the World Series.

David Scott & Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer write that if Time Warner gets the naming rights for the Bobcats arena, it could give up the cable TV rights and have Fox Sports South gain them.

John Denton of Florida Today says the Orlando Magic’s first game which will be aired on Fox Sports Net Florida will not be carried by Bright House Cable. Dick Scanlon of the Lakeland Ledger writes about the FSN-Bright House dispute.

The Arkansas-Tennessee game on November 10 will be carried on Lincoln Financial Sports. In other SEC news, the Georgia-Auburn game will be picked up by CBS Sports for the 3:30 p.m. ET slot on the same day. From the WAC, Brian McInnis of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin says a decision will be made today whether ESPN will pick up the Hawaii-Fresno game.

The Waterbury Republican-American’s Ed Daigneault says UConn’s athletic director feels ESPN is using the school as a pawn in an attempt to get ESPNU carried on Comcast. Shawn Courchesne of the Hartford Courant has another version on the UConn/ESPNU/Comcast story. And Chip Malafronte from the New Haven Register has more on UConn being angry at ESPN.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel talks with ESPN NBA analysts Hubie Brown and Jeff Van Gundy about the Bucks. And from Tuesday, Wolfley says ESPN spent too much time deferring to Packers QB Brett Favre.

Tom FitzGerald in the San Francisco Chronicle says Bay Area fans have a dilemma this Sunday. The Texans-Raiders game is not sold out and if it’s not by the Thursday deadline, CBS will beam Patriots-Colts instead. Mark Gillispie of the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that the local CBS affiliate won’t be able to show New England-Indianapolis despite not carrying the Browns this Sunday. David Heuschkel of the Hartford Courant talks with Jim Nantz and Bill Cowher of CBS Sports about the Patriots running up the score.

Neil Best of Newsday writes that the Yankees allowed ESPN into its conference call announcing Joe Girardi as manager.

Chris Kuc of the Chicago Tribune writes that Comcast SportsNet and the Blackhawks have obtained a sponsor to present the team’s home games starting November 11. Tim Cronin of the Chicago Daily Southtown says it’s time the Blackhawks show its home games on local TV.

Jim Benton of the Rocky Mountain News has three questions for ESPN’s Suzy Kolber. Chuck Abrams from Insider Racing wonders what’s causing apathy towards NASCAR. Jon Lafayette of TV Week says ESPN/ABC’s overall ratings for NASCAR might be dipping, but it’s pointing to a rise in ratings for certain demographics.

Here’s ESPN’s press release touting its “multi-platform” approach to the NBA which will include carrying games on ESPN360, cell phones, live audio on ESPN.com and sending games to your home phone. I’m joking about that last part, but you just never know what ESPN is thinking.

Maury Brown in his Biz of Basketball website reports that NBA TV will air the D-League draft tomorrow. That will certainly be compelling TV.

A lot of links for midweek. We’ll be back later today.

Saturday Link Stuff

Time for some linkage on this Saturday.

Neil Best of Newsday has the ratings for Game 2 of the World Series. And he explains why he gave praise to SNY in yesterday’s column.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News writes that the Dallas-Fort Worth area just isn’t interested in the World Series.

Dan Caesar in today’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes about the antiquated NFL blackout rules which require a home game to be sold out 72 hours before game time so it can be shown in the local market. This Sunday’s Browns-Rams game will not be shown in St. Louis because the rule has been enforced.

Paul Christian in the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin normally writes on Friday, but has his weekly media column today and he has a lot of news and notes including the beginning of the NBA season which starts next week.

Some posts from the Sports Media Watch blog. First, one on the World Series ratings which are up from last year, but still the fourth lowest of all-time according to the blog. Good update from Paulsen who notes that the NBA will not sell NBA.com nor NBA TV which had been speculated earlier. And we get the weekend ratings predictions.

Chris Pursell of TV Week looks at the NFL’s Week 8 broadcast assignments in his Pressbox blog.

Rick Kissell of Variety says sports continue to do well in the ratings.

From the Charlotte Business Journal comes a story in which Raycom, a syndicator of the ACC, is considering buying Lincoln Financial Sports, its partner in the ACC and the lone holder of the SEC syndication rights.

Dave Goldberg of the AP has a story on the NFL Network’s fight for exposure.

The Boston Globe’s Joanna Weiss says the Taco Bell/World Series promotion went over the top.

The Sports Business Daily has some news and notes on the World Series ratings for Fox, plus other news including the silly Taco Bell promotion.

Richard Stevens of the Albuquerque (NM) Tribune wonders why ESPN doesn’t bother to carry University of New Mexico football games.

Dan Clutter of the Bucyrus (CA) Telegraph-Forum says ESPN and Fox definitely have East Coast bias.

Travis Haney of the Charleston (SC) Post and Courier writes that ESPN will pick up the South Carolina-Arkansas game on November 3 after all.

Corky Simpson writes in the Tuscon (AZ) Citizen that bloggers are a necessary evil. Hey!

A lot of good links for this Saturday. I’ll have NFL picks later tonight.

A Monday Update

Time to give you some links for a Monday afternoon.

First, from the Sports Business Daily (no link, but I will give the publication full credit for this item), the New England-Dallas game in the 4:15 p.m. ET window garnered the highest ratings for an NFL game for CBS since it reacquired the rights to the league in 1998. Overnight ratings for the game which was seen in 87% of the country reached a 18.5 rating with a 35 share. Fox for its regional coverage received an 11.6/25 while NBC for New Orleans-Seattle reached 8.4/13. For all three networks, the ratings were up for Week 6 as compared to the same period last year. Fox was up 20%, CBS increased 7.5% and NBC raised 3.4% from Week 6 in 2006.

The Jackson (MS) Clarion Ledger’s Kyle Veazey has the SEC TV schedule (Lincoln Financial Sports, CBS and ESPN) for October 27. Note that Georgia-Florida will be on CBS at 3:30 p.m. ET. Brett Dawson of the Louisville Courier-Journal writes that with the Kentucky-Mississippi State scheduled for 12:30 p.m. on October 27, the Wildcats will not have played a night game this month. Tennessee will host South Carolina on ESPN at 7:45. Cecil Hurt of the Tuscaloosa (AL) News says he doesn’t like the idea of this Saturday’s Alabama-Tennessee game being played on Lincoln Financial Sports at 12:30 p.m.

Some more college football scheduling news for October 27, this time from the Big 12. J. Brady McCullough of the Kansas City Star reports that Kansas will play Texas A&M on ESPN2 at 7 p.m.

Over to the Big Ten, the Green Bay Press-Gazette reports the Northern Illinois-Wisconsin game this Saturday and the Indiana-Wisconsin game next Saturday will be picked up by the Big Ten Network. Ohio State-Penn State on October 27 will be shown in primetime on ABC. Nathan Greenhalgh of the Reedsburg (WI) Times Press says local residents want their Big Ten Network.

Also from the Kansas City Star, Jeffrey Flanagan says Chiefs fans were treated on TV or the radio as former Chiefs radio voice Kevin Harlan and Chiefs QB Rich Gannon did the Chiefs-Bengals game for CBS and the radio team of Mitch Holthus and Lenny Dawson were at the mike for KCFX.

Jon Lafayette of TV Week says NBC is looking to sell sponsorship for Sunday Night Football’s post-game show.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel says ESPN’s E:60 newsmagazine will talk with Cecil Fielder, former Detroit Tiger slugger and father of Brewer Prince Fielder, about the estrangement with his son and why he won’t attend any of his games. And Wolfley has a critique of Kenny Albert and Troy Aikman working their first game together on Fox in Green Bay yesterday.

John Ryan of the San Jose Mercury News says CBS’ Jim Nantz and Phil Simms must be wondering why they’re being sent to Oakland this Sunday after doing the New England-Dallas game yesterday.

The New York Post has an article on Round 2 between the NFL Network and the big cable companies. If you thought Big Ten Network vs. Cable was interesting, wait until we get closer to Thanksgiving and fans can’t watch the slate of Thursday and Saturday night games on the NFL Network. The El Paso Times had an editorial stating that politicians should have better things to do than worry about whether fans can see the Dallas Cowboys on the NFL Network.

That’s it for now. Primetime Viewing Picks coming up.

Late Tuesday Update

Here are some links for you today.

Even though the Big Ten Conference is having trouble launching its channel, other college conferences are looking into launching channels of their own. Michael Smith and John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal report that the Southeastern Conference may forge ahead with plans to launch a channel and that current TV syndicator, Lincoln Financial Sports, could be a partner in that venture. The SEC’s contracts with CBS and ESPN expire in 2009 and it’s expected both will renew. But LFS whose contract also expires in 2009 may turn over its rights to the SEC a year early and sign up with Comcast to help distribute a SEC channel. Charter may also be involved and of course, keep an eye on Fox which owns a 49% stake in the Big Ten Network. We’ll monitor this over the next few weeks.

Michael McCarthy of USA Today looks at the TV ratings of selected sports telecasts.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says big money donations to college athletic departments such as Nike’s Phil Knight to the University of Oregon won’t pay dividends right away, but certainly down the road.

NBC Sports has signed an agreement with the Associated Press to be the exclusive news agency to distribute NBC-produced content and stories for the 2008 Summer Olympics. Paul Gough of the Hollywood Reporter has more.

Wayne Friedman of TV Watch wonders if big ticket events like the Olympics are worth the money for advertisers.

ESPNU has gained carriage agreements with Time Warner Cable in New York and New Jersey to be placed on the digital basic tier. Big win for ESPNU. According to the press release, ESPNU is available in 20 million homes nationwide.

ESPN Radio has named a new Senior Vice President/General Manager.

XM Satellite Radio is getting ready to kickoff college football season with games from six of the BCS conferences starting August 30. The Orbitcast blog which keeps track of all things satellite radio has more.

Sanford Nowlin of the San Antonio Express-News looks into another round in the battle of the NFL Network vs. Time Warner, Cablevision and Comcast.

John Ryan of the San Jose Mercury News writes in his Morning Buzz blog that he feels Keith Olbermann and NBC’s Football Night in America is a strange fit and even more so with a special edition of MSNBC’s Countdown being aired this Sunday before the NFL preseason game. But as one poster commented, perhaps Ryan forgot of Olbermann’s past work with ESPN and Fox Sports.

I love Gregg Easterbrook’s TMQ (Tuesday Morning Quarterback) on ESPN.com. It usually runs from August until February during NFL season with two special editions for the NFL Draft. This week, Gregg writes about the disparity between the NFL and NBA. As usual, Gregg is right.

Good amount of links and we’re doing well even without having Neil Best of Newsday on which to depend. Primetime viewing picks coming up.