State of the Los Angeles Sports TV Wars
Since forming a new regional sports network to show Lakers games, Time Warner Cable has not won many prizes… but the next-biggest prize has still not been settled. While TWC was able to add Galaxy...
View ArticleWhat is the NBC Sports Radio Network?
On Monday, the NBC Sports Group announced that they would be forming the NBC Sports Radio Network with Dial Global Networks, broadcasters of the NFL and NCAA Tournament. Jumping into the fray already...
View ArticleCBS to launch national sports radio network
Okay, this is… weird. Not two weeks after NBC announced it was teaming up with Dial Global – owners of the Westwood One radio network previously owned by CBS – on a sports radio network, CBS has...
View ArticleThings are about to get even better for the NBA Champions…
Apparently Fox can compete for local team rights in a competitive, high-value market as well. Fox is breaking the bank and is about to at least quadruple the money they pay the Miami Heat – only the...
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NBC Renews Relationship with Tour de France
Been a long time since we last looked at the national sports TV wars, though does it count as “renewing” it when the broadcast contract belonged to CBS only two years ago and they inherited what they...
View ArticleThe State of NASCAR on Television
NASCAR is in a bit of a state of flux at the moment. If you were describing the “four major sports” and you were looking at matters objectively, the fourth sport would be NASCAR, not the NHL, a status...
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ESPN and the Rose Bowl stay in business
No sooner did college football approve a revolutionary playoff structure than ESPN made sure at least one aspect of the past remained in place: the Rose Bowl breaking off from the rest of the BCS and...
View ArticleSizing up the MLB contract situation
Here’s the way I see things heading into MLB’s rights renegotiations: Fox’s decision to hand over Saturday nights to sports, of which MLB plays a key role, may have MLB thinking of moving its main...
View ArticleCan boxing re-colonize broadcast television?
I didn’t pay much attention when NBC announced an expansion of its relationship with promoter Main Events for its Fight Night series on NBC Sports Network – it wasn’t even enough to budge my Sports TV...
View ArticleA random rant.
In most programming guides, ESPN scheduled two hours for the Home Run Derby. At 10 PM ET, two hours into the window, we were late in the second round. Prince Fielder had advanced to the second round...
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Two lesser football leagues complete TV deals
CBS Sports Network continues its acquisition of every professional league no one else wants, completing the long-rumored agreement with the UFL, that league everyone’s heard about but that couldn’t...
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The state of the college football playoff’s TV rights
The so-called “Champions Bowl” may not have a venue or even a proper name, but it does have a TV deal. ESPN will reportedly pay the SEC and Big 12 Rose Bowl money to show the game over the duration of...
View ArticleTying a bow on the Canadian Olympic rights negotiations
Canada’s long national nightmare is over. CBC will be sole broadcaster of the 2014 and 2016 Olympic Games. You may recall how acrimonious the prior negotiations with the IOC were, with CBC’s union with...
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Sizing up NBC’s new French Open contract
After NBC lost the Wimbledon contract, I expected it to be only a matter of time before it lost the contract to the French Open. If NBC didn’t decide it was time to get out of one of the lesser grand...
View ArticleWhat Arab oil has to do with the Premier League – and the sports TV wars
ESPN. Fox. NBC. Al Jazeera? One thing that has become apparent to those following the world of international sports in recent years is that you don’t bleep with oil money. There’s no other way to...
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ESPN extends its baseball contract eight years
I never expected ESPN to not be part of the new baseball contract, but I have to admit I’m left utterly bewildered by the new contract that keeps all three primetime cable games on ESPN… but only gives...
View ArticleRethinking the rest of the Major League Baseball contract
Suddenly ESPN’s agreement with Major League Baseball makes a lot more sense, because of an arrangement I knew about but hadn’t anticipated. The New York Times is reporting that CBS and Turner, evoking...
View ArticleHopefully the last word on the baseball contract until it’s announced
How might Fox use baseball to set up a Fox Sports network when ESPN has locked up all three of its previous packages? Apparently, by taking a page from Turner’s playbook. As it turns out, it’s being...
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Acknowledging the Big 12′s new rights agreement
The Big 12 has announced a 13-year rights agreement with ESPN and Fox that will earn the conference about $20 million per year per school, about on par with other BCS conferences. This agreement was so...
View ArticleReassessing the new sports radio wars
CBS may not just be the favorite to take the #2 spot behind ESPN Radio in the Darwinian world that has developed in national sports radio. It has a chance to run down ESPN for #1. In an absolutely...
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