0 comments by Ken Fang on 7/17/2016
The new home of The Open Championship got an early present with American Phil Mickelson leading after 18 and then 36 holes and then match play between Mickelson and eventual champion Henrik Stenson on Saturday and Sunday. And through it all, Golf Channel and NBC stayed on top of the drama providing pictures and replays […]
0 comments by Ken Fang on 7/11/2016
NBC Sports has been looking forward to the day when it got back into the Major golf business and after losing the U.S. Open in 2014 to Fox, it was hoping to find an event to bring its Big Event strategy back to golf. Last year, it was able to do that by obtaining the […]
0 comments by Ken Fang on 7/5/2016
The announcement is out. With a month to go until the Opening Ceremony, NBC has released the list of the record 170 combined play-by-play and color commentators for the XXXI Olympiad in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Some of the usual suspects are back, Bob Costas as NBC Primetime host, Dan Hicks and Rowdy Gaines on […]
0 comments by Ken Fang on 5/11/2016
On Tuesday, May 10 at Frederick P. Rose Hall at Lincoln Center in New York, the Sports Emmy Awards were handed out to the national sports networks nominated in a number of categories. FS1 was the network that received the most with 8 awards. NBC was next with 7 followed by FoxSports.com with 6 then […]
0 comments by Ken Fang on 8/10/2015
In a big win for the Peacock, NBC has retained the rights to the English Premier League for six seasons. The new contract which will take effect in the 2016-17 season will last through 2021-22. The bids to the English Premier League were due last Thursday and apparently the league reviewed all the bids from […]
0 comments by Ken Fang on 8/7/2015
When NBCUniversal took over USA Network, it phased the channel out of sports only to air Olympics and handle other overflow stuff. But there seemed to be a change when NBC Sports Group decided to use USA for the NHL Playoffs in April and May. Now USA will be used for the Saturday 10 a.m. […]
0 comments by Ken Fang on 8/5/2015
Today marks one year to the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. And while there’s controversy over unfinished venues, water pollution and the possibility of white elephants after the Games, there’s still anticipation to the 17 days of competition that will begin on August 5, 2015. Tonight at 8 p.m. ET, NBC will run […]
0 comments by Ken Fang on 6/18/2015
To the notebook: NEWS The big sports media news from Wednesday came from a feature on HBO in this week’s Hollywood Reporter. In discussing the new era of HBO with its HBO Now over the top service was a line that the network is looking at luring soon-to-be ex-ESPN’er Bill Simmons. On June 21, HBO […]
0 comments by Ken Fang on 6/11/2015
Let’s do another notebook for you on this Thursday. NEWS The NBA Finals are breaking records. Through three games, the series between the Cleveland Cavs and Golden State Warriors is averaging almost 18.5 million viewers and a 10.8 rating which is slaughtering all programming on broadcast and cable. Game 3 drew an 11.1 rating on […]
0 comments by Ken Fang on 6/10/2015
Oh, bloody hell, it’s been a while since I’ve done a sports media notebook. We have quite a few things to provide so in lieu of me explaining why you haven’t seen one in months, let’s just get to the news, linkage and other stuff. NEWS A couple of things to lead with this morning. […]
0 comments by Ken Fang on 4/14/2015
After March Madness, the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs are the best drama series on television for two months. Starting Wednesday, the tournament to determine the Champions of Professional Hockey will provide lots of drama, controversy and great athletic competition. In addition to the NHL’s flagship cable network, NBCSN which will air three games between Wednesday […]
0 comments by Ken Fang on 1/15/2015
Let’s do a notebook for this Thursday. NEWS NBC held a big press conference on Wednesday at its World Headquarters in Rockefeller Plaza in New York. It announced a multi-year agreement with Haymon Boxing to air the Premier Boxing Champions series starting with 20 events this year, 14 of which will be in primetime on […]
0 comments by Ken Fang on 5/28/2014
With California Chrome on track to become the first horse to win the Triple Crown since Affirmed in 1978, NBC is expanding its planned coverage of the Belmont Stakes next week. NBC/NBCSN will provide 16 hours of coverage of the final leg of the Triple Crown. It begins with a documentary next Wednesday, “California Chrome: […]
0 comments by Ken Fang on 5/15/2014
As NBC Sports Group has finished its first season as the U.S. television home of the English Premier League, it has a few milestones to celebrate. First, having aired and streamed all 380 fixtures live to the American people in 2013-14, audiences responded to the offerings. NBCUniversal says 31.5 million people watched this season’s coverage […]
0 comments by Ken Fang
The second leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes is on for this Saturday. NBC and NBCSN will be all over California Chrome’s quest to become the first horse since Affirmed in 1978 to complete the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes trifecta. Coverage begins Friday on NBCSN at 3 p.m. ET with […]
0 comments by Ken Fang on 5/12/2014
Let’s continue our soccer theme today. NBC Sports has announced that English Premier League Championship Sunday during which all 10 fixtures were aired simultaneously across the networks of NBCUniversal received a 1.56 overnight rating. Fox and ESPN went all balls-to-the-wall in 2011-12 and received a 0.87 over five Nielsen-rated networks when it began this type […]
0 comments by Ken Fang on 5/8/2014
Whether it’s Championship Sunday or Relegation Sunday, it’s the same. The final day of the English Premier League will be covered by 10 NBCUniversal networks. All ten games will be aired live. And as Manchester City and Liverpool fight it out for first place plus teams fight for positioning in the UEFA Champions and Europa […]
0 comments by Ken Fang on 5/6/2014
Tonight is the end of a 20 games in 20 days/nights streak for Pierre McGuire. He’s not working a game tonight for NBC Sports Group. He’s attending the Sports Emmy Awards in New York so in his place at Game 3 of the Boston-Montreal series will be Eddie Olczyk. Kenny Albert will be on the […]
0 comments by Ken Fang on 5/5/2014
Ok, the NHL on NBC announcing assignments are out for today and through Thursday this week. Kenny Albert and Pierre McGuire will be working the Boston-Montreal series. Mike Emrick, Ed Olczyk and McGuire will call the New York Rangers-Pittsburgh series. Dave Strader and Brian Engblom are on Chicago-Minnesota while John Forslund and Brian Hayward are […]
0 comments by Ken Fang on 5/3/2014
Thanks to the NBC Sports public relations people, we have the weekend announcing assignments for the four games that will be shown on NBC and NBCSN. Today, NBC airs Game 2 of Montreal at Boston at 12:30 p.m. It will lead into NBC’s Kentucky Derby coverage and if the game goes into overtime, the game […]
