0 comments by Ken Fang on 6/16/2014
Devoting 85 hours to the Big W in London, Tennis Channel will air 3½ hours of nightly coverage beginning at 4 p.m. ET. Wimbledon Primetime will be hosted by veteran broadcaster Bill Macatee. He’ll be joined by Paul Annacone, Mary Carillo, Jim Courier, Lindsay Davenport, Justin Gimelstob, Martina Navratilova and Rennae Stubbs. Tennis Channel will […]
0 comments by Ken Fang
Because of the World Cup, ESPN will air Wimbledon over three different networks this year. During the first four days of coverage from Monday, June 23 through Thursday, June 26, ESPN will start things each morning from 7 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. ET then hand off to ESPNews from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. ESPN2 […]
0 comments by Ken Fang on 7/18/2013
It’s Thursday already? Man, this week is flying by fast. Let’s do some linkage. We begin with Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated who says Keith Olbermann was contrite when his return to ESPN2 was announced. Jason McIntyre of The Big Lead breaks news that Olbermann may make some more buzz for ESPN by hosting a […]
0 comments by Ken Fang on 6/19/2013
Wimbledon is one of the greatest events in the sporting calendar. And the organizers of the tournament try to keep things special. There’s the strawberries and cream served. Players have to wear white. There’s no play in the middle Sunday of the Championships. Tennis takes over the BBC for the entire two week period. And […]
0 comments by Ken Fang on 6/18/2013
Let’s do some links today. Brian Steinberg of Variety reports that Fox Sports is bundling Fox Sports 1 to potential Super Bowl XLVIII advertisers. That’s one way to get ads on the new network. Brian Lowry of Variety says Tennis Channel is crying foul at Comcast in trying to gain carriage on the cable provider’s […]
0 comments by Ken Fang on 7/8/2012
Let’s provide a few sports media thoughts on this Sunday. You know they’ll be in bullet form. ESPN’s live coverage of Wimbledon has been a joy over the last two weeks. Most everything has been shown on the Family of Networks. And in the second week when both ESPN and ESPN2 were deployed for the […]
0 comments by Ken Fang on 7/7/2012
ESPN’s first year of airing the entire Wimbledon fortnight has been a success. Ratings steady with last year, online viewership way up and the audience is skewing younger. It all ends on Sunday with a historic Gentlemen’s Final between Roger Federer and Scot Andy Murray. ESPN will air Breakfast at Wimbledon with Hannah Storm anchoring […]
0 comments by Ken Fang on 7/6/2012
We have this from ESPN discussing the viewership both on TV and online for The Championships, Wimbledon. ESPN says the combined viewership for ESPN/ESPN2 is up 24% from when the cable portion of last year’s tournament on solely on ESPN2. And the rating is up this year averaging 0.6 from 0.5 last year. ESPN says […]
0 comments by Ken Fang
Time for Friday linkage. The Weekend Viewing Picks have your sports and entertainment suggestions. Let’s get cracking. National Michael Hiestand from USA Today looks at TNT’s plans to go mostly split-screen during breaks for Saturday’s NASCAR race. Tom Perrotta of the Wall Street Journal reports that the one Wimbledon souvenir the players want is the […]
0 comments by Ken Fang on 7/5/2012
It was nice having the Wimbledon Ladies Semifinals all live on ESPN today. Had NBC and ESPN2 shared coverage as in the past, you know the Victoria Azarenka-Serena Williams match would have been held on tape delay by the Peacocks until noon in all time zones. Instead, ESPN aired that match live when it began […]
0 comments by Ken Fang
So weird to have the 4th of July in the middle of the week. You get the holiday after two work days and then have two work days afterwards. Some of you have the entire week off which is good, but for me, there’s no such thing as a vacation. In fact, I haven’t had […]
0 comments by Ken Fang on 7/4/2012
This is why the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club chose ESPN to air The Championships, Wimbledon for 12 years. After seeing NBC tape delay semifinal action and receive complaints for years on end, ESPN will air both live on Thursday starting at 8 a.m. We’ll have Angelique Kerber of Germany facing Agnieszka Radwanska […]
0 comments by Ken Fang on 7/3/2012
This being the first year of a 12 year contract with the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, ESPN’s expanded all-cable coverage of Wimbledon is even with last year. ESPN says its combined ratings with ESPN2 for the first six days of the two week tournament are 0.5, even with last year when NBC […]
0 comments by Ken Fang
Ok, maybe you’re not jonesing for the linkage, but at least you can read them at your leisure. Sometimes I think way too long about the title of the post and this is the case today. Anyway, let’s get to the links. Joel Schectman of the Wall Street Journal reports that NBC and Google are […]
0 comments by Ken Fang on 6/26/2012
Let’s do some Tuesday links. We’ll start with Matt Hayes of AOL Sporting News and he writes that the BCS is looking for a $5 billion TV deal over a decade for its new college football playoff. In the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Michael Bradley says the new college football playoff still can […]
0 comments by Ken Fang on 6/25/2012
Let’s do some links on a rainy Monday in Southern New England. Michael Hiestand of USA Today looks at NFL Network’s new morning show. Michael says ESPN has not confirmed whether Chris Berman will call a Monday Night Football game on the opening weekend of the season. John Ourand of Sports Business Journal reports that […]
0 comments by Ken Fang on 6/22/2012
Just received from Tennis Channel, it’s announcing a contract extension for host Bill Macatee. Bill has been the host for all four Grand Slams, in particular, the French Open. He’ll continue to host French Open Tonight and Wimbledon Primetime for Tennis Channel. And he’ll be the on-site host for the Australian and U.S. Opens. No […]
0 comments by Ken Fang on 6/20/2012
I don’t know why I made a Casablanca reference in the headline, but it seemed to be right. Starting this year, ESPN begins the first of a 12 year partnership with the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club to televise the Championships Wimbledon from start to finish. It marks the first time that all […]
0 comments by Ken Fang on 6/13/2012
In a move that will please many tennis fans, ESPN is bringing back “Breakfast at Wimbledon” and making it the name of a pregame show that will air on the middle Saturday of action on June 30 and then for the final four days of the tournament from the Gentlemen’s and Ladies’ Semifinals through to […]
0 comments by Ken Fang on 5/24/2012
Before the day is through, let’s do some linkage for you. Steve Berkowitz from USA Today looks at the Pac-12’s TV contract which is the richest in college sports (for now). Speaking of USA Today, Ed Sherman of The Sherman Report says the newspaper is restructuring its sports department and about a dozen staffers have […]
