Fang's Bites

What Can We Expect From Fox Sports 1 and 2?

The worst kept secret in sports media finally gets pushed from behind the curtain and will be officially unveiled to advertisers and the media on Tuesday. Fox Sports officials will be at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York to tell the world what the average fan will see on the new Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports 2 networks when they launch this summer.

Unlike previous Fox launches when the broadcast company started completely new channels from scratch, it’s using existing infrastructure from Speed to form Fox Sports 1 and from Fuel TV to build Fox Sports 2.

And using existing partnerships with Major League Baseball, NASCAR, the Big 12 and PAC-12 along with UFC, the channels will have an extensive inventory of live sports to show. Plus, with an expected partnership with the breakaway “Catholic 7″ from the old Big East conference to form a new Big East conference, Fox Sports 1 and 2 will have live college basketball games in November.

Over the last year, Fox has flown under the radar to bring its new networks into fruition. While NBC Sports has attempted to add major sports to its arsenal, Fox has used its relationships to convince its partners to sign off on shuffling inventory from the Fox Television Network to its cable channels. As a result, Fox will have 14 MLB games starting in 2014 compared to 24 this year. Also, several NASCAR Sprint Cup races will go to Fox Sports 1 after being on Fox for several years.

While it appears Fox is positioning itself as a bona fide challenger to ESPN, it still has a long way to go if it truly wants to mount a fight. Even so, Fox and ESPN have become dance partners in college sports with the Big 12, the Pac-12 and look to partner with the old Big East and the Catholic 7. Just last year, ESPN and Fox filed a joint bid for the English Premier League before losing out to NBC. So as Fox starts the new sports networks, it’s also forming an Unholy Alliance with the one network that it along with CBS, NBC and to a certain extent, Turner Sports are hoping to knock down.

In addition to the live games, Fox Sports 1 will have talk shows. Regis Philbin announced on “The View” Monday that he will host a show on the network that will be modeled after “The View” itself. John Ourand of Sports Business Journal reported last year that Jay Mohr, a host on Fox Sports Radio, was in talks for his own series on FS1.

With Tuesday’s announcement, Fox Sports 1 and 2 become the New Kids on the Sports Block. The key for success will be clearance among increasing militant cable and satellite providers which are balking at paying high subscriber fees due to sports rights. Richard Sandomir and Amy Chozick of the New York Times report that Fox is seeking $1 per subscriber for FS1. After the euphoria of launching a new cable network comes the reality of gaining cable carriage. We’ve yet to hear if Fox has been able to get agreements from the major providers like Bright House, Cablevision, Comcast, Cox, DirecTV, Dish, Suddenlink and Time Warner among others. If Fox Sports 1 and 2 are cleared throughout the country, then it will be a major hurdle that will be out of the way.

And if Fox Sports 1 is able to get an NFL package and NBA games to add to their other properties, then the road for the networks will be paved with gold. Right now, the networks will be given a head start with MLB, NASCAR, college football and basketball, MMA, World Cup Soccer and additional soccer games coming Fox Soccer. If more properties can be added, then Fox will be in very good position as it heads into the next decade.

The journey for the new Fox Sports entities begins on Tuesday. Whether it will be smooth sailing or a stormy ride will be determined over the next few years.

Some Wednesday Linkage

Let’s do some linkage while I have some time.

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand notes NBC’s hiring of Tiger Woods pal Notah Begay to its golf team. He replaces Dottie Pepper who went to the PGA of America.

Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand profiles ESPN PR pioneer Rosa Gatti who is retiring from the network after working there since the early days.

John & Tripp Mickle write that NBC remains as a wild card in the NASCAR Sprint Cup talks.

Over to the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center where Manny Randhawa definitely had an agenda in an interview with Deadspin editor Tommy Craggs over the site’s Manti Te’o coverage. Craggs shoots down several of Randhawa’s loaded questions.

To the Bleacher Report where King Kaufman analyzes the Craggs interview. It should be noted that Randhawa did some writing for B/R, but not now.

Michael O’Connell of the Hollywood Reporter says thanks to the Super Bowl and the Grammys, CBS will win the February sweeps while NBC without the NFL has fallen harder than a 3 ton boulder.

In Multichannel News, Broadcasting & Cable’s Tim Baysinger writes about ESPN getting out of the UK and selling its channels to BT Group.

At The Sherman Report, Ed Sherman notes that Leigh Montville is still producing high quality columns.

ESPN’s Darren Rovell says NASCAR needs to find a way to keep the increased audience that watched the Daytona 500 on Sunday.

Sports Video Group tells us that the MLS’s FC Dallas has signed a TV rights deal with Time Warner Cable. Fox Sports Southwest previously held the rights.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call says the Iron Pigs announcers will call some Philadelphia Phillies Spring Training games.

Eric Deggans from the Tampa Bay Times writes about the shaky debut of CBS Radio’s FM sports radio station.

John Kiesewetter from the Cincinnati Enquirer writes that the Reds Radio Network has switched games to air Aroldis Chapman’s Spring debut.

Paul M. Banks at Chicago Sports Media Watch says it’s time to end the live postgame interviews.

Houston Mitchell of the Los Angeles Times says ESPN’s Brent Musburger autographed a Katherine Webb poster.

Mark Blaudschun of A Jersey Guy looks at ESPN and the Big East getting back together again.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog says the proposed NHL realignment is good for TV, but not necessarily good for some teams.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media wonders how Olympic hockey would look on CBC and NBC.

Sports Media Watch has some various ratings news.

And we’ll end it there for now.

Bloomberg’s Sportfolio Looks At The Business of Baseball

Sportfolio, Bloomberg’s show on sports business, host Rick Horrow looks at the business of baseball as he talks with Major League Baseball Executive Vice President for Business Tim Brosnan about the World Baseball Classic. Plus Bloomberg’s Deidre Bolton interviews defending World Series Champion San Francisco Giants CEO Larry Baer.

And Rick also veers onto the NASCAR track by looking at its ratings and what it hopes to accomplish in 2013. Sportfolio airs at 9:30 ET and PT tonight on Bloomberg.

“Sportfolio” on Bloomberg TV Takes Fans Out For The Business of Baseball This Week

The Wednesday night, MLB VP For Business Tim Brosnan Talks World Baseball Classic, and San Francisco Giants CEO Larry Baer Talks World Championship Business, while NASCAR fans also get a look at the circuits’ new “Gen 6” car as well

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE- Feb. 26, 2013 – Baseball got an early jump on spring training this year, as the third World Baseball Classic will take center stage starting next week at stadia from Asia to the Caribbean and across the United States, so this week’s “Sportfolio” on Bloomberg TV will go deep into the business of baseball.

First, MLB Executive Vice President for Business Tim Brosnan joins host Rick Horrow to discuss bottom line issues for the World Baseball Classic. The tournament enjoyed gains in attendance, TV ratings, and sponsorships from its debut in 2006 to its return in 2009: will the upswing continue in this year’s edition? Brosnan analyses the financial and marketing benefits and challenges of MLB’s most ambitious international initiative. Then the show goes from global baseball to the battles of the Bay Area, as San Francisco Giants CEO Larry Baer sits down with Bloomberg TV’s Deirdre Bolton (host of “Money Moves”) to discuss the business plan that’s brought his team two World Series titles in the last three seasons. The Giants have achieved success with a top 10 payroll and a strong attendance base at AT & T Park, but face a direct challenge from a Dodgers team with a new television deal that has enabled it to double its salary budget. Baer frankly explains his thoughts on the relationship of spending to winning in today’s environment, and how his organization maximizes revenue and resources in the absence of a “blockbuster” media contract.

The show will also veer to the race track, taking a look at some new plans designed to help give NASCAR another positive jump start. Ratings for the 2013 Daytona 500 Sprint Cup race rose 30% over 2012, which is good news for the series’ manufacturers as well as its drivers and sponsors. NASCAR unveiled its new “Gen 6″ car at the Great American Race, with a new design that more clearly brands the vehicles as Fords, Chevys, and Toyotas. Jamie Allison, head of Ford North America Motorsports, tells Rick Horrow why the makeover will result in more showroom interest in Ford cars, and why Ford’s investment in racing is such a powerful driver of sales.

This week’s show debuts Wednesday night at 9:30 PM and 12:30 AM ET Thursday on Bloomberg TV (DirecTV 353, check your local cable systems for the channel near you). The show reaches more than 270 million households through first-run and syndicated airings.

That’s all.

Sports Media Weekly No. 139 — John Daly, Daly Planet & Rennae Stubbs, Tennis Channel

After a week hiatus, the Sports Media Weekly podcast is back and with a vengeance. It’s 44 minutes long and we have two guests! Normally our first guest is our “Third Man In,” but Keith could not join John Daly and I, so it’s only a two man interview, but Keith was in for our regular guest segment with the always lovely Rennae Stubbs.

Our news segment between Keith and I began with some personal housekeeping, the news announced by Matt Yoder, editor of Awful Announcing, that I’ll be joining the sports media site as a contributor. As mentioned in my earlier post, Fang’s Bites will still be my main priority, but I’ll be contributing various posts to the site that does a great job in covering the sports media.

We then moved to the Big East Conference and its return to ESPN after the Alleged Worldwide Leader matched an offer from NBC Sports Network.

Keith and I talked about the unique situation of the Los Angeles Dodgers having three separate channels in three different languages when it moves to Time Warner Cable next year.

And then we talked about my post on whether Fox Sports can find the right role for Erin Andrews.

John Daly of the great Daly Planet NASCAR TV site was the first guest. He and I talked about the coverage of the Drive4COPD 300 Nationwide race on Saturday covered by ESPN2 and the crash that marred the finish and led the network to extend its sign-off time. And John and I discussed the ratings and the subsequent coverage of the Daytona 500 on Fox. John opined on how Fox fared and what his site’s readers were saying about the network.

Rennae Stubbs of Tennis Channel, ESPN2, NBC Olympics and 7 Network in Australia was our second guest. Keith and I talked with Rennae about how she got an early start in broadcasting and how it’s led to her career in the both after her illustrious doubles playing career. We asked Rennae about her dynamic with this year’s Aussie Open runner up Li Na and why the players show more of their personalities in the Australian Open as opposed to the other Grand Slam tournaments.

We also discussed the number of networks Rennae works for and how she got the gig for the London Olympics for NBC. I ran out of time, otherwise I would have her about the Academy Awards and last Saturday’s UFC 157 event between Ronda Rousey and Liz Carmouche. If there’s a Twitter feed you should follow, it’s Rennae’s. She tweets about everything including tennis.

Overall, a fun podcast and you can find it on iTunes under Sports Media Journal or listen right away, right here.

Fox Takes The Checkered Flag For The Daytona 500 and Wins

I’m talking ratings here. And the numbers for Fox Sports for Sunday’s running of The Great American Race are good. Thanks to a race that started and ended pretty much on time. Thanks to increased interest to Danica Patrick. Thanks to increased interest from the crash from the day before during the Nationwide race, Fox saw a 24% increase in the ratings from the year before, 9.8 with a 22 share, the best numbers since 2008 which saw a 10.2/20. Viewership for the 2013 running of Daytona was 22% higher than 2012, 16.7 million viewers. All this according to Nielsen’s Fast National numbers.

Fox points out there was over a 25% hike in the numbers in the top five markets including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. And at least 42% spike in numbers in the ten ten markets.

So Fox will take the numbers and run with them. Here’s the Fox Sports press release.

2013 DAYTONA 500 ON FOX RANKS AS HIGHEST-RATED AND MOST-WATCHED SINCE 2008

Ratings Up +24%; Viewership Up +22% vs. 2012 for Best Year-to-Year Rise Ever
Top 10 Metered Market Ratings Up +42% vs. 2012

New York – The anticipation and buzz leading up to Sunday’s historic Daytona 500, coupled with the dramatic action on the track, fueled this year’s race to become the highest-rated and most watched in five years.

Sunday’s Great American Race, which featured Danica Patrick’s historic pole position start, the official coming out of the Gen 6 car and Jimmie Johnson’s second Daytona 500 win earned a 9.9/22 rating/share, averaging 16.7 million viewers according to fast national figures released today by Nielsen Media Research. It ranks as the highest-rated and most-watched Daytona 500 since 2008 (10.2/20, 17.8 million viewers) and marks a huge +24% ratings gain over last year (8.0/14), and a +22% rise in average viewership (13.7 million). An estimated 31.6 million Americans watched at least part of Sunday’s Great American Race, the best for a regularly scheduled Sunday afternoon Daytona 500 since 2008’s 33.5 million viewers. This year’s rating and viewership increases mark the best year-to-year rise for the Daytona 500 ever.

Sunday’s rating reaffirmed the Daytona 500 as one of the biggest events in sports. The 2013 race ranked as the top-rated sports event on any network since the Super Bowl and garnered more viewers than last week’s NBA All-Star Game (+108%, 8.0 million), the 2012 Kentucky Derby (+53%, vs. 10.9 million), the Final Round of the 2012 US Open (+74%, vs. 9.6 million) and the Final Round of the 2012 Masters (+24%, vs. 13.5 million).

As strong evidence that this year’s compelling stars and storylines transcended the traditional NASCAR fan base, Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season opener was bolstered by a +42% ratings increase in the country’s top 10 markets, with the top five markets notching jumps of 25% or more. Significant surges in Chicago (+91%, 8.4 vs. 4.4), San Francisco (+64%, 5.9 vs. 3.6), Los Angeles (+60%, 6.4 vs. 4.0), Boston (+59%, 8.1 vs. 5.1), New York (+43%, 5.0 vs. 3.5), Houston (+33%, 5.3 vs. 4.0) and Dallas (+25%, 8.1 vs. 6.5) helped power this year’s ratings gains over 2012. Greensboro was the 2013 Daytona 500’s No. 1 market, averaging a 21.8/38, followed by Indianapolis (20.5/40), Charlotte (20.3/40), Jacksonville (19.6/33) and Dayton (19.1/35). Albuquerque saw the nation’s biggest increase, up +115% (10.3 vs. 4.8).

Tune-in for Sunday’s green flag was a strong 8.6/20, with 14.3 million viewers and peaked from 4:30 – 4:45 PM ET when 21.4 million viewers (12.7/26) watched as Johnson held off Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s charge in the exciting final laps to take home the 2013 prize.

Sunday’s race witnessed viewership increases in female demographic categories including +16% among Women 18-34 (2.2 vs. 1.9), +3% among Women 18-49 (3.2 vs. 3.1) and up +8% among Women 25-54 (4.2 vs. 3.9). Across key male and adult demographics, the year-to-year increases were also impressive as Sunday’s race was up +14% among Men 18-34 (4.0 vs. 3.5), +8% among Men 18-49 (6.4 vs. 5.9), +11% among Men 25-54 (8.2 vs. 7.4), and +7% among Adults 18-49 (4.8 vs. 4.5).

There you have it.

A Monday Sports Media Notebook

Let’s get cracking on some fresh content on this Monday afternoon. Plenty of stuff to go over.

• Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch’s Monday column discusses Baltimore Ravens safety Ed Reed reporting on the Red Carpet at The Oscars and reviews Fox’s Daytona 500 coverage. 
• The man who started SportsGrid, ABC News legal analyst Dan Abrams, the site has been sold to RotoExperts.
• I’m getting a lot of reaction to my post on whether Fox can find the proper role for Erin Andrews.
• Randolph May at Multichannel News talks about a case over Comcast’s refusal to move Tennis Channel off a dreaded sports tier.
• To Sports Business Daily where Richard E. Lapchick laments the lack of hiring diversity in the sports media.
• Overseas, ESPN is getting out of the UK television business, selling its channels to BT Group which beat it out for the rights to the English Premier League. ESPN will continue to maintain its digital UK assets and also kill ESPN Classic in Europe and Africa in separate decisions.
• USA Today’s Michael Hiestand feels Fox got off to a fast start with the overnight ratings for the Daytona 500.
• Hiestand also looks at the other sports overnight ratings from the weekend.
• David Lieberman at Deadline says News Corp.’s Deputy Chief Operating Officer James Murdoch (son of Rupert) says even with Fox Sports creating new all-sports cable channels, the company plans to be pennywise and not pound foolish over rights fees.
• In the Sherman Report, Ed Sherman talks with Golf Channel’s David Feherty about the season premiere of his weekly interview show.
• Bruce Allen at Boston Sports Media Watch looks at a preposterous argument put the forth by WEEI’s Gerry Callahan regarding the Daytona 500 and Danica Patrick.
• Bill Carter at the New York Times notes how NBC has had a precipitous fall into the ratings basement after starting off so well when Sunday Night Football was on.
• Phil Mushnick of the New York Post feels the Federal lawsuit against Lance Armstrong wreaks of hypocrisy.
• From Dan Steinberg at the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog reports that MASN’s Kristina Akra who was the Nationals’ on-field reporter is leaving the network. No word on where she’s going or who’s going to replace her.
• Jim Williams from the Washington Examiner says David Feherty will reveal a different side of golfing legend Jack Nicklaus tonight.
• Tom Jones at the Tampa Bay Times says Fox didn’t do itself any favors during its Daytona 500 prerace coverage.
• The Houston Chronicle’s David Barron notes that a local sports anchor is leaving his station after more than 20 years of service.
• Dan Caesar at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says Cardinals fans will be able to see and listen to their team throughout Spring Training.
• Dusty Saunders in the Denver Post writes about a Rocky Mountain TV veteran who wants to return to his sports roots.
• Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has the SoCal Sports Calendar for this week.
• Tom has the five things he learned from the weekend.
• Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail makes clear of his disdain for CBC’s Don Cherry.
• Paulsen of Sports Media Watch says opposite the Daytona 500, the NBA on ABC took a big ratings hit.
• To Matt Yoder of Awful Announcing who looks at what Joe Buck plans to do with the St. Louis Cardinals if he manages to get the team and Fox Sports Midwest to sign off on his idea.
• Michael Shamburger at The Big Lead says Katherine Webb is 1st Round talent.

Ok, I’m going to end the linkage/notebook there.

Fox’s Daytona 500 Overnight Ratings Up 30% From 2012

Without weather delays, having Danica Patrick be in contention for the top spot and remaining in the Top 10 plus having an exciting finish helped to attract eyeballs to the Great American Race on Fox. The Fox Sports officials leaving Florida today are doing cartwheels and handstands in the airport today.

The overnight rating for Daytona was a stunning 10.0/22 which is up 30% from last year which received a 7.7/13 in primetime. That is the best year-to-year increase for the race ever.

This is also the best overnight rating since the 2006 race on NBC which garnered a 10.1.

Let’s take a look at the bullet points from Fox Sports.

2013 Daytona 500 on FOX

Overnight Rating/Share (average of largest 56 US markets): 10.0/22

• Up +30% over last year 7.7/13
• Best year-to-year increase among the metered markets for Daytona 500 ever
• Best metered market rating for the Daytona 500 since 2006 on NBC (10.1/20)
• Top five metered markets: Greensboro (21.2), Indianapolis (20.5), Charlotte (20.3), Jacksonville (19.6) and Dayton (19.1)
• The race opened at an 8.6/20 between 1:30 – 2:00 PM ET and peaked at final exciting laps of the race averaging a massive 12.8/26 from 4:30 – 4:45 PM ET

Fast national ratings will be available later this afternoon

That is all.

Breaking Out Some Sunday Linkage

I haven’t done Sunday links in a very long while. It seems as if part of my weekends have been planned for me behind my back for almost three years straight. Finally glad to be able to do links on a weekend.

Charlie White at Mashable talks about NASCAR taking down fan videos of the horrific crash that injured 28 fans at the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Daytona yesterday.

John McQuaid from Forbes says NASCAR has a YouTube problem.

Jon Lafayette of Broadcasting & Cable says Dish Network may not be allowed to advertise on Fox over its Hopper device, but it’s finding a way to be seen on today’s Daytona 500.

The Sherman Report’s Ed Sherman has some videos displaying Joe Garagiola on TV at various times in his career.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times says the Big East had to go back to ESPN after rejecting a huge megabucks offer from the network two years ago.

Newsday’s Neil Best talks with SNY’s Bob Ojeda who steps out of the studios to analyze Mets Spring Training games.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post hates Twitter.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union has the entire World Baseball Classic TV schedule.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner looks at the new season of The Haney Project on Golf Channel.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle looks at the local sports radio ratings and the Houston Rockets’ TV numbers.

Mel Bracht from The Oklahoman talks with Sooner State native Stacey King who is now the Chicago Bulls TV analyst.

Paul M. Banks at the Chicago Sports Media Watch has NASCAR pundits choosing their winners for the Daytona 500.

MediaRantz has yet another mistimed headline at ESPN.com.

That’s it for the linkage for now. I could be back later if news breaks.

Some Quick Sunday Morning Sports Media Thoughts

Saturday was certainly the interesting day in sports with two sports outside of the major four dominating headlines. Let’s go over them in bullet form.

• In what normally is the start of NASCAR’s Nationwide Series became the sports and also news story of the first part of Saturday when a crash at Drive4COPD at Daytona became more than just a race. As cars were speeding towards the checkered flag, Regan Smith and Brad Keselowski crashed. That caused Kyle Larson’s car to go airborne and hit a support fence. It also caused one of his tires to fly into the grandstand. At last check, 28 fans had been injured from the flying debris from the track.

  ESPN which was carrying the race elected to run past its signoff time and run into the North Carolina-North Carolina State college basketball game to cover the situation and get interviews with drivers and NASCAR President Mike Helton to find out what happened.

  ESPN’s crew did a solid job in gathering information, but the real spotlight shined on Speed for its coverage for two hours on its SpeedCenter program. Adam Alexander anchored the coverage and it covered all angles from the crash from the drivers to the fans who were injured in the stands updating news as it became available, airing the surreal NASCAR press conference and tapping the NASCAR on Fox crew to report the news. In this case, ESPN gets a B for its coverage of the crash and Speed gets the A+.

• After NASCAR, the focus shifted to Mixed Martial Arts and UFC’s pay per view event which had its first female fight headline the card. As usual, Mike Goldberg set up Joe Rogan as much as he could. Rogan tapped into his comedian inner self by suggesting people leave “flaming poop” at International Olympic Committee headquarters over the decision to remove wrestling from its roster after 2020. It certainly was a strange comment, but it was due to Dan Henderson wearing trunks with a Twitter hashtag seeking to keep wrestling in the Olympics past 2020.

  But that was not the main focus of the pay per view telecast, it was Ronda Rousey and Liz Carmouche as the main fight and it did not disappoint. While the fight lasted one round, it had a lot of action has Rousey had to overcome a chokehold and Rousey doing her patented armbar to win her 7th consecutive fight and retain the UFC’s Women’s Championship. Judging by the reaction on social media, there were a lot of buys for the fight and more than the usual attention on a UFC pay per view. Of course, Twitter reaction does not necessarily translate to ratings, but I’m thinking the interest into Rousey may have won UFC some fans on Saturday. And with Rousey’s win, expect her star to rise with interviews on mainstream programs like The View, Live with Kelly and Michael and Today’s 4th hour with Hoda and Kathie Lee.

• One story that quietly surfaced on Saturday was the potential NHL conference realignment worked out between the league and the NHL Players Association. You may remember the league tried realignment before the lockout, but it was rejected by the NHLPA. But this time, the league worked with the players and we have some interesting results.

  Detroit and Columbus would both go East. The Eastern half of the league would have two eight team “conferences”. Out West, there would be two seven team “conferences” and an interesting feature as unveiled by CBC’s Elliotte Friedman on Hockey Night in Canada, there would be Wild Cards in the East to offset the higher playoff chances in the West. That could lead to some very interesting playoff potential and ratings for the NHL’s TV partners. If this is approved and Detroit heads back East, it brings back the old Toronto-Detroit Original Six rivalry into play and it also has five of the Original Six in the East. Chicago would remain in the West.

  There’s a lot of TV potential with this new realignment. NBC’s focus could remain totally in the East if Detroit moves out from the West. And Hockey Night in Canada wherever it lands could see more Detroit games for its 7 p.m. ET window.

  Certainly some interesting news coming out of the NHL on Saturday.

Ok, some thoughts for you on this Sunday. Back later today.

A Late Friday Night/Early Saturday Morning Sports Media Notebook

Let’s do a notebook tonight, shall we? If I can’t do linkage and it always seems something gets in the way these days, I might as well do a notebook.

I’ll try to provide as many links and stories as possible here.

• Interesting story from The Big Lead. The daily 9 a.m.-3 p.m. ET SportsCenter block on ESPN is going to get a bit of a facelift. Jason McIntyre reports that instead of two shifts of three hours, ESPN will go to three two hour blocks. Kevin Negandhi and Hannah Storm will continue to be the combination to start off the block, but instead of going from 9 a.m.-noon, they’ll be reduced by one hour. Chris McKendry/Jay Crawford and Sage Steele/David Lloyd will be the other two weekday teams. ESPN has not confirmed the report, but The Big Lead’s confidence on this story is quite high.
• Here’s another story from The Big Lead. This upcoming season is the last year in Tim McCarver’s contract with MLB on Fox. Jason McIntyre gets comment from Fox on this.
• Add Cablevision to DirecTV and Verizon Fios to the providers tacking on a surcharge on subscribers who have packages with sports regional networks. In Cablevision’s case, it’s a $2.98 monthly fee that begins in April. Mike Farrell of Multichannel News says the surcharge is for subscribers who have the MSG Networks, SNY and YES RSN’s. This is the providers’ pushback on increasing subscriber fees from RSN’s which come as a result of high media rights for various professional teams. We’ll see if there’s any outcry from subscribers.
• ESPN Radio hack Colin Cowherd continues to say stupid things about the Midwest, this time about Indiana Pacers fans. This guy really needs to shut up.
• Joe Posnanski has been officially hired by NBC Sports to become its main columnist on its website and be featured on its multiple platforms. Ed Sherman of The Sherman Report wonders if this is the right move for Posnanski who left the fledgling Sports on Earth site after less than a year.
• Speaking of Ed, he speaks with Jim Romenesko about blogging for little to no money, something I’m quite familiar with.
• From David Goetzl of MediaPost comes this analysis of a lawsuit brought forth by Dish Network against ESPN. Very good background on a dispute that has been simmering for quite some time.
• To Sports Video Group where we have an interesting look at how ESPN3 produces a women’s college basketball that will be streamed on its platform.
• A few items from Paulsen at Sports Media Watch. First, NBA All-Star Saturday on TNT hit a three-year low, but still is among the best ratings ever for the event. Despite Danica Patrick, still not a good start for Fox for the Daytona 500 Speedweeks. And Paulsen has some various ratings news and notes.
• Ken McMillan at the Middletown (NY) Times Herald has the Arena Football League schedule on CBS Sports Network for the 2013 season. CBSSN takes over the rights after the AFL had been on NFL Network from 2010-2012. CBS will have the Arena Bowl in August.
• Robert Feder at TimeOut Chicago notes that Comcast SportsNet has ended its partnership with the Chicago Tribune and will rebrand its roundtable show as SportsTalk Live.
• Bruce Dowbiggin at the Toronto Globe and Mail reviews the first week of TSN’s new radio format and its new afternoon drive host.
• Could the NFL move the Draft to May into a ratings sweeps period? Tim Baysinger of Broadcasting & Cable says it’s entirely possible.
• By the way, this is not necessarily sports media, but it’s related. NBC definitely misses Sunday Night Football. Since the NFL season ended, the Peacock is having a hard time attracting viewers. The network will finish in 5th place in the 18-49 demographic for the February sweeps. Dominic Patten of Deadline notes that NBC will finish below CBS, Fox, ABC and wait for it…. Univision for the first time in its history. It’s not been a good 2013 for NBC thus far.
• This week, Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss passed away at the age of 80. He was first in the L.A. market to televise all of his team’s games creating the Prime Ticket regional sports network to air all of the Lakers’ home games and putting the road games on an over the air station. Before his passing, the Lakers went a step further in creating another RSN, Time Warner Cable SportsNet and doing two feeds, one in English and another in Spanish, another innovation. Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star looks at the impact Buss had on sports television.
• Media Life Magazine notes a new study which shows low recall of Super Bowl ads, something the NFL TV partners and its sponsors do not want to hear.
• Jonah Keri at Grantland says MLB has opened up the vault and released some of its old highlights.
• Formula 1′s ratings are down worldwide, a concern for the sport.

I think that’s where I’ll end things for now.

The 13th Season of NASCAR on Fox is About To Take the Green Flag

The 13th season of NASCAR on Fox is about to start its engines as it prepares to cover the Daytona 500. The race itself will go green on Sunday, February 24 at noon ET with a one hour prerace show. Then the coverage of the race will start at 1 p.m.

Overall, Fox will air 13 Sprint Cup races in 2013 in its 13th season. You see a theme here? And not only that, NASCAR will unveil the new Gen-6 car this year that will certainly have racers adjusting.

Fox will get ready for the Great American Race with Sprint Unlimited on February 16, then Daytona 500 Qualifying the following day.

As usual, Mike Joy, Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds will be in the booth to call the lap-by-lap action. Chris Myers will be back as host with DW and his brother, Michael. Jeff Hammond will be back to explain the naunces in the garage and in the pits. Krista Voda, Steve Brynes and Matty Yocum will all be back to describe the scene on pit road.

All of the 13 races on the schedule will be seen on Fox. Here’s the Fox press release.

NEW SEASON, NEW CAR, NEW ERA
NASCAR ON FOX SET TO DROP FLAG ON 13^th SEASON SATURDAY, FEB. 16

Highly Anticipated Gen-6 Car Officially Unveiled on FOX During SPRINT UNLIMITED at Daytona
FOX Sports Presents Exclusive Coverage of the DAYTONA 500 on Sunday, February 24

New York, NY – Gentlemen (and Danica) start…your…engines! FOX Sports slams the gas on its 13^th season of NASCAR coverage featuring 13 Sprint Cup points races, highlighted by the 55th running of the DAYTONA 500, live on Sunday, Feb. 24 from Daytona International Speedway. Coverage of the “Great American Race” begins that day with a special one-hour prerace program (12:00 – 1:00 PM ET) from FOX’s technologically gifted mobile studio planted in the infield of DIS, the Hollywood Hotel.

The flag officially drops on FOX Sports’ 2013 Speedweeks coverage with the SPRINT UNLIMITED at Daytona, live on Saturday, Feb. 16 in prime time (8:00-10:00 PM ET), followed by live coverage of DAYTONA 500 QUALIFYING on Sunday, Feb. 17 (1:00-4:00 PM ET). Prior to the network’s prerace coverage, FOX Sports airs Fusion Evolution, a 30-minute Daytona special beginning at 11:30 AM ET.

One of the biggest stories of the season is the impact that the new Gen-6 car will have on racing. The new body-style for this season’s Fords, Chevrolets and Toyotas feature body panels unique to each manufacturer, making them more recognizable to the car makers’ fans. The Daytona 500 will be the first real test of how the car’s lighter and more aerodynamic body will affect the racing performance on the track.

The dynamic duo of NASCAR Hall of Famer Darrell Waltrip and his brother two-time Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip return with host Chris Myers each weekend for FOX NASCAR SUNDAY, the network’s state-of-the-art prerace program. Darrell and former Daytona 500 winning crew chief Larry McReynolds return to the race booth alongside legendary race announcer Mike Joy to provide analysis during races. Veteran analyst Jeff Hammond takes his extensive experience as a former championship-winning crew chief to action in the garages and on pit road. Pit reporters Steve Byrnes, Matt Yocum and Krista Voda also return to cover teams, drivers and crewmen.

FOX’s 2013 NASCAR schedule is highlighted by races from Phoenix International Raceway on Sunday, March 3; Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday, March 10; Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday, March 17; Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday, April 13; Richmond International Raceway on Saturday, April 27; Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, May 5; and the NASCAR on FOX season finale from Dover, Delaware on Sunday, June 2.

FOX Sports’ coverage commands the well-earned distinction as television’s most innovative sports broadcaster. Ranking high among the network’s achievements are honors for its NASCAR coverage. NASCAR on FOX has garnered 15 Emmy Awards for its coverage including three for Outstanding Sports Series (2001, 2005, 2007), five for Outstanding Live Event Audio Sound (2002, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010), one for Outstanding Graphic Design (2001), five for Outstanding Technical Team Remote (2001, 2003-05, 2007) and one for Promotional Announcement Episodic for its 2008 marketing campaign.

NASCAR on FOX 2013 Schedule

Saturday, February 16 — Daytona International Speedway, Sprint Unlimited, 8:00 PM
Sunday, February 17 — Daytona International Speedway, Daytona 500 Qualifying, 1:00 PM
Sunday, February 24 — Daytona International Speedway, Daytona 500, 12:00 PM
Sunday, March 3 — Phoenix International Speedway, NASCAR Racing – Phoenix, 2:30 PM
Sunday, March 10 — Las Vegas Motor Speedway, NASCAR Racing – Las Vegas, 2:30 PM
Sunday, March 17 — Bristol Motor Speedway, NASCAR Racing – Bristol, 12:30 PM
Sunday March 24 — Auto Club Speedway, NASCAR Racing – Fontana, 2:30 PM
Sunday, April 7 — Martinsville Speedway, NASCAR Racing – Martinsville, 12:30 PM
Saturday, April 13 — Texas Motor Speedway, NASCAR Racing – Fort Worth, 7:00 PM
Sunday, April 21 — Kansas Speedway, NASCAR Racing – Kansas City, 12:30 PM
Saturday, April 27 — Richmond International Raceway, NASCAR Racing – Richmond, 7:00 PM
Sunday, May 5 — Talladega Superspeedway, NASCAR Racing – Talladega, 12:00 PM
Saturday, May 11 — Darlington Raceway, NASCAR Racing – Darlington, 6:00 PM
Sunday, May 26 — Charlotte Motor Speedway, NASCAR Racing – Charlotte, 5:30 PM
Sunday, June 2 — Dover International Speedway, NASCAR Racing – Dover, 12:30 PM

All times Eastern; Schedule subject to change

That’s it.

Oh My! It’s The Return of The Linkage!

It’s been way too long since you’ve seen linkage on this site. This has been the main mission of Fang’s Bites since the beginning, but too often, I get roped into doing family stuff and it prevents me from getting on here until late.

I hope to rectify that. So without further delay, here’s the linkage.

I’ll begin with Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch who looks at tonight’s ESPN production of the BCS National Championship Game and he breaks news that former Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine will co-host a daily NBC Sports Radio show.

From The Sherman Report, Ed Sherman talks with ESPN’s Brent Musburger about retirement.

John Ourand of Sports Business Journal says thanks to its parent company buying into YES Network, Fox Sports will have the rights to as many as 18 New York Yankees games for its national MLB broadcasts (for now, subscription required).

Tripp Mickle of Sports Business Daily writes that DirecTV is dropping NASCAR Hot Pass due to the high cost and low demand.

ESPN’s Darren Rovell reports that the “Catholic 7″, the breakaway basketball schools from the Big East, is negotiating a megabucks deal with Fox Sports.

Nathan Savin Scott of USA Today lists the best sports commercials of 2012.

Mike Reynolds at Multichannel News says tonight’s BCS Championship Game could set an all-time viewership record for ESPN and cable TV.

The extremely warped Anthony Crupi (he’ll even admit this) of Adweek writes that the NFL’s regular season ratings were down slightly from last year, but it delivers an audience unlike any other programming.

Friend of Fang’s Bites Michael McCarthy at Advertising Age notes that college football is close to passing baseball as the nation’s second most popular sport.

Natalie Zmuda of Ad Age says Pepsi wants to make you, yes you, part of its Super Bowl ad.

Mark J. Miller at BrandChannel notes how a Nike ad campaign helped to nudge the NHL into ending its lockout.

Toni Fitzgerald from Media Life Magazine wonders if the ratings will return for the NHL now that its lockout has been resolved.

SBNation’s Steve Lepore reports that Michelle Beadle’s new show, The Crossover, will replace NBC Sports Talk later this month.

David Rogers over at Awful Announcing scolds NHL Network for not covering one second of the end of the lockout.

At the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Wheat Hotchkiss (I like this name) delves into ESPN’s production of the BCS National Championship Game in South Flordia.

EPL Talk reviews Fox’s first-ever broadcast of an FA Cup game.

Will Leitch at Sports on Earth says NBC Sports Network’s ratings may be low, but at least it’s trying to be the anti-ESPN.

Chad Finn from the Boston Globe writes about Bobby Valentine’s new foray into daily sports radio.

Brian Stelter at the New York Times says rising sports fees are causing cable providers to drop lower performing channels.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post needs to stop watching television.

Newsday’s Neil Best says there’s too much sports television and radio for the average fan to keep track of. Well put, Neil.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union says Golf Channel has had to adjust its schedule for the weather-delayed Tournament of Champions.

Ken McMillan of the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record says CBS Sports Radio has a home in the Hudson Valley.

Keith Groller with the Allentown (PA) Morning Call talks with an Eastern Pennsylvania native who’s been covering Notre Dame for the last six years.

David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun feels CBS did not get the job done covering yesterday’s Colts-Ravens game.

David says yesterday’s Colts-Ravens game received the highest rating in the Charm City since last year’s Super Bowl.

Dan Steinberg from the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog has the national media reaction to DC NFL Team head coach Mike Shanahan’s decision to keep quarterback Robert Griffin III on the field despite him seemingly being hurt until an injury that ended his game.

Dan says a local sports radio morning show now gets an opportunity on TV.

Tom Jones at the Tampa Bay Times has the winners and losers in the NHL Lockout.

Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald has some info from ESPN on tonight’s BCS National Championship Game.

Mike Herndon of the Birmingham (AL) News says ESPN could not have asked for a better matchup in the BCS National Championship Game.

Jon Solomon of the Birmingham News looks into the behind-the-scenes for ESPN’s telecast of Alabama-Notre Dame.

David Barron with the Houston Chronicle says Saturday’s Bengals-Texans local rating matched last year’s Wild Card playoff game number.

David writes that former Houston Astros broadcaster Alan Ashby will return to the team as its TV analyst on Comcast SportsNet.

WDIV-TV in Detroit had the suspended Rob Parker from ESPN’s First Take in his first TV interview since he was taken off the air for his comments on DC NFL Team QB Robert Griffin III (starts at 6:15). h/t to Richard Deitsch for the link.

Dusty Saunders of the Denver Post says a Rocky Mountain region sportscaster has plenty of memories that include the Broncos.

Joe Flint of the Los Angeles Times writes that the NFL’s ratings have slipped a bit from last season, but they still remain king of all television.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has the five things he learned from the weekend.

Tom also has the SoCal sports calendar for this week.

Bruce Dowbiggin from the Toronto Globe and Mail asks with the NHL Lockout over, what’s in it for the fans?

Sports Media Watch notes that the overnight rating for the Cincinnati-Houston NFL Wild Card Game on NBC was up from last year.

SMW says NBC’s nightcap of Vikings-Packers was down slightly from last year.

SMW tells us that Seattle-Washington had the third highest overnight for an NFL Wild Card game since 1999.

And for Indy-Baltimore on CBS, the overnight number was very good.

And that’s going to be it for now.

The Big Dozen Sports Media Stories of 2012

Time for the look back at the Year in Sports Media in 2012. Lots of great stuff. The year has been very interesting and we have seen a lot of things.

Just doing a Top Ten is never enough for the Year in Review. It’s always an even dozen with some honorable mentions mixed in.

Let’s go over what were the Sports Media Stories of 2012.

12. Embrace Debate Leads To Rob Parker Suspension

One of the silliest stories in 2012 was ESPN’s commitment to debate programming. Two shows were revamped to accommodate more debate among ESPN personalities, First Take and Numbers Never Lie. Due to outrageous statements made on First Take, mostly by Skip Bayless, the show received lots of attention and increased ratings. But the pressure to stand out may have caught up with Rob Parker who questioned whether DC NFL Team quarterback Robert Griffin III’s authenticity.

It led to Parker’s suspension and allegedly more oversight over the shows. We’ll see if it leads to some more control and fewer outrageous statements.

11. Steve Sabol (1942-2012)

One of the pioneers in sports television passed away in 2012. Steve Sabol’s impact on the National Football League’s popularity through NFL Films cannot be measured. With his father Ed, the Sabols brought fans closer to the game by thinking outside the box. Games weren’t just regular contests, they became movies with Hollywood production values and full orchestrations. Instead of showing games from high in the stadium, NFL Films went to field level and made extreme closeups of the players. In addition, Ed and Steve introduced slow motion photography to sports.

In 2011, Ed Sabol was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It would behoove voters to induct Steve sometime soon to join his dad.

10. Big Media Taps Into New Media

2012 saw Turner Sports purchased the much-criticized and now-improving Bleacher Report, USA Today buying Big Lead Sports and NBC Sports aligned itself with Yahoo! Sports. This is more than getting pageviews and improving comScores, this is about expanding portfolios and attracting younger audiences. According to comScore, Yahoo! has been the most popular sports news site for several years outpacing ESPN.com. Bleacher Report may get criticized for its multiple and questionable slideshows, but its hiring of some respected editors and writers have increased the quality of the site to the point where Turner Sports purchased the site for beaucoup bucks. And I have to make this disclaimer, Fang’s Bites is an independently-owned blog that is affiliated with USA Today Media Group. We will see more purchases in 2013.

9. NASCAR Renews with Fox

Fox Sports was the first of NASCAR’s TV partners to renew its ties with the sport taking the first half of the Sprint Cup season. For an estimated pricetag of over $2.4 billion through 2022, Fox remains with NASCAR in a relationship that dates back to 2002. Fox is expected to put some of its races on its new all-sports channel, but we’ll get to that later. And expect live on-streaming in this new contract. However, NASCAR’s ratings are a question-mark, but bidding for the second half in 2013 is expected to bring even more money. It’s all going to be quite an interesting year for NASCAR.

8. NBC Steals English Premier League and Formula One From Fox

October turned out to be a good month for NBC Sports Group as far as acquisitions were concerned. It first obtained the rights to Formula 1 as Fox gave just a nominal bid. Then a couple of weeks later, it emerged as the frontrunner to the English Premier League and then won out over a concerted combined bid from ESPN/Fox. While NBC Sports Network won’t be known as a college sports destination or for MLB, perhaps it can become an international sports channel with the EPL, Formula 1 and Olympic Sports. NBC Sports Network will have some sports to watch year-round with the English Premier League, Formula 1, MLS and the NHL (when it finally returns).

7. NFL Network Picks Up Its Last Two Holdouts

Since 2010, NFL Network has been gaining momentum in picking up carriage agreements with the major cable providers. It finally was able to sign deals in 2012 with its last two remaining holdouts, first Cablevision in August and then the very last one, Time Warner Cable in September. Thanks to the increased audience, NFL Network’s Thursday Night Football package had record ratings for its new 13 game schedule. It was a struggle for NFL Network to get all eight major cable and satellite providers on board, but after eight years, it finally got it done.

6. MLB New TV Contracts For A Lot of $$$

It started in August when ESPN renewed rights for its three nights of baseball games, a return to postseason and an increased amount of games for a total of $5.6 billion over eight years. Then in October, MLB announced deals with Fox and Turner for a combined $6.8 billion through 2021, providing them with TV Everywhere rights, postseason deals and a package of regular season games. For Fox, it allows the network to put games on its anticipated all-sports cable channel, but again, more on that later.

5. CBS & NBC Announce New Sports Radio Networks

2012 brought two new national networks to the sports talk radio scene. Within two days of each other, NBC Sports Radio and CBS Sports Radio were announced by both companies and with respective partners Dial Global and Cumulus Radio. NBC Sports Radio has been airing limited weekend programming since September, however, CBS Sports Radio chose to wait until this month to begin full operation with a 24/7 lineup. Both have a long way to go to match the firepower and the reputation of ESPN Radio that has been on the scene since the early 1990′s, however, CBS has hired familiar names like Jim Rome, Doug Gottlieb, John Feinstein, Scott Ferrall and Dana Jacobson. NBC will wait until the NCAA Final Four to finalize its weekday lineup. No matter the case, ESPN Radio finds itself with some formidable competition to join Yahoo! Sports Radio and Fox Sports Radio for listeners.

4. ESPN Free Agency

We had some big names leave the ESPN nest, Erin Andrews, Steve Berthiaume, Michelle Beadle, Cindy Brunson, Doug Gottlieb, Dana Jacobson, Michael Yam to name a few, but many stayed including Scott Van Pelt. This seemed to be quite the year for free agency for ESPN. In some cases, the network chose not to renew and wave goodbye to those departing, others decided not to return for other opportunities while in others, ESPN went out of its way to make sure its desired talent stayed. For the first time, ESPN was transparent in making statements about its free agency signings or departures. In the past, it had issued terse statements when media inquiries were made.

3. Fox Spending Spree

As the year-end was approaching, Fox Sports through its parent, News Corp., went on a spending spree unlike any other in sports media. It not only set up an all-sports cable channel for operation in 2013 (again, more on this later), but it bought into the YES Network which will eventually lead into a majority share of the New York Yankees regional sports network and fully purchased Sports Time Ohio for the Cleveland MLB Team. In addition, Fox is reportedly close to signing a long-term deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers for its media rights. News Corp. had money to spend with the company splitting off its publishing holdings into a separate company and of course, the proverbial fiscal cliff where tax credits were about to change. Will we see more of Fox’s financial muscle in 2013? I think that’s a safe bet.

2. The Emergence of Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports 2

While NBC Sports Network was attempting to bid for major sports properties, Fox Sports was quietly forming its cable sports strategy for 2013 and beyond. We began hearing rumblings about Fox rebranding Speed into an all-sports channel that would be named “Fox Sports 1″ then at the end of the year, the company’s Fuel channel would also be rebranded as “Fox Sports 2″.

In its new contracts with MLB, NASCAR, the Pac-12, UFC and other sports properties it signed in 2012, Fox had a provision to put games and events on Fox Sports 1. As part of its new contract with Major League Baseball, Fox Sports can place 40 regular season games on cable as well as several postseason games. We should expect a number of NASCAR Sprint Cup races on FS1 and most likely see some UFC events as well.

The strategy is in place. Let’s see how it’s enacted in 2013 and beyond.

1. NBC’s Olympics Both Fail and Succeed

Up until the London Olympics begin in late July, NBCUniversal had been downplaying both ratings and financial expectations stating that it expected to lose money and the ratings for a tape delayed event would not be as good as in 2008 when events were carried live from Communist China. Somewhere along the way, something happened. NBC broke even financially on the Olympics and they became the most watched event in US television history. That was the successful part.

The failure was the tape delayed aspect when many viewers wanted to watch events live. The #NBCFAIL hashtag on Twitter quickly spread like wildfire during the first weekend of the Olympics. In addition, online streaming was sluggish and haggard. But even with the delays and streaming problems, Americans still watched in droves. When the games were said and done, NBCUniversal could pat itself on the back.

Honorable Mentions:

Struggles of new regional sports networks to gain carriage agreements.
NHL Does Well; But Shoots Itself in the Foot with the Lockout
Tim Tebow Overload
ESPN Continues Dominance in College Sports

Some Long Overdue Tuesday Sports Media Thoughts

I’ve been bottling up some sports media thoughts from the last time I wrote a similar post. You’re due for some more. Let’s provide you with some. They’re below in bullet form as always.

• We’re getting closer to seeing Fox Sports 1 coming to fruition. While Fox is not saying anything official, behind the scenes, it’s working very hard to show that it is very serious about making this a true alternative to ESPN. In this week’s Sports Business Journal (subscription required), John Ourand writes that Fox has already trademarked “Fox Sports 1,” purchased a dot-com to host a Fox Sports 1 website, developed a logo, and has showed a video to several professional league and college conference officials that displays what the network is all about.

  Ourand cites sources who have seen the video that Fox is looking to launch the network in August of 2013, rebranding the existing Speed channel, and then making a big platform launch during Super Bowl XVIII week in February 2014 which will air on the Fox mothership.

  While many sports media observers were watching NBC Sports Network to see if it was going to be the challenger to ESPN, Fox has quietly been working to sign long term contracts with existing partners MLB, NASCAR, UFC as well as the Big 12 and the Pac-12 to help establish programming on Fox Sports 1. When the network finally launches next summer, Fox Sports 1 will be in very good position and hit the ground running with some major sports programming, something that NBCSN has been unable to achieve.

  And with the NBA and English Premier League coming up for bid in 2015 and the Big Ten in 2016, Fox Sports 1 could make a very good destination for all three.

  We’ll be monitoring this story well into 2013.

• In a related note, Fox’s parent company, News Corp., made huge news last week with its purchase of 49% of the YES Network plus reportedly being close to retaining the rights to the Los Angeles Dodgers for a staggering $280 million annually.

  Through buying into YES and keeping the Dodgers, News Corp. would have the rights to three of the four MLB teams in the nation’s two largest markets. And with the option to increase its ownership of YES to 80% within three years, Fox is in a very good position to maintain its position in MLB through local rights.

  I would not be surprised if Fox goes after ownership stakes in NESN in Boston, co-owned by the Red Sox and Bruins, and Altitude in Denver, partners with the Avalanche and the Nuggets. I don’t think News Corp. is done with its spending spree. It will have a lot of cash to spend as it’s spinning off its publishing unit and focusing solely on television and movies.

  By positioning the Fox Sports Nets with long term contracts with several MLB, NBA and NHL teams, Fox ensures the survival of its regional sports networks for many years to come.

• ESPN’s 12 year contract to air the college football playoff plus the Orange, Rose and Sugar Bowls shows that the Alleged Worldwide Leader has faith in the sport and wants maintain its firm control of the postseason.

  We saw that when it placed all of the Bowl Championship Series on cable in 2010, that ESPN was very serious about controlling the postseason. And while ABC is given major college football games during the regular season, it carries just a few bowl games, most are aired on either ESPN or ESPN2.

  When your humble blogger went to ESPN last year to talk with Executive Senior Vice President of Studio and Event Production, Norby Williamson, he told me that ESPN was the perfect destination for the BCS as the network could provide fans with programming surrounding the games not just pre and post, but through coverage in the days leading up to the Championship Game. I’m sure his feeling has not changed now that ESPN has obtained the rights to the playoffs.

  While there’s no doubting that ESPN does college football well, its control of all of the BCS Automatic Qualifying conferences is disturbing. By guaranteeing control through long-term contracts that go well into the next decade, ESPN will continue airing games for the foreseeable future without interruption.

• Whenever I eat dinner at my parents’ house, one program they like to watch while dining is Inside Edition. While the show has its positive qualities, one huge negative is its coverage of celebrities, Lindsay Lohan in particular. It seems every move she makes is extensively covered, no matter how big, no matter how small. One night, as the show was in its 3,608th consecutive day of covering Lindsay Lohan, I said out loud, “This is like ESPN with Tim Tebow,” and it suddenly hit me that Inside Edition’s obsession with Lohan is just like ESPN’s with Tim Tebow.

  Now is this so far off? Inside Edition goes to court whenever Lohan violates her probation whether it be drunk driving or stealing a necklace (allegedly). ESPN went to New York Jets training camp to cover Tebow.

  Inside Edition went into battle mode when handlers called 9-1-1 when Lohan failed to wake up for a call on set of the Lifetime movie, “Liz and Dick”. ESPN made sure we all celebrated Tim Tebow’s birthday via SportsCenter.

  Inside Edition covered Lohan’s snub of ABC’s Barbara Walters. ESPN asked actor Liam Neeson about Tim Tebow even though he was hardly familiar with the QB.

  Inside Edition can’t seem to go one day without mentioning Lohan. Doug Gottlieb admitted to Dan Patrick that ESPN management told him to mention Tebow on his radio show.

  These are just a few instances, but again, I ask is this so far off to make the analogy that Lindsay Lohan is to Inside Edition as Tim Tebow is to ESPN?

  I’m sure I’ll hear from ESPN’s extensive public relations machine on this, but they can’t convince me that Tebow isn’t their Binky.

• I’ve seen all of season 3 of Downton Abbey except for the Christmas Special that will air on ITV in the UK on Christmas Day (naturally). While I won’t give any spoilers, I will give some news that has already been reported. Shirley MacLaine gives some great energy to the first few episodes playing Elizabeth “Cora Grantham” McGovern’s mother, visiting from the United States. The season begins in 1920 with Robert in financial difficulty and Downton’s future in doubt, Mr. Bates in jail and Matthew and Lady Mary engaged.

  What transpires next is the usual drama, comedy and plot twists that make the series great. There will be joy and there will be sadness, but you’ll have to see what happens when the third season premieres on PBS on January 6.

  I’m giving away nothing. If you want spoilers, buy me a few drinks and I’ll tell you.

We’re done. Enjoy your Tuesday.

Back For Some Tuesday Links

Let’s do some linkage. I need to do this more than twice a week.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch looks at the potential replacements for Jon Gruden in the Monday Night Football booth should he decide to leave as rumored.

John Ourand of Sports Business Journal has a plethora of subjects in his latest media column.

Rachel Bachman of the Wall Street Journal says the expansion of the Big Ten to the Atlantic seaboard is purely for television.

Andy Fixmer and Scott Soshnick at Bloomberg report on a story that bears watching, YES Network will retain the media rights to the New York Yankees through 2042 which opens the door for News Corp. to buy a stake in the channel.

Andy and Alex Sherman from Bloomberg write about Fox opening the door for Fox Sports 1.

Alicia Jessop at Forbes writes that the NBA will stream D-League games on YouTube.

Anthony Crupi at Adweek tells us that NBC is garnering big ad rates for its Thanksgiving Night NFL game.

A story from the weekend, Awful Announcing’s Joe Lucia notes that CBS/Sports Illustrated/Turner’s Seth Davis apologized for calling UFC “homoerotic”.

Todd Spangler from Multichannel News notes that ESPN has rebooted its “Watch ESPN” Xbox 360 app.

Toni Fitzgerald at Media Life says NBC’s Sunday Night Football killed the competition in primetime.

Ed Sherman at The Sherman Report says the NFL game experience doesn’t compare to watching it on your TV.

Jordan Rabinowitz of SportsGrid has video of NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion Brad Keselowski drinking on SportsCenter after celebrating his win.

The lovely Kristi Dosh at ESPN.com says both Rutgers and Maryland are in desperate need of the TV money that both institutions will receive as members of the Big Ten Conference.

Ryan Hannable of Boston Sports Media Watch speaks with WEEI’s Glenn Ordway.

Tony LaRoce in the Providence Journal talks with Providence College basketball radio voice John Rooke about a book he’s written about Rhode Island radio.

Richard Sandomir and Amy Chozik of the New York Times write that News Corp.’s stake in YES could value the network as high as $3 billion.

Nate Silver of the New York Times looks at the geography of college football fans across the country and delves into the crazy conference realignment.

Newsday’s Neil Best checks on the progress of Madison Square Garden’s “transformation.”

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union says Time Warner Cable airs an AHL game on Friday.

David Zurawik in the Baltimore Sun writes that the Big Ten’s TV acumen will help Maryland in the long run.

In the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog, Dan Steinberg has ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt, a noted Maryland alum, weighing in on the Maryland to the Big Ten move.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner speaks with Jim Rome about his new Showtime series.

Stephen F. Holder of the Tampa Bay Times says the Bucs have a long way to go if the team wants to sell out its game against Atlanta and avoid a local TV blackout.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle says former Astros analyst Jim Deshaies is a candidate for the Cubs TV job.

David says overtime helped push the Texans’ ratings upwards in Houston.

The Indianapolis Star transcribed some of the things ESPN’s Bob Knight said during last night’s Indiana-Georgia game. It marked the first time Knight had called an Indiana game for ESPN.

The Chicago Tribune has an infographic on how many TV viewers each school in the Big Ten can bring to the table.

Dusty Saunders of the Denver Post says Altitude has had to make a programming adjustment without the Colorado Avalanche this season.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has five things he learned from the weekend.

SportsRantz looks at the reported morning show for CBS Sports Radio.

Classic Sports TV and Media explores when was the actual first college football primetime broadcast.

Tony Manfred at the Business Insider Sports Page notes that this week’s Sports Illustrated cover is basically an ad for adidas.

Sports Media Watch says CBS saw rating increases for its NFL windows on Sunday, but the late games are the second-lowest rated for this season.

SMW notes NBC’s Sunday Night Football wasn’t as big a draw with Ravens-Steelers.

And that will do it for today.

Doing Some Friday Megalinks

Let’s do some Friday megalinks. Haven’t done any in a couple of weeks.

The Weekend Viewing Picks have all of your sports and entertainment TV needs.

Time for the linkage.

National

Michael Hiestand of USA Today notes the rising rights fees for the college football postseason.

Michael writes about Today show Executive Producer Jim Bell coming home to NBC Sports to oversee all Olympic broadcasts.

Chris Chase from USA Today has 60 Minutes responding to Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers’ complaints about a recent profile.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says the Outdoor and Sportsman Channels plan to merge.

Will Leitch at Sports on Earth says the Rick Reilly experiment at ESPN has not worked.

Bryan Curtis of Grantland notes that last night’s Celtics-Nets game was the first game that Brooklyn native Marv Albert got to call in the borough.

Alex Weprin of TV Newser reports that Keith Olbermann will be back on sports television next week by doing a guest stint on a league-owned network.

Matt Yoder of Awful Announcing feels ESPN has lost its viewers trust.

The Big Lead speculates whether Sports Illustrated’s Peter King will remain with the magazine or leave when his contract expires.

Sports Media Watch says despite a fight, ESPN’s ratings for the next-to-last Sprint Cup race of the season finished down from last year.

East and Mid-Atlantic

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe talks with CBS’ Jim Nantz who’s back on the Patriots beat this week.

Chad has five questions with Nantz.

Boston Sports Media Watch Fearless Leader Bruce Allen speculates in SB Nation on who might become the Flash Boy or Girl for WEEI’s Dennis & Callahan show.

Bill Doyle of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette has NESN’s Jack Edwards becoming increasingly skeptical about playing hockey this season.

The New York Times’ Richard Sandomir notes that a new Broadway play will delve into the history of the Yankees.

Amy Chozick and Michael Cieply of the Times write about Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. buying a stake into the YES Network.

Newsday’s Neil Best talks about Mike Emrick calling college hockey tonight.

The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick conducts a character assassination on ESPN’s Dick Vitale.

The Post’s Justin Terranova has five questions for New York Knicks radio voice Spero Dedes.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union talks with Dottie Pepper who’s leaving NBC Sports for a position with the PGA of America.

Ken McMillen of the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record has Darrelle Revis’ comments to NFL Network’s Andrea Kremer about his season-ending injury for the New York Jets.

Dave Hughes of DCRTV.com writes in Press Box that the ratings increases for the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals reflect their successes on the field.

In the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog, Dan Steinberg has some thoughts on the NFL Network’s documentary on John Riggins.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner talks with ESPN’s NASCAR voice Allen Bestwick about the last race of the season.

South

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle notes that most CBS stations across the country and even in Texas have chosen to air the Dallas Cowboys over the Texans.

David has a few viewing picks for the weekend.

Midwest

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel doesn’t agree with Aaron Rodgers’ complaints about 60 Minutes.

Paul M. Banks at Chicago Sports Media Watch notes that the NCAA has removed one-third of the media’s courtside seats at the Final Four™.

Dan Caesar at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes about a local sports radio host who lost his job after making remarks about African Americans.

West

Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star has his Weekend Viewing Picks.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News looks at a new documentary on the UCLA-USC rivalry.

Tom wonders why it took so long for DirecTV and Time Warner Cable SportsNet to make an agreement.

Tom has stuff that didn’t make it into today’s sports column.

And that’s going to do it.

NASCAR’s Season Finale Airs on ESPN

The final races of the 2013 NASCAR Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series will take place in South Florida at Homestead-Miami Speedway. ESPN will air both races live on Saturday and Sunday respectively.

Brad Keselowski hopes to remain on top of the standings and win his first Sprint Cup. ESPN will have the Nationwide Series race on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET. Marty Reid calls the lap-by-lap action with analysts Dale Jarett and Andy Petree.

Then the final Sprint Cup race of the season will take place Sunday at 3 p.m. ET with Allen Bestwick on the call with Jarett and Petree.

We have details of the race from ESPN.

NASCAR Season Finales Live on ESPN from Miami

The 2012 NASCAR season ends this weekend and ESPN will have live telecasts of the final races for the NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 17-18, from Homestead-Miami Speedway. Brad Keselowski will try to hold off five-time champion Jimmie Johnson to win his first Sprint Cup title. An extended NASCAR Countdown airs at 1:30 p.m. ET Sunday, Nov. 18, with a 3:15 p.m. green flag for the Ford EcoBoost 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup race that will conclude the 10-race Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Saturday’s Ford EcoBoost 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series race has NASCAR Countdown at 4 p.m. and the green flag at 4:45 p.m.  Also from Homestead, ESPN2 will air NASCAR Sprint Cup practice Friday, Nov. 16, at 1:30 p.m. followed at 3 p.m. by NASCAR Nationwide Series practice.

SportsCenter reporters Shannon Spake (Keselowski) and Marty Smith (Johnson) will be embedded with the two championship contenders all week.

Date	Time (ET)	Event	Network
Fri, Nov 16	1:30 p.m.	NASCAR Sprint Cup Practice	ESPN2
	3 p.m.	NASCAR Nationwide Series Practice	ESPN2
Sat, Nov 17	4 p.m.	NASCAR Countdown	ESPN
	4:30 p.m.	Ford EcoBoost 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series Race	ESPN
Sun, Nov 18	1:30 p.m.	NASCAR Countdown	ESPN
	3 p.m.	Ford EcoBoost 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Race	ESPN

Announcers:

Booth: Lap-by-Lap announcer Allen Bestwick (Sprint Cup); Marty Reid (Nationwide); analysts Dale Jarrett, Andy Petree.
Pit reporters: Dave Burns, Jamie Little, Dr. Jerry Punch, Vince Welch.
NASCAR Countdown: Nicole Briscoe (host); Rusty Wallace, Ray Evernham, Brad Daugherty (analysts)

That is all.

A NBC Sports-Themed Sports Media Thoughts Post

Time for some long overdue sports media thoughts. They’re all in bullet form. And the thoughts have to do with NBC Sports/NBC Sports Network.

• NBC Sports Network will finally get its man on Monday when it picks up the TV portion of the Dan Patrick Show and its accompanying show, The Box Score. Since the summer, NBC had been negotiating with DirecTV to become the national cable distributor of the show. Fox Sports Net had been the cable partner from 2010 until this month when negotiations to remain the home of the show broke off.

  NBC Sports Network is desperately trying to become a legitimate competitor to ESPN, but with the NHL lockout plus losing out on Major League Baseball, it appeared that things were looking bleak. But some developments this week are giving NBCSN some hope to take the power back.

  The first part is getting an established brand name like Dan Patrick to the network. The formal announcement will be made on Sunday Night Football during halftime of New Orleans-Denver.. Then the show starts the following day. The move has been long rumored, but it will finally come reality next week. For NBC Sports Network, the climb has to start somewhere. It has to start somehow. What better place than next week?

• The news broken by Sports Business Daily’s John Ourand on Friday that NBC appears to be the leader in the clubhouse for the US rights for the English Premier League has to feel like a bullet in the head to incumbents Fox Soccer and ESPN. When the bidding for the rights began this month, it appeared the current rightsholders, Fox/ESPN would continue for another three years beginning with the 2013-14 season. However, news broke today that the English Premier League had informed Fox/ESPN that it would no longer require its services. Ourand reported that NBC’s bid would triple Fox’s current fee of $23 million per year. An announcement is expected next week.

  Of course, the Al Jazeera-owned beIN Sport which launched in the US in August has expressed its interest in the US rights, but it’s not known if it actually bid.

  Let’s say for argument’s sake that NBC wins the rights, it would be huge. NBC Sports Network could conceivably air EPL games on Saturday and Sunday mornings plus air Monday afternoon games. Matches could be sublicensed to another network or placed on another NBCUniversal property like the Comcast SportsNet affiliates.

  The English Premier League makes a nice compliment to the Major League Soccer games that air on both NBC and NBCSN. And if the EPL bid is successful, it suddenly gives the Peacock some street cred with soccer fans.

  Plus, this is a huge blow to Fox Soccer which has heavily depended on the English Premier League for programming. And ESPN which already lost the World Cup and now 80 EPL games finds itself with just MLS once the 2014 World Cup concludes.

• Brett McMurphy at ESPN.com reports that the Big East conference is letting its exclusive 60 day negotiating window with ESPN lapse and will now start talks with Fox and NBC Sports.

  While the Big East can still sign with ESPN, the conference is taking a gamble that it can get a megadeal similar to what other major college leagues have received. The Big East left big money on the table when it rejected a long-term deal from ESPN last year choosing to shop around. Now with its exclusive window with the alleged Worldwide Leader coming to an end, the Big East will get courted especially by NBC.

  Over the last year, NBC Sports Network has picked up rights to the A-10, CAA, Ivy League and the Mountain West conferences, but it would be a huge win to get the Big East, a league that has been with ESPN since its inception.

  Fox might be in just to drive up the bidding, but now with losing the EPL and Formula 1, it needs some inventory for its soon-to-be-launched Fox Sports 1 channel. If the Big East can convince either Fox or NBC or perhaps even both to pony up, the conference might be in line to see fees on par with the ACC. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

Suddenly, NBC Sports Network’s future looks a bit brighter than it did earlier this month. And if it gets a piece of the NASCAR schedule next year, then NBCSN’s programming with the NHL (if it ever returns), English Premier League, MLS, Big East, Formula 1 and the other aforementioned properties makes the channel a decent challenger. Don’t forget the NBA contract bidding in 2014 also is looming.

That’s going to end the thoughts for now.

Some Sunday Linkage

I have some time on this NFL Sunday to provide some rare weekend linkage. Let’s get to it.

Chris Chase at USA Today’s Game On blog notes that Minnesota Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder has confirmed that he’s dating ESPN College GameDay’s Samantha Steele.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News talks about the Pac-12 Networks being made available to Apple mobile devices as long as they’re subscribers of participating cable and satellite providers.

Ed Sherman of The Sherman Report reviews this week’s 30 for 30 documentary which has a Chicago slant.

Sports Media Watch says expect Fox to be a player for the rights to the second half of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season if ESPN and Turner falter in their negotiations next year.

SportsRantz says Jen Royle is owed an apology by Toronto Blue Jays fans after she correctly reported that John Farrell was a target of the Red Sox for its managerial opening.

Brandon Costa of Sports Video Group says Fox Sports is ready to launch its New Orleans channel with the rights to the Hornets in hand.

Ty Duffy at The Big Lead notes that actress Natalie Portman turned heads at the Baylor-Texas game last night.

Stephen Douglas of The Big Lead has video evidence of Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer Ryan Lochte being dumber than you and me.

Tom Ley at Deadspin notes that ESPN’s Rick Reilly got fooled by web satire once again.

Once again, Phil Mushnick at the New York Post finds something to hate.

Dan Steinberg at the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog recaps President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s comments on DC NFL team QB Robert Griffin III on Fox NFL Sunday.

Jim Williams from the Washington Examiner talks with Doug Gottlieb about his new CBS Sports Network late night show.

Tom Jones of the Tampa Bay Times rates the commissioners‘ of MLB, NFL, NBA and NHL.

Nice to have Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News back in Fang’s Bites. He wonders where are the Cowboys fans as the team’s TV ratings have fallen like a rock this season.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle bids farewell to Big Tex, the huge statue that adorned the Texas State Fair outside Dallas that burned down on Friday and the voice of Big Tex.

Mel Bracht of The Oklahoman reviews Fox Sports Net’s production of last night’s Oklahoma blowout of Kansas.

The Oklahoman notes that ESPN’s College GameDay will be at the Notre Dame-Oklahoma game in Norman next Saturday.

The Cincinnati Enquirier’s John Kiesewetter talks with NBC’s Al Michaels who got his big break in the Queen City.

John has some outtakes with Al that didn’t make the newspaper story.

Joe Reedy of the Enquirer talks with Cris Collinsworth who will have a heavy heart working with Al Michaels tonight.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says Big East Commissioner Mike Aresco has his work cut out for him in negotiating a new TV contract for the conference.

At TimeOut Chicago, Robert Feder discusses Jenny McCarthy joining the Sun-Times as a columnist, the Tribune going behind the dreaded paywall, and Bob Brenly’s replacement as Cubs analyst.

At the Los Angeles Daily News, Tom Hoffarth recalls the 31st Anniversary of “Blue Monday” for the Dodgers with Vin Scully.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog enjoys the MLB International productions over TBS and Fox in the postseason.

And that will do it.

Fox Sports Announces New Deal With NASCAR

Fox Sports has officially announced a new deal with NASCAR that keeps the first half of the Sprint Cup Series on the Fox Sports Media Group. Overall, Fox will have the rights to 13 races including the Daytona 500 all the way into early June.

According to Tripp Mickle and John Ourand at Sports Business Journal, Fox will pay more than $300 million a year for eight years starting in 2015.

In the new deal, Fox will continue to be the home of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series which has been aired on Speed and will most likely continue to be on cable when Speed becomes Fox Sports 1. Expect some of Fox’s Sprint Cup schedule to be aired on Fox Sports 1 in the future.

In addition, Fox gets “TV Everywhere” rights for its portion of the NASCAR schedule meaning races will be streamed online. That will begin next year.

Here’s the Fox Sports announcement.

NASCAR and FOX Sports Media Group Reach Expansive Multi-Year, Multi-Platform Rights Agreement

FOX Sports Remains Exclusive Television Home of Daytona 500;
FSMG Gains “TV Everywhere” Rights to Live Races, More Beginning Next Season

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Oct. 15, 2012) – With two full seasons left on their current television contract, NASCAR and FOX Sports Media Group (FSMG) announced today an extensive new eight-year, multiplatform media rights agreement that ensures FSMG’s broadcast of NASCAR racing through 2022.

Under terms of the new agreement, FSMG also significantly increases its digital rights to include “TV Everywhere” live race streaming of its portion of the season for the first time ever beginning in 2013.

“NASCAR has been in very good hands and has enjoyed tremendous success the last 12 years in large part because of our fantastic partnership with FOX and FOX Sports Media Group,” said NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France. “We are thrilled to be able to extend our relationship in such a significant way for our track partners, race teams, and most importantly, our millions of loyal and passionate fans. This extension with FOX Sports Media Group helps position the sport for future growth as NASCAR continues to be an anchor with one of the world’s largest and most influential media companies.”

As part of the new agreement, which takes effect in 2015, FSMG retains the television rights to 13 consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points races beginning each year with the prestigious Daytona 500. In addition, FSMG retains the rights to the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, the Daytona Shootout, the Duel at Daytona, the entire NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season and practice and qualifying for both the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races that FSMG broadcasts.

FOX also remains the exclusive home of The Great American Race through 2022, a title it has proudly held for the last six years and nine of the last 12.

“We’re extremely happy to have worked closely with Brian and his team at NASCAR over the last few months to expand and extend our relationship for what is without question the most popular motorsport in the country,” said FSMG Co-Presidents and CEOs Eric Shanks and Randy Freer. “NASCAR has been a staple at FOX for more than a decade and we consider it one of the signature sports we cover. With our commitment renewed, we look forward to presenting NASCAR thoroughly, professionally and creatively for many years to come.”

On the digital front, FSMG gains “TV Everywhere” rights starting next season to live stream all FSMG races, along with pre- and post-race coverage, race highlights and in-progress race highlights to events it televises. This portion of the deal was made possible by NASCAR’s reacquisition of operational, business and editorial control of its digital platform, a move that takes effect on Jan. 1, 2013.

“NASCAR fans’ demand and desire for NASCAR content stretches across all platforms and distribution channels,” France said. “As we’ve done with this FSMG extension, we will continue to take the appropriate measures to ensure our fans have access to the sport wherever they are and through all available devices. NASCAR is one of the most accessible sports in the world and this new deal builds upon that in a very significant way.”

FSMG’s new and expanded television and digital media rights agreement with NASCAR includes, but is not limited to:

• An eight-year term from 2015 to 2022. The current FSMG/NASCAR rights agreement began in 2006 and runs through 2014
• Thirteen (13) consecutive points races beginning with the Daytona 500 on FOX
• The Daytona Shootout; Duel at Daytona; NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race; and Daytona 500 Qualifying
• Full NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season
• Right to televise all practice and qualifying sessions for FSMG races
• Ability to re-telecast races on a FOX network and via video-on-demand (VOD) for 24 hours
• Right to ancillary programming including, but not limited to, a nightly NASCAR news and information show as well as weekend at-track shows
• Right to NASCAR branded pre- and post-race shows
• Extensive digital rights beginning in 2013, including:
  • TV Everywhere – live digital distribution of all races FSMG has rights to broadcast
  • Pre- and post-race coverage
  • Race highlights
  • In-progress race highlights
  • Replays of FOX-televised races

Today’s announcement comes less than two months after NASCAR and FOX announced they are teaming up to provide the sport’s most expansive Spanish-language broadcast offering ever with FOX Deportes’ coverage of 15 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races starting in 2013. Of the 15 race broadcasts, FOX Deportes, the No. 1 U.S. Latino Sports network, will carry six NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races live, including, for the first time ever, a Spanish-language broadcast of the Daytona 500 (Sunday, Feb. 24).

One more motorsports-related press release is coming up.

What is Fox Sports 1? How Does It Affect You?

As we speed into the last quarter of 2012 and prepare for what’s ahead in 2013, there is one thing that is on the horizon for US sports fans and that is the expected appearance of a new all-sports cable channel. No, it’s not NBC Sports Network, although its trials and tribulations this fall will be the subject of a sports media thoughts post this week.

Sometime over the next two years, Fox Sports will announce that the sometimes all-motorsports, sometimes reality channel SPEED will be converted to an all-sports channel that will air MLB, Big 12 and Pac-12 sports, MMA, some NASCAR and anything else it can its hands on. You’re seeing a little bit of this through Fox’s increased sports programming on FX. Two Saturdays ago, FX had a college football doubleheader followed by a UFC on FX Fight Night.

Imagine that next year on the new SPEED which will in all likelihood be rebranded as Fox Sports 1. Why Fox Sports 1? Because it will be part of a company rebranding of Fox’s other sports channels, Fox Soccer and Fuel as Fox Sports 2 and Fox Sports 3, respectively. And there is precedence for this. Fox’s Australian channels are called Fox Sports 1, 2 and 3. Each channel serves to carry certain sports and big events like the Olympics or the Australian Open.

For American sports fans, expect the sports properties to line up as follows once the rebranding takes shape:

FOX SPORTS 1 (FORMERLY SPEED)

• College Basketball (Big 12 & Pac-12)
• College Football (Big 12 & Pac-12)
• English Premier League (Survival Sunday)
• Mixed Martial Arts (UFC)
• MLB
• NASCAR
• UEFA Champions League
• World Cup Soccer

FOX SPORTS 2/FOX SPORTS 2 PLUS (FORMERLY FOX SOCCER/FOX SOCCER PLUS)

• English Premier League
• Scottish Premier League
• UEFA Champions League
• UEFA Europa League
• Australian Rules Football
• Rugby

FOX SPORTS 3 (FORMERLY FUEL)

• Extreme Sports
• Australian Rules Football
• Mixed Martial Arts (UFC)

Fox has already signed for 40 MLB games on Fox Sports 1, taking 14 games away from its over the air package and another 13 away from TBS to form the new slate of games on cable. In addition, the new cable channel will air some League Division Series games starting in 2014.

Fox is about to announce a renewal of its NASCAR rights and expect part of its current schedule of 13 races in the early portion of the Sprint Cup calendar to migrate to Fox Sports 1. If Fox keeps the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, the races could be split among Fox Sports 1 and 3.

And if Fox manages to hold off Al Jazeera’s expected bid for the US rights to English Premier League games, perhaps Fox Sports 1 could gain a package of early Saturday or Sunday morning matches with the rest going to Fox Sports 2.

There are a lot of possibilities for the Fox Sports channels. It could also be in very good position to gain NBA games when the new set of packages go to bid in 2014. And let us not forget about a potential 8 game Thursday Night NFL package that could cover the first half of the regular beginning in 2014 that Fox would certainly be interested in.

It was thought that NBC was positioning itself to challenge ESPN’s supremacy, but with its acquiring of MLB, NASCAR and college sports plus the World Cup in 2015, Fox just might have leap frogged ahead of the Peacock as ESPN’s main opponent.

Some Really Quick Tuesday Sports Media Thoughts

Due to that stupid office move that prevented me from updating the site regularly over the last two two weeks, I wasn’t able to provide some regular features here. I’m slowly getting back on track. Thanks for your patience and continued readership during this period. I’ll make it up to you somehow.

I’ll do some very quick sports media thoughts. They’ll be in bullet form as always. Just quick hits this time, just one or two sentences in this post. I’ll expound the next time around.

• A few new shows have premiered over the last month. Both in the morning daypart which had been untapped by the sports networks until the last few years. Some thoughts on two new shows
  • NFL AM debuted in late July on NFL Network right as the Olympics were getting underway. Based on the searches landing on Fang’s Bites since the premiere, co-host Nicole Zaloumis has become popular with viewers. I like what I have seen thus far in the only morning show totally devoted to the NFL.
  • NBC Sports Network’s no-frills answer to ESPN’s SportsCenter, The ‘Lights premiered earlier this month with a disembodied voice hosting the show and narrating the highlights in twenty minute blocks. It’s a good concept that has been executed well by NBCSN.
• Earlier in August, it was discovered that Comcast SportsNet affiliates in Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington, DC had stopped carrying Fox Sports Net programming as of July 30 and that included the daily simulcast of the Dan Patrick Show. While an agreement could easily be forged between Fox and NBC, I have a feeling that this could be part of a bigger play by NBC for Dan not only as a radio show simulcast on NBC Sports Network, but also as an attempt to lure him to the NBC Sports Radio Network. Keep that in mind as Dan’s contract with DirecTV, the company that owns his radio show and markets his TV show to Fox Sports Net is up soon.
• Friday Night Football on ESPN/ESPN2 won’t be the same without Joe Tessitore.
• We need Michelle Beadle back on sports TV soon.
• It’s time to ignore Skip Bayless and stop writing and tweeting the outrageous things he says. Attention is exactly what he and ESPN want.
• The Big East got a very good Commissioner in former CBS Sports Vice President Mike Aresco. No pressure on Mike now, he only has to keep the conference from being poached and get a big TV contract on par with the ACC, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC.
• DirecTV is no longer providing its free sports “Experience” programming to Standard Definition subscribers. NASCAR Hot Pass, PGA Championship and now the U.S. Open Experience, extra channels that allowed fans to see additional coverage beyond the network coverage are no longer available in SD. And there was no announcement either. That was sneaky, DirecTV. Makes me wonder if NFL Sunday Ticket is next. All are still available in HD.
• If you have a chance, listen to two Friends of Fang’s Bites tonight on 98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston. Jen Royle will do a guest spot on the Damon Amendolara show tonight at 9. The station does stream so you can listen right here.
• Best of luck to another Friend of Fang’s Bites, Courtney Fallon. Monday was her last day as weekend sports anchor at WLNE in Providence. Here’s hoping she lands in a major market really soon.

That’s going to do it for the thoughts.

ESPN Set To Air Second Half of NASCAR Sprint Cup Season

ESPN/ABC will combine to air the final 17 races of the Sprint Cup season. As it’s been for the last few years, ESPN will carry 14 races with ABC taking three races, all on Saturday nights. Allen Bestwick will be the lap-by-lap announcer and be joined by Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree in the booth. For the pre-race and studio coverage, Nicole Briscoe returns as host and Brad Daugherty, Rusty Wallace and Ray Evernham will be analysts.

As it has in this NASCAR TV contract, ESPN will carry the final 10 Chase for the Sprint Cup races. ESPN’s season begins July 29 with the Brickyard 400 from Indianapolis. The Sprint Cup Chase starts on September 16 in Chicago and ends on November 18 in Miami.

We have the ESPN press release for you.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Racing Coming to ESPN for Second Half of Season

The Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, one of the premier events in NASCAR, will be the launching point for ESPN’s live, flag-to-flag telecasts of the final 17 races of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season on Sunday, July 29.

ESPN’s multimedia platforms will surround the race telecasts on television, radio, online and on mobile devices. Of the 17 races, 14 will air on ESPN and WatchESPN and three Saturday night events will air on ABC, and ESPN’s flagship news and information program SportsCenter will follow the 14 ESPN race telecasts with additional post-race interviews, highlights and information.

Beginning Sept. 16 at Chicagoland Speedway, the final 10 races will comprise the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, NASCAR’s playoffs, culminating Nov. 18 at Homestead-Miami Speedway with the crowning of the series champion.

For the 10 races in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, ESPN will again utilize NASCAR NonStop, a split-screen commercial format that brings more racing action to viewers. The format, which ESPN used for the first time in 2011, shows the advertisement on the left side of the screen and a continuation of racing action on the right side. ESPN’s scoring ticker continues to move across the top of the screen, allowing NASCAR fans to follow the running order of the race during the breaks. NASCAR NonStop takes effect at or near the halfway point of the race, with the first half of the race presented in the traditional commercial break format.

The race telecast from Indianapolis follows the one-hour NASCAR Countdown pre-race show at noon, with the race’s green flag at 1:19 p.m. ET. Also from Indianapolis, ESPN will televise the inaugural race at the famed track for the NASCAR Nationwide Series on Saturday, July 28, with NASCAR Countdown at 4 p.m. and the green flag at 4:49 p.m. NASCAR Sprint Cup qualifying for the Brickyard 400 airs earlier that day at 2 p.m. on ESPN, with NASCAR Sprint Cup practice at 10:30 a.m. on ESPN2.

The winner of the Brickyard 400 will visit ESPN’s Bristol, Ct., studios on Tuesday, July 31, to appear on multiple ESPN programs and platforms.

ESPN’s NASCAR Sprint Cup coverage team will include four former NASCAR Sprint Cup champions, led by analyst Dale Jarrett, the 1999 driving champion, who will work with two-time champion crew chief Andy Petree and lap-by-lap announcer Allen Bestwick in the booth. Rusty Wallace, the 1989 driving champion, and three-time champion crew chief Ray Evernham will be analysts for NASCAR Countdown with host Nicole Briscoe and analyst Brad Daugherty, a NASCAR team owner.

Pit reporters during ESPN’s 17-race NASCAR Sprint Cup coverage will be Dave Burns, Jamie Little, Mike Massaro, Dr. Jerry Punch, Shannon Spake and Vince Welch while Marty Reid will be the lap-by-lap announcer for the remainder of ESPN’s NASCAR Nationwide Series race telecasts beginning with Indianapolis.

ESPN will use 74 high definition cameras in the Brickyard 400 telecast, including a new, Ultra Slo Mo handheld camera for analyzing pit stops. Bat Cam, a camera running on a cable over pit road and the frontstretch that can move at more than 80 mph, also will be utilized again at IMS. ESPN will have a helicopter camera for all 17 NASCAR Sprint Cup race telecasts.

Last year at Indianapolis, ESPN introduced the first-ever use of dual path transmission for onboard cameras, allowing the network for the first time to show two high definition views from onboard cameras in the same car simultaneously. The technology has been refined and is being expanded into ESPN’s NASCAR Nationwide Series telecasts starting at Indianapolis.

The NASCAR Countdown show for the Brickyard 400 will have a different look as it will move from the ESPN Pit Studio to a set located on an outside floor of the speedway’s iconic Pagoda. The grandstands, track and pits will provide a backdrop during the program.

Among the features that are planned for airing during ESPN’s Indianapolis telecasts:

• Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his crew chief Steve Letarte sit down together with ESPN’s Marty Smith to discuss the evolution of their relationship, how Earnhardt has changed as a driver since they joined forces this season and why their team is finally firing on all cylinders.

• ABC News journalist Katie Couric talks with Danica Patrick at Indianapolis Motor Speedway about her transition to NASCAR, how people perceive her as a person and possible sexism she might face on a daily basis at the racetrack.

• Jeff Gordon reunites with his former championship winning crew chief Ray Evernham to talk about his struggles in 2012 and if success for him is lurking at the Brickyard, a place where he has won four times in his career.

• Last year’s Brickyard 400 is relived through the eyes of race winner Paul Menard and his father, John. Collectively they tell the story of how emotional and meaningful the victory was to the Menard Family.

ESPN’s Multimedia Platforms Surround NASCAR

In addition to the live telecasts, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series racing will be covered on other ESPN multimedia outlets:

WatchESPN – All of ESPN’s NASCAR television content is also viewable digitally through WatchESPN and WatchESPN.com, the online-accessible authenticated version of ESPN. WatchESPN is available on computers, smartphones and tablets through WatchESPN.com and the free WatchESPN app, which are accessible to fans who receive their video service from an affiliated provider, and through ESPN on Xbox LIVE. NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series race telecasts airing on ESPN and ESPN2 can be seen on WatchESPN as can ESPN2’s daily news program NASCAR Now.

ESPN Deportes — ESPN’s Spanish-language television, radio and Internet in the U.S. will televise all 17 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races airing on ESPN networks on a delayed basis, starting with the Brickyard 400 at 4 a.m. on Monday, July 30. ESPN Deportes’ NASCAR commentator team will feature Andrés Agulla (play-by-play) and Alex Pombo (analysis). In addition to the telecasts of the races, ESPN Deportes will have segments for its edition of SportsCenter.

ESPN.com — ESPN.com will provide surround coverage from the Brickyard. Award-winning motorsports journalists Ed Hinton, Terry Blount, David Newton and John Oreovicz and ESPN.com motorsports editors K. Lee Davis and Joe Breeze will lead the reporting team, with additional contributions from NASCAR Insider Marty Smith as well as ESPN the Magazine’s Ryan McGee. Hinton, Blount, Newton, Oreovicz and other ESPN reporters and personalities maintain and regularly update blogs with their insights, perspectives and more. ESPN.com, along with Jayski.com, will feature extensive video, audio and editorial coverage of the 2012 NASCAR season, as well as providing multiple ESPN Fantasy games and content distributed to other emerging platforms such as Apple’s iTunes Store and Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE.

ESPN.com RaceCast, ESPN.com’s enhanced, live race-day applications features a live animated graphic display, track information, lap leaders, race leaders, driver information and live in-race chat with ESPN announcers, reporters and editors via Racing Live! NASCAR fans looking for an online gathering during the Indianpolis telecast have a place to go on ESPN.com. Racing Live! on ESPN.com is a live blog where fans can engage in debate and discussion on nearly any topic during the races. Fans can join ESPN.com’s NASCAR experts in dissecting every aspect of the race live at http://espn.go.com/racing/nascar/. As part of ESPN.com’s integration with Jayski.com, veteran racing voice Mark Garrow continues as a frequent contributor, producing podcasts and hosting regular chats on ESPN.com.

espnW.com – espnW’s mission is to connect female fans with the sports they love and follow, and with Danica Patrick competing in her first full year of NASCAR racing, espnW.com has been following her all season with news, features and behind-the-scenes information. espnW.com provides an engaging environment where women are an integral part of the sports conversation, share their perspective on men’s and women’s sports and find the motivation and support for their athletic goals and interests.

ESPN Radio — Each weekend morning, ESPN Radio’s RaceDay starts its engines at 6 a.m. ET with host Pat Patterson anchored from the site of that weekend’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race. On both Saturday and Sunday mornings, ESPN Radio’s RaceDay listeners get an hour of news, previews and analysis, as well as profiles and interviews with NASCAR’s biggest names and newsmakers and the involvement of listeners via calls and e-mails. The program airs 52 weeks a year.

ESPN International – ESPN International is one of the world’s leading syndicators of sports programming and its relationship with NASCAR is helping maximize coverage of NASCAR and providing a solid base of distribution. Through a combination of sales and network programming, the 38 NASCAR Sprint Cup races (including the Bud Shootout and Sprint All-Star Race) and 33 NASCAR Nationwide Series races are available to 134 countries and territories around the world. In addition, U.S. troops and their families serving around the world and Navy ships at sea can watch the season through American Forces Network.

ESPN Mobile – ESPN’s mobile platforms give fans on-the-go access to all the racing action, news and developments. Fans can find coverage on the ESPN mobile Web site — the leading mobile Web sports site and among the most-trafficked sites in the world – in a dedicated NASCAR section that includes special coverage around the biggest races, driver cards and more.  Additionally, fans can access real-time results on the ESPN ScoreCenter app and sign up to receive customizable alerts to follow their favorite drivers during the race.

ESPN Classic – ESPN Classic will air a marathon of previous Brickyard 400 races on July 26-27.

The marathon begins at 1 a.m. on Thursday, July 26, with the 1998 Brickyard 400, and the races continue on Friday, July 27, at midnight with the 1995 race, won by Dale Earnhardt, with the 2007 race airing at 1 a.m. The 2000 race airs at 4 a.m., followed at 7 a.m. by the 2010 edition and at 11 a.m. by the inaugural event in 1994 that was won by Jeff Gordon. The day concludes with the 2008, 2009 and 2011 races at 1 p.m., 3 p.m. and 5 p.m., respectively. ESPN Classic also will air NASCAR-related SportsCentury and Dick Schaap interview programs each morning Monday-Friday of race week.

2012 NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES SCHEDULE ON ESPN NETWORKS

July 29	Indianapolis Motor Speedway	ESPN	1 p.m.
Aug. 5	Pocono Raceway	ESPN	1 p.m.
Aug. 12	Watkins Glen International	ESPN	1 p.m.
Aug. 19	Michigan International Speedway	ESPN	1 p.m.
Aug. 25	Bristol Motor Speedway	ABC	7:30 p.m.
Sep. 2	Atlanta Motor Speedway	ESPN	7:30 p.m.
Sep. 8	Richmond International Raceway	ABC	7:30 p.m.
Sep. 16	Chicagoland Speedway	ESPN	2 p.m.
Sep. 23	New Hampshire Motor Speedway	ESPN	2 p.m.
Sep. 30	Dover International Speedway	ESPN	2 p.m.
Oct. 7	Talladega Superspeedway	ESPN	2 p.m.
Oct. 13	Charlotte Motor Speedway	ABC	7:30 p.m.
Oct. 21	Kansas Speedway	ESPN	2 p.m.
Oct. 28	Martinsville Speedway	ESPN	2 p.m.
Nov. 4	Texas Motor Speedway	ESPN	3 p.m.
Nov. 11	Phoenix International Raceway	ESPN	3 p.m.
Nov. 18	Homestead-Miami Speedway	ESPN	3 p.m.

That will conclude this post.

Let’s Do Some Wednesday Linkage

Time for the links on this Wednesday. Let’s check out what we have.

Marisa Guthrie of the Hollywood Reporter talks with NBC’s Bob Costas about the Olympics, Jerry Sandusky and being short. That’s right.

Daniel Kaplan from the Sports Business Journal writes that the NFL will not sign a telecommunications partner this season and will see how the Wi-Fi experience goes at five stadiums before deciding.

Owen Gibson of the London (UK) Guardian reports that BBC has scored the rights to the Olympics through 2020.

BBC Director-General Mark Thompson blogs about the Beeb keeping the UK rights to the Olympics.

I have the BBC press release on the new Olympics contract.

Jeff Labrecque of Entertainment Weekly says ESPNU will have its own late night entertainment/talk show premiering in late August.

Also from EW, Dan Snierson says disgraced former Cincinnati Reds star Pete Rose will get his own TLC reality show. The question is, who doesn’t have a TLC reality show?

Brian Moran at Broadcasting & Cable says World Team Tennis will get live national coverage this weekend on Tennis Channel and the Comcast SportsNet regional affiliates.

Toni Fitzgerald at Media Life writes that ratings for the Home Run Derby were up while the All-Star Game took a hit.

The SportsCasters speak with Sports Illustrated writer Jon Wertheim about Joe Posnanski’s book on Joe Paterno.

Ed Sherman at The Sherman Report wonders why SI passed on printing an excerpt of Posnanski’s book.

Ed notices that the promotional video for the Paterno book has been removed from YouTube.

Ed talks with an ESPN executive on the network now using its own cameras instead of relying on the BBC to cover the Open Championship.

Reinhardt Krause of Investor’s Business Daily look at how cable providers are finding ways to drive up sports rights fees.

The Tampa Bay Times’ Eric Deggans in the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center talks with Real Sports’ Frank Deford about his updated piece on marching band hazing at historically black colleges.

SportsGrid’s Eric Goldschein has video of Los Angeles Dodgers voice Vin Scully scolding the team for its failure to execute a rundown play.

Patrick Burns at Deadspin says the Joe Paterno story dominated ESPN’s news coverage last week.

Deadspin’s John Koblin notes that Sports Illustrated is beginning to use the photo sharing site, Instagram.

The London (UK) Mirror provides 100 bizarre facts about the Olympics.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner talks with ESPN’s Paul Azinger about the Open Championship.

Brandon Marcello of the Jackson (MS) Clarion-Ledger says the SEC Storied documentary series will produce a film on a former Mississippi State football coach.

Mel Bracht of The Oklahoman notes that with the Thunder’s Kevin Durant, USA basketball vs. Brazil on ESPN drew very well locally.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer wonders what exactly will the new TLC Pete Rose reality show be about?

John says a local internet service provider will add ESPN3 in August.

Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times looks at ESPN paying the Rose Bowl $80 million per year starting in 2015.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has a preview of tonight’s “The Franchise” episode on Showtime which will show the Marlins’ Giancarlo Stanton going under the knife.

Joe Flint of the Times has Comcast appealing to the government to butt out of its programming decisions i.e., Tennis Channel.

Sports Media Watch notes that TNT’s NASCAR season finale saw increased ratings.

SMW has some ratings news and notes.

Chinwe Nwadike at Chinwe’s Corner wonders why some in the media are angry at Fox’s Erin Andrews.

Emmett Jones at Sports Business Digest says the WWE has established a social media hub for investors.

Matt Yoder at Awful Announcing has a screengrab of the Longhorn Network taking one final shot at Texas A&M before it leaves the Big 12 for good.

Jason Boog at Galleycat says an NBC Sports producer has published a children’s book on the Olympics.

That will do it for today.

Ratings For NASCAR on TNT Up From 2011

According to Turner Sports, the ratings for TNT’s NASCAR Summer Series, a total of six races, averaged a 3.1 household rating. That’s up 3% from last year. Viewership averaged 5.1 million people which is even with 2011.

Here’s the press release from our friends at Turner.

Turner Sports’ Coverage of NASCAR Summer Series Averages 3.1 U.S. HH Rating, Up 3% vs. 2011

Turner Sports’ coverage of the NASCAR Summer Series averaged a 3.1 U.S. HH rating over the six-race schedule, an increase of three percent when compared with last year’s 2.9 U.S. HH rating. The corresponding average of 5.1 million total viewers is even with last year. For six consecutive weeks,TNT’s NASCAR coverage delivered the highest-rated and most-viewed program of the day on ad-supported cable.

Additional highlights:

• Wide Open coverage of the Daytona 400, combined with the first-ever simulcast on truTV, generated a 3.8 U.S. HH rating and 6.2 million total viewers to become the highest-rated and most-viewed Daytona 400 since 2008 (3.8 U.S. HH rating and 6.4 million total viewers).
• Turner Sports’ Daytona 400 telecast (Saturday, July 7) delivered the most-viewed program of the day across all television among households, total viewers and key demos including Adults 18-49, Adults 25-54, Men 18-49 and Men 25-54. TNT’s telecast of the race ranked as basic cable’s No. 1 program of the week among viewers and Adults 25-54.

Source: Nielsen Media Research, Star Trak. Based on live + Same Day data, for date of NASCAR on TNT coverage: 6/10/12 – 7/15/12 vs. 6/12/11 – 7/17/11.

That’s it.

Turner Sports Scores With TNT/truTV Daytona 400 Simulcast

On Saturday, both TNT and truTV aired the Coke Zero 400 from the Daytona International Speedway. The combined rating scored a 3.8 household U.S. rating and averaged almost 6.2 million viewers making it the most watched Daytona 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Race since 2008 which also generated a 3.8 rating, but more viewers. There’s no word on the split between TNT and truTV.

Last year’s race on TNT only saw a 3.4. Here’s Turner Sports’ press release on Saturday’s race.

THIS JUST IN…
…from Turner Sports

TNT’s signature Wide Open coverage of the Coke Zero 400, combined with the first-ever simulcast on truTV, generated a 3.8 U.S. household rating and 6,184,000 total viewers to become the highest-rated and most-viewed Daytona 400 since 2008 (3.8 U.S. HH rating and 6,390,000 total viewers), based on Nielsen Fast Nationals.

Saturday’s prime-time coverage (7:30-10:32 p.m. ET) is up 12 percent compared with last year’s 3.4 U.S. HH rating and three percent over the average of 6,029,000 total viewers in 2011. The race, won by Tony Stewart, generated the highest metered market ratings in Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville, S.C. (9.3 rating); Charlotte (9.2); Greensboro, N.C. (9.2); Indianapolis (8.6) and Birmingham, Ala. (7.4).

TNT’s coverage of the NASCAR Summer Series will conclude with the New Hampshire 301 from New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday, July 15, at 1 p.m. with Countdown to Green pre-race coverage at noon.

(Source: Nielsen Media Research, based on Live + Same Day data Fast Nationals. 2012 NASCAR Daytona 400 Simulcast on TNT + truTV gross audience compared to 2011 NASCAR Daytona 400 on TNT. Historical comparison for dates of the Daytona 400 on TNT.)

That’s all.

Let’s Do The Friday Megalinks

Time for Friday linkage.

The Weekend Viewing Picks have your sports and entertainment suggestions. Let’s get cracking.

National

Michael Hiestand from USA Today looks at TNT’s plans to go mostly split-screen during breaks for Saturday’s NASCAR race.

Tom Perrotta of the Wall Street Journal reports that the one Wimbledon souvenir the players want is the towel.

Alex Sherman at Bloomberg Businessweek talks with NBC Sports Chairman Mark Lazarus about the Olympics.

Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk says enhancing the NFL fan experience might bring more people to games.

Ed Sherman of The Sherman Report is happy to learn that Jeremy Schaap’s ESPN Radio show is now available as a podcast.

Bob Pockrass at The Sporting News says NASCAR hopes that NBC Sports will be a bidder for the sport’s TV rights.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says ESPN Deportes scored with the EURO 2012 Final last Sunday.

Mike says Golf Channel has selected the venue for the next season of “Big Break”.

Christopher Heine of Adweek says MLB’s allowing Twitter votes for the All-Star Game for the first time may have had a hand in deciding which league hosts the World Series.

Jason Del Ray of Advertising Age says the impending Turner Sports purchase of Bleacher Report makes sense.

Wayne Friedman at MediaPost says the NFL easing requirements on local TV blackouts shows the league wants to reach the casual fan.

Dan Daley at Sports Video Group says ESPN will be utilizing plenty of microphones at the MLB Home Run Derby.

Awful Announcing’s Matt Yoder has a screengrab of a Canadian TV station messing up the Steve Nash trade to the Lakers.

And Matt has found an episode of Judge Sapp. Yes, that’s Warren Sapp.

The Big Lead soaked up the latest Twitter battle between ESPN’s Darren Rovell and Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch.

MediaRantz looks at the top 5 ESPN plagiarism scandals.

Nick Bromberg of Yahoo’s From the Marbles blog wonders what is the big deal with the TNT/truTV simulcast of NASCAR’s Sprint Cup race on Saturday.

Joe Favorito likes how MLS has adopted “Food Week” to get fans to explore its markets’ restaurants.

East and Mid-Atlantic

At SB Nation Boston, Bruce Allen says it was time for Erin Andrews to leave the ESPN Mothership.

Jerry Barmsah of Fishbowl NY says CBS Radio’s WFAN could be headed to FM and could take the Yankees with it.

Yes, Phil Mushnick of the New York Post, we know you hate ESPN.

Justin Terranova of the Post has five questions for ESPN tennis analyst Brad Gilbert.

Ken McMillan from the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record says the MLB Extra Innings pay per view package will be free next week.

Don Laible of the Utica (NY) Observer-Dispatch talks with the NHL on NBC’s Dave Strader about calling Olympic basketball.

Ken says a local minor league baseball team has found a new radio home.

Dave Sottile of the Harrisburg (PA) Patriot-News says there are no plans to bring Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic to the local area.

Tim Richardson in Press Box looks at the differences between the Washington Nationals and MASN over the team’s TV rights fee.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner talks with MLB Network’s Chris Rose.

South

Kyle Veazey of the Memphis Commercial-Appeal says a popular local sports radio host is changing stations.

At the Houston Chronicle, David Barron writes that the new Comcast SportsNet Houston will air Conference USA football featuring the University of Houston.

Midwest

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says MLB feels it has restored integrity to the All-Star Game. It’s an exhibition game!

Paul M. Banks of the Chicago Sports Media Watch wonders who had the best mock NBA Draft?

Paul Christian at the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin says the new TV voice of the Minnesota Wild will have an exciting team to call this season.

Dan Caesar from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch talks about Erin Andrews making her Fox debut next week.

Dan writes that Blues analyst Darren Pang turned down a full-time offer from TSN and will remain in St. Louis.

West

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has this harsh takedown of Erin Andrews.

Here’s Tom’s column which has a little more on the last post.

Tom also links to reaction to his Erin Andrews column.

Matt Rudnitsky of SportsGrid replies point-by-point to Hoffarth.

John Maffei of the North County Times writes about Erin Andrews joining Fox.

Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star talks with Fox’s Joe Buck on the challenges of calling the MLB All-Star Game.

Jim has his Weekend Viewing Picks.

Matthew T. Hall at the San Diego Union-Tribune wonders where’s the fan outrage in the Fox Sports San Diego-Time Warner Cable dispute leaving Padres games off TV.

Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News tries to clear up some confusion over the Pac-12 Network.

And that will conclude our links for today.

The Thursday Linkage

So weird to have the 4th of July in the middle of the week. You get the holiday after two work days and then have two work days afterwards. Some of you have the entire week off which is good, but for me, there’s no such thing as a vacation. In fact, I haven’t had a vacation since August 2001. That’s true. Anyway, you don’t care about that. Let’s get to the links.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today lists which sports media personality has donated money to which politician.

Michael says ESPN NASCAR pit reporter Jamie Little will work her last race for a few months this weekend.

The BBC reports that a single yellow cable that will carry the Olympics from London to Europe was almost cut in Belgium.

Trefis Team at Forbes says ESPN contributes heavily to Disney’s stock price, but that could be reduced over time.

Keach Hagey of the Wall Street Journal looks at the new NBC Sports/Sports Illustrated partnership.

Mike Barnes of the Hollywood Reporter says former mustachioed Oakland Raiders defensive lineman turned pitchman Ben Davidson has died at the age of 72.

Mike Reynolds at Multichannel News writes that ESPN set a viewership record for the EURO 2012 final.

Bill Cromwell of Media Life reports that NBC is close to selling out its Olympic ad inventory.

The Associated Press says the ACC has signed a 12 year deal with the Orange Bowl.

Ed Sherman at The Sherman Report talks with Chris “Mad Dog” Russo about his two decade long partnership with WFAN’s Mike Francesa.

Joe Lucia at Awful Announcing writes that ESPN’s Chris Fowler gave John McEnroe a lesson about Twitter parody accounts at Wimbledon this week.

Joe tells us about reporter-on-reporter Twitter crime between ESPN’s Buster Olney and CBS’ Jon Heyman.

Melissa Jacobs at the Football Girl agrees with Erin Andrews’ assessment that sideline reporters are a necessity when used correctly.

Speaking of Erin, she speaks with Adam Silverstein of the Only Gators blog about moving to Fox.

Dave Nagle in ESPN’s Front Row public relations blog notes the network’s new broadcast position at Wimbledon.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times says Barclays’ recent troubles are trickling down to the Brooklyn Nets as they prepare to occupy their new home.

Claire Atkinson of the New York Post reports that The Whistle, a sports media company geared towards kids, will have a programming block on NBC Sports Network starting in September.

Dan Steinberg in the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog notes that DC NFL Team radio analyst Sam Huff will work a reduced schedule this season.

Mel Bracht at The Oklahoman says the U.S. Olympic Trials topped the local ratings this past weekend.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes that Annika Sorenstam joins the NBC golf team this weekend at the U.S. Women’s Open.

Paul M. Banks at Chicago Sports Media Watch urges the White Sox to calm down in asking people to do last-minute voting for the All-Star Game.

Scott D. Pierce of the Salt Lake Tribune says the Pac-12 Network will be a success in Utah knowing the failings of the mtn.

Bill Mooney of the Thoroughbred Times says Fox Sports Net will air the West Virginia Derby next month.

Media Rantz notes that the NBC President who was responsible for the “Heidi Game” and forever changed how sports was aired on TV has passed away.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog says CTV will bring back a few features for this year’s Olympics that were used in 2010 for Vancouver.

EPL Talk has a partial list of English Premier League games that will be aired in the States on ESPN2 and Fox Soccer.

Sports Media Watch says TNT took a ratings hit for last Saturday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race.

Emmett Jones at Sports Business Digest notes that the US Olympic Committee will pass on bidding for the 2022 Games dashing hopes for a couple of cities. It means the earliest an Olympics will be held in the United States will be 2024.

And those are the links that I could manage to squeeze out of the internet today.

Turner Sports Announces TNT/truTV Simulcast of Saturday’s Coke Zero 400 NASCAR Race

This from our friends at Turner Sports. This Saturday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Daytona, the Coke Zero 400 will have its annual “Wide Open” coverage. That means minimal commercials, double boxes showing race coverage in one box and ads in another.

truTV will simulcast TNT’s coverage and HLN’s Morning Express anchor Robin Meade will sing the national anthem prior to the start of the race.

Coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. ET with Countdown to Green. Then the race coverage kicks off an hour later.

Adam Alexander pulls double duty as race host and lap-by-lap announcer. Wally Dallenbach and Kyle Petty are race analysts. Petty and Larry McReynolds join Adam in the Countdown to Green show.

Here’s the Turner press release.

TNT Gears Up for Wide Open Coverage of Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway in Prime Time Saturday, July 7, at 7:30 p.m. ET

Special Presentation of Coke Zero 400 Across Turner Platforms Includes First-Ever Simulcast on truTV
HLN’s Robin Meade to Sing National Anthem and Interview Troops from Daytona

TNT’s signature Wide Open television format will return for the sixth consecutive year during the network’s exclusive coverage of the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona on Saturday, July 7, at 7:30 p.m. ET. In addition to the TNT telecast, the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona – traditionally the network’s highest-rated race from the NASCAR Summer Series – will also be simulcast for the first time ever on truTV. Wide Open coverage debuted during the summer race at Daytona International Speedway in 2007, providing continuous race coverage free of national commercial breaks. It offers more than 20 percent unobstructed race action than the standard telecast by using a letterbox widescreen format to allow for a continuous scroll of race information. National sponsors featured in this year’s telecast include: AndroGel, Coke Zero, Dodge Ram, Geico, Goodyear, Sprint, Toyota, Twitter and Viagra.

HLN’s Robin Meade will be on site to sing the national anthem and to conduct interviews with troops attending the race. HLN’s Morning Express with Robin Meade (weekdays 6 a.m.-noon) features a regular “Salute to Troops” segment on the show, and will incorporate those interviews during the week following the race. In a further commitment to honoring our nation’s service men and women, HLN will televise a Fourth of July special – Stories of Courage Hosted by Robin Meade, inspirational stories and profiles of military heroes, at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.

“TNT’s Wide Open coverage, truTV’s simulcast and the integration with HLN allows us to increase NASCAR’s presence across the Turner portfolio and pay tribute to troops in a meaningful way,” said Christina Miller, Turner Sports’ senior vice president, strategy, programming and marketing. “There could not be a more fitting time than Daytona, the biggest race of the summer, and the Fourth of July holiday.”

Coverage from Daytona will begin with the Countdown to Green pre-race show – hosted by Adam Alexander with analysts Larry McReynolds and Kyle Petty – at 6:30 p.m. Alexander will also provide play-by-play for the race with analysts Petty and Wally Dallenbach and reporters Ralph Sheheen, Marty Snider, Matt Yocum and Chris Neville. Additionally, McReynolds will make frequent contributions during the race from his customized, unique broadcast unit that will house his own studio, as well as his base location where he’ll provide analysis using a cut-away display car.

Additional Coke Zero 400 highlights:

• NASCAR will celebrate the culmination of ‘NASCAR Unites – An American Salute,’ during the Coke Zero 400. The industry will unite in saluting military members and their families at-track including a pre-race special salute to Congressional Medal of Honor Recipients Michael Fitzmaurice, Specialist Fourth Class, U.S. Army; Jack Jacobs, Captain, U.S. Army; Robert Patterson, Staff Sergeant, U.S. Army; and James Taylor, Captain, U.S. Army. NASCAR drivers also will be doing their part on-track, with various NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers adorning ‘An American Salute’ paint scheme on their race cars.
• TNT’s Countdown to Green pre-race show will includea musical performance by Train singing their new song“50 Ways to Say Goodbye.”
• TNT’s Countdown to Green will also include a special guest appearance by NASCAR driver Tony Stewart.
• Countdown to Green will continue its weekly feature segment titled “NASCAR Generations” -– with Jimmie Johnson, Ned Jarrett and Bill Elliott, along with TNT analysts Petty and McReynolds – including a discussion about legendary moments at Daytona.

A few comments which will be part of Saturday’s “NASCAR Generations” segment about Daytona:

Bill Elliott on his fondest memory of Daytona: “I still say the most impressive thing that I have ever done – that impressed me – was running 210 [mph] at Daytona in that era [1980s].”

Kyle Petty on racing at Daytona: “When you would go to qualify [at Daytona], you weren’t sure you were gonna come back during that period of time…That was an amazing thing that day, when you busted that [Elliott’s 210 mph].”

Jimmie Johnson on what his mentality is like when he drives at Daytona: “It’s such a weird mind game to win a plate race in today’s era of racing because you can’t do it by yourself. You know the best car doesn’t win. It’s who’s willing to work with each other the most.”

Bill Elliott on Tony Stewart’s comment last year about racing at Daytona: “The most classic line I’ve ever heard was Tony [Stewart] last year. He said, ‘This is a high-speed chess game, and I ain’t even smart enough to play checkers.’”

Ned Jarrett on his fondest memory of Daytona – 1993 when he son Dale won the Daytona 500: “Well, that one probably tops them all. Even anything that I did on the racetrack or any experience that I had, let’s say, in racing…that 1993 Daytona 500 was it. Because it was the first time that anyone knew of that a dad was in the booth broadcasting and his son [was winning] a major event.”

TNT’s RaceBuddy on NASCAR.COM will once again provide live companion coverage from Daytona with eight different camera views and an option of two mosaic screens. Camera angles include four In-Car Driver Cams, two Battle Cams highlighting head-to-head competition between drivers, a Backstretch Cam and a Pit Road Cam.  Fans can view up to four angles at once through each mosaic option. Features also include the DVR Function, an Enhanced LIVE Leaderboard and RaceView’s position tracker. Fans can connect throughout the race on Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo! Messenger and MySpace for a seamlessly-integrated social media experience.

TNT’s NASCAR Summer Series will conclude with the New Hampshire 301 from New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday, July 15, at 1 p.m. with Countdown to Green pre-race coverage at noon.

That’s all.

It’s A Friday Megalink Day

And can you believe I’ve been able to do linkage for most of the week? Hasn’t been like that in a long while. Glad I’ve been able to get it done.

Time for your Friday megalinks. As usual, we provide the Weekend Viewing Picks which has plenty of MLB and U.S. Olympic Trials action.

Let’s go to the links.

National

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand looks at ESPN extending its current deal with the Rose Bowl.

Michael looks at Erin Andrews’ departure from ESPN.

Sports Business Journal has a sampling of what some sports business and sports media figures addressed to the graduating Class of 2012 at the nation’s colleges and universities.

At the Sherman Report, Ed Sherman explores the strange dispute between the Arizona Diamondbacks and TV voice Daron Sutton.

Ed also notes some media bashing of Chris Berman a few months in advance of his Monday Night Football debut.

Stuart Kemp of the Hollywood Reporter writes that the BBC has launched a new Facebook app to allow UK users to watch the Olympics online.

John Eggerton from Broadcasting & Cable says the Supreme Court has let stand a lower court ruling throwing out the FCC fine against CBS for the infamous Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction during the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show. Man, that was a long time ago.

Tim Baysinger of B&C says NASCAR Digital Media has hired five executives in advance of the sport’s takeover of its digital rights from Turner Sports next year.

Jason Dachman of Sports Video Group notes ESPN’s X Games production evolution.

The Nielsen Wire blog ponders the question of whether NBA Draft picks can do well in marketing products.

Deadline reports that ESPN’s ratings for the EURO 2012 semifinals this week are way up from EURO 2008.

One more week of writing, “CNBC’s Darren Rovell”. Today, CNBC’s Darren Rovell writes that with less than a month to go until the Olympics, a major ticket dispute has erupted.

Joe Favorito notes how Delta Airlines’ sponsorship of English Premier League team Chelsea shows that the company wants to go outside of the US to gain awareness.

Sports Media Watch has a look at some of NBC’s Olympic assignments for London.

The Big Lead notes that ESPN and Bill Simmons removed a potential offensive part of his NBA Draft diary that is way too long for anyone to read.

Ryan Yoder of Awful Announcing has the winners and losers from Thursday’s night’s NBA Draft coverage on ESPN.

East and Mid-Atlantic

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe writes about a documentary on an Olympic hopeful who is attempting to gain a spot on the US women’s gymnastics team.

Bill Doyle of the Worcester Telegram and Gazette talks with the Voice of the Worcester Tornadoes minor league baseball team.

Jerry Barmash at Fishbowl NY talks with WFAN’s Mike Francesa on whether he’ll return to the station when his contract expires in two years.

Phil Mushnick in the New York Post is not happy about Chris Berman calling Monday Night Football.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette notes that local sports anchor Andrew Catalon gets another Olympics assignment.

Pete Dougherty at the Albany Times Union notes that the NBA Draft’s ratings on ESPN were down from the year before.

Pete looks at 25 years of WFAN.

Ken McMillan from the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record analyzes the NBC Olympic assignments.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call talks about the later start time for the NFL national Sunday afternoon game.

Keith has some fun facts about WFAN’s 25th anniversary.

Jonathan Tannenwald of Philly.com says Philadelphia Union voice JP Dellacamera will be calling Olympic soccer games for NBC.

DCRTV’s Dave Hughes in Press Box says the Baltimore Orioles’ ratings on MASN are up.

Dan Steinberg from the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog has the Nationals’ radio ratings.

Jim Williams at the Washington Examiner speaks with NBC’s Phil Liggett about the Tour de France which kicks off this weekend.

South

Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald culls media opinions regarding the Heat’s chances to repeat.

Jimmie E. Gates of the Jackson (MS) Clarion Ledger says a lawsuit against ESPN over a 30 for 30 documentary can proceed in state court.

David Barron from the Houston Chronicle says the Rockets are changing radio stations.

David writes the person who helped launch Houston’s original regional sports network will be part of the team that launches the city’s newest RSN.

Mel Bracht in The Oklahoman says a local sports radio network will be slightly affiliated with the new CBS Sports Radio.

More links later.

UPDATE, 9:20 p.m.: Time for more linkage.

Midwest

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Bob Wolfley says Fox has replaced Daron Sutton from this Saturday’s Arizona-Brewers game.

Robert Channick of the Chicago Tribune says WMAQ sports anchor Mike Adamle who’s been on leave from the station is expected to return soon.

Paul Christian in the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin goes over the NFL Network’s Top 100 Players of 2012 series.

West

John Maffei of the North County Times talks with TBS’ Cal Ripken about the MLB All-Star Game.

Jim Carlisle in the Ventura County Star rails against the current format of the All-Star Game.

Jim reviews some of this week’s sports media news in his notebook.

Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times says the NFL has laid down guidelines for the league to return to the nation’s second biggest market.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News isn’t thrilled about NBC pulling tape delayed shenanigans for the U.S. Olympic Trials.

Tom has more notes in his blog.

And we are finally done.