Fang's Bites

Aug

NBC Extends Rights To French Open Into The Next Decade

by Ken, under NBC Sports, The French Open

After losing the rights to Wimbledon last year, I wondered if NBC would get out of the tennis business, but that idea was shattered this morning.

While it’s in the midst of the Olympics, NBC still had time to negotiate a rights extension to the French Open through 2024. This will keep Roland Garros on network television for 50 consecutive years dating back to 1975. Al Michaels and John McEnroe made the announcement during Olympics Daytime just before the tennis gold medal match this morning.

NBC says the new agreement calls for extended coverage on the network including Memorial Day matches and the women’s semifinals. This year began coverage on the Opening Sunday of play.

However, I still wonder if NBC will do tape delayed shenanigans that was hampered its coverage in the past. NBC states that there will be live streaming of its coverage so it appears the tape delays will remain in place. We shall see.

In any event, here’s the announcement.

NBC SPORTS GROUP EXTENDS FRENCH OPEN PARTNERSHIP THROUGH 2024

New Multi-Year, Multi-Platform Agreement Includes Increased Digital Rights and 10 Additional Hours of Television Coverage Beginning in 2013
Coverage Now Includes Memorial Day play and Women’s Semifinals
NBC will continue to Air Opening Sunday, Middle Weekend and Live Championship Weekend Coverage

LONDON/NEW YORK – August 5, 2012 – The NBC Sports Group and the French Tennis Federation, today announced a multi-year, multi-platform extension that includes 10 more hours of live U.S. television coverage and increased digital rights for the Grand Slam event through 2024. NBC will air the opening Sunday of the tournament, as it did this year for the first time, as well as middle weekend tennis, the men’s and women’s semifinals and the men’s and women’s finals.

This extension brings key days of the tournament to the network, including Memorial Day coverage, and the women’s semifinals rounding out the network’s championship weekend. At the conclusion of this agreement, NBC will have served as the broadcast home of the French Open for 42 consecutive years.

“The French Open is one of the world’s most celebrated sports events,” said Jon Miller, president of programming for NBC Sports and NBC Sports Network. “This ground-breaking agreement will extend our relationship with Roland Garros through 2024, and provides tennis fans with more comprehensive coverage than ever before, including live streaming of more matches.”

“After 30 years of outstanding work in televising the French Open, the French Tennis Federation is thrilled to renew their American network agreement with NBC for a long term period,” said Michel Grach, director of media and sponsorship, French Tennis Federation. “This new agreement will increase NBC’s hours of coverage of the tournament, which will continue to build Roland Garros’ American audience. NBC and FFT reinforce their partnership at a very strategic period in FFT’s history with the start of the new stadium program.”

The French Open will be available for tennis fans on NBCSports.com, where fans can watch live streaming of all of NBC’s coverage. NBCSports.com will also provide daily video highlights and online-only analysis by NBC’s tennis commentators.

In 1975, NBC became the first American television network to provide coverage of the French Open when the network signed a three-year deal with the French Tennis Federation. The tournament was covered by CBS from 1980-82 and returned to NBC in 1983, where it has remained since.

That’s going to do it.

Jun

Guest Column: Grading French Open TV Coverage

by Ken, under ESPN, Guest Column, NBC Sports, Tennis, Tennis Channel, The French Open

We continue the guest columns today. I hope you had a chance to read the first column written by Paul Lebowitz on Joe Buck and Tim McCarver. We’ll continue with the guest columns throughout the week and we certainly have quite a bit of good material for you.

This comes from recent college graduate Ryan Scheb. A tennis fan, Ryan has been watching the French Open on ESPN, NBC and Tennis Channel and he gives his grades to all three rightsholders.

2012 French Open: Media Grades

Three networks, ESPN, The Tennis Channel and NBC have all teamed up to provide all but round-the-clock coverage of tennis’ most grueling tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros. While the three networks are playing nice together, which is a great benefit to viewers, each network still has their own unique style. Here I’ll spend some time analyzing and grading each of the network’s coverage.

ESPN

Last year, ESPN and the Tennis Channel decided to swap coverage windows. ESPN now owns the rights to all courts from 5AM – 10AM Eastern. While ESPN lauded the move as being able to show more live tennis, the French Open schedule makers have put the best matches later in the day – outside ESPN’s viewing window. Many times, the 3^rd match on Court Phillipe Chatrier (Roland Garros’ Center Court) has been the premiere match of the day. This usually starts around 9:30AM, Eastern Time. As ESPN’s window ends at 10AM, they have sometimes elected to not even show the beginning of the match because they will obviously not be able to show it to its conclusion.

That being said, one of the greatest assets of ESPN’s coverage is their ESPN 3 website and Watch ESPN app for iPhones and iPads. Both allow a viewer to watch live coverage of ongoing matches that are not currently airing on ESPN as well as ESPN’s coverage if a television is not available.

While their coverage window at the French Open continues to be somewhat frustrating, their coverage remains first class. I have long said that ESPN’s tennis crew has the best chemistry in all of sports. Tennis, by its very nature, has a bit of a club-like mentality. Because almost all of the broadcasters are put of this club, they all seem to know each other quite well. This makes watching the ESPN coverage of tennis so much fun because viewers can tell that the commentators are more than colleagues, they are friends.

Unfortunately, this exclusive club causes conflicts of interest that some broadcasters have trouble getting over. Patrick McEnroe is the Director of Player Development for the USTA; he also serves as lead analyst for ESPN. McEnroe is a pretty good analyst and he does a fairly good job of overcoming his bias. While he (and the rest of the ESPN team) root for Americans, he seems able to be objective in his commentating.

The same cannot always be said for Mary Joe Fernandez, the captain of the Women’s Fed Cup team. While she is an adequate analyst, although I find her a little boring, I was frustrated with her early in the tournament when she refused to answer a question about which up and coming American tennis player had the best chance to really make it. The response of “they all have some chance” does not serve the viewer well.

Led by the versatile Chris Fowler of College GameDay fame, the entire ESPN crew is the best in the business. Fowler serves as occasional host, although more and more he is calling matches. It is clear that he really enjoys tennis which viewers appreciate. Darren Gilbert, Brad Gilbert, Chris Evert and Pam Shriver join McEnroe and Fernandez as analysts for ESPN. All are good analysts and very comfortable on television. Gilbert is quirky but provides good strategic analysis (he was a very successful coach.) He was at his best during the Djokovic-Tsonga quarterfinal on Tuesday Cahill who joined the team when Gilbert left to coach Andy Murray has really grown into his role as a commentator.

Shriver is a personal favorite, although she can be polarizing. I believe she is the most objective commentator on the team. Ironically, she is the most separate from the “tennis club” mentioned before. Chris (Chrissie) Evert is the newest member of the team; she replaced the outspoken Mary Carillo. Evert is smart, well-spoken and ready to be critical when necessary. But, even with Shriver and Evert, Carillo is missed. (More on her later.) Both Shriver and McEnroe have begun to call matches as “play-by-play commentators” with another analyst. Of course, unlike in other sports, tennis commentators do not actually talk during the points, so very few descriptions of what is happening take place. Nevertheless, both have done well in this role.

Chris McKendry serves as host for the network’s coverage and does a good job. She does a much better job in that role than Hannah Storm. Cliff Drysdale, who was one of ESPN’s first ever employees, continues to call matches with the team. He was not in Paris for the French Open but will rejoin the crew for Wimbledon.

The Grade: A-. Great announcing team, solid production and online streaming give the ESPN tennis team production a very respectable grade.

How to Improve: Cliff Drysdale has probably seen his better days; it is time for him to retire. I’d like to see ESPN get Ted Robinson to help them with Wimbledon and the US Open since he will not be working during either of those tournaments. Also, I’m not a huge fan of Mary Joe Fernandez. She adds little to the commentary and struggles to remain objective. Getting Carillo back would be a HUGE win for ESPN.

Tennis Channel

It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost 10 years since the Tennis Channel was launched. In these quick nine years, it’s come a long way. What once started as an outlet for tennis fanatics to watch no-name tournaments has turned into a must have network for even the faintest of tennis fans. Their turnaround is no more obvious than at the French Open, where they signed their first contract at a Grand Slam back in 2007. Since then they have acquired some sort of rights at all four slams.

Despite having come a long way, there is still room for improvement. Their graphics package looks like it comes from the 1980s and the lack of online streaming is a major drawback. Sunday morning when Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer were struggling, I would have liked to be able to watch both matches. If this took place during ESPN’s television window, that would have been simple with the aforementioned ESPN3. Tennis Channel did not offer that opportunity. This continued during the quarterfinals on Tuesday. Novak Djokovic and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga were in a tight match on Chatrier while Roger Federer and Juan Martin Del Potro were battling on Court Suzanne Lenglen. Tennis Channel, which had coverage until 1PM Eastern Time was only able to show one match at a time. When ESPN took over coverage, I was immediately able to watch both matches thanks to online streaming.

Without question, the French Open is their biggest event of the year. As such, they bring their best crew to Paris. With NBC, they share Ted Robinson, John McEnroe and Mary Carillo. Simply put, there is no better broadcast booth in tennis. Robinson is a pro and he knows how to handle McEnroe, who despite being tennis’ best analyst can be overly talkative. Carillo, although toned down when McEnroe is in the booth, is no stranger to highly opinionated commentary. Carillo is so respected that she is constantly pegged by Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch as one of the best broadcasters of any sport. (Note: For Tennis Channel’s coverage, Carillo does not join Robinson and McEnroe in the booth. Despite the fact that the two are good friends, this is per McEnroe’s request.) The fact that the Tennis Channel uses the best commentary team in all of tennis is impressive.

Unfortunately, the highlights end there. Other analysts for the Tennis Channel include Lindsay Davenport, Rennae Stubbs, Justin Gimelstob and Jon Wertheim. Ian Eagle, Brett Haber, Bill Macatee and Cari Champion round out the team. Davenport and Stubbs are average analysts, but both, Davenport especially, seem extremely shy. Gimelstob is polarizing. While some, including CNBC’s Darren Rovell have given their approval, many others find him annoying, myself included. Tennis Channel’s analysts, save for Carillo and McEnroe, are just a little wet behind the ears. They definitely know the game, but they lack the TV presence that make ESPN’s team such a pleasure to watch.

The Grade: I’ll give the Tennis Channel a B-. Not bad for a network that three years ago would have gotten a D.

How to Improve: Time will help Tennis Channel’s newer analysts. Better graphics and online streaming would greatly enhance their coverage.

NBC

NBC offers very limited coverage of the French Open. Robinson, McEnroe and Carillo do all the commentating for the network. As mentioned, they are a great crew. Frankly, there isn’t too much else to say about the network. They own a three hour window on the weekend days of the tournament and then air some of the men’s semifinals on Friday and the two finals on the final weekend. NBC has been doing tennis for a long time and they know what they are doing, except when it comes to airing live coverage outside of the Eastern Time Zone on weekdays.

The Grade: Not much to grade, so I’ll give them an “S” for Satisfactory. They do the job and do it well.

How to Improve: Live Coverage to all time zones on semifinal Friday.

Overall, tennis fans are treated to pretty good coverage. ESPN is by far the superior network, but both the Tennis Channel and NBC do a nice job rounding out the coverage. Looking ahead, ESPN has complete coverage of Wimbledon this year, from the first serve to championship point. Mercifully, gone are the days where NBC would take over midday during the 2^nd week of the tournament and then refuse to air live coverage to the entire country. ESPN will air the tournament live to the entire country, plus every television court will be available on ESPN 3/Watch ESPN throughout the tournament, including the finals. This is a great victory for tennis fans!

Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Ryan Scheb graduated from the University of Florida; he majored in Finance. This fall he will move to New York City where he will join the Volunteer Program at Cristo Rey New York High School. Ryan is a diehard Packers fan/owner and longtime tennis fan. He has always had an interest in sports media and loves to write so he had a lot of fun writing this guest column.

And we have more guest columns coming tomorrow. Thanks for reading.

May

Tennis Channel Re-Airs Serena Williams-Virginie Razzano Match

by Ken, under Tennis Channel, The French Open

Earlier today, Serena Williams lost her very first match in a Grand Slam Tournament first round. She had previously won all of her 45 first round Grand Slam tournament matches, but after winning the first set 6-4, she lost the last two sets, 7-6 and 6-3. The last game was epic taking over 20 minutes and Serena fighting off 8 match points before finally succumbing.

The match lasted three hours and three minutes. If you missed any part or all of the match, Tennis Channel will air it in its entirety on French Open Tonight which is on three times at 7 p.m., 10 p.m. and 1 a.m.

If I heard it right, Ian Eagle and Lindsay Davenport called the match.

Here’s the press blurb from Tennis Channel.

Tennis Channel French Open Programming Alert

Serena Williams lost in the first round of a major tournament for the first time in her career, falling to Virginie Razzano of France 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3 Tuesday at the French Open.

Tennis Channel will show this match in its entirety tonight (May 29) at 7 p.m., 10 p.m., and 1 a.m. ET as the first part of French Open Tonight.

That’s it.

May

NBC Begins French Open Coverage This Weekend; Still Pulling Tape Delay BS

by Ken, under NBC Sports, The French Open

NBC Sports begins coverage of its one and only remaining Grand Slam tennis tournament, the French Open on Sunday. Last year, the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club awarded the rights for Wimbledon exclusively to ESPN after NBC pulled another year of tape delay BS. Well, NBC is expanding its coverage of the French Open to include the very first day of play, this Sunday at noon ET after ESPN2 and Tennis Channel begin their coverage in the morning.

Then NBC will have coverage the following weekend, Saturday, June 2 and Sunday, June 3 starting at noon ET both days. It will return with the Men’s Semifinals, most likely picking up the second one in progress at 11 a.m. live on the East Coast and airing in ALL TIMES ZONES AT 11 A.M.!!!! Once again, NBC is pulling tape delayed BS giving the West Coast a match that will mostly likely be over when it begins to air at 11 a.m. PT.

NBC does point out that it will stream its coverage of the Men’s Semifinals live across the country on NBCSports.com so those stuck in time zones with a tape delay can see it in real time on their computers.

Ted Robinson, John McEnroe and Mary Carillo call the matches for NBC as well as for Tennis Channel.

Here’s the NBC announcement.

NBC SPORTS GROUP’S EXPANDED FRENCH OPEN COVERAGE BEGINS THIS SUNDAY ON NBC

20 Hours from the 2012 French Open on NBC Culminates with Live Coverage of the Woman’s Final on Saturday, June 9 and the Men’s Final on Sunday, June 10
This Marks NBC’s 30^th Consecutive Year as the Broadcast Home of the French Open
“He has a chance to basically say, ‘I’m the best ever.’” – NBC’s John McEnroe on Nadal
“Rafael Nadal will go down in history as the greatest-ever clay-courter, eclipsing the luminous Bjorn Borg, but Roger Federer continues to dominate the ‘greatest ever’ dialogue.” – NBC’s Mary Carillo
“It’s amazing that he still has that hunger and passion. It sort of reminds me of what I see with Kobe Bryant.” – McEnroe on Federer

NEW YORK – May 23, 2012 – NBC’s 20 hours of 2012 French Open coverage begins this Sunday, 12 noon ET, with live opening-round coverage, and culminates with the Women’s Final on June 9 and the Men’s Final on June 10. In all, NBC will broadcast 20 hours from Roland Garros, including coverage on the first Sunday of play for the first time.

Defending champion Rafael Nadal has won six French Open titles (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011). With a win this year he will surpass Bjorn Borg for the most men’s French Open championships in the Open era.

COMMENTATORS: Host Ted Robinson anchors NBC’s coverage, joined by analysts John McEnroe and Mary Carillo. McEnroe and Carillo teamed to win the mixed doubles title at the 1977 French Open. This is NBC’s 30^th consecutive year televising the event.

MCENROE ON NADAL’S PLACE IN TENNIS HISTORY: “He still has the chance to be the best player in history. So that alone is something pretty major. I’ve long considered Roger Federer to be the greatest in history, but Nadal sort of knocked on the door with a winning record over Roger. (Rod) Laver was my other guy and then (Pete) Sampras. Those are the four best.”

MCENROE ON NADAL’S STANDING ON CLAY: “This is sort of a historic event, because my buddy and rival Bjorn Borg won six out of eight and only lost twice at the French Open. Nadal’s won six and lost only once, so he has a chance to basically say ‘I’m the best ever.’”

CARILLO ON NADAL-FEDERER: “Rafael Nadal will go down in history as the greatest-ever clay-courter, eclipsing the luminous Bjorn Borg, but Roger Federer continues to dominate the ‘greatest-ever’ dialogue. A second French Open title from Roger would cement his superiority over Laver, Sampras…even Rafael, until and unless the Spaniard racks up more Wimbledons and U.S. Open titles.”

MCENROE ON NADAL-FEDERER: “Nadal-Federer is something that we’ll look back on and realize that this is one of the all-time great rivalries.”

MCENROE ON FEDERER’S DRIVE: “It’s amazing that he still has that hunger and passion. It sort of reminds me of what I see with Kobe Bryant. He’s someone who’s getting on an age but still seems to want it just as badly as in the very beginning of his career.”

MCENROE ON DJOKOVIC: “Don’t forget about Djokovich trying to win four-in-a-row (majors). That’s pretty historic as far as that goes, because that hasn’t happened since Laver did it when he won the Grand Slam.”

MCENROE ON HIS PICK FOR THE MEN’S FINAL: I’d like to see Djokovic-Nadal to see if Djokovic has it in him to be able to beat Rafa for three out of five (sets) on clay.”

CARILLO’S FINAL FOUR PROJECTIONS:
Men: Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Tomas Berdych
Women: Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams, Li Na, Samantha Stosur

FRENCH OPEN ON NBC: Following is the schedule for NBC’s coverage of the 2012 French Open, which culminates with live coverage of the Women’s (June 9) and Men’s (June 10) Finals:

FRENCH OPEN ON NBC

Sunday, May 27 Noon – 3 p.m. ET First Round (Live)

Saturday, June 2 Noon – 3 p.m. ET Third Round (Live)

Sunday, June 3 1 p.m. – 4 p.m. ET Fourth Round (Live)

Friday, June 8 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. (all time zones) Men’s Semifinals (Live ET, tape delayed everywhere else)

Saturday, June 9 9 a.m. – Noon ET Women’s Final (live)

Sunday, June 10 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. ET Men’s Final (Live)

FRENCH OPEN ON NBCSPORTS.COM: Tennis fans can go online to watch a live simulcast of each day of NBC’s coverage including the Men’s and Women’s Finals, and live streaming coverage, across the country, of the Men’s Semifinals on Friday, June 8. NBCSports.com will also provide daily video highlights online-only analysis for NBC’s tennis commentators.

NBC AND THE FRENCH OPEN: In 1975, NBC became the first American television network to provide coverage of the French Open when the network signed a three-year deal with the French Tennis Federation. The tournament was covered by CBS from 1980-82 and returned to NBC in 1983, where it has remained since.

That’s it.

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May

You Need Linkage On That Wall….

by Ken, under Big East, Big Ten Network, CBS Sports, Charles Barkley, College Basketball, College Football, Comcast SportsNet, Dick Enberg, Doc Emrick, ESPN, ESPN 3D, FSN, Lolo Jones, MASN, Michelle Beadle, MLB, MLB Network, MLB Postseason, MLS, NBA, NBC Sports, NBC Sports Network, NFL, NHL, Preakness Stakes, Red Sox Broadcasters, SEC, SNL, Sports Rights Fees, Sports Talk Radio, Super Bowl, Superstation TBS, The French Open, TNT, TV Ratings, Wimbledon

Yes you do. It’s overdue. I thought being on unemployment would give me more time for doing the site. Instead, I have less. I don’t know how that’s happened.

Anyway, here are some links for you.

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand has soon-to-be NBC’s Michelle Beadle saying even she’s sick of the coverage on where she’s going next.

Michael takes a look at the Weekend TV ratings.

Nicole Auerbach of USA Today says Laurie Fine, wife of ex-Syracuse assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine, has officially filed her libel lawsuit against ESPN.

At Sports Business Journal, John Ourand and Michael Smith report that the Southeastern Conference, in the midst of restructuring its media rights deal with CBS and ESPN, could be resurrecting its plans to start an SEC Channel.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News goes over the “trade” between TBS and MLB Network giving the young network its first postseason action this season.

Tim Baysinger of Broadcasting & Cable says ESPN 3D will air the last five days of Wimbledon later this summer.

David Mercer of the Associated Press says citing low ratings, the Big Ten Network will drop academic non-sports programming in order to air higher rated sports.

Anthony Crupi of Adweek talks about GM pulling out of advertising in Super Bowl XLVII.

Brian Clapp at Sports TV Jobs tells aspiring sports TV anchors how to thrive in local markets despite the shrinking amount of time in newscasts.

Dan Fogarty from SportsGrid has video of TNT’s Charles Barkley admitting to America that he waxes his eyebrows.

Eric Goldschein of SportsGrid has this funny video of Saturday Night Live’s Jay Pharoah getting Stephen A. “A is for Acrimonious” Smith down pat.

From the New Haven Register, David Borges talks with long-time Red Sox radio voice and Connecticut native Joe Castiglione about his career and his new book.

Ken Schott at the Schenectady Gazette talks about CBS Sports sublicensing some college basketball games from ESPN.

Pete Dougherty in the Albany Times Union has the French Open TV schedule.

Pete says the overnight ratings for the Preakness Stakes dropped double digits from last year.

Jonathan Tannenwald of Philly.com says NBC Sports Network will tap some familiar names to call MLS action this weekend.

David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun says NBC got the job done in its Preakness Stakes production.

Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog says Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic is on the RGIII train.

The increasingly bitter Thomas Boswell of the WaPo feels MASN should pony up for the Washington Nationals media rights.

Jim Williams at the Washington Examiner writes that outgoing NFL Network insider Jason La Canfora is looking forward to working and writing for CBS.

Eric Deggans of the Tampa Bay Times says two writers from the newspaper including sports media writer Tom Jones will co-host a new morning show for the local sports radio station. Jones will now stop covering sports radio to avoid a conflict of interest.

Iliana Limón Romero of the Orlando Sentinel says the Big East is hopeful of finding a suitable TV suitor for the league.

David Barron from the Houston Chronicle has some sports media observations.

Mel Bracht at The Oklahoman writes that TNT’s Charles Barkley is looking forward to visiting Oklahoma City for the NBA Western Conference Finals.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer writes that the Reds gave local radio station WLW a big ratings win last month.

Bob Wolfley in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel looks at the local weekend ratings.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says a technical glitch forced Cardinals fans to watch Fox Sports San Diego’s feed of last night’s Redbirds-Padres game and listen to Dick Enberg which is not a bad thing at all.

Bryce Miller of the Des Moines Reigster says Iowan and Olympics hurdler Lolo Jones is on a media blitz.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says the Dodgers will honor long-time Spanish radio voice Jaime Jarrin next month.

Timothy Burke at Deadspin has video of NBC Sports Network’s Doc Emrick ripping diving in soccer.

Steve Lepore of Puck The Media says ratings for the NHL Conference Finals on the NBC Sports Group are down.

Matt Yoder of Awful Announcing has some of Pam Ward’s “Greatest” hits over her years calling college football.

That will do it for now.

May

Tennis Channel Announces French Open Coverage Plans; New Start Time

by Ken, under Tennis Channel, The French Open

As the primary cable TV rightsholder for the French Open, Tennis Channel will carry the bulk of the action live from Roland Garros and the red clay in Paris.

Ted Robinson, Ian Eagle and Brett Haber will be call matches as will Mary Carillo. On the analysis will be John McEnroe, Martina Navratilova, Lindsay Davenport, Justin Gimblestob and Rennae Stubbs. Bill Macatee will be the host during live action as well as French Open Tonight which airs nightly at 7 p.m. ET.

Sports Illustrated’s Jon Wertheim will be the insider for Tennis Channel’s coverage.

For the first six days of the tournament, Tennis Channel will hit the air at 10 a.m. ET and lasting until the final match is concluded. During the first weekend of play, Tennis Channel will be on all morning starting at 5 ET and going until NBC starts its coverage.

Then in the second week, Tennis Channel’s coverage will be on Monday (June 4), Tuesday (June 5) and Friday (June 8).

We have Tennis Channel’s plans for you.

TENNIS CHANNEL’S FRENCH OPEN COVERAGE BEGINS MAY 27

McEnroe, Navratilova, Davenport, Carillo, Macatee, Robinson, Eagle, Haber, and Others Headed to Paris for Network
More than 250 Hours of Overall Tournament Coverage to Run from May 27-June 10, with 59 Live-Match Hours, 36 First-Run Hours of French Open Tonight and 12 Hours of Daily French Tennis Federation Highlights
At Least 300 Live-Match Hours Available for Free on www.tennischannel.com

LOS ANGELES, May 21, 2012 -Tennis Channel, the only 24-hour, television-based multimedia destination dedicated to both the professional sport and tennis lifestyle, will offer close to 60 hours of live matches and more than 140 match hours overall during its sixth year of French Open coverage, from Sunday, May 27, to Sunday, June 10. The network will air almost two dozen hours of encore men’s and women’s singles semifinal and championship telecasts as part of a programming format that will see the channel’s 24-hour schedule almost entirely dedicated to the world’s most prestigious clay-court competition for two weeks.

A typical day’s French Open schedule on Tennis Channel this year will feature live matches from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. ET, followed by four hours of encore coverage of the tournament’s best competitions, regardless of whether they first ran on Tennis Channel or broadcast partners NBC or ESPN2 (a complete schedule follows, below). At 7 p.m. ET French Open Tonight, hosted by Bill Macatee, will showcase three hours of interviews, analysis, highlights, encore match segments and special reports, set on a stage above the tournament’s central Musketeer Plaza. In all, Tennis Channel will air 36 first-run hours of the nightly prime-time show (with 114 hours overall). Following two consecutive French Open Tonight encores, at 4 a.m. ET daily tournament highlights of the French Tennis Federation (the governing body of the event) will run for an hour before a new day of coverage runs on ESPN2 from 5 a.m.-10 a.m.

Tennis Channel and ESPN2 have worked together since 2007 to bring viewers virtually non-stop, 24-hour coverage of the French Open. Each network cross-promotes the other’s schedule while using its own on-air talent, with Tennis Channel producing all telecasts for both channels.

On-Air Talent

As it has done since its first year of French Open coverage in 2007, Tennis Channel will field an all-star team of on-air talent this year in Paris, with Hall of Famers John McEnroe and Martina Navratilova taking the helm as lead analysts for the sixth consecutive year. The lineup also features Grand Slam-champion Lindsay Davenport and sportscaster Mary Carillo who, through her heartfelt special reports for numerous networks and refreshingly candid demeanor, is one of America’s most popular television sports presences today.

“It’s always great to get back to Paris with John, Mary, Bill, Lindsay and the rest of the Tennis Channel team,” said Navratilova. “It will be interesting to see if the two thirty-somethings – Roger Federer and Serena Williams – will be able to stay the in-form players and win on what is their least favorite and favorable surface.”

Household television-sports names Ted Robinson, Ian Eagle and Brett Haber will handle play-by-play responsibilities during Tennis Channel’s 2012 French Open coverage, with assists from analysts and former players Justin Gimelstob and Rennae Stubbs. Sports Illustrated‘s voice of tennis Jon Wertheim will add his expert opinion throughout the two-week event, while Tennis Channel Court Report host Cari Champion will maintain increasingly expanding social media duties. Macatee, as host of French Open Tonight, will once again interview the players, coaches, industry executives and others who will write the storylines at this year’s tournament.

Broadband Coverage

This year during the French Open more than 300 hours of live matches will be available for free on Tennis Channel’s Web site, www.tennischannel.com, an increase of more than 100 hours over 2011. Also new, online streaming will run from 5 a.m. ET through the end of the day’s play, marking the first time broadband matches will be available live regardless of whether or not Tennis Channel’s television-coverage window is taking place. Viewers can access up to five courts at the same time during live windows the first week of the tournament and then view on-demand archived matches after play has stopped each evening. The site will also feature daily highlights, interviews, features and segments from French Open Tonight, along with real-time scoring, interactive tournament draws, sweepstakes information, photos and the network’s “Racquet Bracket” tournament prediction game. Digital offerings also include regular updates from veteran tennis reporters Steve Flink, Joel Drucker and Matt Cronin, in addition to posts from tennis blogger Erwin Ong.

Tennis Channel’s Live 2012 French Open Match Schedule
(Men’s/Women’s Singles Unless Otherwise Specified)

Date                                        Time (ET)                  Event

Sunday, May 27                      10 a.m.-3 p.m.             First-Round Action

Monday, May 28                    10 a.m.-3 p.m.             First-Round Action

Tuesday, May 29                    10 a.m.-3 p.m.             First-Round Action

Wednesday, May 30               10 a.m.-3 p.m.             Second-Round Action

Thursday, May 31                   10 a.m.-3 p.m.             Second-Round Action

Friday, June 1                         10 a.m.-3 p.m.             Third-Round Action

Saturday, June 2                     5 a.m.-Noon                Third-Round Action

Sunday, June 3                        5 a.m.-1 p.m.               Round-of-16 Action

Monday, June 4                      10 a.m.-3 p.m.             Round-of-16 Action

Tuesday, June 5                      8 a.m.-1 p.m.               Quarterfinals

Friday, June 8                         7 a.m.-11 a.m.             Men’s Semifinal

Tennis Channel will also offer same-day replays of singles quarterfinal and semifinal matches, and encore coverage of the men’s and women’s championships after the close of play on the final Sunday (ET):

Wednesday, June 6 – 1 p.m.-7 p.m.: men’s and women’s singles quarterfinals

Thursday, June 7 – 1 p.m.-7 p.m.: women’s singles semifinals

Friday, June 8 – 5 p.m.-midnight: men’s semifinals

Sunday, June 10 – 2 p.m.-6 p.m. and 8 p.m.-midnight: men’s final; 6 p.m.-8 p.m.: women’s final

Tennis Channel’s French Open Tonight Schedule

French Open Tonight airs Sunday, May 27-Thursday, June 7. Most nights the program airs from 7 p.m.-10 p.m. (all times ET), and is repeated twice upon conclusion, from 10 p.m.-1 a.m. and 1 a.m.-4 a.m. There are two exceptions during the tournament’s middle weekend. Saturday, June 2, French Open Tonight will first run from 3 p.m.-6 p.m., followed by three-straight encores: 6 p.m.-9 p.m., 9 p.m.-midnight, 12 a.m.-3 a.m. The schedule on Sunday, June 3, is similar but begins one hour later, with a 4 p.m.-7 p.m. premiere, and 7 p.m.-10 p.m., 10 p.m.-1 a.m. and 1 a.m.-4 a.m. repeats.

That will do it.

May

ESPN2 Announces French Open Coverage Plans; New Start Time

by Ken, under ESPN2, ESPN3.com, Tennis, The French Open

Starting Sunday, the second Grand Slam tournament on the Tennis calendar begins in Paris. Officially known as “Les internationaux de France de Roland-Garros”, the French Open will go for two weeks. ESPN2 will have live tennis action for the first 6 days of the tournament starting at 5 a.m. ET and will last until 10 a.m. ET. During the second week, ESPN2′s start time will differ as the network has live coverage of the Round of 16 through to the Women’s Semifinals. For the previous four years, ESPN2 had begun its coverage at noon ET and went until 5 p.m. or until the conclusion of its matches.

Now as ESPN2 and Tennis Channel enter a new phase of joint Grand Slam coverage, ESPN2 which is the secondary rightsholder for this tournament will kick off the day with Tennis Channel picking things up from 10 a.m. ET until the conclusion.

Chris Fowler and Chris McKendry will share host duties. Fowler will be the main announcer as well. Chris Evert, Patrick McEnroe, Darren “Killer” Cahill, Brad Gilbert, Mary Joe Fernandez and Pam Shriver will all be on hand for ESPN2. Cliff Drysdale will skip Roland Garros and will be back for Wimbledon.

We have ESPN’s schedule of coverage.

ESPN at the French Open: New TV Schedule Live Every Day; Evert’s ESPN/Paris Debut

Djoker-Slam for Novak? Are Azarenka, Serena & Maria a New Big Three?
Action on ESPN2 HD & ESPN3 Starts Sunday, May 27; Women’s Semis Live June 7

The best tennis players in the world are headed for a collision on the red clay of Paris: Roland Garros, the 2012 French Open starting on ESPN2 HD and ESPN3 on Sunday, May 27. ESPN2’s new schedule of live action every day – starting at 5 a.m. ET most days – continues weekdays through Thursday, June 7, culminating with the women’s semifinals. ESPN3 will provide up to seven screens of action on the days ESPN2 is on the air, totaling 320 hours.

Chris Evert, who won the French Open a record seven times among her 18 Major singles championships, will work the event for ESPN for the first time. She joined the ESPN tennis team at last year’s Wimbledon.

The Storylines

Both sides of the draw present intriguing storylines, as challengers to the “trivalry” of Djokovic/Federer/Nadal (winners of 27 of the last 28 Majors) seem to be closing and the previously wide-open women’s field seems to be coalescing around a new “Big Three.”

Defending and six-time champ Rafael Nadal is ranked No. 2, after beating top-seeded Novak Djokovic in the finals in Rome on May 21. The Serb has won the last three Majors and is seeking a historic “Djoker Slam,” but has never reached the final in Paris. Roger Federer, a finalist a year ago, has the best record on the tour since the US Open. After that, No. 4 Andy Murray had a career-best semifinal appearance last year and a slew of contenders are threatening to break up the Fab Four – local favorites Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils, David Ferrer, Tomas Berdych, Janko Tipsarevic, Juan Martin Del Potro and 6-9 American John Isner who recently cracked the Top 10 in rankings for the first time.

On the women’s side, Victoria Azarenka, who recently ascended to the world’s top ranking, enters Paris off a tremendous early season including an Australian Open title but also recent losses to Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams. The trio seems to have separated themselves from the field in creating a new triumvirate at the top of the women’s game. No. 2 Sharapova, the Aussie runnerup and winner last week in Rome, would love a French title to complete a career Grand Slam, and Williams, the 2002 champion, is playing far better than her No. 5 ranking. In addition, the field includes four other former champions (Ana Ivanovic, Li Na, Francesca Schiavone and Svetlana Kuznetsova) plus Venus Williams continues her comeback and enters her first Major since her sudden withdrawal from the US Open.

TV Coverage

After the opening day, ESPN2’s schedule will continue with an all-live telecast starting at 5 a.m. each day through Friday, June 1 and again on Monday, June 4. The network will air live quarterfinal action Tuesday, June 5, at 1 p.m. and Wednesday, June 6 at 8 a.m. ESPN2 will air the women’s semifinals live Thursday, June 7 at 8 a.m. All the action on ESPN2 is also available through WatchESPN online at WatchESPN.com and on smartphones and tablets via the WatchESPN app.

Chris Fowler and Chris McKendry will again share host duties on ESPN2, with Fowler also calling matches. They will be joined by Evert, along with returnees Darren Cahill, Mary Joe Fernandez, Brad Gilbert, Patrick McEnroe and Pam Shriver. Cliff Drysdale will rejoin the team next month for ESPN’s first-ever exclusive start-to-finish coverage of Wimbledon.

For the sixth consecutive year, ESPN2 is working with Tennis Channel to bring viewers an almost around-the-clock tournament experience, with each channel cross-promoting the other’s schedule. Tennis Channel will produce all coverage for both channels, with each making use of its own on-air team.

ESPN3

ESPN3’s French Open schedule totals 328 hours with a multi-screen offering of up to seven courts and ESPN2’s coverage and is available on the days the network is televising. ESPN3 will begin each day early in the morning with the first ball in the air and continue to the last shot of the day. Matches will also be available after they take place via replay. Additionally, ESPNPlay in Latin America and the Caribbean will provide customers with extensive live coverage with multiple windows totaling over 500 hours in both English and Spanish on broadband platforms in addition to televised coverage throughout the regions.

ESPN3 is ESPN’s live multi-screen sports network, a 24/7 destination that delivers thousands of global sports events annually and accessible online via WatchESPN.com, on smartphones and tablets via the WatchESPN app and through ESPN on Xbox LIVE to Gold level members. It is currently available to 73 million homes at no additional cost to fans who receive their high-speed Internet connection or video subscription from an affiliated service provider. The network is also available at no cost to approximately 21 million U.S. college students and U.S.-based military personnel via computers connected to on-campus educational networks and on-base military networks.

Other ESPN Platforms

Fans will have a variety of ways to follow the French Open with live action and updates on an array of ESPN platforms wherever they are and regardless of whether there is live television offered.

ESPN.com will provide comprehensive coverage before, during and after the French Open, highlighted by an enhanced Courtcast section that – for the first time – will feature all the live action from ESPN3. As always, it will also include real-time scoring from all courts, plus continuous live polling with results revealed immediately in ESPN2’s telecasts. In addition to all the results, news, analysis, schedules and more, ESPN.com will provide live blogging throughout the tournament so fans can follow the action even when there is no live television coverage. Also, fans can watch Digital Serve daily with ESPN2 commentators discussing the latest action and previewing key matches. Other highlights include:

The Latest Dirt – a daily notebook roundup of all the day’s action;

Center Court – a tennis video show featured each week on all the major news from Roland Garros;

Quest for the Quad – a daily look at Novak Djokovic via previews, match reactions, blogs and more as he attempts to complete the “Djoker Slam” for winning four straight majors;

Slam Central – comprehensive coverage of everything that transpired each day;

What We Learned – ESPN.com senior writer Greg Garber and others will highlight the day’s news and notes with quick video snippets on the overlooked storylines.

The WatchESPN App – for fans who receive ESPN’s linear networks as part of their video subscription via Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks, Verizon FiOS TV or Comcast Xfinity – will provide access to for ESPN2’s live coverage online at WatchESPN.com and through the WatchESPN app on smartphones and tablets, in addition to ESPN3’s multi-screen offering.

ESPN Mobile TV will have 51 hours of live coverage, simulcasting all of ESPN2’s live programming, highlighted by the women’s semifinals Thursday, June 7.

ESPN Interactive TV, exclusive to DIRECTV, will present the French Open showing ESPN2 or Tennis Channel’s live coverage along with five other courts available with commentary. Other features include interactive data, the tournament draw, up-to-date scores, and daily order of play.

ESPN International will present up to 130 hours of the French Open to more than 60 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean on a variety of regional networks. Matches will be chosen based on local interest and commentary will be offered in Spanish, Portuguese and English.

ESPN – All Four Slams, All In One Place

Tennis has been part of ESPN since its first week on the air and provided many memorable moments, but it has never been as important as today, with the US Open joining the lineup in 2009, giving ESPN all four Grand Slam events, something no other U.S. network has ever done, let alone in one year. ESPN has presented the Australian Open since 1984, the French Open since 2002 (plus 1986 – 1993), and Wimbledon since 2003, with exclusivity for live television with all other rights extended added in a 12-year agreement starting in 2012.

ESPN debuted September 7, 1979, and the first tennis telecast was exactly one week later, September 14, a Davis Cup tie, Argentina at U.S. from Memphis with Cliff Drysdale on the call and John McEnroe playing.

In addition, broadband network ESPN3, now in nearly 72 million homes, carries thousands of hours of tennis annually, including all four Grand Slam events, plus ATP 1000 and 500 tournaments and WTA Premier Events, and season-ending championships for both tours. Also, ESPN Classic shows great matches from the past and the sport receives extensive coverage on SportsCenter, ESPNEWS, Spanish-language ESPN Deportes, ESPN Radio, ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine. ESPN 3D aired its first tennis at Wimbledon in 2011.

2012 French Open on ESPN2 & ESPN2 HD

Date Time (ET) Event

Sun, May 27 –
Fri, June 1 5 – 10 a.m. Early Round Action Live

Mon, June 4 5 – 10 a.m. Round of 16 Live

Tue, June 5 1 – 7 p.m. Quarterfinals Live & Same-day action

Wed, June 6 8 a.m. – 1 p.m. Quarterfinals Live

Thur, June 7 8 a.m. – 1 p.m. Women’s Semifinals Live

2012 French Open on ESPN3

Date Time (ET) Event

Sun, May 27 –
Fri, June 1 5 a.m. – 3 p.m. Early Round Action Live

Mon, June 4 8 a.m. – 7 p.m. Round of 16 Live

Tue, June 5 8 a.m. – 7 p.m. Quarterfinals Live

Wed, June 6 5 a.m. – 1 p.m. Quarterfinals Live

Thur, June 7 5 a.m. – 1 p.m. Men’s Doubles Semis
Women’s Semifinals Live

That will do it.

Oct

Doing Some Tuesday Linkage

by Ken, under Big 12, CBS Sports, College Football, College Hockey, Comcast SportsNet, E:60, Erin Andrews, ESPN, Fox Sports, Joe Buck, MASN, MLB, MLB Postseason, Monday Night Football, MSG Network, NBC Sports, NFL, NFL Network, NHL, Sunday Night Football, Superstation TBS, Tennis Channel, The French Open, Time Warner Cable, Train Wrecks, TV Ratings, Versus, WFAN

Having spent most of the day at the Providence Civic Center and the Rhode Island Convention Center for a seminar, I wasn’t able to provide linkage. I’ve collected quite a few links for you today so let’s get to them.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today goes over the ratings from the weekend and notes that the NFL regular season had no problem in the ratings with the MLB Postseason.

Lindsay Powers from the Hollywood Reporter writes that the Anti-Defamation League is setting its sights on Hank Williams, Jr. for his remarks on President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner which led ESPN to pull his open from last night’s Monday Night Football game.

Sports Business Daily has a recap on the entire Hank Williams, Jr. controversy.

John Ourand at Sports Business Journal says the Philadelphia Phillies climbed to the top of the local MLB ratings for this season.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News reports on the Tennis Channel’s long-term extension to carry the French Open.

Andy Katz of ESPN.com reports that the Big 12 member schools have agreed on a plan that will distribute TV rights money equally among the institutions.

Tom Van Riper of Forbes.com reports that a Nielsen study has found that women make up a large portion of the sports audience.

Maggie Hendricks of Yahoo wonders when female sports reporters will stop being the target of some cruel male fans.

Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo’s Puck Daddy writes that with the NHL season fast approaching, the league has yet to sign a deal to air its games in all of Europe. Yes, ALL of Europe.

Phil Swann of TV Predictions says TBS has gotten it right with its HD coverage of the MLB Postseason.

At Media Bistro’s TVSpy, Andrew Gauthier has the video of a Seattle TV reporter not editing out the swears while reading live on the air a Seahawks fan chat from the station’s website.

The Big Lead has a picture of ESPN’s Erin Andrews and her trophy boyfriend.

Timothy Burke of SportsGrid has video that shows two things on one play, first the Cowboys’ Felix Jones is is not a MENSA candidate and Joe Buck and Troy Aikman had no idea it was 4th down.

To Bob’s Blitz which has audio of WFAN’s Mike Francesa pulling a nutty on the New York Jets for their performance in Baltimore on Sunday Night Football.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell finds that using the color pink in the NFL’s Breast Cancer Awareness campaign may be counterproductive to its message.

Darren wonders why Mercedes-Benz chose the New Orleans Superdome to purchase naming rights.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times looks into the extremely lengthy NFL Network-Time Warner Cable dispute.

Richard also delves into the Hank Williams, Jr./Monday Night Football mess.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union says local college hockey will be heard on two stations.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette writes that Time Warner Cable also gets into the local college hockey act.

Dan Steinberg at the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog talks with MASN Nationals analyst F.P. Santangelo on his first year on the job.

Dan says Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic has raided MSG Network for its new Capitals studio host.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner says both Sunday Night Football and the MLB Postseason are doing well in the ratings.

Michael Kruse and Lane DeGregory of the St. Petersburg Times looks at two fans who made both the Tampa Bay Rays and the Buccaneers games on the same night.

David Barron at the Houston Chronicle has a look at some local college football and NFL ratings.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer says ESPN’s E:60 will do a story on former Bengals running back Ickey Woods and his foundation to promote asthma and organ donation awareness.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes that the Green Bay Packers drew their largest ratings of the season on Sunday.

Bob says Versus’ Turning Point will focus on the Packers’ Aaron Rodgers.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says the Dodgers will be changing flagship radio stations next season.

Sports Media Watch says the opener for the NLDS between Arizona and Milwaukee was a mixed bag for TBS.

SMW says Cards-Phils Game 1 was down.

SMW notes that Tigers-Yankees didn’t do well either.

To the NFL, SMW notes that Fox was the ratings winner in Week 4.

SMW tells us that CBS continues in a downward spiral for the NFL.

SMW informs us that NBC’s ratings for Sunday Night Football were down.

And Monday Night Football also took a big hit according to SMW.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media has the final numbers for Versus’ preseason NHL games.

That’s going to do it.

Oct

Tennis Channel Renews Its Rights Deal With The French Open Into The Next Decade

by Ken, under Tennis Channel, The French Open

This just in from Tennis Channel. It has renewed its rights deal to be the main US cable TV rightsholder for the 2nd Grand Slam on the tennis calendar. The new contract will through 2022 ensuring the the event will be on Tennis Channel for a full decade. Tennis Channel began as the main cable rightsholder in 2007, sharing coverage with ESPN2. Starting next year, Tennis Channel and ESPN2 will begin a new schedule with ESPN2 starting its French Open coverage at 5 a.m. Eastern with Tennis Channel taking over the rest of the day at 10 a.m. ET. Previously Tennis Channel started at 5 a.m. with ESPN2 taking over at noon.

The new agreement with the French Open includes all digital rights. We have the press release from Tennis Channel below.

TENNIS CHANNEL EXTENDS FRENCH OPEN RIGHTS AGREEMENT: WILL COVER PARIS GRAND SLAM THROUGH 2022

For Next Decade Network to Remain Home of Roland Garros, Sport’s Most Prestigious Clay-Court Championship and First of the Summer Season’s Three Coveted Majors

LOS ANGELES and PARIS, Oct. 4, 2011 -Tennis Channel and the French Tennis Federation (FFT) have agreed to a multi-year extension of the French Open rights package that has been in place since 2007, keeping the network as the primary non-broadcast home of the world’s preeminent clay-court championship for years to come. Today Gilbert Ysern, general manager, FFT, and tournament director, French Open; Michel Grach, media and sponsorship director, FFT; and Ken Solomon, chairman and CEO, Tennis Channel; announced the extension, which runs through 2022.

Tennis Channel has covered Roland Garros (commonly referred to as the French Open) since 2007. The new agreement continues the network’s previously existing exclusive U.S. non-broadcast media rights to all French Open matches. In addition to television, this includes streaming, digital, mobile, video on demand and “TV Everywhere,” as well as access to the FFT’s extensive media archives.

“It is wonderful to extend our relationship with Tennis Channel on a long-term basis,” said Ysern. “Our partnership has led to an innovative and exciting way for Americans to celebrate and enjoy Roland Garros, with far more live coverage than ever and groundbreaking prime-time and late-night telecasts.”

“Tennis Channel has uniquely framed the French Open with a respect for the history of our event and our host city Paris,” added Grach. “Our partnership is integral as we evolve Roland Garros’ future, and we look forward to many great tournaments and champions together in the decade ahead.”

“We couldn’t be more thrilled that Tennis Channel is going to be the French Open’s home for at least another 10 years,” said Solomon. “As the first Grand Slam that we ever covered, Roland Garros holds a special place in our hearts. Together with the FFT, we proved that the more tennis you put on TV, the more American audiences want to watch; they simply can’t get enough. Our partnership has helped grow awareness for the sport itself – with 24-hour scheduling, multiple broadband streams, digital television multi-screens and 3-D – and we’re thankful and excited to continue this arrangement.”

Tennis Channel altered the Grand Slam television landscape with its initial coverage of the French Open in 2007, the first of the sport’s four majors to appear on the network. The network became “The Roland Garros Channel,” in effect, with round-the-clock coverage that remained focused on the two-week competition. It showcased more than 70 live-match hours and more than 100 overall, and brought in an on-air talent roster that included Hall of Famers John McEnroe and Martina Navratilova, and sportscasters Bill Macatee, Ted Robinson and Ian Eagle. The team has since grown to feature Lindsay Davenport, Bud Collins and, this past spring, the Emmy Award-winning Mary Carillo.

The network also shifted the traditional tennis-coverage paradigm by introducing high-production prime-time-and-late-night series French Open Tonight, hosted by Macatee. Because much of the French Open takes place while American audiences are at work or school, French Open Tonight gave fans a nightly opportunity to catch up on the day’s on-court action, beginning at 6:30 p.m. ET and airing throughout the night, into the following morning. Encore matches, highlights and special features were supported by Macatee’s signature, extensive interviews with players, coaches, journalists and representatives from all other areas of the sport. The “Olympic style” show became the model for similar daily shows during Tennis Channel’s coverage of each of the other three Grand Slams: Wimbledon, the US Open and the Australian Open.

Tennis Channel’s French Open coverage has also led the way digitally. Beginning with the initial telecast in 2007, visitors to the network’s Web site could access broadband streams of live and on-demand matches, and select distribution partners enabled viewers to access a special “mosaic” channel of multiple courts at the same time or the opportunity to select whichever match they preferred. This year the network became the first in American television to offer 3-D coverage of the French Open, which took place during Memorial Day weekend, May 28-30.

More than countless hours of tournament-dedicated programming and enabling audiences to choose what they wanted to watch, one of the most significant changes Tennis Channel brought to its French Open telecast was its immersive “Grounds Pass” approach. While the greatest players in the world make a two-week journey on the hallowed red clay of Stade Roland Garros each May, the network did not limit its focus to what was happening on the courts. It wanted viewers to feel as though they were out on the tournament grounds themselves, taking in the people and food, activities and culture that make the French Open unique. This method was not confined to the tournament. The French Open is distinctively Parisian, and spring is a time of year when the magical city is praised the world over. Tennis Channel wanted its audiences to experience everything that generates the City of Light’s international charm, and gave the host city its due with special segments throughout its coverage. The formula proved successful with viewers, and has been in place ever since.

And there you have it.

Jun

Cranking Out Some Friday Megalinks

by Ken, under ABC, Boxing, Captain Blowhard, CBS Sports, Comcast, Comcast SportsNet, Dan Patrick, ESPN, ESPN 3D, ESPN Radio, Fox Sports, Grantland, HBO Sports, Jim Nantz, MLB, MLB Network, Mr. Tony, NASCAR, NBA, NBC Sports, Olympics, Soccer, Sports Talk Radio, Tennis, The French Open, TNT, US Open Golf, Versus, Vin Scully

Ok, it’s getting late and in the work day and I need to get these megalinks done. I’ve traveled to the MA office and now back in RI. Let’s get this done so I can watch the Bruins tonight.

All of your Weekend Viewing Picks are right here.

National

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand reviews the HBO documentary on the Bjorn Borg-John McEnroe rivalry.

David Bauder of the Associated Press analyzes how new NBC Sports Group Chairman Mark Lazarus got to keep the Olympics in the network fold.

At Forbes, Mike Ozanian goes inside Comcast’s numbers to see how it can profit from its Olympic bid.

Craig Wolff at the Wall Street Journal says maybe the time has come for sportswriters to abandon the locker room interview.

Sam Eifling of the Columbia Journalism Review looks at Grantland’s debut.

Jonathan Landreth at the Hollywood Reporter notes that a record audience in Communist China watched Li Na win the Women’s Final at the French Open.

Lindsay Rubino from Broadcasting & Cable says Game 5 of the NBA Finals took home a ratings win for ABC on Thursday.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News talks with TNT NASCAR analyst Kyle Petty about the network’s Summer Season of races.

Toni Fitzgerald of Media Life says the NBA Finals also pulled a win in key demographics on Thursday.

Marcus Vanderberg at SportsNewser says last month’s Manny Pacquaio-Shane Mosley fight drew the most buys for a Pacquaio pay per view bout.

Dan Fogarty of SportsGrid notes that the TD Garden in Boston quickly became enamored with actress and Bruins fan Rachel McAdams.

Joe Favorito looks at how the NBA is trying to engage social media throughout its platforms.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says the Yankees might be losing money on Derek Jeter’s chase for 3,000 career hits.

Awful Announcing has Fox Sports’ MLB analyst Mark Grace’s mugshot taken shortly after being arrested for DUI on Memorial Day Weekend.

At Captain Blowhard’s site, we have this great article by Alex French and Howie Kahn on the late, great sports daily, The National, which was way ahead of its time.

Dave Kohl at Major League Programs looks at the news of the week in sports media.

Chris Hadley at The Sports Tube reviews the ESPN on ABC production of Game 5 of the NBA Finals.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media has the final ratings of Games 3 & 4 of the NHL Stanley Cup Final on Versus.

Sports Media Watch notes that Boston (which is more fixated on the Bruins) is not watching the NBA Finals.

SMW looks at how NBA Finals Game 5′s overnight ratings finished lower than last year.

Erik Malinowski of Wired writes how ESPN is trying to keep ESPN 3D in the forefront and not let it slip away.

The Big Lead says ESPN 3D is trying to break out from being a niche channel.

Midwest

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer misses listening to Chicago Cubs radio analyst Ron Santo.

Michael Zuidema at the Grand Rapids (MI) Press talks with MLB Network host Ahmed Fareed about growing up in Michigan and hitting the national stage.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel hears from ESPN’s US Open analysts Andy North and Curtis Strange.

Bob reviews HBO’s McEnroe/Borg documentary.

And Bob looks at ESPN’s new logo for Monday Night Football.

Ed Sherman at Crain’s Chicago Business has his weekly winners and losers in sports business.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch talks about one local sports radio station that turns to a new program director.

And Dan has a few news and notes.

West

Scott D. Pierce of the Salt Lake Tribune talks with CBS’ Jim Nantz who was in Utah when the Tiffany Network plucked him to be its college football host in 1985.

John Maffei in the North County Times reviews the McEnroe/Borg HBO doc.

The Los Angeles Daily News’ Tom Hoffarth writes that Vin Scully’s start on the Hollywood Walk of Fame needs fixing.

East and Mid-Atlantic

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe notes that NBC/Versus analyst Mike Milbury isn’t making any friends on the Vancouver Canucks during the Stanley Cup Final.

Thomas Grillo of the Boston Herald says win or lose, several Bruins players could cash in as commercial pitchmen after the season.

Bill Doyle of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette looks at Comcast SportsNet New England’s Bruins studio hosts.

The Springfield (MA) Republican notes that the Basketball Hall of Fame has named its print and broadcasting inductees for this year.

Newsday’s Neil Best chronicles his day in the MLB ~~Man~~ Fan Cave.

Neil has more on his day at the Fan Cave and the two men who are spending the entire MLB season inside.

Neil has his thoughts on NBC’s promise to go live at the Olympics.

Justin Terranova of the New York Post has five questions for ESPN’s Andy North on the upcoming US Open.

Bob’s Blitz recaps Jenn Sterger’s appearance on WFAN’s Boomer and Carton show today.

Pete Dougherty at the Albany Times Union says the US Open will be missing a big storyline when ESPN opens its coverage next week.

Jeff DiVeronica of the Rochester (NY) Democrat and Chronicle says local soccer and Brazilian superstar Marta will be featured on an ESPN documentary.

Evan Weiner at the New Jersey Newsroom says the new Olympics deal with NBC/Comcast will help to increase your cable television bill.

David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun notes that former Maryland basketball coach Gary Williams will be an analyst on Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic’s US Open coverage next week.

Dave Hughes in Press Box says the host of a University of Maryland sports-themed show hopes to expand it outside of the Baltimore area.

Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog notes that Tony Kornheiser has reached his limit of shows for the local ESPN Radio affiliate.

In the Washington Examiner, Jim Williams notes that Dan Patrick will be joining NBC’s coverage of the Stanley Cup Final for the rest of the series.

South

Jocelyn Syrstad of the Virginian-Pilot says ESPN is interested in a local beach soccer tournament.

Mark DeCotis of Florida Today profiles a local woman who will be working behind the scenes on TNT’s NASCAR coverage.

Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald talks about the health struggles of two ESPN personalities working the NBA Finals.

Tom Jones of the St. Petersburg Times reviews NBC’s big win in the Olympics bidding this week.

At the Houston Chronicle, David Barron notes that Astros broadcaster Bill Brown will be honored for his service to the team this weekend.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman talks about the McEnroe/Borg and the Olympics bidding.

Canada

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail says looks at the first ratings in city’s sports radio war.

And that’s going to do it.

Jun

French Open Men’s Final Sees Best Overnight Rating in 12 Years

by Ken, under Fox Sports, The French Open, TV Ratings

The French Open men’s final between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer gave NBC its best overnight rating in a dozen years. Sunday’s four set match received a 2.6 rating with a 7 share. That’s up 63% from last year when Nadal beat Robin Soderling rather easily. We have the press release directly from NBC Sports.

BEST OVERNIGHT RATING IN 12 YEARS FOR FRENCH OPEN MEN’S FINAL

Nadal-Federer 4-Set Match Earns 2.6 Overnight; Up 63% From Last Year’s Men’s Final
Friday’s Live Men’s Semifinals On NBC up 30% From Last Year

NEW YORK – June 6, 2011 – NBC Sports’ coverage of yesterday’s French Open men’s final earned the best overnight rating for the event in 12 years, and was up 63 percent from last year’s men’s final, according to overnight data provided today by The Nielsen Company.

Rafael Nadal’s four-set win over Roger Federer earned a 2.6 overnight rating and a 7 share (9 a.m. – 2:15 p.m. ET), up 63 percent from last year’s final (Nadal-Soderling, 1.6/5) and the best overnight for the French Open men’s final since 1999 when Andre Agassi became the last American man to win this event, beating Andrei Nedvedev in a classic five-set match (4.0/12). Nadal’s win ties him with Bjorn Borg for the most men’s French Open wins in the Open era (6).

NADAL-FEDERER FRENCH OPEN FINAL OVERNIGHTS: This marks the fourth time in the last six years that Nadal and Federer met in the French Open finals (all Nadal wins). Below are the overnight ratings for each match:

2011: 2.6/7
2008: 1.8/5
2007: 2.2/6
2006: 2.1/6

On Friday, NBC aired Federer-Djokovic semifinal match live and the conclusion of the Nadal-Murray semifinal match. That drew an overnight rating of 1.3/3, an increase of 30 percent over last year’s semifinals (1.0/3).

NBCSports.com’s live streaming of Friday’s semifinal match produced strong numbers with nearly 120,000 video starts, an average viewing time of 48 minutes per stream and more than 5.7 million total minutes consumed. NBCSports.com’s homepage traffic for the day was five times higher than average.

On Saturday, Li Na became the first Chinese tennis player to win a Grand Slam singles event by defeating the defending champion Francesca Schiavone in straight sets. That match (9 a.m. – 12 noon ET) earned a 1.7 rating and a 5 share, which tied last year for best overnight since 2008.

TOP 10 METERED MARKETS FOR MEN’S FINAL:

1. West Palm Beach, 5.1/12
2. Washington, D.C., 4.0/11
T3. Atlanta, 3.8/9
T3. Richmond, 3.8/9
5. Columbus, 3.7/9
6. New York, 3.6/10
T7. Denver, 3.5/11
T7. Austin, 3.5/9
9. Detroit, 3.3/8
10. Greensboro, 3.2/7

That will do it.

Jun

Time For The Monday Linkage

by Ken, under Big Ten, CBC, College Football, ESPN, ESPN Radio, Fox Sports, HBO, IMG, Marv Albert, NBC Sports, NFL, Olympics, Sporting News Radio, Tennis, The Big Lead, The French Open, Tiger Woods, TV Ratings

After being in the Massachusetts office this morning and needing to run a few errands for the main RI office, I’m now ready to provide links provided I don’t get interrupted at work. You never know. And with the decision to eventually close the MA office due to the slow economy, I may be looking for work so if any blogging networks want to bring on a sports media blogger full-time, please contact me. I’m available any time.

Let’s get to your links.

We start with USA Today’s Michael Hiestand who looks at the Olympic bidding that began today.

Stephen Wilson of the Associated Press reports from Switzerland where the US networks are meeting with the International Olympic Committee, that in its bid, Fox has committed to airing four Olympiads (2014, 2016, 2018, 2020).

Sports Business Daily including reporter Tripp Mickle who’s on the ground in Switzerland looks at the Fox presentation to the IOC today.

While many observers are already handing the Olympics to ESPN or Fox, John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal writes that new NBC Sports Group Chairman Mark Lazarus isn’t coming into these Olympic negotiations cold and raw.

Tripp and John have a podcast at Sports Business Journal in which they predict the winner of the Olympic bidding. Their picks might surprise you.

Funny article from Spencer Hall at SB Nation saying it would be bad if Fox got the Olympics.

Georg Szalai of the Hollywood Reporter also looks at the Fox bid.

Over at Geneva Lunch in Switzerland (I believe this is the first time I’ve linked to a publication from Switzerland), Ellen Wallace looks at Lausanne hosting three American networks for the Olympic Games bidding.

Lawrence Donegan of the London (UK) Guardian says there could be a changing of the guard for the US rights to the Olympics.

Anthony Crupi at Adweek notes that ESPN could very well come out on top of the Olympic bidding when all is said and done.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times handicaps the Olympic bidding.

To non-Olympic bidding stories now.

John Ourand at SBJ wonders how high is too high for sports rights fees.

Kudos to SportsbyBrooks which continues to investigate Mel Kiper Jr.’s relationship with NCAA-scrutinized 7-on-7 summer football camps and why ESPN has been covering it up.

Dwayne Dunham at Technorati speaks with The Big Lead’s Jason McIntyre about his blog. Disclaimer: Fang’s Bites is a member of The Big Lead Sports blogging network.

Jason Fry writing for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center looks at the writing for free-writing for pay debate.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says it’s not a surprise that Tiger Woods has left agency IMG after his own agent left the company.

Newsday’s Neil Best notes that hoops beat the Yankees and Mets head-to-head on two separate occasions.

Neil talks with ESPN Radio New York’s Michael Kay about his YES workload.

Neil says it’s time to go live around the clock with the Olympics.

Neil also reviews the Borg vs. McEnroe HBO documentary.

It’s like the old days when I used to have multiple links to Neil!

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post gives Shaquille O’Neal a backhanded compliment.

Tom Jones of the St. Petersburg Times enjoys Mike Milbury’s commentary.

David Barron at the Houston Chronicle has a few thoughts on this week’s sports media news.

Ed Sherman of Crain’s Chicago Business wants the Big Ten Football Championship to be played out of doors.

Dusty Saunders of the Denver Post reviews HBO’s McEnroe/Borg documentary. I’ve seen the first half of the doc and it’s very good.

Ron Kantowski of the Las Vegas Review-Journal notes the death of former Sporting News Radio host “Papa Joe” Chevalier. A couple of readers wondered why I didn’t do anything on him. First, I didn’t know he died and second, Sporting News Radio didn’t have an affiliate in Rhode Island so I never got the opportunity to hear him. From the story, he sounded like a good host. Never had the chance to listen.

I’m leaving the office now so I’ll have to end the links right here. I’ll be back later to finish up.

UPDATE, 6:10 p.m.: Time for more links.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has the sports calendar for this week.

Tom notes that Marv Albert is the latest addition to the NFL on CBS roster.

Raju Mudhar of the Toronto Star says we must pay attention to Captain Blowhard. I say no!

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail says HBO won’t be putting a Canadian NHL team on 24/7 in anticipation of the Winter Classic.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog is surprised that CBC did not set a ratings record on Saturday for Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final.

Sports Media Watch notes that NBC saw over a decade ratings high for the French Open men’s final.

Ben Koo at Awful Announcing can’t believe that Fox is in even in the discussion to get the Olympics.

Dan Fogarty of SportsGrid has Charles Barkley feeling someone at ESPN or TNT would lose his job if Shaquille O’Neal is brought on board.

That’s all.

Jun

Mixing Up Some Sunday Links

by Ken, under 3-D, 7 Network, BBC, Big 12, College Football, College Softball, Comcast, Comcast SportsNet, ESPN, ESPN Book, FSN, Jerry Remy, MLB, MLB Network, NASCAR, NBA, NBC Sports, NCAA, NESN, NHL, Olympics, Pac 12, Pac 12 Network, PGA Tour, Rugby, SEC, The French Open, TV Ratings, UFC

Let’s do some linkage on this lazy Sunday.

Kari Lipschutz of Adweek writes that it’s a photo finish in the race to the US rights to the 2014/16 Olympics.

Rachel Cohen of the Associated Press looks into the Olympic bidding.

David Lieberman and Patrick Hipes at Deadline wonder what losing the Olympics could mean to NBC.

Jaqueline Magnay of the London (UK) Telegraph says the longtime Olympics rightsholder BBC is watching the US TV bidding with more than casual interest.

Glenda Korporaal of The Australian notes that current Australian Olympics rightsholder 9 Network is hoping it will keep the Games after taking them away from 7 Network for 2010/12.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News handicaps the Olympics bidding among the US networks.

Mike says viewership for the first two games of this year’s NBA Finals are outpacing the ratings from last year.

Mike writes that the NBC Sports Group is all over collegiate rugby this weekend.

Jackie Finlan of Rugby Magazine says NBC has put its full support behind airing rugby.

Pat Yasinkas at ESPN.com mourns the passing of Tampa Tribune sports editor Tom McEwen.

Phil Swann at TV Predictions asks if sports can save 3-D TV. I doubt it.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times reviews the new book on Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post decides that ESPN is to blame for the world coming to an end.

Mike Harrington at the Buffalo News writes that MLB Network is trying to generate excitement over the MLB Draft.

Bob Fernandez of the Philadelphia Inquirer writes that it’s time for Comcast to step up to the plate for the Olympics bidding.

Tim Whitaker at Philadelphia Magazine has this profile of Comcast SportsNet host Michael Barkann.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner notes that sports on television continues to gain traction with viewers.

Joey Johnston of the Tampa Tribune has the obituary for former sports editor and columnist Tom McEwen.

Mike Baldwin of the Daily Oklahoman speaks with ESPN softball analyst Michele Smith.

Kent Sterling reacts to Fox Sports Indiana dropping Pacers pregame host and sideline reporter Stacy Paetz.

Blair Kerkhoff at the Kansas City Star looks at the Big 12 distributing its TV revenue more evenly to member schools.

Woody Paige of the Denver Post has his look at “Those Guys Have All The Fun: Inside The World at ESPN.”

Kyle Ringo of the Boulder (CO) Daily Camera writes that Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott will hold some marquee events and games for the Conference’s in-house TV network.

Jill Painter of the Los Angeles Daily News says former Dodger Steve Garvey would join fellow ex-Dodger and current ESPN’er Orel Hershiser in a potential bid to buy the team from Frank McCourt.

Ferd Lewis of the Honolulu Advertiser notes that the Mountain West Conference now has to play catch up with the Pac-12 after it signed a megabucks TV deal last month.

Gayle MacDonald of the Toronto Globe and Mail says the Canadian TV landscape is getting crowded with the increased amount of players for sports TV rights.

Matt Yoder at Awful Announcing says ESPN’s Marty Reid wrongly called last night’s finish of the NASCAR Nationwide Race wrong. Oops.

Brandon Stroud at With Leather gets on UFC’s brainless analyst Joe Rogan for calling MMA writer Maggie Hendricks “a cunt”. Joe is an ass.

Sports Media Watch looks at NBC’s ratings for the first weekend of the French Open.

SMW notes that the PGA Tour’s ratings continue to rise this year.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media notes that after getting off to a good start, the NHL Stanley Cup Finals hit a big ratings brick wall on Saturday.

Puck Daddy’s Greg Wyshynski also looks at the NHL’s mediocre ratings on Saturday.

Joe Favorito takes a look at two MLB teams which are trying to reach fans beyond their local areas.

SportsbyBrooks is looking into ESPN’s Mel Kiper’s relationship with 7-on-7 summer football camps which have come under scrutiny of the NCAA and the SEC.

Corey Nachman of the Business Insider Sports Page looks at the 20 Worst Sports Ads of All Time.

Sox & Dawgs has the video of NESN’s Jerry Remy making fun of on his on-air partner Don Orsillo’s capsizing of a paddle boat on Friday.

And I worked extra hard to squeeze as many links as I did today. I hope you enjoy them.

Jun

Up For Thursday Links

by Ken, under 60 Minutes, ABC, Big Ten, Captain Blowhard, CBS News, Champions League, College Football, College Softball, College World Series, Comcast SportsNet, Cycling, Deadspin, ESPN, ESPN 3D, ESPN Radio, ESPN2, Fox Sports, FSN, Grantland, Indianapolis 500, NBA, NBC Sports, NHL, Rugby, SEC, The French Open, TNT, TV Blackouts, TV Ratings, Twitter, Vin Scully, WFAN, Wimbledon

Time for some linkage on this very warm Thursday. I hope you all take a moment and say a prayer for the people of Western Massachusetts who head to deal with tornadoes yesterday. Four people are confirmed dead. It was quite devastating to see last night. Let’s hope the area can recover quickly.

To your links.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today says Shaquille O’Neal, who retired from the NBA after 19 seasons, would be a logical choice to become an NBA television analyst.

The Sporting News notes that ESPN is looking to hire O’Neal.

The great Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated has a profile on NBC’s NHL voice Mike “Doc” Emrick.

Toni Fitzgerald of Media Life says thanks to the NBA Playoffs, TNT had the best ratings month in cable TV history.

Andrea Morabito of Broadcasting & Cable says CBS News will not apologize and stands by its 60 Minutes report on cyclist Lance Armstrong.

Michael Malone of B&C says the NBC Sports Group will be all over rugby this weekend.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News writes that ESPN3D plans to air The Championship Wimbledon in the third dimension.

Cam Martin of SportsNewser says NBC Sports gets an EPIC FAIL for airing a promo stating the Tampa Bay Lightning are in the Stanley Cup Final.

Noah Davis of The Business Insider Sports Page notes the national debut of a Wall Street Journal sports columnist.

Noah has the complete roster of writers who will staff Captain Blowhard’s Grantland.

Dan Fogarty in SportsGrid says Captain Blowhard has finally set an official launch date for the pretentiously-titled Grantland site.

Brandon Costa at Sports Video Group talks about 3-D TV stepping up at The Masters.

Ted Miller of ESPN.com says the Pac-12 has made announcements on seven nationally televised games.

Bill Hofhemier at ESPN’s Front Row discusses how ESPN’s award-winning World Cup production team is back together again for the Women’s World Cup.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell notes that Shaquille O’Neal was one of the first athletes to embrace social media.

Darren says Shaq’s retirement video gave an internet start-up a huge boost in more ways than one.

Darren talks with the men who marketed Shaquille O’Neal.

Martin Pave of the Boston Globe profiles the the Emmy Award-winning director of ESPN’s “Fab Five” documentary who has local ties.

Jessica Van Sack of the Boston Herald says fans don’t have to watch TV to follow the NHL.

The New York Times’ Richard Sandomir feels NBC needs a better way to air the French Open men’s semifinals.

Newsday’s Neil Best notes that WFAN’s Mike Francesa is not just doing well without partner Chris Russo, he’s flourishing.

Neil has his entire interview with Francesa in his blog.

Neil talks with ESPN Radio New York’s Michael Kay who one day hopes to beat Francesa in the ratings.

Neil also has the ratings breakdown between WFAN and ESPN Radio New York for afternoon drive.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union says tennis great Chris Evert is returning to TV as an analyst for ESPN2′s Wimbledon coverage.

Frank Fitzpatrick of the Philadelphia Inquirer says Rugby 7′s will get network TV exposure this weekend.

John George in the Philadelphia Business Journal says Comcast SportsNet will air a local bike race in HD.

Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog notes that the UEFA Champions League Final outrated Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final in DC.

Dan finds out why ESPN Radio DC slapped a 24 hour waiting period on publishing podcasts.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner explains that DC had the highest ratings for the Champions League finale.

Jim says NBC received the best NHL Stanley Cup Final Game 1 overnight ratings in a dozen years.

Barry Jackson in the Miami Herald says the NBA Finals are drawing viewers both nationally and locally.

Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel says Magic star Gilbert Arenas has returned to Twitter with often humorous results.

Chuck Goldberg of the Alabama Newspapers notes that Auburn will get early starts for its first three football games of the season.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News notes that Miami outrated Dallas for Game 1 of the NBA Finals.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman talks with two-time Olympic softball player Michele Smith about the Women’s College World Series which begins on ESPN2 tonight.

Mike Wells of the Indianapolis Star reports that Fox Sports Indiana and the Pacers have dropped pregame show host Stacy Paetz effective immediately.

Kevin Kane of the Southside (IN) Times wonders when organizers will lift the local blackout on the Indianapolis 500.

Bob Wolfeley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says Suds City topped all markets watching the Indianapolis 500.

At the Iowa City Gazette, Scott Dochterman writes that Fox plans to give the inaugural Big Ten Football Championship Game the Big Event treatment.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News gets the nitty gritty on why Vin Scully’s Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was covered and mistreated.

Dian Pucin of the Los Angeles Times instructs West Coast viewers on how to watch tomorrow’s French Open men’s semifinal live.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail explores the media’s handling of the Atlanta Thrashers moving to Winnipeg story.

At Deadspin, A.J. Daulerio chronicles how ESPN.com’s Grantland site pursued and then later had misgivings about hiring site writer Tommy Craggs.

Matt Yoder of Awful Announcing tries to make sense of the whole thing.

Sports Media Watch says ABC had the most watched NBA Finals game since 2004.

And that will end the links for today.

Jun

NBC Will Stream Federer-Djokovic French Open Men’s Semi Live

by Ken, under NBC Sports, The French Open

This coming from Tom Perrotta of the Wall Street Journal who broke the story that NBC will allow the entire country to watch the Roger Federer-Novak Djokovic French Open semifinal Friday morning. It will be live in the East at 11 a.m., but delayed everywhere else as the Central, Mountain and Pacific time zones will also join in at 11 a.m. locally. But NBC knowing how tennis fans can be a militant lot when it delays matches will stream the match live at NBCSports.com meaning that viewers from the Midwest to the Pacific don’t have to wait until after Hoda and Kathie Lee are done kvetching to see the match.

Tennis Channel will carry the Rafael Nadal-Andy Murray match starting at 8 a.m. Eastern and carry it through the conclusion. If the match is still ongoing at 11 a.m. ET, NBC will join in progress live and then wait to carry the Federer-Djokovic match. Once the Nadal-Murray match is over, Tennis Channel will sign off and NBC will Fed-DjokerNole all to itself.

So fans don’t have to go to a backdoor website to see the match if they live outside the US Eastern time zone. Let’s hope NBC does this for Wimbledon as well.

Jun

Going For Wednesday Linkage

by Ken, under 60 Minutes, ABC, Australian Open, Big Ten Network, Captain Blowhard, CBC, CBS News, Champions League, Chris Berman, College Baseball, College World Series, Cris Collinsworth, ESPN, ESPN Book, ESPNW, Grantland, Indianapolis 500, MLB, NBA, NBC Sports, NBC Sports Group, NHL, Super Bowl, Tennis Channel, The French Open, TV Ratings, Versus

If you’ve been visiting the blog throughout the morning, you may have noticed a couple of theme changes and then the return of the current theme. I’ve been trying to make a few cosmetic changes, but I screwed them up so I had to delete the theme and then reinstall it. If you were visiting and saw a different look and got confused, I apologize. Just trying to make the blog look as best as possible. I can assure you I’m done with the cosmetic changes for a while.

Let’s do some links on this Wednesday.

Sean Leahy of USA Today notes that NBC’s Cris Collinsworth is so fearful that the NFL will lose half a season that he took a non-paying high school football coaching position for the fall.

Michael Hiestand looks at the ratings for the Indy 500, primetime baseball and the UEFA Champions League Final.

Lindsay Powers at the Hollywood Reporter writes that Lance Armstrong lawyers are demanding an apology from CBS News’ 60 Minutes stating that the program did shoddy journalism in a segment on his alleged steroid use.

Philiana Ng of the Reporter says NBC has selected its blockbuster hit, “The Voice” to air after Super Bowl XLVI next February.

George Winslow from Broadcasting & Cable says the NBA has launched a Windows phone app.

Mike Reynolds at Multichannel News reports that ESPN and Tennis Channel have extended their multimedia alliance for the French and Australian Opens starting next year.

Louisa Ada Seltzer of Media Life Magazine writes that having a Canadian team in the NHL Stanley Cup Final won’t help NBC’s ratings.

Last night, ESPN’s Chris Berman called the San Francisco Giants-St. Louis Cardinals game for the Alleged Worldwide Leader and as expected, it turned out to be a disaster. Berman can’t call play-by-play to save his life. Two examples of this EPIC FAIL.

Matt Yoder at Awful Announcing has the video from Bubbaprog/Mocksession of Berman not getting the concept of a walk off win.

Then Glenn Davis at SportsGrid has video of Berman trying to be edgy or most likely, not having a clue about “Tossed Salad”.

Alex Weprin of SportsNewser visited the MLB ~~Man~~ Fan Cave.

Joe Favorito says the NCAA College World Series is a missed opportunity for college baseball.

My Twitter Trophy Wife Amanda Rykoff has compiled a hockey glossary at espnW just in time for the Stanley Cup Final.

From the upcoming New York Times Sunday Magazine, Jonathan Mahler profiles Captain Blowhard who’s already complaining about Grantland and the site hasn’t officially launched yet. The profile is long so get ready to scroll.

Richard Sandomir of the Times reports that former Montreal Expos and New York Mets Hall of Fame catcher Gary Carter has an inoperable brain tumor.

Mike Madden of the Washington City Paper notes that DC NFL team owner and bully Daniel Snyder is taking the next step in his lawsuit against the publication by subpoenaing Washington Post blogger Dan Steinberg for just linking to the City Paper column that led him to sue in court.

Jim Williams at the Washington Examiner reports that ABC received the best NBA Finals overnight rating since 2004.

Jim says the NBC Sports Group gets to keep the Stanley Cup Final all to itself for the next two and a half weeks.

Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel writes that a local reporter may have jumped the gun when he reported on an alleged contract extension for the Magic’s Dwight Howard.

Mel Bracht in the Daily Oklahoman says Game 5 of the Dallas-Oklahoma City NBA Western Conference Finals did very well in the local ratings.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says the ESPN book has some Wisconsin ties.

Ed Sherman at Crain’s Chicago Business wonders if the Windy City will tune into the Stanley Cup Final.

Scott Dochterman of the Iowa City Gazette notes the rebranding of Big Ten Network.

Chris Foster from the Los Angeles Times speaks with “How I Met Your Mother Star” Cobie Smulders who like her character Robin Scherbatsky is a big Vancouver Canucks fan.

Brad Ziemer of the Vancouver Sun says CBC’s Jim Hughson and Canucks voice John Shorthouse are happy to be calling their native Canucks in the Stanley Cup Final.

Sports Media Watch notes that ESPN2′s coverage of the French Open will be all live starting next year.

Steve Lepore of Puck The Media predicts how the Stanley Cup Final will fare on NBC/Versus this year.

That will do it for now.

May

Tennis Channel’s Announcement On New Sharing Agreement With ESPN2

by Ken, under Australian Open, ESPN2, Tennis Channel, The French Open

Here’s what Tennis Channel is saying about its new four year agreement with ESPN2 to share both the Australian and French Opens. ESPN2 will enter into a new contract for the Australian Open in 2012. The following year, the new agreement for the Aussie Open will take effect. Tennis Channel will begin coverage for the first ten days of the tournament at 7 p.m. Eastern and run until 9 p.m. or the conclusion of the match it’s showing. ESPN2 will then take over at 9 p.m. and air the day session until 2 a.m. Then at 3:30 a.m., ESPN airs the night session.

The French Open is controlled by Tennis Channel. Under the new four year agreement beginning in 2012, ESPN2 will start each day’s coverage at 5 a.m. with Tennis Channel taking over at 10 a.m. until the conclusion of the day’s play.

So here’s what the nightly schedule would look like:

AUSTRALIAN OPEN (Starting in 2013)
Tennis Channel: 7 p.m. — 9 p.m.
ESPN2: 9 p.m. — 2 a.m.
ESPN2: 3:30 a.m. — conclusion

Tennis Channel: Australian Open Today, 8 a.m.

FRENCH OPEN (Starting in 2012)
ESPN2: 5 a.m. — 10 a.m.
Tennis Channel: 10 a.m. — conclusion

Tennis Channel: French Open Tonight, 6:30 p.m.

Let’s take a look at Tennis Channel’s press release now.

TENNIS CHANNEL AND ESPN EXTEND FRENCH OPEN, AUSTRALIAN OPEN PROGRAMMING ALLIANCE

Tennis Channel to Have Consistent, Nightly Prime-Time Coverage Beginning with 2013 Australian Open

PARIS, May 31, 2011 -Tennis Channel and ESPN have extended the French Open and Australian Open multimedia programming alliance they began in Roland Garros in 2007. Both networks will continue to offer matches virtually round the clock from both events, two of the sport’s four major “Grand Slam” tournaments, with complementary coverage and cross-promoted schedules. A noteworthy evolution, however, will see the networks tweak the French Open broadcast schedule, with ESPN moving to cover the early morning matches, and Tennis Channel’s window running contiguously from 10 a.m. ET, throughout the night and up to the next day’s play. Additionally, Tennis Channel offer 10 consecutive nights of prime-time match play during its Australian Open window, without any intermittent days off.

The four-year agreement begins with the 2012 French Open and 2013 Australian Open.

Tennis Channel will cover close to 60 hours of live French Open matches in Paris; an additional 30-plus same-day delay hours; and more than 140 hours of prime-time news, feature, interview, highlight, show French Open Tonight, hosted by Bill Macatee. Beginning with the 2013 Australian Open in Melbourne, however, the network’s 13 days of live coverage will now include 10 consecutive nights of prime-time matches, first Monday through Wednesday of the second week, without any intermittent days off. Also a first, Tennis Channel will be able to stay with men’s matches that run longer than its two-hour programming windows, which it was previously only able to do during women’s matches.

“Not only is there more championship-caliber tennis on television week-after-week than ever before, but consistent, daily schedules allow fans to follow and enjoy this sport in a way that was impossible even just a few years ago,” said Ken Solomon, chairman and CEO, Tennis Channel. “With this arrangement there will be no more guesswork during the Australian Open: just turn your TV on when you get home at 7 o’clock and we’ll be there live, night after night. Tennis fans are the big winners here, as has been the case ever since Tennis Channel and ESPN started working together”

Tennis Channel will again televise close to 30 hours of live matches at the Australian Open, and offer another 75 hours of daily show Australian Open Today.

Beginning next May, a typical televised day at the French Open will begin with ESPN2 from 5 a.m. ET to 10 a.m. ET, followed immediately by coverage on Tennis Channel for the remainder of play. French Open Tonight will appear on Tennis Channel in prime time for three-and-a-half hours and, as is the case now, re-air throughout the night, right up to the next morning’s play on ESPN2. Tennis Channel will also produce and distribute many additional hours of coverage via multi-match interactive telecasts.

ESPN2 will continue to show close to 50 live hours of play at the French Open and more than 120 live hours at the Australian Open, via its daily marathon late-night telecasts.

“Sports fans want to see the action live and that’s how we deliver tennis and all our sports,” said John Skipper, ESPN executive vice president, content. “Tennis fans are among the most dedicated – willing to stay up or get up to see live competition – and that’s what we will provide for years to come from Melbourne and Paris. In addition, we look forward to continuing our relationship with Tennis Channel to best serve tennis fans at both events.”

Both networks will continue to cross-promote each other’s schedules, and each will present live broadband action during both networks’ telecast windows at the tournaments.

The five-year-old Grand Slam alliance between Tennis Channel and ESPN is currently in effect again in Paris for the 2011 French Open. The joint-network coverage has provided viewers with more than 125 hours of live tennis in Paris and close to 150 live hours in Melbourne each year. More than sheer volume of coverage, Tennis Channel and ESPN work in tandem to give their tennis viewers the opportunity to stay on top of these respective events almost all day, every day for each two week competition.

It is a cross-promotional system so successful that the networks now have working relationships at the other most prominent events in the sport: the two other majors Wimbledon and the US Open; the “Fifth Slams” of Miami and Indian Wells, Calif.; and the Olympus US Open Series. As with the French Open and Australian Open, more combined television time is now devoted to these other events too.

So the continuing alliance between ESPN2 and Tennis Channel means plenty of live tennis for fans for the first and second Grand Slam tournaments of the year.

May

ESPN2 & Tennis Channel Announce New Multimedia Sharing Agreement for Aussie & French Opens

by Ken, under Australian Open, ESPN2, Tennis Channel, The French Open

Just received this press release from ESPN. It’s been announced that ESPN2 and Tennis Channel will continue to share coverage of both the Australian and French Opens. For the French, this means that ESPN2 will begin its coverage at 5 a.m. It had been jumping in at noon, meaning most of the live coverage had been on Tennis Channel. Now ESPN’s coverage starting in 2012 will begin at 5 a.m. and run until 10 a.m. Tennis Channel will join at 10 a.m.

For the Australian Open, Tennis Channel will begin its coverage nightly at 7 p.m. Eastern. ESPN2 will then join in for late night coverage running throughout the overnight hours as Melbourne is 16 hours ahead of the US East Coast. This new arrangement will begin with the 2013 Australian Open.

And it’s a more consistent schedule for the Australian Open as some days ESPN2 would begin at 7 p.m. or Tennis Channel would. Now fans will be able to find the matches easier.

We have the press release from ESPN2. I expect to get one from Tennis Channel shortly.

ESPN’s New Multimedia Agreement for French Open Emphasizes Live Telecasts

Alliance with Tennis Channel Continues Virtual 24/7 Coverage of Australian and French Opens

ESPN and Tennis Channel have agreed to a new four-year, multimedia programming alliance for the Australian and French Opens. ESPN and TC will continue to air action from both Grand Slam events, but in a key change ESPN’s telecast windows of the French Open will now be virtually all live, generally starting at 5 a.m. ET for five hours. In addition, extensive schedules of action will continue on all ESPN platforms, including ESPN3.com, ESPN Deportes, ESPN Mobile TV, the WatchESPNApp, ESPN Interactive TV and ESPNNetworks.com under the new deal, which takes effect with the 2012 French Open and the 2013 Australian Open.

As under the current arrangement, ESPN will televise more than 50 hours from Paris, starting with the first day of the tournament, a Sunday, and concluding with the women’s semifinals live on the second Thursday of the event. ESPN’s Australian Open schedule – part of an agreement with Tennis Australia that runs through 2021 – will continue to total more than 120 hours with daily marathon late-night live telecasts, including the men’s and women’s semifinals and championships. Having televised the Australian Open – including the women’s and men’s semifinals and finals exclusively – since 1984, this is ESPN’s longest uninterrupted professional sports programming relationship. Also, ESPN3.com will present live action during both ESPN’s and TC’s telecast windows from both events.

“Sports fans want to see the action live and that’s how we deliver tennis and all our sports,” said John Skipper, ESPN executive vice president, content. “Tennis fans are among the most dedicated – willing to stay up or get up to see live competition – and that’s what we will provide for years to come from Melbourne and Paris. In addition, we look forward to continuing our relationship with Tennis Channel to best serve tennis fans at both events.”

At the French Open, Tennis Channel air 60 live hours, following ESPN at 10 a.m., plus studio programming with highlights in prime time. TC will televise up to 100 hours from Australia – approximately 30 hours of live play plus studio shows in prime time.

Ken Solomon, chairman and CEO, Tennis Channel, said, “Not only is there more championship-caliber tennis on television week-after-week than ever before, but consistent, daily schedules allow fans to follow and enjoy this sport in a way that was impossible even just a few years ago. With this arrangement there will be no more guesswork during the Australian Open: just turn your TV on when you get home at 7 o’clock and we’ll be there live, night after night. Tennis fans are the big winners here, as has been the case ever since Tennis Channel and ESPN started working together”

That does it for this post.

May

Time For Some Tuesday Links

by Ken, under Big East, Cablevision, Charles Barkley, Comcast, DirecTV, Dish Network, ESPN, ESPN Book, ESPN Radio, HBO, MLB Network, MMA, NBA, NBC Sports, Network Upfronts, NHL, Olympics, Tennis Channel, The Big Lead, The French Open, TNT, TV Ratings, Versus, World Cup

As the temps reach the high 70′s in Southern New England, it’s time to bring you the linkage on this Tuesday.

In Sports Business Journal, John Ourand takes away ESPN’s arch-rivalry with NBC from the new book “Those Guys Have All The Fun: Inside The World of ESPN.”

USA Today’s Mike McCarthy notes a couple of book tidbits which discuss Hitler references either on the air or on ESPN.com.

Also from USA Today, Michael Hiestand says ESPN’er Kevin Negandhi partied like a rock star when he learned he was hired by the Alleged Worldwide Leaer.

Rob Brunner of Entertainment Weekly has a review of the new ESPN book.

Bruce Jenkins of Sports Illustrated likes Tennis Channel’s coverage of the French Open thus far.

Marisa Guthrie of the Hollywood Reporter notes that HBO will pick up a new reality series devoted to boxing trainer Freddie Roach.

Tim Baysinger at Multichannel News says Game 3 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals scored for TNT.

Anthony Crupi from Adweek tells us that the NBA Conference Finals have been averaging just about 11 million viewers for the first three games.

At MediaPost, Barry Janoff reviews last week’s ESPN Upfront presentations.

Marcus Vanderberg of SportsNewser reports that Big Lead Sports has hired a new CEO/CFO. Fang’s Bites is an independently-owned blog that is part of the Big Lead Sports network.

Phil Swann at TV Predictions wonders if DirecTV and Dish Network will merge?

Neal E. Boudette of the Wall Street Journal profiles USA Olympic Women’s Hockey player Angela Ruggiero who is working as an IOC member to bring the Games back to US soil.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell looks at Fred Wilpon’s quotes about his New York Mets that were published in a New Yorker Magazine article.

Darren says the battle over the Mike Tyson tattoo in “Hangover 2″ is not over yet, despite a court ruling in Warner Bros. favor today.

Jason Dachman at Sports Video Group writes that the Miami Heat are providing their own postseason programming online.

Steve Collins of the Bristol (CT) Press talks with the mayor of the town to discuss some of the not-so-kind things said about Bristol in the new book about ESPN that was released to the public today.

Newsday’s Neil Best talks about the new mixed martial arts channel that launches on Cablevision systems today. Cablevision also owns Newsday.

In Fishbowl NY, Jerry Barmash talks with ESPN Radio New York’s Jared Max who came out on the air last week.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union has two potential NBA Finals scenarios.

Pete talks about TNT moving the Inside the NBA show from outside AmericanAirlines Arena in Miami after an incident involving Charles Barkley.

Greg Auman at the St. Petersburg Times says the Big East is looking for a big payday when its TV rights go up for bid.

The University of Texas Athletics site has an interview with the Vice President of ESPN’s Longhorn Network, Dave Brown.

John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer writes about the new “This is SportsCenter” ad featuring the Reds’ Joey Votto.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says ESPN has named its studio analysts for the Women’s World Cup.

Bob notes that five Brewers games have been selected for MLB Network’s June schedule.

Joe Flint of the Los Angeles Times says Dick Ebersol’s resignation from NBC should serve as a warning shot to long-time network executives about Comcast.

The Toronto Sports Media blog wonders if the Toronto Globe and Mail spiked a story from media critic Bruce Dowbiggin about colleague Stephen Brunt’s jumping the gun on the Atlanta Thrashers moving to Winnipeg.

Bob Bender of Awful Announcing notes that ESPN ripped off TNT during last night’s Oklahoma City-Dallas NBA Western Conference Final game.

Sports Media Watch notes that NBC saw ratings declines for the NHL Conference Finals this past weekend.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media says Game 3 of the NHL Western Conference Final on Versus did not do well.

Joe Favorito says sports is coming together on Celiac Disease and raising awareness about gluten-free diets.

I think I’ll end it there.

May

The Fifth Fang’s Bites Mailbag

by Ken, under ABC, Australian Open, CBS Sports, ESPN, Fox Sports, Gus Johnson, Lockout, Mailbag, NASCAR, NBA, NBC Sports, NBC Sports Group, NCAA Tournament, NFL, Olympics, Superstation TBS, The French Open, TNT, TV Blackouts, US Open Tennis, Versus, Wimbledon

Time for another mailbag and let’s answer the sports media questions that have landed in the Fang’s Bites inbox over the last week or so. Thanks to all who sent e-mails and left comments. I’ll do my best to answer as best as I can. And don’t forget, I have two $50 Nike.com gift cards. If I can get one other piece of swag to give way, I’ll make an announcement. The recipients will be chosen at random and be e-mailed.

Disclaimer as to where the cards came from and what promotion they’re associated with:

The Sprite Spark Parks Project is a multi-year commitment to build and restore play environments where teens, families and neighbors can get outside and be active. The big idea: play, be active, be inspired and have fun. The campaign began several weeks ago where people had the opportunity to nominate their courts and we now need your vote to determine which parks will get the funding. If you want one of those refurbished courts to be accessible for your child, all you have to do is head to The Sprite Facebook Page and VOTE!
The prize was provided by The Coca-Cola Company. The Coca-Cola Company is not a sponsor, administrator or connected in any other way with this sweepstakes.
Entrants must be located in the US or Canada only.

Now to your questions:

What does (Dick Ebersol’s resignation) mean for NBC’s production of the 2012 Olympics? Is it likely to be different, with less tape delay and non-live events? And what does this mean for NBC’s long term Olympic prospects? Does this basically hand the rights to ESPN? – Shep H.

Hi Shep. Ebersol’s resignation won’t mean much change for NBC next year. With London five hours ahead of New York, primetime will still mean tape delays. It’ll also mean continued holding of glamor events (gymnastics, swimming, track & field) for evening viewing. While Ebersol’s resignation hurts NBC, many of his disciples are still working there and if it wins the bid for 2014/16, expect many of his old producers and directors to remain. While the bid became more wide open, NBCUniversal still is the favorite. This does not mean ESPN automatically gets the rights.

If you’re an executive at an ABC affiliate, would you be disappointed that ESPN won’t allow you to carry one game of the Western Conference Finals (most notably Game 3 on Saturday night in which ABC has to show “Spider-Man 3″ instead) and would you be even more disappointed if the Los Angeles Lakers were in the Western Finals instead of the Dallas Mavericks? – Jimmy D.

Thanks, Jimmy. Yes, this is a bone of contention among ABC affiliates losing sports. Over the years, ABC has lost Monday Night Football, NASCAR, the Open Championship, the Rose Bowl and college basketball. I know ESPN has the philosophy that the difference between cable and broadcast is close to nil, but you do have a broadcast network that is used to carrying sports programming. If I’m an ABC affiliate general manager, I would be very angry about losing NBA Conference Final programming and bring this up at the next affiliates meeting. But with ESPN being a cash cow for Disney, there’s not much the local stations can do. I would not be surprised to see ABC lose even more sports programming down the line.

I love your blog and read it every day! Here is my question—How do you think the current NFL Lockout and the looming NBA lockout will affect how the networks cover sports?

Obviously CBS, NBA and FOX use the NFL to promote other prime time programs and they are on the hook for the rights fees unless there is a court decision that forces the NFL to return the money. – Benjamin G.

Appreciate the kind words, Benjamin. If the NFL lockout extends to the fall, CBS, NBC and Fox will have huge holes to fill on Sundays. ESPN is in a better position as it can slot college football games into Sunday and possibly even Mondays. NBC says it will put game shows in Sunday Night Football’s slot for the first couple of weeks. CBS and Fox have not announced what they will do. All of the networks continue to sell ads.

As far as the NBA is concerned, TNT can plug in dramas on Thursdays and ESPN can plug college basketball or poker into the lost NBA slots. And yes, the networks are on the hook for the rights fees. They’ve already paid the NFL. Not sure about the NBA.

Hey Ken I just want to know with this new espn book out will those so called journalist’s actually take responsibility for the actions they do like in the real news world? I find it hard to believe that in todays world those guys are not punished for their irresponsible journalism. – Ari

I’m not sure what example of irresponsible journalism you’re talking about. If you’re talking about the sexual activities, those who have been caught have either been fired or suspended. I really can’t speak about anything else because I need a better example of what you’re talking about.

What do you think was behind Gus Johnson’s departure from CBS? His ego? The ego of other CBS announcers who were jealous of the attention that he received? Or was it just plain money? – Jeff H.

Thanks, Jeff. I think Gus knew that he wasn’t going to supplant Jim Nantz, Verne Lundquist, Ian Eagle and Kevin Harlan at CBS. He got a very good offer to be the number one guy calling college football and basketball at Fox plus more money. It’s tough to leave the network that made you, but there’s always a chance that Gus could return to CBS down the line. That story about people at CBS being jealous was probably planted by Gus’ people. I find it hard to believe that Jim Nantz or anyone at CBS was jealous of Gus, but you never know.

Do you see the new NBC Sports Group trying to nab the cable TV rights to either Wimbledon or the French Open to air on Versus (and hopefully not take away anything from Tennis Channel) to complement their NBC network coverage? I can see NBC going after, say, Wimbledon on cable (Versus taking over for ESPN2) and unifying the daytime coverage with NBC network, where they can do a reverse mirror sort of thing between NBC and Versus to show one single live feed that bounces between NBC and Versus differently in each timezone (ex: 10am to 1pm local time is the NBC window, so at 10am ET, Eastern Time viewers are told to switch from NBC to Versus for the next 3 hours and then come back, 1 hour later the Central Time viewers do the same, and so on, with Versus airing some alternate program during the NBC blackout, and viewers essentially not missing any important live action but still having to watch on NBC). – Jason B.

Hi Jason. With Wimbledon, the U.S. and Australian Opens locked into long-term deals over the last few years, the first Grand Slam that would be up for bid would be the French Open, however, that deal with Tennis Channel could last until 2016. Wimbledon, U.S. Open and Australia are locked solidly with ESPN2 for quite some time. I’m not a fan of NBC’s tennis coverage live or delayed so I’m not sure if I want to see a combined NBC Sports Group effort on the French or Wimbledon.

Hey, love the blog, but on to my question. With the NBC Sports Group losing out on the PAC-12 to Fox/ESPN, what other deals are up soon that they can go gung-ho for? I know MLB isn’t up for another two years, same with the Big East, but they’d likely remain on ESPN, as all the group really has is sublicensed Mountain West games and the NHL, which is great, but not big time like the PAC-12 is. Also, one other question, I love Gus Johnson and his style, I think it’ll fit well at Fox, do you think it was a good move for that? Then, who will CBS get to fill Gus’s slot in both the NFL and March Madness? Thanks again for the info! – P.J.

Other than the Olympics, which properties (MLB, MLS, conference USA, etc.) are up up for bidding in the next 2 years and which have a chance to turn hands? – Chaz B.

Since Chaz and P.J. have similar questions, I’ll kill two birds with one stone.

As far as college, the Big East are up, but they aren’t up until 2013. ESPN wants to renew the rights, but the Big East seeing how the Pac-12 did, is being smart and will probably allow for open bidding.

2013 – 2015 is what I call Sports Rights Armageddon as MLB, NASCAR, NBA and NFL being a cycle of possible upheaval. MLB will go first as negotiations start next year. ESPN will probably want to get the MLB postseason back after losing the games to TBS. I think Fox will want to get into the NBA game and who knows what will happen with the NFL?

P.J. as far as who will take Gus Johnson’s place, Bob Raissman in the New York Daily News reported Marv Albert is a candidate and I wouldn’t mind that at all. Ian Eagle or Kevin Harlan would be good choices for promotion for the NCAA Tournament.

For regionally distributed games like the MLB on FOX , do local affiliates that do not have local ties to a game, like KTTV in L.A. this weekend, do the affiliates get to chose what game they show or does FOX select the game for them? – Ben F.

Ben, in some cases, it falls under the MLB territorial rules which are just too tedious to explain. If a region like Las Vegas falls under a team’s territory (and claimed by five teams, by the way), then it could get the Dodgers, Angels, Diamondbacks, Giants or Padres depending on which team is on Fox. In Connecticut, the Fox station usually chooses the Yankees over the Red Sox if both teams are playing games on the network, despite the fact that most of the Constitution State has been deemed Red Sox territory. I hope that answers your question. I hate MLB territorial rules and so does Maury Brown from the Biz of Baseball.

Hi, Ken!

I appreciate all the hard work you do on maintaining your blog. It’s a valuable took for me to keep up in what’s going on or coming up in my industry.

I did notice that the majority of information and news you provide focus on personalities and ratings. Do you plan on or know of someone who plans on doing more features or profiles on behind the camera personnel like producers, directors and/or technical staff? I’m always interested in what a motivates a producer or director to do the type of show they create and how they got to their status in the business. – Andre’

You might want to check out Sports Video Group which has a mixture of ratings, technical and other articles that might be of interest to you. Unfortunately, the mainstream media usually focuses on sports personalities with a few behind-the-scenes articles thrown in.

With the advent of watching sports on HD Television’s and mobile media devices with Sport season subscriptions that are almost cheaper than attending a single game how our teams adapting to less and less fans at the stadium? Also what are they telling their advertisers? – Robert D.

Good question, Robert. Stadiums knowing that fans can watch the Red Zone Channel on DirecTV or NFL Red Zone on cable are now trying to enhance the gameday experience. They’re adding TV’s to selected seats, all you can eat promotions and wifi. They’re doing everything except for discounting ticket prices, although some MLB teams are doing that now. I think you’ll see more teams adding to the gameday experience to attract fans, but to be honest, it’s all about winning. Put a winning team on the field, people will come. Produce like the Pittsburgh Pirates and it doesn’t matter how many features you offer.

With the end of the Premier League Season what did you think of the coverage of the Premier League and other leagues around Europe this season by Fox, ESPN, GOL TV? What do you think that Fox and ESPN could do better to add to the coverage next season? Who is your Premier League Announcer of the Year? What would you credit more to the growth of the game here in the States from where it was 15 years ago to now between TV coverage by Fox, ESPN, and GOL TV where you can watch 50 or so games a week with digital cable or the growth of the Internet where a fan interested in soccer could finally go to get results and opinions that were previously next to impossible to get before the internet.

Thanks for all of you hard work it’s really appreciated! – CFTV

Thanks for the kind words, CFTV. Both Fox Soccer Channel and ESPN2 have improved their presentation of the English Premier League by leaps and bounds. I like how ESPN2 no longer uses the world feed and has Ian Darke and Steven McManaman for EPL games. Fox Soccer Channel now has to step up its game and should no longer use the world feed announcers. Martin Tyler is perfect for EPL games and does a great job. But I like Ian Darke and his colorful descriptions.

I’d like to see Bob Ley involved in EPL studio shows seeing how much he loves the game.

I like how Fox Soccer Channel is using the NFL on Fox studio for EPL and Champions League, but the look of the games still has a long way to go.

Any news on if there is going to be any other telecast outlets for the Canadian Football League in the US ? While its nice to have the one game on NFLN for part of the season, three other games are not available over the air all season long at this time in the US as far as I am aware, and none at all once the NFL preseason starts and even into September. The old arrangement of having the regional sports net providing an outlet was okay, but what about Versus ? They have lots of available time slots throughout the CFL season,and would be perfect. With the NFL likely not playing until perhaps October or November we really could use all CFL games being telecast nationally across the US this summer and autumn, as well as in future years and seasons. – MaytheHorseBeWithYou

It appears the NFL Network will carry CFL games once again, but not any of the playoff games, unless there’s a lockout, of course.

What is the latest on the United States Football League (USFL) starting play in February 2012 ? Not much can be found about this anywhere, so I assume at this point it is a no-go. I wonder if the NFL lockout carries into September and beyond, will the USFL starting be a possibility; or is the window for getting things going 9 months from now closed ? I suspect a 2013 start is more possible, but still not probable. – Lefty

Hi Lefty. Your guess is as good as mine.

That’s it. Thanks for your questions. I will contact the winners of the gift cards by e-mail.

May

Quick Sunday Linkage

by Ken, under 3-D, 30 for 30, ABC, CBC, Chris Berman, Comcast, ESPN, ESPN Book, ESPN Films, ESPN2, Fox Soccer Channel, Fox Sports, Jerry Remy, MLB, MLB Network, NASCAR, NBA, NBC Sports, NESN, NFL, NHL, Olympics, Soccer, Super Bowl, Tennis Channel, The French Open, TV Ratings, Versus, World Series

The last couple of days have killed me going to New York on Friday for business then having to go to work on Saturday preventing me from really reacting to the Dick Ebersol resignation. I will do a Sunday thoughts column today and also start answering the mailbag. Good questions from all of you. If you want to squeeze question in, you can send it to kzf1@fangsbites.com and I do have some swag for you.

But let’s do some linkage first.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News talks about Tennis Channel and ESPN2 beginning their two weeks of French Open coverage today.

Mike says thanks to free previews, Tennis Channel’s audience will expand for the French Open.

Jessica E. Vascellero and Sam Schechner of the Wall Street Journal write that NBC Sports Emperor Dick Ebersol clashed with Comcast corporate officials over money.

Marisa Guthrie at the Hollywood Reporter explains why Dick Ebersol chose to resign.

Brent Lang at The Wrap wonders what Ebersol’s next move will be.

Michael Malone of Broadcasting & Cable says NBC local affiliates really appreciated Dick Ebersol’s support of the broadcast stations.

Jon Lafayette of B&C notes that upfront ads have been selling fast and furious for the NFL despite the uncertainty over its season.

Anthony Crupi of Adweek writes that automakers are buying up the available Super Bowl XLVI spots making NBC quite happy.

USA Today’s Mike McCarthy reports that ESPN has reupped analyst Cris Carter for Sunday NFL Countdown.

Steve Jones of USA Today reviews the 2nd volume of the ESPN Films 30 for 30 DVD gift set.

Rick Chandler of NBCSports.com reviews the whole Chris Berman “You’re with me, Leather” incident that the Swami tried to deny in the new ESPN book.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell looks at the new ESPN book and recounts some of his experiences at the Alleged Worldwide Leader.

Chris Ariens of SportsNewser notes that CNN’s John King (a URI alumnus and a guy with whom I attended journalism classes) caught David Ortiz’s 300th career home run at Fenway Park.

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe previews tonight’s MLB Network airing of Game 6 of the 1975 World Series.

William S. Paxton of the Stamford (CT) Advocate catches up with Chris Berman to talk about the NFL.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times says Dick Ebersol won’t have a chance to redeem himself from the heavy financial losses from the 2010 Olympics.

At the New York Post, Phil Mushnick says taped Olympics and XFL brought down Ebersol’s legacy. Leave it to the Gloomster to find something negative.

Newsday’s Neil Best notes that the new book on ESPN has definitely struck a chord.

Greg Connors at the Buffalo News talks with Tennis Channel’s Mary Carillo.

In the Philadelphia Inquirer, John Gonzalez speaks with ESPN’s Kevin Negandhi about replacing Josh Elliot on the daily morning SportsCenters. You’ll have to mute the autoplay video that starts as soon as the page loads. Just a warning.

In Press Box, Dave Hughes of DCRTV.com talks about the spike in TV ratings for the Baltimore Orioles.

Jim Williams from the Washington Examiner talks with Mary Carillo about her move to Tennis Channel.

Jodi Belgard at the Alexandria (LA) Town Talk profiles a local student who got an internship with ESPN.

Mel Bracht at the Daily Oklahoman notes that ESPN’s NBA analysts were critical of the Oklahoma City Thunder last night.

Philip Hersh of the Chicago Tribune has Dick Ebersol saying that he expects NBC/Comcast to put forth a very strong bid for the 2014/16 Olympics.

Bryce Miller in the Des Moines (IA) Register talks with ESPN/ABC NASCAR analyst Brad Daugherty.

Bryce also profiles the technician from Iowa who’s working ESPN on ABC’s production of today’s NASCAR Nationwide Series race.

Trevor Hughes of The Coloradoan recaps Denver News columnist Woody Paige’s honoring by Colorado State University about his piece last year about the suicide of a Broncos player and his brush with killing himself.

Dick Harmon from the Deseret (UT) News writes about BYUtv preparing to add more sports coverage to its agenda.

John Maffei at the North County Times reports that the San Diego Padres and Fox Sports are about to come together on a two decade, nine figure deal.

Michael Oliveira of the Toronto Globe and Mail says CBC is no longer bullish on 3-D TV.

EPL Talk says ESPN and Fox Soccer Channel have improved their English Premier League coverage, but still have a ways to go.

Sports Media Watch says the ratings Game 2 of the NBA Western Conference Finals on ESPN were up from last year.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media has the ratings for Game 3 of the NHL Eastern Conference Final on Versus.

Ian Bethune of Sox & Dawgs has the video of NESN’s Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy cracking up on the air again.

And that will do it.

May

Cranking Out Some Mid-Week Links

by Ken, under Boxing, CBS, CBS Sports, Charles Barkley, College Football, College Gameday, Dan Patrick, Erin Andrews, ESPN, ESPN Book, ESPN Deportes, Fox Sports, Gus Johnson, Marv Albert, Michelle Beadle, MLB, Mr. Tony, NASCAR, NBA, NBC Sports, NBC Sports Group, Network Upfronts, NFL, NFL Films, NHL, Preakness Stakes, The French Open, TNT, TV Ratings, Versus

As the rain continues to fall in the Northeast and the sun remains behind the clouds for one more day, I’ll provide some links for you. Trying to finish work before doing links and I’d like to provide these earlier, but sometimes, it can’t be helped. Anyway, here are the sports business and media stories that have been written today.

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand isn’t too excited about ESPN’s fall lineup.

Brian Lowry of Fox Sports says the networks are a bit nervous not certain about the NFL season.

Mike Florio at Pro Football Talk says Tony Kornheiser’s comments about a former Washington Post colleague Sally Jenkins could get him in hot water with his bosses again.

However, Dan Steinberg of the Post’s DC Sports Bog says Jenkins is not even offended by the comments and even goes to bat for Mr. Tony. So there’s no war here.

Your turn, Mike?

Rob Brunner at Entertainment Weekly has apparently broken the embargo by the publisher of “Those Guys Have All The Fun: Inside The World at ESPN” and revealed some juicy bits that weren’t in the first excerpt made public by GQ earlier this week.

Andrew Gauthier of TV Spy says a Buffalo TV station remembered Chicago sports anchor Daryl Hawks who died last week covering the Bulls in Atlanta. Hawks was a native of Buffalo.

Mike Reynolds at Multichannel News writes that ESPN Deportes will be offering some new programming in the fall.

Emma Bazilian at Adweek says Disney is prepared to step up in its bid to wrest Olympic TV rights away from NBC.

Toni Fitzgerald at Media Life recaps the ESPN Upfront presentation from Tuesday.

At ESPN Front Row, producer Jason Romano talks with Bob Ley about how he came up with the “ESPN Car Wash” moniker.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell finds that Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant is well liked by marketers.

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe says Game 2 of the Bruins-Lightning NHL Eastern Conference Final set a huge local rating for Versus last night.

Mike Reiss of ESPN Boston paid a visit to NFL Films.

Newsday’s Neil Best asks ESPN’s Vice President of Content John Skipper about the new book written by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales.

Greg Bishop from the New York Times talks with a classy Gus Johnson who’s looking forward to working with Fox and doesn’t close the door on returning to CBS down the road.

Howard Beck at the Times talks with a sports media consultant to athletes about how LeBron James and Dwayne Wade handle their pre and postgame interviews.

Also from the Times, Melissa Hoppert looks at the NBC Sports Group’s coverage of this weekend’s Preakness Stakes from Pimlico.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union compiles the French Open TV schedule for you.

Scott Levin of Buffalo’s WGRZ-TV says Matthew Barnaby’s domestic violence case has been delayed

At the Washington Post, Mike Wise talks with TNT’s Charles Barkley who says it’s no big deal having gay teammates because he’s played with gay teammates.

Dustin Long at the Virginian-Pilot reports on the ESPN split screen that will be employed during commercial breaks on NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase races.

Scott Rabalais of the Baton Rouge (LA) Advocate says ESPN’s College GameDay will be in town for LSU’s season opener about Oregon in September.

Mel Bracht at the Daily Oklahoman says ESPN’s NBA analysts had high praise for Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki.

Ed Sherman at Crain’s Chicago Business has some sports media news.

Ed says the Bulls’ introduction during Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals took TNT’s Marv Albert and Steve Kerr back to the team’s glory days with Michael Jordan.

Robert Feder of Time Out Chicago says WMAQ-TV plans to replace the late Daryl Hawks, but does not have a timetable at this point.

NBC Chicago says the Bulls will give the Hawks family an autographed game ball from Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Atlanta Hawks, the same game he was supposed to cover the night of his death.

Jeff Wolf of the Las Vegas Review-Journal says Cleveland still carries a torch for LeBron James judging from the TV ratings.

Steve Carp of the Review-Journal writes that a Manny Pacquaio-Juan Manuel Marquez is getting closer to reality as it needs a TV partner now.

Joe Flint of the Los Angeles Times writes that the networks are telling advertisers that they’re confident that the NFL season will be played, but behind closed doors, they’re saying something different.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has Dan Patrick expressing regret about the backstabbing at ESPN.

Jack Humphreville from City Watch LA writes that bankruptcy may be the best option for Dodgers owner Frank McCourt as he awaits approval of his huge TV rights megadeal with Fox Sports.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail says Blue Jays announcer Alan Ashby can work well on TV and on radio, a rarity among broadcasters.

Deadspin notes that not only did CBS pass on the Colon Cowhack sitcom, but also the Mark Schlereth one as well.

A.J. Daulerio of Deadspin says the new ESPN book certainly won’t mend any fences between Michelle Beadle and Erin Andrews.

Sports Media Watch says ESPN is seeing a ratings uptick for MLB.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media has the final viewership numbers for Game 1 of the NHL Eastern Conference Final for Versus.

Joe Favorito says maybe it’s time baseball teams look to market rain delays.

Ok. I’m still absorbing what Michelle Beadle said about Erin Andrews. I’m not judging. Just absorbing. That is all.

May

A Special Monday Night Linkfest

by Ken, under 3-D, CBS, Dish Network, ESPN, ESPN Book, ESPN Front Row, ESPN Radio, ESPNU, MLB, NBA, Network Upfronts, NHL, Tennis Channel, The French Open, TNT, TV Ratings

I’ll provide some linkage this evening. Some stuff has surfaced this evening since I did my original links today.

The Hollywood Reporter recaps the first excerpt from the ESPN book “Those Guys Have All The Fun” that was released by GQ today.

Etan Vlessing of the Hollywood Reporter says now that the NHL’s US TV rights are settled, the league is now looking to expand the game overseas and into the Middle East.

Mike Reynolds from Broadcasting & Cable and Multichannel News writes about the history-making ratings TNT received for the opening game of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals.

At Multichannel, Mike looks at Tennis Channel providing 20 hours of 3-D coverage from the French Open.

R. Thomas Umstead of Multichannel says Spike is going to rebrand its TNA Impact wrestling programming.

David Goetzl of MediaPost looks at a long-running dispute between ESPN and Dish Network over ESPNU.

Some sad news out of Kansas City. Dick Kaegel of MLB.com reports that Royals TV analyst and former pitcher Paul Splittorff has been admitted to a local hospital for treatment of oral cancer and melanoma.

The Big Lead says ESPN Radio Hack Colon Cowherd had his CBS sitcom squashed.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says some MLB teams had better be ready to accept $1 ticket prices and low food prices.

Amy Phillips from ESPN’s Front Row has a podcast previewing the network’s upfront presentations in New York on Tuesday.

And that’s going to do it. Short and sweet.

May

Tennis Channel Announces 2011 French Open Plans Including 3-D

by Ken, under Tennis Channel, The French Open

This year as the main US cable TV rightsholder of the French Open, Tennis Channel plans to air a weekend of 3-D coverage. In addition, Mary Carillo joins Tennis Channel and she’ll be part of a strong on-air announcing crew that includes host Bill Macatee, Ted Robinson, John McEnroe, Bud Collins, Ian Eagle, Justin Gimelstob, Martina Navratilova, Lindsay Davenport and Coriana Morariu. Let’s take a look at the Tennis Channel press release which includes its schedule and the official wrap-up show, French Open Tonight.

TENNIS CHANNEL’S FIFTH YEAR OF FRENCH OPEN COVERAGE TO INCLUDE 3-D WEEKEND

AT&T U-verse^®, Comcast and DIRECTV Subscribers to See Hallowed Tournament’s Red Clay Fly Like Never Before on U.S. Television
75 Live Hours, 42 First-Run Hours of French Open Tonight and Close to 250 Hours of OverallTournament Coverage Begins May 22 in Paris
On-Air Team Features Navratilova, McEnroe, Davenport, Collins, Carillo, Macatee, Robinson, Eagle

LOS ANGELES, May 16, 2011 -Tennis Channel, the only 24-hour, television-based multimedia destination dedicated to both the professional sport and tennis lifestyle, will bring the world’s most prestigious clay-court tournament to American televisions in 3-D for the first time during this year’s French Open coverage. Working with AT&T U-verse^®, Comcast and DIRECTV the network will telecast all matches from center court – the postcard-perfect Philippe Chatrier Court – in 3-D during Memorial Day weekend, May 28-30. Viewers who subscribe to one of these three pay-TV providers will be able to access the more than 20 hours of match coverage.

Though Grand Slam tennis action has appeared in 3-D on U.S. television networks before, this will be the first time for the French Open, so symbolized by its surface of luxurious red clay, extended rallies and passionate, vocal stadium crowds.

“Tennis Channel prides itself on bringing this sport to our viewers through state-of-the-art broadcast quality that’s second to none,” said Larry Meyers, executive producer and senior vice president, production, Tennis Channel. “In keeping with this, we’re happy to work with AT&T U-verse, Comcast and DIRECTV to be the first network to offer the French Open to U.S. audiences in 3-D. We always say we want viewers to feel like they’re actually in Paris at the French Open when they tune into Tennis Channel, and the images of red clay flying through their televisions at them in 3-D this year will only add to this effort.”

In all Tennis Channel’s fifth year at the French Open will bring more than 75 hours of live or first-run matches to viewers, with another dozen hours of men’s and women’s semifinal same-day encores. The network will carry at least seven live hours a day for the first nine days of the competition, with coverage beginning at 5 a.m. ET (a complete schedule follows, below).

French Open Tonight, hosted by Bill Macatee, will be back each evening for three-and-half hours of highlights, interviews, analysis and special reports from the tournament grounds and Paris at large. Typically running from 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. ET., the show’s set will again be perched above the French Open’s famed Musketeer Plaza, right in the heart of the crowd. Each night at its conclusion French Open Tonight immediately re-airs twice in its entirety all night and early morning up to the start of the next day’s coverage of live matches. Tennis Channel will produce 42 hours of French Open Tonight this year, with 139 overall hours dedicated to the show during the two-week competition.

Tennis Channel has worked with ESPN2 to bring viewers almost non-stop coverage between the two networks, and will do so again. On most days Tennis Channel’s live matches run from 5 a.m.-noon ET, at which point ESPN2 takes the court until 6:30 p.m. ET, then hands it back over to Tennis Channel’s French Open Tonight. French Open Tonight then runs through the night until the next day’s play. Tennis Channel produces all coverage for both channels, with each cross-promoting the other’s schedule and making use of its own on-air team. All French Open production is in high definition.

On-Air Talent
Since announcing Hall of Famers John McEnroe and Martina Navratilova as lead analysts in 2007, Tennis Channel has continued to add to the star power of its French Open talent roster. New to the team in 2011 is Mary Carillo, one of the most respected sports journalists in the industry, a long-time tennis broadcaster and a 1977 French Open mixed doubles champion with McEnroe. Carillo will host the network’s live tournament desk, conduct interviews, offer perspective and analysis, and handle play-by-play duties during select matches. She will also develop human interest stories and segments during the two-week event. Additionally, Grand Slam winner Lindsay Davenport is back at Roland Garros for the network in 2011, in the first year of her recently signed multiyear, year-round on-air agreement.

Meanwhile, Justin Gimelstob, Corina Morariu, Katrina Adams and Barry MacKay will offer analysis again for the network in Paris this year, along with returning play-by-play men Ted Robinson, Ian Eagle and Leif Shiras. On any given night any one of Tennis Channel’s live-match broadcasters could make an in-person appearance on French Open Tonight with Macatee, and likely each one of them will at some point during the two-week event. In addition to Macatee, the primetime show will feature the talents of Bud Collins, the reporter, broadcaster, writer and expert who has literally written the book on the sport with his Tennis Encyclopedia. They will be joined by Cari Champion, anchor and reporter for Tennis Channel’s year-round Court Report news segment. She will resume the role she held last year, covering the tournament’s grounds and its famous host city, and bringing the off-court bustle and pageantry to viewers back home.

Broadband Coverage
Tennis Channel has streamed live and on-demand matches for free on its Web site, www.tennischannel.com, since it began covering the French Open. This will continue in 2011, with another 10 days of 125 matches and 200 hours of online tennis. However, an upgraded video player will bring it all to viewers at much faster speeds and in high-definition quality. Other new features include picture-in-picture tools, digital video recorder (DVR) capabilities and the option of watching multiple courts simultaneously. In fact, given Tennis Channel’s extensive video-on-demand archives, the Web site’s new video player will allow a site visitor to have up to 20 screens of different matches playing at the same time.

Tennis Channel’s redesigned online video page will again offer daily French Open highlights, player interviews, on-the-ground features and French Open Tonight segments. Other www.tennischannel.com features include real-time scoring, exclusive photos, interactive tournament draws, sweepstakes information and the “Racquet Bracket” tournament prediction game. In addition, veteran tennis reporter Matt Cronin will write for Tennis Channel for the first time during the French Open this year, penning a few columns each week as he begins a year-round presence on the network Web site. He joins returning scribes Steve Flink, Joel Drucker and James LaRosa.

Tennis Channel’s Live 2011 French Open Match Schedule – Entirely in High Definition
(Men’s/Women’s Singles Unless Otherwise Specified)

Date                                        Time (ET)                   Event

Sunday, May 22                       5 a.m.-1 p.m.               First-Round Action
Monday, May 23                     5 a.m.-3 p.m.               First-Round Action
Tuesday, May 24                     5 a.m.-Noon                First-Round Action
Wednesday, May 25                5 a.m.-Noon                Second-Round Action
Thursday, May 26                    5 a.m.-Noon                Second-Round Action
Friday, May 27                        5 a.m.-Noon                Third-Round Action
Saturday, May 28                     5 a.m.-Noon                Third-Round Action
Sunday, May 29                       5 a.m.-Noon                Round-of-16 Action
Monday, May 30                     5 a.m.-Noon                Round-of-16 Action
Tuesday, May 31                     8 a.m.-Noon                Quarterfinals
Wednesday, June 1                  8 a.m.-Noon                Quarterfinals
Thursday, June 2                      5 a.m.-8 a.m.                Men’s Doubles Semifinals

Tennis Channel will also offer same-day replays of the singles semifinals (ET):

Thursday, June 2 – 1 p.m.-6:30 p.m.: women’s singles semifinals
Friday, June 3 – 5 p.m.-midnight: men’s semifinals

Tennis Channel’s French Open Tonight Schedule

French Open Tonight airs Sunday, May 22-Thursday, June 2, and typically runs from 6:30 p.m.-10 p.m. ET, and is then repeated twice from 10 p.m.-1:30 a.m. and 1:30 a.m.-5 a.m. These are the exceptions are (ET):

Monday, May 23; Saturday, May 28; and Sunday, May 29 – 3 p.m.-6:30 p.m., repeated at 6:30 p.m.-10 p.m., 10 p.m.-1:30 a.m. and 1:30 a.m.-5 a.m.

Additionally, shortened encore editions of French Open Tonight will air Tuesday, May 31, and Wednesday, June 1, from 5 a.m.-8 a.m.

That does it.

May

ESPN2′s 2011 French Open Schedule & Coverage Plans

by Ken, under ESPN Deportes, ESPN2, ESPN3.com, The French Open

The French Open begins on Sunday. ESPN2 is the secondary rightsholder, subleasing coverage from Tennis Channel. For the other three Grand Slam tennis tournaments, it’s the other way around, but for Roland Garros, Tennis Channel holds the rights. For most of the two week tournament, ESPN2′s coverage will begin at noon Eastern time, after Tennis Channel’s coverage which will begin at 5 a.m. ESPN2 does have the rights to the women’s semifinals at 8 a.m. on Thursday, June 2. So I’ll post the schedules for ESPN2, ESPN3.com and ESPN Deportes. Then after after a jump break, you can read the press release which is very long.

2011 French Open on ESPN2 & ESPN2 HD

Date	Time (ET)	Event
Sun, May 22	1 – 6:30 p.m.	First Round	Live & Same-day action
Tue, May 24	Noon – 6:30 p.m.	First Round	Live & Same-day action
Wed, May 25	Noon – 6:30 p.m.	Second Round	Live & Same-day action
Thur, May 26	Noon – 6:30 p.m.	Second Round	Live & Same-day action
Fri, May 27	Noon – 6:30 p.m.	Third Round	Live & Same-day action

Mon, May 30	Noon – 6:30 p.m.	Round of 16	Live & Same-day action
Tue, May 31	Noon – 6:30 p.m.	Quarterfinals	Live & Same-day action
Wed, June 1	Noon – 6:30 p.m.	Men’s Quarterfinals	Live & Same-day action
Thur, June 2	8 a.m. – 1 p.m.	Women’s Semifinals	Live

2011 French Open on ESPN3.com

Date	Time (ET)	Event
Sun, May 22	5 a.m. – 6:30 p.m.	First Round	Live & Same-day action
Tue, May 24	5 a.m. – 6:30 p.m.	First Round	Live & Same-day action
Wed, May 25	5 a.m. – 6:30 p.m.	Second Round	Live & Same-day action
Thur, May 26	5 a.m. – 6:30 p.m.	Second Round	Live & Same-day action
Fri, May 27	5 a.m. – 6:30 p.m.	Third Round	Live & Same-day action

Mon, May 30	5 a.m. – 6:30 p.m.	Round of 16	Live & Same-day action
Tue, May 31	5 a.m. – 6:30 p.m.	Quarterfinals	Live & Same-day action
Wed, June 1	5 a.m. – 6:30 p.m.	Men’s Quarterfinals	Live & Same-day action
Thur, June 2	5 a.m. – 3 p.m.	Women’s Semifinals	Live

2011 French Open on ESPN Deportes

Date	Time (ET)	Event
Tue, May 24	Noon – 2 p.m.	First Round	Live & Same-day action
Wed, May 25	Noon – 2 p.m.	Second Round	Live & Same-day action
Thur, May 26	Noon – 2 p.m.	Second Round	Live & Same-day action
Fri, May 27	Noon – 2 p.m.	Third Round	Live & Same-day action

Mon, May 30	Noon – 2 p.m.	Round of 16	Live & Same-day action
Tue, May 31	Noon – 2 p.m.	Quarterfinals	Live & Same-day action
Wed, June 1	Noon – 2 p.m.	Men’s Quarterfinals	Live & Same-day action
Thur, June 2	8 a.m. – 12 noon	Women’s Semifinals	Live

And the ESPN2 press release is after the jump.

(continue reading…)

May

Mary Carillo Joins Tennis Channel

by Ken, under Tennis Channel, The French Open, US Open Tennis

In a very good move and a natural one, Tennis Channel has signed Mary Carillo for the French and U.S. Opens. In addition to analysis and some play-by-play, Mary will be seen at the host desk to conduct interviews and do features. Of course, Mary left ESPN2 during the U.S. Open for some undisclosed dispute.

Here’s the press release.

TENNIS CHANNEL SIGNS MARY CARILLO

Renowned Sportscaster, Tennis Champion to Join French Open, US Open On-Air Teams

LOS ANGELES, May 12, 2011-Tennis Channel is adding Mary Carillo, whose path has taken her from winning the French Open to winning a Sports Emmy Award, as the newest member of its star-laden French Open and US Open telecast teams. Starting in Paris in two weeks she will host the network’s live tournament desk, conduct interviews, offer perspective and analysis, and occasionally handle play-by-play duties during select matches. Additionally, Carillo will have wide latitude to produce the type of in-depth, human interest stories and segments for which she has garnered numerous awards throughout her 31-year television career.

“Tennis Channel just continues to impress everyone with the passion and knowledge they bring to covering this sport, and I really wanted to be a part of that,” said Carillo. “I’ve done things with them several times in the past but never as a member of their broadcast team. It will be great to get going with them at the French Open and contribute to the quality of work they’re producing.”

The agreement brings Carillo, one of the most respected voices in sports journalism, to Tennis Channel’s on-air team for the first time and pairs her with John McEnroe, the childhood friend with whom she won the 1977 French Open mixed-doubles championship. McEnroe has been a part of the network’s Paris team since 2007, its first year in the City of Light. In addition to McEnroe, she joins a roster of Grand Slam champions that includes Martina Navratilova, Lindsay Davenport, Justin Gimelstob and Corina Morariu. She will also appear on the set of French Open Tonight with host Bill Macatee, another longtime face of Tennis Channel’s Grand Slam coverage.

Carillo will repeat this role later in the year during Tennis Channel’s coverage of the US Open in her New York City hometown. The annual late-summer event takes place in the borough of Queens, where she grew up and first grabbed a tennis racquet.

“What executive producer wouldn’t want to add Mary Carillo to their broadcast team?” said Larry Meyers, executive producer and senior vice president, production, Tennis Channel. “We continue to build upon the group of incredible people who cover the French Open for Tennis Channel. The chance to bring Mary into a lineup that already includes McEnroe, Navratilova, Davenport, Macatee, (Ted) Robinson and (Ian) Eagle is another great opportunity for us and our viewers. We really feel like there’s no other sport in the world that has this level of talent covering it on one network.”

Known for both wisdom and wit, Carillo has carved a place for herself in the television sportscast landscape like few others in the industry. Beginning as a tennis analyst for USA Network following her retirement from professional tennis in 1980, she has branched out to cover a wide variety of sports stories for CBS Sports, NBC Sports, HBO Sports, ESPN and Bravo. Beyond her candid tennis commentary she is equally lauded for her work at the Summer and Winter Olympic Games, and as a correspondent on Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, HBO’s monthly magazine show. Carillo has become recognized and praised for two signatures: the refreshing honesty of her opinions and poignant, deeply measured human interest stories that add heartbeats to athletes and the people who share their hopes and sorrows. Among these are features on the tragic death of young Los Angeles Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart, and the story of the family of Ironman athlete Rick Hoyt, who triumphed despite the challenges of his cerebral palsy.

Carillo won a 2006 Sports Emmy Award for her uplifting Hoyt family report and a 2000 George Foster Peabody Award for her contribution to Dare to Compete: The Struggle for Women in Sports, a documentary she co-wrotewith Frank Deford. She won an additional Peabody Award for the 2006 documentary Billie Jean King: Portrait of a Pioneer (which appeared on Tennis Channel after its initial HBO premiere). She became the first female recipient of the Dick Schaap Award for Outstanding Journalism in 2010 and has been named “Best TV Commentator” by Tennis magazine repeatedly. The WTA Tour, the governing body of women’s professional tennis, has twice awarded Carillo with its “Broadcaster of the Year” honor.

This year’s French Open will mark Tennis Channel’s fifth telecast of the most prestigious clay-court tournament in the world. The network plans to offer more than 100 hours of live matches and more than 40 hours of nightly prime-time show French Open Tonight. In all, given encore replays and a round-the-clock coverage schedule during the event, Tennis Channel will devote close to 250 hours to the French Open in 2011. This does not include the multiple live and on-demand matches that will be free again on the network’s web site, www.tennischannel.com. A full broadcast schedule will be announced on the eve of the tournament.

Good pick up by Tennis Channel and one that’s welcomed here.

Jun

Let’s Do Some Linkage

by Ken, under ABC, Belmont Stakes, CBC, CBS Sports, Dick Enberg, ESPN, MASN, MLB, NBA, NBC Sports, NHL, PGA Tour, SNY, Sports Illustrated, The French Open, TV Ratings, Univision, Versus, WGN, World Cup

Yesterday, I just wasn’t in the mood to blog after putting up a few press releases. It’s time to do some blogging now because it’s important that you get linkage and fresh material as much as possible. Don’t want to be dormant for too long. By the way, whatever happened to Awful Announcing? It’s like Brian Powell suddenly disappeared.

Anyway, some big things tonight for your sports viewing including the Major League debut of Stephen Strasburg for the Washington Nationals. It’s so big that MLB Network will air what would have been a meaningless game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. And MLB Network is sending the big guns, Bob Costas, John Smoltz and Jim Kaat to call the game. While Strasburg has had plenty of hype going into this game, he’s been living up to it thus far. Locally, Pittsburgh will have the game on FSN Pittsburgh and DC will see it on MASN2. Game time is 7 p.m. East/4 p.m. West.

And there’s Game 3 of the NBA Finals. Change of venue as the series shifts East to the TD Garden in Boston as the Lakers and Celtics square off. The series is tied at 1 apiece. ABC has the game starting at 9 p.m. East and 6 p.m. West. There is a pregame show starting at 8:30 p.m., but Stuart Scott is hosting so watch at your own risk.

Let’s do your links.

Sports Business Daily says ABC received a final rating of 9.2 for NBA Finals Game 2 and over 15 and a half million viewers.

The SBD says Yahoo! has signed soccer star David Beckham as an international spokesman.

Michael Smith of Sports Business Journal says NASCAR has given up on creating a “NASCAR Wives” reality show.

Michael Hiestand from USA Today has the ratings from various weekend events.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says the TV math doesn’t add up for expansion by either the Big 10 or Pac 10.

Darren says tonight’s debut for Stephen Strasburg is worth a lot of money for the Washington Nationals.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch has his Sports Media Power Rankings for May.

At the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times notices there’s media apathy towards women’s sports.

Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports has a great column on how the Big 12 by teaming up with the Big 10 and Pac 10 to reject a college football playoff in 2008, is now on the verge of being cannibalized by both conferences.

Rick Kissel of Variety notes that sports performed well in the TV ratings on Sunday.

Jon Lafayette from Broadcasting & Cable says the NHL is getting hot on TV at the right time.

Jon talks with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman about his TV partners, NHL Network and his league’s TV ratings.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News writes that Univision has scored various platform deals just as the World Cup is set to get underway.

Lucia Moses of Mediaweek says Sports Illustrated has lured away a once-rising star at Conde Nast publications to become the first woman to head sales at the magazine.

Katy Bachman also of Mediaweek writes that Nielsen is planning to launch a new service during the World Cup using BlackBerry devices as mobile diaries.

Toni Fitzgerald from Media Life Magazine says the NHL’s ratings surge continues into the Stanley Cup Final.

The New York Post’s Michael Starr breaks news that SNY is in talks with 2 TV stations to take over their nightly sports reports.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times writes that ESPN and Univision are hoping to tap into increased interest in the World Cup.

Richard adds last Saturday’s Belmont Stakes garnered some its lowest ratings ever.

Over to Bob Raissman at the New York Daily News who enjoys former Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy’s commentary on ESPN/ABC.

Ken McMillan of the Hudson Valley Times Herald-Record reports that a New York-Penn League minor league baseball team will get a new radio announcer when its season begins later this month.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner says MASN2 will expand its Nationals pregame show to an hour tonight for the Stephen Strasburg debut.

Ed Sherman from Crain’s Chicago Business writes that Chicago is helping to drive the NHL’s increased ratings.

Ed adds the White Sox will honor Hawk Harrelson for his 25 years of service as a broadcaster.

The Chicago Tribune notes that after a window was damaged at its facilities, WGN Radio decided to re-do it with a Blackhawks logo.

Phil Rosenthal of the Tribune writes that Stanley Cup Final Game 5 was not only a win for the Blackhawks, but also for the local ratings.

Chris Jenkins from the San Diego Union-Tribune talks with former UCLA voice Dick Enberg about his friend, John Wooden.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says Wooden’s final book is being moved to a July publication date.

Diane Pucin of the Los Angeles Times notes that ratings for live sports events continue to rise.

William Houston at Truth & Rumours says a Toronto sports radio reporter was suspended for doing his job.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail also writes about the reporter’s suspension.

The Sports Media Watch notes that despite not having big names in the French Open women’s final, NBC still garnered decent ratings.

SMW says the ratings for the final round of the Memorial Tournament on CBS were down from last year, but still decent.

SMW has various ratings news and notes.

And SMW says Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final on Versus actually fell from last year.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media says NBC and CBC’s ratings are up for the Stanley Cup Final from last year.

Greg Wyshynski at Yahoo’s Puck Daddy has found the Stanley Cup Champions winning gear.

And we’re done. Back later.

Jun

NBC Sports Goes French This Weekend

by Ken, under NBC Sports, The French Open

Starting on Friday, NBC starts its coverage of the semifinals and finals at the French Open. I give credit to NBC for allowing Tennis Channel to air the Robin Soderling vs. Tomas Berdych semifinal match live in its entirety, Friday morning at 7 East/4 West.

However, it does mean some shenanigans for NBC. The Rafael Nadal-Jergen Melzer match will be live in the East at 11 a.m., however, it will also air at 11 a.m. in the Midwest, 11 a.m. in the Rocky Mountain region and 11 a.m. in the West, meaning delays in three time zones. If the Nadal match starts a little before 11 a.m. in the East, NBC will delay it to show it in its entirety, but let’s hope it doesn’t get to that point.

Anyway, here’s the NBC press release about French Open championship weekend.

NADAL SEEKS FIFTH FRENCH OPEN TITLE AS NBC SPORTS PRESENTS LIVE COVERAGE OF THE FRENCH OPEN FINALS SATURDAY & SUNDAY

NEW YORK – June 3, 2010 – Rafael Nadal seeks his fifth French Open title that will get him closer to Bjorn Borg’s open era record of six as NBC Sports presents live coverage of the French Open men’s finals on Sunday beginning at 9 a.m. ET. Nadal, the tournament’s No. 2 seed, whose last Grand Slam title came at the 2009 Australian Open, must first get by Jurgen Melzer of Austria in the semifinal round Friday (11 a.m. in all time zones on NBC). Melzer upset No. 3 seed Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals. On the women’s side, No. 17 seed Francesca Schiavone of Italy takes on No. 7 seed Samantha Stosur of Australia each seeking her first Grand Slam title. Live coverage of the women’s final begins Saturday at 9 a.m. ET.

Host Ted Robinson anchors NBC’s coverage from Roland Garros, joined by analyst John McEnroe.

MEN’S BRACKET: Nadal is looking for his fifth French Open title which would put him just shy of Borg’s record of six during the open era and will give Nadal his first Grand Slam title since the 2009 Australian Open. Nadal, the No. 2 player in the world takes on No. 22 seed Melzer who at 29 years old is the oldest player in the men’s draw. Melzer is playing in his first Grand Slam semifinal.

With a win at the French Open (coupled by Roger Federer’s loss in the quarterfinals), Nadal will regain the World No. 1 ranking that he held from August 18, 2008 – July 5, 2009. Prior to that, Nadal ranked No. 2 behind Federer for 160 weeks. In 2008, Nadal became the first player ever to win the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year.

The other semifinal match will have No. 5 seed Robin Soderling taking on No. 15 seed Tomas Berdych, who has not dropped a set in five rounds at this year’s French Open. Soderling defeated Nadal last year in the fourth round at Roland Garros.

ROBINSON ON SIGNIFICANCE OF FEDERER LOSING IN QUARTERFINALS: “Watching Roger Federer fall to Robin Soderling made me wonder if spectators on July 17, 1941 understood the significance of Joe Di Maggio’s 56-game hit streak ending. Federer’s streak is the ‘DiMaggio of tennis.’ 23 straight Slam semis—we will never see anyone APPROACH, let alone surpass, that record.”
ROBINSON ON WHO NADAL WANTS TO PLAY IN FINALS: “The most interesting question of this French Open- who was Nadal rooting for? Could it be that Rafa would prefer to face a 16-time Slam champ over the only man to ever beat him on this surface? Many think the answer is yes.”

ROBINSON ON A NADAL-SODERLING FINAL: “A Nadal-Soderling final would provide all the basics of terrific sports theater- redemption, revenge, revolution (if Soderling were to walk away from Paris as champ).”
ROBINSON ON UNDERDOG JURGEN MELZER: “Jurgen Melzer has played wonderfully to reach this point- a first-ever Slam semi at age 29. But he hasn’t faced Rafa. He hasn’t yet absorbed the relentless hammering of Nadal’s groundstrokes on red clay. He hasn’t experienced the concept of trying to win THREE sets from Rafa. Nor has he ever experienced the moment- a Slam semi.”

ROBINSON SUMS IT UP: “Together, it reads like a Rafa day—will Soderling be there on Sunday as well?”

WOMEN’S BRACKET: The women’s final is set for Saturday morning with No. 17 seed Schiavone taking on the No. 7 seed Stosur. Both Schiavone and Stosur are playing in their first ever Grand Slam Final. Schiavone’s previous best in a Grand Slam has been reaching the quarterfinals of Wimbledon in 2009, The U.S. Open in 2003 and here at the French Open in 2001. Stosur defeated four-time French Open Champion Justine Henin and the No. 1 seed Serena Williams on her way to her first ever Grand Slam final.

ROBINSON ON STOSUR’S RUN: “She has had the greatest Grand Slam for a woman on clay that one can have without actually winning the tournament. She beat Henin, Serena and Jankovic, all former No. 1’s. It’s hard to fathom having to beat that kind of field and STILL have to win the Final.”

ROBINSON ON STOSUR’S SERVE: “She has the second best serve of any woman in the sport next to Serena…and she’s a close second.”

ROBINSON ON SCHIAVONE: “She is going to be 30 years old in two weeks and this is likely her last chance to win a Grand Slam event. There has never been an Italian player in a Slam final so this means so much for her country.”

COVERAGE ON NBC SPORTS: Following is the schedule for NBC Sports’ coverage of the 2010 French Open, which culminates with live HD coverage of the Women’s (June 5) and Men’s (June 6) Finals:

Friday, June 4, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. (all time zones) – Men’s Semifinals – Nadal vs. Melzer

Saturday, June 5, 9 a.m.-Noon ET – Women’s Final (Live) – Schiavone vs. Stosur

Sunday, June 6, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. ET – Men’s Final (Live)

There you have it.

Jun

Return of The Links

by Ken, under ABC, Big 12, Big Ten Network, CBC, ESPN, ESPN2, Fox Sports, MLB, MLB Network, MLS, NASCAR, NBA, NBC Sports, NHL, Pac 10, The French Open, TNT, TV Ratings, Versus, World Cup

After a day in which it was difficult to get linkage in, I’ll do it today. So much is going on that it’s tough to ignore the stories that have surfaced in the last two days. Let’s get to the links.

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand held a live chat on sports TV yesterday. I wish I had known.

Mike notes that the Stanley Cup Final’s ratings on Sunday beat both the Indianapolis 50 and NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600.

CNN’s Larry King talks with Sports Illustrated’s Maggie Gray about his interview with LeBron James that airs on Friday.

The Sports Business Daily says ESPN is looking at average 9.0 rating for the NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers.

SBD’s Brian Helfrich talks with Cleveland Plain Dealer Cavaliers beat writer Brian Windhorst about covering the team and the LeBron James Watch.

The Sporting News picks up an article from sister publication Sports Business Journal and Michael Smith who looks at TNT taking over NASCAR from Fox this week.

The Sporting News also picks up Eric Fisher’s article in the Sports Business Journal about MLB Network trying to turn the MLB Draft into a TV event.

Also in the Sporting News, On The DL’s Dan Levy looks at what the purchase of The Big Lead means for sports blogs down the road.

Dan Shanoff says he’s excited about The Big Lead being purchased by Fantasy Sports Ventures.

The Nielsen Wire blog says more people watched the 2006 World Cup than you may have thought.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says its name might be mud, but BP is still sponsoring the Cubs-White Sox crosstown series.

Darren says Dale Earnhardt, Jr. may not win races, but he’s still a winner in marketing his name.

Jeff Pearlman calls Fox Sports NFL Insider Jay Glazer “a joke” for his relationship with current players.

Everyone in sports and apparently in news is talking about last night’s blown call by first base umpire Jim Joyce that cost Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game against Cleveland. Well, Twitter caught fire with “Things Jim Joyce ruined” which is laugh out loud funny. Some of my tweets on the subject are there. MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann chimes in saying the call should be overturned and there is precedent in baseball for it.

Keith adds that there was a meeting at the MLB Commissioner’s office this morning on the Joyce call.

James Hibberd of the Hollywood Reporter says WWE wrestler Chris Jericho will host an ABC game show this summer.

Ben Grossman of Broadcasting & Cable writes that MLS might be looking at Versus as a new TV partner as league officials come off impressed at how the network treats the NHL.

Mike Reynolds at Multichannel News writes that former Versus CEO Gavin Harvey is taking a similar position at the Sportsman Channel.

Mike says ESPN2 will have 24 hours of World Cup programming leading up to the first game next Friday.

Anthony Crupi at Mediaweek says despite ratings declines for the NBA Western Conference Finals, TNT still won the cable primetime ratings last week.

The Boston Herald’s Jessica Heslam notes that while most of the city’s media outlets have sent reporters out west to cover the Celtics-Lakers, one station has not.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times writes about a rather unusual doubleheader taking place this Saturday at Yankee Stadium.

Richard also writes how Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz is not his father’s son when it comes to managing the team.

Richard notes that this year’s French Open men’s semifinals should be live thanks to accommodations made by NBC preventing the tape delay shenanigans of last year.

David Jones in the Patriot-News (PA) says with the success of the NHL on Versus this season, it’s time for the Big Ten to form a hockey conference so the Big Ten Network can air games.

David Zurawik from the Baltimore Sun says a local news anchor will host a nationally syndicated weekly sports show.

Leonard Shapiro of the Washington Post lists his Top 10 DC sports radio personalities of all time.

Monte Dutton of the Gaston (NC) Gazette waxes poetic about the old ABC’s Wide World of Sports.

Walt Belcher in the Tampa Tribune says the local NBC station will move the French Open men’s final to another station as it airs a telethon all day Sunday.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman has comments from ESPN/ABC’s NBA Finals announcing crew on the start of the Celtics-Lakers series tonight.

Brian Windhorst of the Cleveland Plain Dealer talks with ESPN/ABC analyst Jeff Van Gundy about the Cavaliers coaching vacancy for which he is allegedly a candidate.

Doug Zaleski of the Muncie (IN) Star Press writes that a local native gets the call from ESPN to do play-by-play for a NASCAR Nationwide race this Saturday.

Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Tribune tells us that the NHL Stanley Cup Final has never aired in its entirety on US network TV.

Phil adds last night’s Game 3 of this year’s series did monster ratings locally.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says this year’s World Cup should be US viewer-friendly.

Bob Mayhall in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat looks at the early Big 12 TV schedule on its various media partners.

Greg Hansen of the Arizona Daily Star feels the Pac 10 conference would be better served by expanding its TV deal instead of its number of teams.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says both the Lakers and Celtics have had their share of movie roles in the past few years.

Diane Pucin over at the Los Angeles Times notes that ESPN/ABC NBA analyst Jeff Van Gundy is more than just a basketball guy.

Diane says we all switched to MLB Network to watch the Armando Galarraga perfect game bid.

Peter Yoon of the LA Times looks at pro beach volleyball’s new sponsorship deal and media rights partner in which the tour can finally turn a profit this year.

Curtis Zupke of the Orange County Register’s Anaheim Ducks blog has three ways to improve Stanley Cup Final broadcasts.

The Toronto Globe and Mail’s Bruce Dowbiggin speaks with Florida Marlins voice Dave Van Horne who has called three perfect games.

Greg Wyshynski at Puck Daddy has the video of the annual 8 minute confrontation between CBC’s Ron MacLean and the diminutive NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman.

The Sports Media Watch looks at the Weekend Overnight Ratings.

SMW takes a real close look at the ratings for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final and notes they’re not as good as we originally thought.

But SMW notes that Game 2′s ratings were very good for the NHL.

SMW says the Indy 500 hit an all-time ratings low.

And SMW tells us that the NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 is spiraling downward too.

We are done.