Looking at some of the websites around the country to get more links for you.
The ratings for the sporting weekend show a downward trend for events like the NBA Finals, PGA Tour and the Belmont Stakes, all of which had lower numbers this weekend. Sports Media Watch has the overnight ratings from both Saturday and Sunday, and the numbers for the Game 2 blowout last night in the NBA Finals don’t look good.
Good story from the New York Times today on the CBS purchase of a website (Max Preps) devoted to high school athletes, kind of like a MySpace or Facebook for athletes.
Marty James of the Napa Valley Register talks with former coach and current NFL Network analyst Dick Vermeil on his participating in the NFL Broadcasting Boot Camp this month.
It seems that Canadian media writers have been waiting to pounce on the NBA TV ratings just like US TV/Radio writers were all over the NHL TV ratings. Bruce Arthur of the National Post reads to me as if he’s regaling in the low ratings for last night’s Game 2 and says it was stupid of the NBA to go up against The Sopranos finale.
While the NBA can’t be happy over the low ratings for its postseason, Major League Baseball has to be happy over its ratings on ESPN and Fox to date. Mediaweek reports ratings on ESPN are up double digits from last year and Fox is doing well going a full season as compared to just 18 weeks last season.
The Detroit Free Press says FSN Detroit will debut “Tigers Squeeze Play”, a 30 minute condensed version of games.
Tom Jones of the St. Petersburg Times has his review of sports TV weekend. In his column, Jones makes a great point about boxing migrating to pay cable and robbing its sport of million of fans in the process.
Tony Gallagher of the Vancouver Province newspaper says it’s easy to look at how the ratings for hockey in the US have fallen.
Versus has announced its college football schedule. With 5 Big Ten, 5 Pac 10 and 8 Mountain West games, the channel suddenly has a pretty decent slew of games, but the problem is finding it on your cable system.
Rich Lord of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes that the city’s mayor is hoping coverage of the US Open this week on NBC, ESPN and through the Golf Channel will be a good tourist marketing tool for the area.
USA Today has a profile on Nick Faldo who as you probably know, is the lead golf analyst for the Golf Channel and CBS.
Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star has some constructive criticism for TSN’s coverage of the Formula 1 race in Montreal.
Finally, Jim Williams of the DC/Baltimore Examiner says fans of the Orioles and the Nationals can catch how both teams’ announcers will call each other’s games as the O’s and Nats face off this week. MASN will carry both versions.
