After a week’s absence, Keith Thibault of Sports Media Journal are back with an all-new edition of the Sports Media Weekly podcast. Our guest is Dermot McQuarrie of Fox Sports International. But before we spoke to Dermot, Keith and I had our usual news segment.
During the news segment, Keith and I talked about the ratings for the NHL Stanley Cup Final and the NBA Finals, both of which are up from last year. We then moved to the MLB Network airing the Stephen Strasburg debut on Tuesday and picking up 14 Interleague games throughout this month. I also opine about Bob Costas’ performance as he called the game.
College sports and how we watch them could change as the Big 12 is being cannibalized by the Big 10 and especially the Pac 10. We look at how this will affect current Big 12 and Pac 10 rightsholder Fox Sports Net and what a 16 team league will mean for the bidding for the Pac 10 TV contract. In addition, we also discuss how an expanded conference will affect the Big Ten Network.
And we talk about the World Cup and the surprisingly high amount of viewers the event garnered in 2006.
As previously mentioned, our guest is Dermot McQuarrie, the Assistant General Manager, Senior Vice President and Programming at Fox Sports International of which Fox Soccer Channel falls under his watch. We talked about the coverage Fox Soccer Channel will provide during the World Cup. Even though FSC is not a rightsholder, it will provide a daily highlights and discussion show, Ticket to South Africa, and Dermot provided details on what fans can expect to see.
We also talked about Fox Soccer Channel’s growth from its original incarnation as Fox Sports World and how gaining the rights to the English Premier League and the UEFA Champions League have led to enormous growth in ratings.
A good podcast so give it a listen instead of having me write about it. Go to iTunes and look for Sports Media Journal or go here to listen.
