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Late Monday Night Links

As promised earlier today, I’m giving you more links. I was out earlier today and I’ll be out again tomorrow so it’s going to be a bit crazy for me. So let’s get to the linkage right now.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch looks at the media circus that was the Tim Tebow press conference at the New York Jets practice facility on Monday.

Speaking of Richard, he and CNBC’s Darren Rovell were locked in Round 2 of their Twitter feud. This was fun while it lasted as Matt Yoder of Awful Announcing recaps.

Matt notes that Al Trautwig of MSG Network had a slip of the tongue.

And Matt is gleeful that ESPN’s Jonathan Coachman also had a similar slip.

Christina Settimi of Forbes looks at baseball’s biggest local cable TV rights deals.

George Winslow of Broadcasting & Cable says ESPN has promoted an executive to handle its international digital media efforts.

Sam Laird of Mashable notes that the Boston Bruins have launched their own social media portal, believed to the first in pro sports.

Todd Cunningham at The Wrap says with Tiger Woods win this past weekend, CBS now looks forward to having masterful ratings for The Masters^® in two weeks.

Dale Buss of Brand Channel writes that Jockey brand underwear welcomed Tim Tebow to New York as only it could.

Kevin Kaduk of Yahoo’s Big League Stew has one of the funniest on-screen graphics pulled by Fox Sports Midwest during a St. Louis Cardinals exhibition game.

Jesse Sawyer of the Avon (CT) Patch says ESPN’s Kenny Mayne has sold his Connecticut home over half a year after he moved his family to Washington State.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post hates everybody.

Breaking the Bob Raissman ban to note that the New York Daily News curmudgeon feels Tim Tebow is already a pro at handling the Big Apple media circus.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union notes that the ratings for the NCAA Tournament this past weekend took a huge hit thanks to Tiger Woods.

Greg Connors of the Buffalo News writes about ESPN’s three month-long initiative to celebrate Title IX.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call talks about the departure of local native Meredith Marakovits for the bright lights of New York.

Dan Steinberg at the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog tells us that he’s going to have a partner on the blog.

And Sarah Kogod introduces herself to DC Sports Bog readers in her first post.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner talks with Tennis Channel’s Mary Carillo.

Tom Jones from the Tampa Bay Times reviews the weekend in sports television.

Mel Bracht of The Oklahoman notes that the Oklahoma City Thunder set a new ratings record.

John Kiesewetter at the Cincinnati Enquirer says a nationally syndicated radio morning show will be in town for Reds Opening Day.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says Wisconsin-Syracuse in the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 did well in the local ratings.

Scott D. Pierce at the Salt Lake Tribune says BYU basketball coach Dave Rose has a future in TV if he so chooses.

Joe Flint of the Los Angeles Times says an investment bank helped to broker the Pac-12 media rights contract with ESPN and Fox plus other huge sports and entertainment megadeals.

Joe reports that DirecTV and Tribune are in a dispute over the company’s TV stations and this could include WGN America which carries a bunch of sports programming.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail has yet another amazingly uninformed column not realizing that CBS and Turner share the NCAA Tournament and CBS no longer regionalizes games. Many Canadian college basketball fans are aware of this, yet Bruce is not.

Sports Media Watch looks at the lower ratings generated by the NCAA Tournament over the weekend.

SMW has the viewership for the first primetime effort by ESPN2′s First Take.

To Macgasm where we learn that ESPN is teaming with Apple to make sports scores available on the Siri voice platform on the iPhone 4S.

Joe Favorito asks does UFC really needs New York to be successful?

Jim Connelly at USCHO.com wonders if ESPN is doing more to hurt the NCAA Men’s Hockey Tournament than help promote it.

Maury Brown at the Biz of Baseball wonders when MLB Network will hit Canada.

And we’ll end it there. Good night.

Tennis Channel To Rank 100 Greatest Players of All-Time

Coming up in March, Tennis Channel will air a five part series counting down the 100 Greatest Player in the sport of all-time. The weeklong special titled “100 Greatest of all Time” will air from March 19-23 and will span from the sport’s beginnings all the way through today. You would have to think Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Rod Laver, John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg, Steff Graf, Ken Rosewall, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal would be on the list somewhere along with other greats like Bill Tilden, Althea Gibson, Venus and Serena Williams and so many others.

Tennis Channel says a panel of journalists, players, coaches, historians and “industry representatives” chose the 100 Greatest.

We have details from Tennis Channel below.

TENNIS CHANNEL TO COUNT DOWN HISTORY’S TOP 100 PLAYERS MARCH 19-23

Special Series, 100 Greatest of all Time, will Unfold Across Five Nights, Reveal Best Tennis Player Ever

That is it.

Wringing Out Some Friday Megalinks

Let’s do your media megalinks since last week you did not get any.

Hard to believe that college baseball, college lacrosse and NASCAR seasons are starting up, but they are and they’re included in the Weekend Viewing Picks along with the regular Golf, NBA, NHL, Skiing, Soccer, Tennis and Entertainment recommendations.

To your links now.

National

Michael Hiestand of USA Today says Jeremy Lin will make his nationwide broadcast network debut this weekend.

Tim Baysinger from Broadcasting & Cable notes that Floyd Mayweather’s next pay per view fight has been set by HBO for the spring.

Mike Reynolds at Multichannel News writes that Jeremy Lin continues to drive the MSG Network ratings engine.

Mike Shields of Adweek looks at CBS/Turner Sports’ plans to charge to view the NCAA Tournament online.

Ted Johnson of Variety talks with Ken Solomon of Tennis Channel on his ongoing battle to get a better footing with Comcast.

Michael Bradley at the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center says the Jeremy Lin media coverage is over the top.

Sports Media Watch notes the increased viewership for the NHL on NBC Sports Network.

SMW says Pardon the Interruption’s Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon have lent their voices to a Disney XD cartoon series.

Andy Hall at ESPN Front Row PR blog celebrates the 5th anniversary of NASCAR’s return to the network.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell speaks with Jeremy Lin’s agent.

Andrew Bucholtz writing his first article for Awful Announcing looks at the reaction to Jeremy Lin in Canada.

Mat Yoder at AA says the ratings for last weekend’s Pebble Beach National Pro-Am show fans are still interested in Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson.

Joe Favorito explores the steady growth of college lacrosse.

Mark J. Miller of Brandchannel says NASCAR fans don’t like it when drivers juggle sponsor logos throughout the Sprint Cup season.

The Big Lead has ESPN’s Erin Andrews out and about during New York’s Fashion Week.

Chris Chase at Yahoo’s Shutdown Corner notes that ESPN has been coaching Jon Gruden to use his words judiciously.

Harrison Mooney of Yahoo’s Puck Daddy says Jeremy Lin’s drawing power might indirectly benefit the New York Rangers, Islanders, Buffalo Sabres and New Jersey Devils which have been missing from Time Warner Cable systems in addition to the Knicks.

David B. Wilkerson at MarketWatch wonders if the MSG/Time Warner Cable feud will eventually push sports into a premium tier.

East and Mid-Atlantic

The Boston Globe’s Chad Finn gets some advice for new NESN Red Sox field reporter Jenny Dell from MSG’s Tina Cervasio.

At SB Nation Boston, Bruce Allen of Boston Sports Media Watch pays tribute to Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan who announced he’s retiring after the London Olympics.

Surviving Grady has a podcast with Jen Royle.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times looks at the new charge for viewing the NCAA Tournament online.

Richard writes about the increased ratings for Knicks games since Jeremy Lin arrived on the scene.

Phil Mushnick at the New York Post is in rare form today even for him.

Brett Cyrgalis of the Post has five questions for CBS college basketball analyst Bill Raftery.

The Post’s David Seifman reports that the New York City Council is pressuring MSG Network and Time Warner Cable to work out a deal.

Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News writes that ESPN bumped tonight’s Hornets-Knicks game not realizing it would be another opportunity to showcase Jeremy Lin.

Jerry Barmash from Fishbowl NY has reaction from various NYC sports anchors to the death of former Mets catcher Gary Carter.

Mike Silva at the Sports Media Watchdog feels hockey coverage in New York is woefully inadequate.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union writes that a local sports TV reporter received a New York Emmy nomination.

Pete lists his top studio analysts.

DCRTV’s Dave Hughes has the latest in Baltimore-Washington DC sports media news in Press Box.

Dan Steinberg at the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog has a clip of Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon as cartoon characters.

Jim Williams at the Washington Examiner says talks with sports business writer Evan Weiner about the NFL’s antiquated blackout rules.

South

Barry Jackson at the Miami Herald has some thoughts on Shaquille O’Neal’s rookie season at TNT and ESPN’s decision to remove Ron Jaworski from Monday Night Football.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle says the Astros plan to bring in former players to their radio booth to celebrate the team’s 50th season.

Mel Bracht at the Daily Oklahoman notes the first network appearance of Jeremy Lin is this Sunday.

Midwest

The Detroit Free Press notes that all of the Tigers games will be on TV this season.

Bob Wolfey of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says Dick Enberg told a captive audience at Marquette University about the art of the pause and when to use it in broadcasting.

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

To the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin where Paul Christian writes that Fox Sports North will be all over the Minnesota Twins this season.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says the Cardinals have mostly put the kybosh on late afternoon games at Busch Stadium this season.

Dan says a local sports radio host is recovering after undergoing heart bypass surgery.

West

Jay Posner at the San Diego Union-Tribune writes that the new Fox Sports San Diego is set to launch next month.

Jay writes the San Diego Padres stand to double their rights fees from Fox as compared to Cox a year ago.

John Maffei at the North County Times says the official announcement between Fox Sports San Diego carrying the Padres is due any time now.

At the Ventura County Star, Jim Carlisle says NBC and the NHL have become very good partners.

Jim feels ESPN should not have jettisoned Ron Jaworski from Monday Night Football.

Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times notes that ESPN college football analyst Ed Cunningham is up for a Best Documentary Oscar.

Bill Shakin of the Times says Frank McCourt’s legal problems are holding up Fox’s announcement with the Padres.

Tom Hoffarth from the Los Angeles Daily News recaps a lecture from three noted network broadcasters discussing TV coverage of the Olympics.

And that’s going to conclude the megalinks for today.

Our Mid-Week Linkage

Time for some sports media links for today. Let’s get to them without further delay.

Let’s start with USA Today and Michael Hiestand who looks at the record online numbers for the first live legal stream of the Super Bowl.

Chris Burke of Sports Illustrated lists the best and worst NFL announcing teams.

Over to Mike Farrell of Multichannel News who writes that the MSG Network/Time Warner Cable dispute could last a long time and there’s no end in sight.

Eriq Gardner of the Hollywood Reporter says a magistrate judge has blocked an attempt by several former athletes wanting access to NCAA TV contracts in a dispute over EA Sports using their likenesses for video games.

Lacy Rose of the Reporter writes that actor/director Clint Eastwood is spearheading the launch of a new golf TV network.

John Eggerton of Broadcasting & Cable reports that the FCC has refused to reverse a decision against Comcast requiring it to carry Tennis Channel.

Tim Baysinger of B&C notes that Animal Planet’s annual Puppy Bowl received a lower viewership than last year.

Adweek has all of your Super Bowl ads in 2 minutes.

Andrew Gauthier of TVSpy says an Old Milwaukee Beer spot with Will Ferrell that ran on Super Bowl Sunday in the 2nd smallest market of the country, is getting some of the biggest buzz this week.

Erin Gloria Ryan at Jezebel notes that ESPN had a section for commentors to complain about female announcers. ESPN has taken it down and issued a statement.

Jason Dachman of Sports Video Group says NBC missed obscuring the now-infamous M.I.A. middle finger in the Madonna Super Bowl halftime show by less than on second.

Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk says USA Network will air an inspirational NFL Films documentary on Friday.

TVNews Check has WCBS-TV claiming an NYC ratings victory for its coverage of Tuesday’s New York Giants Super Bowl parade.

Jerry Barmash at Fishbowl NY says WNBC-TV won the New York ratings for last week thanks to the Giants playing in Super Bowl XLVI.

Laura Nachman says the Philadelphia 76ers’ ratings on Comcast SportsNet are way up over last year.

David Barron from the Houston Chronicle notes that Doritos and M&M’s were TiVO’s most watched Super Bowl ads for this year.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman writes about NBC’s ratings for Super Bowl XLVI.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer says a Great American Ballpark scoreboard operator will represent the Reds in MLB Network’s Baseball IQ game show.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers pleased with his guest analyst stint on NBC Sunday.

Robert Feder from Time Out Chicago notes a local sportscaster who has a side gig with a podcast on science fiction and pop culture.

To Crain’s Chicago Business and Ed Sherman who says this year’s Super Bowl ratings in the Windy City were down significantly from last year.

Brent Schrotenboer of the San Diego Union-Tribune says a local sports radio talk show host was fired after calling a women’s college basketball analyst for the mtn. not just one but several derogatory terms.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News reports that Hall of Fame Dodgers voice Vin Scully won’t be calling Spring Training games until the team returns from Arizona.

Michael Passanisi of Fenway West is not a fan of the Boston Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy. Not many of us are.

Sports Media Watch has some ratings news and notes here and here.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog compares NFL to CFL ratings in the Great White North.

Mike Silva in Sports Media Watchdog looks at Mad Dog Radio’s Dino Costa ranting about teams removing media credentials.

Matt Yoder at Awful Announcing has video of MSG Network host Al Trautwig pounding the table after the New York Rangers lost to the New Jersey Devils after a no goal call on Tuesday.

And Tim Ryan has a photo of NBA Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar posing with the dainty Zooey Deschanel? It’s not sports media, but I’ll take any excuse to post a link to a Zooey Deschanel pic.

Ok, we’re done. Enjoy your Wednesday and the college basketball games tonight.

Tennis Channel Airs US vs. Belarus Federation Cup

This weekend in Worcester, MA, it will be the first round of the Federation Cup, the women’s tennis team competition. The USA team will be stocked with Venus & Serena Williams, up-and-comer Christina McHale and Liezel Huber. Belarus has Anastasia Yakimova, Darya Kustova, Olga Govortsova and Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka.

Tennis Channel will air all of the matches live from the arena formerly known as the Worcester Centrum starting Saturday at 2 p.m. Sunday’s action will begin at noon.

Not sure if Tennis Channel will pull a cheapo and have its announcing crew in Los Angeles calling the matches off a monitor. We’ll see.

Here’s the press release.

SERENA WILLIAMS LEADS U.S. TEAM IN FIGHT FOR FED CUP SPOT THIS WEEKEND ON TENNIS CHANNEL

Sisters Serena and Venus Williams, Christina McHale and Liezel Huber Battle Belarus and Australian Open Champion Victoria Azarenka to Compete for 2013 Cup

That will do it.

Some Mid-Week Sports Media Thoughts

Time to do some original content here. The thoughts come to you in bullet form as always.

• As the Super Bowl fast approaches, we hear from those who know more than your humble blogger that Sunday’s Big Game could set a viewing record. Super Bowl XLV on Fox between Green Bay and Pittsburgh set the standard with an average of 111 million viewers. I do expect we’ll see an average of 115 million for Pats-Giants with a total viewership reaching 170 million. I’ll also predict a rating of 47.5 with a 70 share. Based on last year’s numbers, my prediction would be on track. Patriots owner Robert Kraft feels Super Bowl XLVI will be the most watched program of all-time and I agree with him.
• I wish ESPN would cover every event like it does tennis. The announcing from Chris Fowler, Cliff Drysdale, Patrick McEnroe, Darren Cahill, Chris Evert, Mary Jo Fernandez, Pam Shriver, Brad Gilbert to host Chris McKendry was stellar throughout the Australian Open. I have not been enamored with Fowler’s play-by-play in the past, but I thought he was very good especially in calling the men’s semifinals of Rafael Nadal-Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic-Andy Murray and extremely good for the epic Rafa-Djoker final.The men’s final had so many ups and downs and so many shifts of momentum. Fowler and McEnroe were on top of potential shifts and correctly first guessed many points. ESPN2 was on top of the play on Sunday And Tennis Channel was very good as well. It’s too bad that neither ESPN2 or Tennis Channel could pick up John McEnroe for the Aussie Open. He will be on the French Open for Tennis Channel and NBC.

  However, ESPN2′s efforts appear not to be rewarded as the ratings were off from last year. I’ll have more on that later today.

• And one more item from the weekend, I thought the HBO/NFL Films documentary on Joe Namath was fantastic. As with past HBO efforts, it did not sugarcoat Namath’s life and career. It delved into his partying lifestyle during his heyday with the New York Jets in the 1960′s during the height of the Sexual Revolution. In addition, it did not whitewash his alcoholism nor his most infamous moment in 2003 when he was drunk during a live interview with Suzy Kolber on ESPN. The film made great lengths to show that while Namath loved the bright lights of Broadway, he still had his home of Beaver Falls, PA deep in his soul. From the rarely seen footage of his high school days, to his college career at Alabama and through to the AFL and NFL, “Namath” captured the essence of the man. Another solid documentary from HBO, definitely Emmy Award-worthy.
• Just 19 days until pitchers and catchers report. Can’t wait.

That does it for now. This should be another busy day for sports media.

And one quick self-serving note. This week’s edition of the Sports Media Podcast will have a record amount of guests. I’m not going jinx it by pre-promoting them, but suffice to say if everything holds true, you will love the Super Bowl edition of the podcast.

I’ll be back later in the day.

Some Early Monday Morning Sports Media Thoughts

Time for some sports media thoughts once again. I owe you some since I wasn’t able to do them after last Monday’s post. As always, they come in bullet form.

• Since I was out for most of the afternoon on Sunday, I missed the Pregame coverage and 3/4 of the AFC Championship Game, but I was able to see the entire 4th quarter and watched all of the NFC Championship. From what I saw of the AFC Championship Game, I thought CBS did a decent job, but there was a glaring omission in the last minute.

  First, by not having a rules analyst like Fox with Mike Pereira, CBS really didn’t delve into whether a ruled incompletion thrown by Joe Flacco to Lee Evans should have been reviewed or discussed whether it was an incompletion in the first place. As it was later explained later, it was ruled correctly, but not until after CBS went off the air.

  And CBS never tried to get an answer as to why Ravens place kicker Billy Cundiff ran onto the field late, influencing his missed game tying field goal attempt. Jim Nantz didn’t even mention Cundiff’s tardiness as it was happening. And the NFL Today postgame show didn’t discuss either issue.

  For the NFC Championship, Fox was on its game from the call of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, to key replays showing that 49ers punt returner Kyle Williams muffed fielding a kick when the ball glanced off his knee. Replays were very conclusive. I thought Fox had one of its best broadcasts of the season and it ended the 2011-12 NFL campaign by going out in top.

  CBS could have done a better job by servicing its viewers at the end of the game.

• Thanks to its third overtime in the last five NFC Championship Games, I expect Fox to get a huge viewership number, somewhere near 60 million viewers. I’m not kidding. If records were set for the NFL Wild Card and Divisional Playoffs, why not for Championship Sunday?

  And NBC has to love having the New England Patriots and the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLVI. With two teams with national followings, plus a rematch of Super Bowl XLII, I think another viewership record will be broken this year for the Big Game.

• Two changes on the national radio coverage of the NFL. First, Westwood One has been officially taken over by Dial Global. The two companies merged last year, but earlier this month, Westwood One was rebranded as Dial Global Sports.

  In addition, Dial Global’s broadcasts of the Conference Championship Games and the Super Bowl are no longer blacked out in the home markets. In Boston, Dial Global affiliate WEEI aired the AFC Championship opposite New England Patriots radio flagship WBZ-FM. And WEEI will air the Dial Global’s feed of the Super Bowl as well. So stations that carry Dial Global’s NFL schedule won’t have to stop with the Divisional Playoffs in case the team in their local market makes it to the Conference Championship and beyond.

• Being a tennis fan, I am loving the combined Tennis Channel/ESPN2 coverage of the Australian Open. I also love as a DirecTV subscriber having six channels to choose from, either the network coverage, or individual court channels showing commercial-free, uninterrupted action.

  A couple of complaints. ESPN2 could spend some more time showing live matches instead of constant talking from the set. I don’t mind postmatch interviews with players, but sometimes, ESPN2 falls into the trap of too much discussion while matches are underway.

  We are definitely missing Mary Carillo in Melbourne. For some reason, she chose to take this year’s Australian Open off and her presence has been missed. I do love having Tracy Austin on Tennis Channel this year and I hope she’ll be used during the French Open. And could John McEnroe be borrowed from Fox Sports Australia for ESPN2 or Tennis Channel? He’s been missed also.

That will do it. Enjoy your Monday.

Bringing Out Friday Megalinks

The last few Fridays, I haven’t been able to provide you with the megalinks. I have to do some today otherwise you’ll stop visiting me.

We begin as always with the Weekend Viewing Picks and there are quite a few for this snowy weekend in Southern New England.

Now to your links.

National

Michael Hiestand of USA Today talks with Fox Sports’ Terry Bradshaw about Tim Tebow and the upcoming NFC Championship.

Jason Fry, part of the ESPN Poynter Review Project hears sideline reporter Holly Rowe’s side of the story regarding about her now-infamous incident where she shoved a Sugar Bowl staffer away to get an interview with Michigan coach Brady Hoke.

Marisa Guthrie of the Hollywood Reporter looks at HBO’s new unscripted series on boxing trainer Freddie Roach.

The Tampa Bay Times’ Eric Deggans has a review of the Freddie Roach series in the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center.

John Eggerton at Broadcasting & Cable says Massachusetts Senator John Kerry has written a letter to the FCC asking the agency to get involved in the Sunbeam-DirecTV dispute which could affect how viewers in Boston see the Super Bowl.

John says Comcast is seeking a reversal of a Federal decision that ruled in favor of Tennis Channel in their dispute.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News says DirecTV has signed a rights deal to distribute Big Sky football and basketball games.

Anthony Crupi of Adweek says History Channel has purchased a longer ad to promote its series, “Swamp People” during Super Bowl XLVI.

Brian Steinberg from Advertising Age tells us who’s buying what in Super Bowl XLVI.

AdAge looks at the 12 ads that changed Super Bowl marketing forever. Three guesses on number one and the first two don’t count.

Brian says marketers are going longer with their Super Bowl ads this year in an attempt to stand out.

Finally, Brian writes that even though we’re not thinking about next year’s Super Bowl XLVII, CBS already is and has been working on getting an early start on ad sales for that Big Game.

Inside Radio says all of Cumulus’ Bay Area radio stations will simulcast Sunday’s NFC Championship Game.

From across the pond, Amy Lawrence of The Guardian in the UK says Fox airing an English Premier League game live over the air is a big deal.

Kevin Iole of Yahoo looks into NBC Sports Network’s first foray into boxing.

Dan Levy at the Bleacher Report wonders which network can muster enough former NFL talent to drum up a flag football game.

Mac Nwulu of ESPN’s Front Row PR blog has an inside look at the preparation of Sunday NFL Countdown.

Matt Yoder at Awful Announcing chronicles this week’s Twitter feud between Sports Illusrated’s Richard Deitsch and CNBC’s Darren Rovell.

Speaking of feuds, The Big Lead looks at an internal ESPN squabble between college basketball analyst Jay Bilas and insider Andy Katz.

Sports Media Watch notes that ESPN is making a major scheduling change for the WNBA this year.

SMW has a look at some local NBA and NHL ratings.

Tennis Channel laments not being picked up by Cablevision.

Ken Kerschbaumer of Sports Video Group takes a look at CBS’ and Fox’s preparation for the NFL Conference Championship Games.

Sports TV Jobs has an interesting graphic of sample camera positions at various stadia and arenas.

East and Mid-Atlantic

Chad Finn from the Boston Globe talks with a former Baltimore Raven who now works in Boston as a weekend sports talk show host.

Bill Doyle at the Worcester Telegram & Gazette interviews legendary Patriots radio voice Gil Santos.

Newsday’s Neil Best says local TV is gearing up for the NFC Championship.

Neil talks with former New York Giants running back and NBC analyst Tiki Barber who makes his return to TV this weekend.

George Vescey at the New York Times looks forward to seeing Sunday’s English Premier League game live on Fox.

The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick is not a fan of the NFL replay review process.

Justin Terranova of the Post has five questions for CBS Sports’ and WFAN’s Boomer Esiason.

The Albany Times Union’s Pete Dougherty has some NFL TV analysts break down the four quarterbacks still playing for a shot in the Super Bowl.

Ken McMillan from the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record has Fox’s Troy Aikman talking about the NFC Championship.

Ken has more from Troy in his blog.

Dave Hughes from DCRTV.com notes in Press Box that last week’s Texans-Ravens game set a local ratings record.

David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun attempts to get answers from CBS on having Subway endorser Ndamukong Suh on last week’s NFL Today postgame show.

And David has former Ravens QB and current ESPN analyst Trent Dilfer opining on Ed Reed’s comments on current QB Joe Flacco.

Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post says the Nationals are hoping to get more money from MASN as the sides negotiate a new contract.

Jim Williams from the Washington Examiner talks with the radio voice of the Wizards about his busy schedule.

South

Keith Jarrett at the Asheville (NC) Citizen-Times says the Big South may have to move its Conference Championship Game venue which could effect ESPN’s scheduling.

Jon Solomon of the Birmingham (AL) News says SEC partners CBS and ESPN want better scheduling for next football season.

Jerry Tipton of the Lexington (KY) Herald-Leader writes that the SEC’s basketball coaches aren’t happy over the scheduling-for-TV moves this season.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle says the Texans’ flagship radio station hopes to build on the team’s momentum when their new contract kicks in next season.

David has some news and notes that didn’t make his column.

Nancy Sarnoff of the Chronicle says NBC Sports Group is looking for a new facility to house the Comcast SportsNet Houston regional sports network which launches later this year.

Mel Bracht from the Daily Oklahoman notes that the Texas Rangers will have multiple appearances on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball.

Midwest

Michael Zuidema of the Grand Rapids (MI) Press says HBO continues its string of acclaimed sports documentaries.

Bob Wolfley from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says don’t expect NFL Conference Championship Sunday to change its format for the foreseeable future.

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

Patrick Reusse of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune feels Fox Sports North just cheerleads for Minnesota teams and won’t criticize them.

Paul Christian from the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin looks at Fox Sports North’s Hockey Day in Minnesota schedule.

Dan Caesar at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has CBS Sports President Sean McManus wanting to keep the status quo for NFL Conference Championship Sunday.

West

John Maffei of the North County Times looks at MLB Network’s first-ever game show which premieres next week.

Jim Carlisle from the Ventura County Star says CBS was hoping to get Tim Tebow for its NFL Today pregame show on Sunday, but he declined.

At the Los Angeles Daily News, Tom Hoffarth profiles Fox Sports West host Patrick O’Neal and has his list of best and worst local sports anchors.

Tom has a bit more on O’Neal.

Canada

Bob Weeks in the Toronto Globe and Mail notes that CBC has gotten out of the curling business, a sport it has televised since 1962.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Globe and Mail says the Raptors may be suffering on the court, but not on TV.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog looks at the International Olympic Committee throwing out CTV/CBC’s joint bid to air the 2014/2016 Games.

And that is it. Glad to be able to provide the Megalinkage for you.

Some Tuesday Links

Don’t have time to provide a full set of links today so I’ll give you what I’ve culled thus far. Some good stuff here.

Some stories from this week’s Sports Business Journal.

First, John Ourand reports that ESPN and MLB could butt heads over TV Everywhere streaming rights. ESPN has its model. MLB has its silly subscription model. We’ll see where it ends.

SBJ’s Liz Mullen talks with Fox NFL Sunday’s Michael Strahan about the transition from his playing career to a broadcasting career and goes inside his day on the Fox set during NFL season.

Liz chronicles the NFL Broadcast Boot Camp held every year to give players a taste of being in front of the camera.

And SBJ lists some of the current players and coaches who could make a go at broadcasting when they decide to leave the field.

One story that bears watching. Last week, the FCC opened a review on the antiquated NFL blackout rules and Todd Shields of Bloomberg has a story on it.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times wrote about the FCC blackout review as well.

Gary Holmes at MediaPost looks at how the NFL continues to be a ratings draw over a 40 year span.

Tennis Channel announced on its Facebook page that it’s back on Verizon Fios systems.

Mike Reynolds at Multichannel News has a story on the new Tennis Channel/Verizon agreement.

John Eggerton of Multichannel says Tennis Channel wants the FCC to force Comcast to adhere to an Administrative Law Judge ruling stating the cable provider has to offer the network to its subscribers as an equal to its own Golf Channel and NBC Sports Network.

Broadcasting & Cable’s Ben Grossman talks with NASCAR head honcho Brian France about the future of the sport on TV and how ESPN needs to improve its presentation.

Eriq Gardner of the Hollywood Reporter says a throwaway line from the Baltimore Ravens’ Terrell Suggs on Sunday Night Football back in November is now the subject of a nasty trademark dispute.

Dan Fogarty of SportsGrid has details on the budding feud between UFC’s Dana White and ESPN over a report on Outside the Lines that looked at fighter pay.

Timothy Burke’s Mocksession site has a funny error from ESPN promoting tonight’s Big Ten basketball game.

Nate Smeltz at ESPN’s Front Row PR blog provides an inside look at how a game becomes SportsCenter highlight.

Shirley Brady at Brandchannel previews some of the Super Bowl ads that will air during the Big Game.

Sports TV Jobs looks at the Ten Worst Moments in Sports TV history.

At Boston Sports Media Watch, former Comcast SportsNet New England anchor/reporter Jackie Pepper chronicles her rise from covering sports in a very small market to Boston, the 7th largest in the country.

Newsday’s Neil Best tweeted that Josh Lewin of the Lisping Lewins is a candidate to join the New York Mets radio booth.

Neil says WFAN’s Mike Francesa has a new name for his show.

Neil says Giants-Packers topped the ratings on Sunday.

Back to Richard Sandomir of the New York Times who looks at Fox Sports’ NFL Rules analyst Mike Pereira making a rare disagreement over a call during Sunday’s Giants-Packers game.

Pete Dougherty at the Albany Times Union notes a local sports reporter has been suspended for making an obscene gesture on the air.

David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun says it appears the Ravens set a viewing record for Sunday’s game against the Texans.

Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog says former Maryland basketball coach Gary Williams joins a local radio station as an analyst.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle says the Texans-Baltimore game set a local ratings record.

David says a local TV station made a tasteless report on the Detroit Pistons’ emergency landing on Monday.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel looks at the ratings for the Giants-Packers playoff game.

Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times says new TNT analyst Shaquille O’Neal is enjoying his new role on TV.

Rick Westhead of the Toronto Star says the International Olympic Committee has thrown out the joint bid by Bell Media/CBC for the 2014/2016 Games.

Mike Silva in his Sports Media Watchdog introduces Mets fans to Josh Lewin.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media notes that NBC got a decent rating for the NHL last Saturday.

That’s going to do it.

Tennis Channel’s Coverage of the 2012 Australian Open Begins Monday

For the first time in its history, Tennis Channel will have continuous coverage of the Australian Open beginning with the second day of the tournament, Monday, January 16 and lasting through the quarterfinals on January 25. Through its new agreement with ESPN2, Tennis Channel will have early evening coverage (late morning/early afternoon in Melbourne) beginning at 7 p.m. ET, usually lasting until 9 p.m. Tennis Channel will be allowed to stay through to the conclusion of the match that it’s showing before totally yielding to ESPN2.

Calling the matches will be called by Bill Macatee and Bret Haber. Justin Gimelstob and Martina Navratilova will be the analysts and joining Tennis Channel this year is Tracy Austin who had been with Australia’s 7 Network previously for the Aussie Open. Sports Illustrated’s Jon Wertheim will be the on-site reporter. All of Tennis Channel’s coverage will be produced by ESPN2.

And Australian Open Today will air live at 7 a.m. to wrap up the day’s event and be repeated at 3 p.m. ET.

Here’s Tennis Channel’s press release.

HALL OF FAMER TRACY AUSTIN JOINS TENNIS CHANNEL BROADCAST BOOTH DURING AUSTRALIAN OPEN

Network Analyst and Tennis Channel Academy Series Host to Join Martina Navratilova, Bill Macatee for Channel’s Fifth Year in Melbourne
Thirteen Days of Live Match Coverage Set for Two-Week Major, First of Four Slams

And that completes our Australian Open press releases.

Some Tuesday Morning Sports Media Thoughts

I haven’t written a sports media thoughts post in quite some time. I owe you one do let’s do this without further delay. As always, they come in bullet form.

• Last night’s BCS National Championship Game between Alabama and LSU was another dull affair, just like their first game in the regular season. ESPN did its best to step up for the game. Brent Musburger seemed to be in hype mode more than usual. Kirk Herbstreit was on his game as analyst. As Alabama’s defense was in lockdown mode, not allowing LSU past mid-field until midway of the 4th quarter, Brent and Kirk were quick to point out the differences in approach by coaches Nick Saban and Les Miles.Production of the game was also championship-worthy. Replays were sharp and close calls were resolved through ESPN showing the correct angles.However, ESPN overused last year’s BCS National Championship Game coaches, Gene Chizik of Auburn and Chip Kelly of Oregon. Both were dull and in need of personality transfusions. ESPN barely used their own analysts for College GameDay.Because the game was so dull, Musburger could not make a tie-in to sponsor Allstate as he did last year for Tostitos. He did overuse “Honey Badger.” What last night’s game did was to assist the skeptics’ screams for a college football playoff or at least a Plus One game. Overall, I give ESPN a B+ for the game.
• Still no word on whether NESN is any closer to a replacement for Heidi Watney as Red Sox field reporter. Of the candidates NESN has conducted interviews and those I’ve been able to confirm through several sources include Erin Hawksworth of Fox Seattle, Courtney Fallon of ABC6 in Providence, and Britt McHenry from WJLA-TV in Washington. I told you last month that Friend of Fang’s Bites Jen Royle was interviewed and is not believed to be a candidate at this time. If anything happens, I’ll certainly let you know.
• You have to believe that CBS is happy to be riding the Tim Tebow wave as it heads to Foxboro, MA this weekend as Denver takes on the New England Patriots in the NFL Divisional Playoff round. The only game during Wild Card Weekend to see massive gains over last year was Sunday’s Pittsburgh-Denver game, garnering an amazing 25.9/43 overnight number for CBS. This would mark the 5th straight week CBS and its number one team, Jim Nantz and Phil Simms will have called the Broncos and Tebow. No matter how you feel about Tebow, he draws ratings and makes people watch. I don’t expect Saturday night’s game to draw near the Wild Card ratings because Saturday is not a big TV night, however, if Denver-New England is close going down to the wire, expect big numbers.
• Here’s looking forward to ESPN2/Tennis Channel’s coverage of the Australian Open starting Sunday night. Coverage will begin every night at 7 p.m. ET. Finals will take place in the wee hours of the morning at 3:30 a.m. on the East Coast, but it will lead to some very good tennis. The 16 hour time difference between Melbourne and the US Eastern time zone means for some disjointed viewing, but it’s always fun to see the summer weather from the Southern Hemisphere. Here’s looking forward to hearing from Chris Fowler, Cliff Drysdale, Pam Shriver, Patrick McEnroe, Darren Cahill, Bill Macatee, Martina Navratilova and Justin Gimelstob for two weeks.

And that’s going to it for the thoughts this morning.

Tuesday Linkage

Let’s do some links for today. Lots of stories and lots of stuff going on. From the NFL announcing the online streaming of Super Bowl XLVI to some mind blowing revelations about reporters, this has been an amazing day. It will call for some sports media thoughts later tonight. First the links.

I’ll begin with a story that’s breaking now. Nancy Phillips of the Philadelphia Inquirer breaks the story about Baseball Hall of Fame writer Bill Conlin being accused of molesting four children in the 1970′s. For his part, Conlin denies the allegations and has resigned from his columnist position at the Philadelphia Daily News. Last month, Conlin wrote the following about the Jerry Sandusky scandal.

In what has to be a giant conflict of interest, we learn from TMZ and the Crossing Broad blog that Jay Gray of NBC News was arrested on DUI charges after leaving a party thrown by Sandusky attorney Joe Amendola who invited a bunch of reporters to his house to curry favors for interviews of his client down the line.

Timothy Burke at Deadspin notes the ESPN Monday Night Football debut of sideline reporter John Sutcliffe of ESPN Deportes. For such a big game, ESPN brought in someone who had not worked on the MNF package on the Mothership (he has been sideline reporter for Deportes) and it didn’t work.

Last night on Twitter, I said something about Sutcliffe that I should not have. It was wrong. You will not find that tweet now. I’ve deleted it. I apologize and it will not happen again.

Sam Mamudi of Marketwatch.com writes that ESPN’s ratings for Monday Night Football are down this season.

The Futon Critic notes that ESPN’s Monday Night Football won the ratings last night not just on cable, but across all networks.

Marisa Guthrie of the Hollywood Reporter writes about the NFL’s plan to stream Super Bowl XLVI online.

Georg Szalai of the Reporter talks with an industry analyst regarding the new NFL TV deals.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times also has a story on the Super Bowl going online for the first time.

Aaron Kuriloff of Bloomberg reports on the potential increase of the Thursday Night Football schedule on NFL Network as early as next season.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says the war of words between MSG Network and Time Warner Cable over their carriage talks is ratcheting up.

Mike says ESPN has ponied up $500 million to expand its deal with the NCAA.

John Eggerton of Multichannel writes that Tennis Channel has won a key FCC Administrative Law Judge ruling against Comcast.

Anthony Crupi of Adweek says ESPN’s ad sales for 33 college football bowls are red hot.

Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated has his NBA Broadcasting Guide for the upcoming season.

Dan Fogarty of SportsGrid talks about ESPN’s plans to overhaul its NBA pregame show.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell suspects Nike will raise prices to make up for lost revenue.

Elizabeth Kim of the Stamford (CT) Advocate goes in-depth on how NBC Sports decided to move to Connecticut.

Brian Stelter and Amy Chozick of the New York Times say you pay for sports on your cable bill whether you like it or not.

Newsday’s Neil Best reports that Fox has assigned Kenny Albert, Moose and Goose for the battle of New York this Saturday.

Laura Nachman says Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia aired CSN Mid-Atlantic’s coverage of the 76ers road game against the Washington Wizards last week.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman looks at the local weekend ratings.

John Kiesewetter from the Cincinnati Enquirer says the Bengals ratings on Sunday weren’t very good.

John says a local sports radio talk show host who left his regular gig earlier this month may have another one in line.

And I’ll end it there for now. I’ll try to bring some more linkage later.

A Few Sunday Morning Sports Media Thoughts

I’ll be away for most of the day as my Sunday has been planned behind my back once again. I’ll have the Sunday NFL pregame quotage later in the afternoon.

Let’s provide some sports media thoughts. As always, they’ll go in bullet form.

• In its first college football conference championship weekend, Fox Sports had a mixed bag. Not only was the Pac-12 Championship Game on Friday between UCLA and Oregon not a good game, Fox’s production was very choppy. While the announcing team of Gus Johnson, Charles Davis and Tim Brewster were fine, the audio for the Pac-12 was at times muffled and the crowd sometimes overpowered Davis’ analysis. Gus went into breaks rather awkwardly and there were times the replay didn’t show the proper angle. It wasn’t until the second half when the production hit its stride, but by that time, the game was already decided and most of the audience had probably tuned out.

  For the Big Ten Championship, the regular College Football on Fox production crew that had been working with Gus, Charles and Tim all season on FX was on hand in Indianapolis and this was a much better production. Replays were sharp, the picture was much better than in Eugene for the Pac-12.

  As for the other parts of the production, the college football studio needs improvement. Lots of improvement. Kevin Frazier is an awful host. He’s bad on Tennis Channel. He’s bad on Fox. He comes off unprepared. Marcus Allen is a very weak analyst. John Lynch did a decent job at the Pac-12 and Dhani Jones when he wasn’t trying to ask questions was ok at the Big Ten. Last year, Fox utilized Darrin Horton for its college football host and I don’t know it didn’t keep him for this season. Kevin Frazier must go.

  And I want to talk about why Tim Brewster starts off every question with “talk about.” It’s almost as annoying as when Paul McGuire started off every replay with “Ha ha! I’ll tell you what!” on ESPN’s Sunday Night Football. It’s obvious Tim Brewster wants to coach again because he’s not polished on TV.

  As for Gus Johnson and Charles Davis, they were on their “A” game for both the Pac-12 and Big Ten. They’ve formed one of the best announcing teams in college football. Gus was back in his realm in the national spotlight especially with a barnburner in the Big Ten. If Gus was auditioning for Joe Buck’s spot on the NFL on Fox, he passed with flying colors. While it’s great to have Gus in college football, he really belongs back on the NFL.

• If Tennis Channel wants to be taken seriously, it really should send announcing crews to the events rather than having them call matches off a monitor in its Los Angeles studios. For tournaments like the WTA World Tour Finals and this weekend’s Davis Cup Finals between Spain and Argentina, Tennis Channel has had Brett Haber, Ted Robinson and Leif Shiras call matches off a TV. You may not notice the difference, but when the satellite picture is lost, the announcers have to vamp and act like they’re there. Tennis Channel does send crews to the Grand Slam tournaments, but it should start treating other tournaments the same way as it does the Australian, French, US Opens and Wimbledon. In addition, the announcers are held hostage to the world feeds and cannot give us a sense for the atmosphere or giving us a sense of how the players look off camera. Tennis Channel needs to step up its game or it will continue to be treated as a bastard stepchild.
• The Big Lead is reporting that Sports Illustrated baseball writer Jon Heyman is leaving to take a job with CBSSports.com. That would be a huge get for CBS which has brought in Bruce Feldman from ESPN.com and a couple of other writers. I’m thinking this is part of a bigger picture upgrade for CBS and to possibly set up content for CBS Sports Network which currently is stuck in the ghosts of its previous brand, CBS College Sports. Maybe CBS decides to bid for baseball for CBS Sports Network. It would certainly help as the channel currently doesn’t have much summer programming besides from college sports repeats.
• ESPN is trying to sell us the BCS as a major event. While the ratings for the BCS National Championship Game have been good, until the college presidents decides on a way to decide on a legitimate postseason playoff system, we’re going to be stuck with the potential of an LSU-Alabama game every year. Not the two teams, but the way the final teams for the mythical college football national championships are chosen. The NCAA has over 60 championships including college football, but not in what is called the Football Bowl Subdivision or whatever they’ll name it in the future. As ESPN has so much invested in college sports, it may be up to the Alleged Worldwide Leader to throw some money around to help develop a way for a college football tournament to come to fruition. Until then, we’ll hear BCS Executive Director Bill Hancock give infuriating explanations as to why the BCS is good for college football.
• Nothing new to report on the continuing soap opera that is NESN’s search to replace Heidi Watney. Jen Royle of 105.7 FM in Baltimore was brought in for an interview last week. I heard it went well. Erin Hawksworth of the Fox affiliate in Seattle is also in the running. I believe it’s down to these two and as you know, I’m fully behind Jen in this. If you need any further convincing, let us remind you of Erin’s most famous moment from two months ago.

  I don’t think I need to add anything more.

Enjoy your Sunday

Tennis Channel Airs Fed Cup Final

The Federation Cup Final between Russia and the Czech Republic is this weekend, taking place in Moscow. Vera Zvonereva leads the Russian team against Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic.

Tennis Channel airs the matches Saturday and Sunday using the World Feed. Should be some interesting matchese.

The matches begin Saturday and will end on Sunday. Here are the particulars from Tennis Channel.

RUSSIA CHASES FIFTH FED CUP TITLE THIS WEEKEND ON TENNIS CHANNEL

Top-Ranked Russian Vera Zvonareva Leads Russia Against the Czech Republic and Reigning Wimbledon Champion Petra Kvitova

And that’s it.

Tennis Channel Renews Contract For WTA Events Through 2016

In the wake of ESPN’s recent renewal with the Women’s Tennis Association to put 11 tournaments a year on ESPN3.com, Tennis Channel has reached an agreement with the WTA through 2016. This also includes “TV Everywhere” rights meaning Tennis Channel will have the ability to stream its coverage on computers, mobile phones and tablets.

The press release is below.

TENNIS CHANNEL AND WOMEN’S TENNIS ASSOCIATION
EXTEND RIGHTS AGREEMENT THROUGH 2016

Network to Continue to Feature WTA Tennis for Next Five Years
Deal Includes More than a Dozen WTA Premier Events and Year-End Championships

LOS ANGELES and ST. PETERSBURG, FLA., Oct. 26, 2011 -Tennis Channel and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), the governing body of women’s professional tennis, have extended their programming agreement through 2016, ensuring the network’s place as the year-round home of such stars as Maria Sharapova, Kim Clijsters, and sisters Venus and Serena Williams. The six-year deal keeps at least a dozen Premier-level tournaments on the network each season, as well as the WTA’s year-end Championships, which will take place in Istanbul, Turkey for the period 2011-2013.

Tennis Channel has been the television home of WTA tennis since 2004. Under the new agreement, the network will continue to hold U.S. television rights to at least a dozen Premier-level tournaments from Australia and Asia to Europe and the Middle East. This is highlighted by its coverage of the women’s season-ending competition, the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships, which features the season’s top-eight singles players and top-four doubles teams battling for WTA’s year-end World No. 1 ranking. This year’s tournament takes place in Istanbul October 25-30. Tennis Channel will air every match of the six-day event.

“Tennis Channel has been a fantastic partner for the WTA,” said Stacey Allaster, CEO of the WTA. “The extensive coverage and promotion that they provide for our WTA events has been a key ingredient in the growth and popularity of women’s tennis in the United States.”

In total, the rights extension represents 170-to-190 live or first-run match hours per year on the network. Tennis Channel also gains “TV Everywhere” rights under the extension.

“Women’s tennis is uniquely valuable in the world of major professional sports, with star power, sponsorships, prize money, ratings and ticket sales that are the envy of so many others,” said Ken Solomon, chairman and CEO of Tennis Channel. “Stacey and the WTA have built the foremost brand in women’s sports today, and a critical component of our on-air schedule. Year-round women’s competition is one of the most important things that set Tennis Channel apart from any other network.”

The WTA’s Premier-level tournaments are the most significant events on the women’s tennis calendar. On top of at least a dozen weeks of these tournaments, Tennis Channel airs more than 30 other women’s tennis events, offering a regular, week-after-week schedule of women’s tennis throughout the year. These include the four majors: Wimbledon, US Open, French Open and Australian Open.

In addition to the year-end championships, the WTA Premiere tournaments that are part of the agreement and slated to air on Tennis Channel in 2012 are: Brisbane International (Brisbane, Australia) Medibank International (Sydney), Open GDF SUEZ (Paris), Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships (Dubai, United Arab Emirates), Qatar Ladies Open (Doha, Qatar), Porsche Tennis Grand Prix (Stuttgart, Germany), Internationali BNL d’Italia (Rome), Mutua Madrid Open (Madrid, Spain), Brussels Open (Brussels), AEGON Classic (Eastbourne, England), Toray Pan Pacific Open (Tokyo), China Open (Beijing) and Kremlin Cup (Moscow). Tennis Channel’s complete, year-round tournament schedule can be found online at www.tennischannel.com.

The WTA broadcast rights extension comes on the heels of recent long-term rights extensions Tennis Channel has made with the French Open (through 2022) and Wimbledon (through 2023).

That will do it.

Tennis Channel To Air WTA Championships

Starting next Tuesday, Tennis Channel will have extensive live and same day coverage of the year-ending event on the women’s tennis calendar, the WTA Championships. This year’s event takes place in Istanbul, Turkey after being in Doha, Qatar. Those expected to take part include Maria Sharapova, Caroline Wozniacki, Li Na and Samantha Stosur. Tennis Channel expects to carry 35 hours of coverage throughout the week and will carry much of the action live.

Calling the matches will be Leif Shiras and Ted Robinson from the Tennis Channel studios in Los Angeles. Doing the analysis will be Lindsay Davenport and Corina Moriariu. Renae Stubbs will be on-site in Turkey.

Tennis Channel will have the doubles final live next Sunday morning, October 30, but will carry the singles final on tape delay in primetime that evening. ESPN2 will have the singles final at 1 p.m. ET, also on tape delay.

We have Tennis Channel’s schedule and press release below.

TENNIS CHANNEL TO AIR WOMEN’S YEAR-END CHAMPIONSHIPS NEXT WEEK

Close to 35 Live Hours Planned During Six-Day
WTA Championships in Istanbul, Turkey
Daylong Coverage to Include all Singles and Doubles Matches
Between Season’s Top Points Earners; Prime-Time Encores for U.S. Audiences

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 20, 2011 – Tennis Channel will once again offer complete coverage at the women’s tennis season-ending championship competition, with close to 35 hours of live, week-long match play at the WTA Championships in Istanbul, Turkey, October 25-30. The network will follow six-and-a-half hours of live weekday telecasts with comprehensive encore coverage each evening in prime-time, for close to 80 hours of additional programming.

With the likes of singles stars Maria Sharapova and top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki along with American doubles players Liezel Huber, Lisa Raymond and Vania King, the prestigious year-end competition pits the world’s top-eight singles players and top-four double teams against each other, respectively, in the final tournament of the WTA season.

During weekdays, Tennis Channel’s live coverage will begin at 10 a.m. ET, with weekend coverage times varying (complete schedule follows). A similar schedule is on tap for the prime-time encore matches, which begin each weeknight at 8 p.m. ET. Veteran sportscaster Ted Robinson will share play-by-play duties with former player Leif Shiras, both of them long-time Tennis Channel on-air booth presences. Lindsay Davenport, who won the year-end singles title in 1999 and doubles crowns in 1996, 1997 and 1998, will split analyst time with Corina Morariu, who reached the No. 1 doubles ranking during her playing days. Rennae Stubbs, also a doubles star on the court, will handle on-site feature reporting for the network.

Each autumn for the last competition of the women’s professional season, the WTA separates its top-eight singles points earners into two groups of four for a round-robin tournament format. After three nights in which each woman plays the other three women in her group, the top two in each group advance to a traditional, single-elimination semifinal and championship stage. The system ensures fans of seeing the eight best players of 2011 play at least three matches during the week, all against the other top performers of the season.

Beyond Sharapova and Wozniacki, this year’s singles field will include Petra Kvitova, Victoria Azarenka, Li Na, Vera Zvonareva and U.S. Open winner Samantha Stosur, with the eighth and final spot waiting to be claimed this week.

The doubles championship is determined in a traditional single-elimination format, with the top-four teams qualifying for the event. In addition to U.S. players Huber, Raymond (teammates) and King (who pairs with Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova), the doubles brackets will include Kveta Peschke/Katarina Srebotnik and Gisela Dulko/Flavia Pennetta.

Tennis Channel’s Web site, www.tennischannel.com, offers additional WTA Championships information.

Tennis Channel’s 2011 WTA Championships Schedule

Date                            Time (ET)                   Event                         

Tuesday, Oct. 25           10 a.m.-4:30 p.m.          Round-Robin Action

Wednesday, Oct. 26      10 a.m.-4:30 p.m.          Round-Robin Action

Thursday, Oct. 27          10 a.m.-4:30 p.m.          Round-Robin Action

Friday, Oct. 28              10 a.m.-4:30 p.m.          Round-Robin Action

Saturday, Oct. 29          6 a.m.-7:30 a.m.            Doubles Semifinal

8 a.m.-1:30 p.m.            Singles Semifinals, Doubles Semifinal

Sunday, Oct. 30             8:30 a.m.-10 a.m.          Doubles Final

8 p.m.-10 p.m.               Singles Final

That’s it.

Tennis Channel To Continue With Wimbledon Primetime Through 2023

In the wake of its announcement of carrying the French Open until 2022, Tennis Channel announced this week a renewal of an agreement with the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet to continue airing “Wimbledon Primetime” through 2023. While ESPN2 has the rights to air live tennis starting next year, Tennis Channel has been airing BBC’s coverage of the matches through the semifinals throughout the fortnight.

The new agreement allows Tennis Channel to air its program all the way until the end. Bill Macatee has been the host and Martina Navratilova has been the analyst. They will continue their roles with the program for the foreseeable future.

We have the announcement from Tennis Channel.

WIMBLEDON PRIMETIME TO AIR ON TENNIS CHANNEL THROUGH 2023

Network to Expand Coverage from First Monday through Final Sunday During Prestigious Grass-Court Tournament

That’s going to do it.

Doing Some Tuesday Linkage

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SMW says Cards-Phils Game 1 was down.

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

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

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

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

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

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

That’s going to do it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And there you have it.

How To Fix The U.S. Open

Last year, I wrote a column for Dan Levy’s Press Coverage site on how to fix the U.S. Open as the tournament sits in yet another weather delay. I suggested that the United States Tennis Association move the U.S. Open back a week and end the tournament on Labor Day. It makes too much sense.

So for kicks and giggles, I bring back the column and post it here. In fact, I’ll continue to post it for as long as the USTA remains pigheaded and steadfast in its position of running the tournament into Week 1 of the NFL season.

This was published on Press Coverage on September 15, 2010 and not one word was changed.

Fixing the U.S. Open (Suggestions for CBS, ESPN & USTA)

Now that another U.S. Open tennis tournament is in the books and yet another finals weekend was butchered by weather and television, it’s time to come up with a solution that doesn’t end up with multiple networks covering one final. When rain delayed the men’s final between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic from Sunday until Monday, CBS and the U.S. Tennis Association announced it would begin the final no earlier than 4 p.m. Eastern. This has been the case for the previous two years when weather wreaked havoc with the schedule.

When another rain delay arrived one set into the match, CBS decided it was not going to have tennis butcher its primetime schedule and shuffled it to ESPN2 which is the U.S. Open’s partner on cable. This is somewhat understandable. CBS felt that tennis didn’t have enough ratings heat during a weeknight and decided to give up on the final.

So the match is running into the 10 p.m. hour in the East. On ESPN, a lightning delay, the same weather that caused the U.S. Open men’s final to stop for more than an hour, has forced the Monday Night Football opener between the Jets and Ravens to push back its start by 30 minutes. That’s going to run into the kickoff of the San Diego-Kansas City game that’s scheduled for 10:15 p.m. It’s announced that the U.S. Open will be pushed to ESPN Classic. Luckily, the final ends, but the trophy ceremony for Nadal is awkwardly cut off for the start of Chargers-Chiefs. Check out the awkward transition here.

So what have we learned? Well, we’ve learned that once Labor Day weekend arrives, we’re in football mode. So what should the U.S. Open do? I suggest that for its own and its TV partners sake, the USTA should move the tournament back a week so it can end on Labor Day. What? That’s right, move the U.S. Open so we can avoid NFL conflicts, CBS mistreating the finals and tennis fans can have some peace.

Last year, rain forced the women’s and men’s finals to played on Sunday and Monday, respectively. CBS gave the women’s final to ESPN2 and aired the men’s finals the next afternoon. And in 2008, CBS aired the men’s final on Monday afternoon as well. However, not all CBS affiliates picked up the match and some shuffled it to secondary channels.

So to avoid all this malarkey and confusion, start the U.S. Open earlier and start it on a Sunday. This way, the tournament gets three weekends of coverage. The French Open does this and gets a full day on Tennis Channel and ESPN2. Next year, I would have the Open begin on August 21st and end on Labor Day, September 5. Give CBS the opening day of play, that way it would be guaranteed to have the stars, Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal, one of the Williams sisters and Maria Sharapova.

Then, ESPN2 and Tennis Channel can share coverage through the second weekend of the tournament (August 27 & 28) where CBS would have the daytime sessions and then hand off to ESPN2 or Tennis Channel. The best part would be the women’s semifinals would be scheduled for Friday, September 2, the men’s semis can still be a Super Saturday, September 3. And finally there would be a scheduled day in between the finals, the women can play late afternoon or primetime Sunday, September 4 and the men’s final would be held on Labor Day, September 5 with the entire CBS network airing it.

The U.S. Open is the only Grand Slam tournament where the finals are scheduled the day after the semifinals and it lends for some bad tennis. We’ve seen this with the women’s final for the last 15 years. There’s not been a three set final since 1995. Not good.

Will the weather delays end with this schedule? Probably not, but that’s an issue that’s not going to be addressed here. Will one U.S. Open prep tournament get eliminated as a result? Most likely, but no one cares about it anyway. With this scheduling, there’s no fear of football conflicts, the U.S. Open will gets its share of sports coverage and it will be done on Labor Day leaving us all ready for football and the baseball pennant drive.

Should the USTA, CBS, ESPN2 and the Tennis Channel sign off? YES! Will they? No. But this makes too much sense for all parties involved.

And if we get weather delays like this next year, I’ll bring the column out of mothballs again.

Also from last year, Katie Baker (now of Grantland) in Deadspin chronicled how CBS and ESPN2 butchered the men’s final. If the U.S. Open moved back a week, some of this silliness could be avoided.

Handing Out Some Labor Day Sports Media Links

A nice day here in Southern New England and I’m at home watching some good sports action as we have afternoon MLB games, the U.S. Open, a little CFL and some college football later. A good sports day for the Labor Day holiday. Before I do the links, let’s go into one of the stranger nights on sports television on Sunday.

Last night, ESPN got stuck with two weather delays for two events, in college football at the Marshall at West Virginia game and at NASCAR in Atlanta. ESPN handled both situations as best as it could, first updating viewers on lighting approaching Milan Puskar Stadium in Morgantown, WV. As players were hustled off the field before 6 p.m., ESPN threw to its studio with Ryan Burr and Robert Smith who deftly filled the time with highlights and comments.

Then as the NASCAR window approached, Burr threw it to Atlanta and the NASCAR Countdown crew led by Nicole Briscoe. The prerace program went as scheduled for the half-hour and at 7 p.m. when the race coverage was supposed to begin, ESPN updated viewers on the rain from Tropical Storm Lee that hit Atlanta and was wreaking havoc. However, ESPN said that it was hoped that the race would begin “within the hour.”

It was during this time ESPN kept switching back and forth between Atlanta and the ESPN studios in Bristol, CT to fill time. Then at 8:50 p.m., ESPN went back to Morgantown for the game. While ESPN did not inform viewers publicly, it was learned via Twitter that the game would be switched to ESPNU if NASCAR started and we also learned via Twitter that NASCAR was hoping to get the race started at 10:30 p.m.

ESPN was balancing between the two venues hoping that it would not have to bump one event for the other. And at 9:05 p.m., ESPN got another jolt when authorities pulled Marshall and West Virginia for another lightning delay. Ryan Burr and Robert Smith were back to quickly throw things back to Atlanta where Nicole Briscoe relayed to viewers of the 10:30 p.m. start time and it was when we began seeing shots of the track dryers going around the Atlanta Speedway circuit.

During the delay, ESPN went back to Morgantown for an update on the weather from its announcing team, Joe Tessitore, Rod Gilmore and sideline reporter Quint Kessenich. It was during this update that ESPN showed a lightning strike at 6:02 p.m. that looked like it struck the stadium. Kessenich reported that the strike hit the stadium and a fan in the upper deck and from the screengrab, it certainly looks like it did. However, scuttlebutt was surfacing that there were no independent news on the strike.

And later, West Virginia State Police denied that no fan had been hit and the lightning strike was close to the stadium, but did not hit it. In addition, West Virginia University Media Relations published its own statement on the story.  So where did Kessenich get his information and as Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand correctly asked, why didn’t ESPN issue a correction on the story? ESPN certainly had plenty of chances to correct it.

At 10 p.m., ESPN had Robert Flores and Stuart Scott start SportsCenter early. It went right to Atlanta where NASCAR race caller Allen Bestwick interviewed NASCAR President Mike Helton who announced that with the rains from Tropical Storm Lee, it was impossible to restart the race Sunday and as rains would continue into Monday, the race would be rescheduled to 11 a.m. Tuesday.

A quick toss back to SportsCenter and then, at 10:24, ESPN thew it back to Morgantown where it was announced the game was going to be called with West Virginia leading Marshall 34-13. Again, the lightning strike from 6:02 p.m. was shown. After 11 p.m., the strike was not referenced and the report of the fan was not raised again. So why didn’t ESPN retract or correct it? No word from the network on this. However, it’s a situation where a story is front of them and they didn’t get it right. And there was no correction. ESPN has to do a better job.

And as I watched the 2 p.m. SportsCenter on ESPNews, the network has chosen to ignore its erroneous report on the lightning strike rather than issue a correction.

Now to the links.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says despite being dropped by Verizon FiOS, Tennis Channel is talking with the cable provider to return to the lineup.

The Associated Press reports that Missouri is the next Big 12 school to announce its own digital network joining Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas State.

Glenn Davis at SportsGrid has the video of Rafael Nadal cramping up during his U.S. Open press briefing yesterday.

Dan Fogarty of SportsGrid wonders why a mascot is being taken off the court on a stretcher during the EuroBasket Championships.

Timothy Burke at his Mocksession site shows an unfortunate ESPN crowd cutaway during yesterday’s Marshall-West Virginia game.

Joe Favorito asks smaller universities if it’s worth the payday to go to a large FCS school and get beaten up on the football field.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times explores the dispute between Tennis Channel and cable providers Cablevision and Verizon FiOS.

Tom Jones of the St. Petersburg Times has praise for NBC’s Notre Dame coverage and ESPN’s College GameDay.

David Barron from the Houston Chronicle speculates on the future of the Longhorn Network if Texas goes to the Pac-12.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman liked Gus Johnson and Charles Davis’ work on the Tulsa-Oklahoma game, but Kevin Frazier and Marcus Allen, not so much.

Dusty Saunders at the Denver Post says Colorado fans will have to scramble to find Saturday’s game against Cal.

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

Raju Mudhar of the Toronto Star says NFL gamers are gearing up for the season.

Bruce Dowbiggin from the Toronto Globe and Mail wonders if the public really needed to know the details of Wade Belak’s suicide.

The Paranoid Puck reports that former Dallas Stars coach Marc Crawford will be joining TSN and former MSG host Christine Simpson returns to Canada to work for Rogers Sportsnet.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog has some Labour Day thoughts.

Matt Yoder at Awful Announcing has some typos both on TV and online.

Sports Media Watch says Nielsen will be tracking fewer TV households this year.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media notes that Versus will be airing some NHL preseason games for the first time.

And that will do it for today.

Bringing Out Some Sunday Links

I’m linking in the middle of doing some badly needed DIY projects here at the Fang’s Bites abode so I might be a bit scarce today. I’ll do what I can on this lazy Sunday, the middle of the Labor Day Weekend.

The ESPN Ombudsman, Kelly McBride of the Poynter Institute responds to Bruce Feldman’s allegations about his (alleged) suspension.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says Cablevision and Verizon FiOS dropped Tennis Channel this morning as part of yet another installment of their long-running dispute.

Timothy Burke of SportsGrid has video of ESPN’s Jessica Mendoza pulling a Heidi Watney and gagging on air after taking a swig of pickle juice. Or it hearkens to when Tracy Wolfson tried Cammy Cam Juice.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post has some suggestions for the NBA Players Association.

Page Six of the New York Post says Andy Roddick dislikes John McEnroe so much that he refused to do an ESPN interview until he left the set.

Joseph Barracato of the Post ridicules CNBC’s Darren Rovell’s Versus show even before it takes air.

Steve Politi of the Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger says the Bayonne Bleeder, Chuck Wepner, will get his story of his 1976 fight with Muhammed Ali told by Hollywood and ESPN in separate projects.

In the Washington Examiner, Jim Williams talks with the multifaceted Trevor Matich of ESPN and Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic.

In Texas Monthly, Jason Cohen takes a look at the trials and tribulations of the Longhorn Network.

Dan McCarney of the San Antonio Express-News says the Longhorn Network will pick up five Texas-San Antonio games this season.

EPL Talk says the interesting battle in soccer will be Fox vs. NBC.

Sports Media Watch has some various ratings news and notes.

SMW says the first leg of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup did not do well.

Joe Favorito takes a look at MetLife buying the naming rights for New Meadowlands Stadium.

And that will do it for the Sunday links.

A Few Saturday Links

I’ll be heading out later today, but before I do, I’ll provide a few links here.

Don’t forget your College Football Viewing Picks are here.

The always lovely Rachel Cohen of the Associated Press says the NFL is getting ready to negotiate new contracts with its TV partners.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News writes about John McEnroe joining Tennis Channel for its weekend primetime coverage of the U.S. Open.

Tim Baysinger of Multichannel notes that MLB Network has been picked up by Dish Network.

Anthony Crupi of Adweek says Nissan will unveil its sponsorship of the Heisman Trophy tonight on ABC.

Timothy Burke at SportsGrid has the classic video of a penalty description during last night’s insane TCU-Baylor game.

Karen Hogan at Sports Video Group says NCAA.com will be unveiling a whole host of exclusive content for college football season.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell writes that the New York Islanders now have an official tattoo shop.

Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports has details of the first UFC on Fox bill coming up in November.

Eric Adelson of Yahoo’s The PostGame says FoxSports.com produced a racially insensitive feature about Asians and football.

MediaMatters is on top of the story as well.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union has a poll asking you about the best NFL announcing teams.

Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette writes that a local radio station will air a rescheduled high school football game on Monday.

Dan Steinberg at the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog notes that ESPN mislabeled the DC NFL Team’s quarterback controversy.

Dan also talks with NFL RedZone host Scott Hanson about his mission to feed the poor before he joined NFL Network.

The Augusta (GA) Chronicle picks up a story from Gracie Shepard and Gary Smits about the Gator Bowl getting a new sponsor.

Greg Sullivan at The Tennessean talks with a more relaxed Kirk Herbstreit who moved to the Volunteer State from his native Columbus, OH.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News feels ESPN’s Lee Corso is still on top of his game on College GameDay, although some Twitter comments feel otherwise.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle writes about the Longhorn Network getting a big pickup in Texas and it picking up one Big 12 Conference game.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes that the Packers beat the Badgers in the ratings in a rare head-to-head matchup.

Bob says ESPN’s Jon Gruden feels New Orleans Saints head guy Sean Payton could coach for him.

Bob writes that Milwaukee has moved up a notch in the Nielsen TV market rankings.

Dave Newhouse of the Oakland Tribune profiles legendary announcer Barry Tompkins.

Sports Media Watch says ESPN got off to a bad ratings start for college football.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media notes that despite losing the Thrashers, Atlanta will continue to get hockey games on TV.

Matt Yoder at Awful Announcing loves that paralyzed football player Eric LeGrand is going to be on Rutgers radio this season.

And I’ll end the linkage there for today.

John McEnroe Joins Tennis Channel For Primetime U.S. Open Coverage

On Saturday and Sunday, Tennis Channel will have live primetime coverage of the U.S. Open as ESPN2 will have NASCAR and MLB commitments on both nights. So to give its coverage an upgrade, Tennis Channel has signed John McEnroe to join Ted Robinson for the weekend. And it gives the U.S. Open a USA Network feel for a couple of days. Of course, Ted and John have worked together not only on USA Network for the U.S. Open, but for Tennis Channel and NBC for the French Open and NBC again for Wimbledon. So both are quite familiar with each other.

This will not effect McEnroe’s work for CBS and ESPN2 on the Open. That will continue.

We have the press release from Tennis Channel about this latest development.

HALL OF FAMER JOHN MCENROE TO JOIN TENNIS CHANNEL’S US OPEN TEAM

Multi-Grand Slam Champion to Offer Commentary from Flushing Meadows Labor Day Weekend

NEW YORK, September 2, 2011 – Tennis Channel announced today that tennis icon John McE nroe will lend his unique analysis and commentary to the network’s US Open prime-time broadcast Labor Day weekend, September 3-4.

As with previous Tennis Channel telecasts, McEnroe will be teamed with broadcasting legend Ted Robinson. The two have appeared in the network’s booth at the French Open since 2007 and have made numerous Davis Cup appearances on the channel. McEnroe continues to be a US Open analyst for CBS and ESPN2.

As one of the most recognizable and credible television analysts in tennis today, McEnroe has captivated sports fans since bringing his fiery personality to the pro tennis scene in the late 1970s. He won 77 singles and 78 doubles titles during his career, including four US Open and three Wimbledon singles championships. McEnroe won the French Open mixed doubles championship with fellow Tennis Channel analyst Mary Carillo in 1977, and reached the tournament’s singles final in 1984. He is possibly the most dominant Davis Cup player of all time, winning the championship five times as a member of the U.S. team and remains the all-time record holder in U.S. Davis Cup total wins (59 wins vs. 10 losses), singles wins (41-8), ties or rounds played (30), and years played (12). McEnroe was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1999.

More later.

The Recovering After Irene Links

Yesterday at 8:30 a.m., I lost power at my house and as of this post, I still don’t have it. The northern part of my town has power, but I live in the southern part and there’s nothing. That’s not good. And RI did not get hit that hard by Irene so I don’t know how we could lose power for so long. Anyway, it appears that my office never lost electricity as the clocks appear to be on time so I’m blogging from work. Hopefully, I won’t be without power for that long.

Here are your links.

Michael Smith of the Sports Business Journal writes that UPS and MillerCoors are looking to become very aggressive sponsors of college sports.

Eric Fisher of SBJ says a new site has launched to cover digital fan marketing.

Terry Lefton of SBJ speaks with a sports marketer who believes stadium naming rights work.

Mimi Turner of the Hollywood Reporter says the BBC will air every hour of every single event at the 2012 London Olympics. That’s quite ambitious.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says with Hurricane Irene out of the way, New York can focus on the U.S. Open for the next two weeks.

Mike says Tennis Channel will reach 50 million homes for the Open.

ESPN Ombudsman Kelly McBride from the Poynter Institute says there’s nothing wrong with ESPN airing the Little League World Series to which I ask her, are you crazy?

Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times writing for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center says reporting on suicides and speculating why they happen as in the case of former Baltimore Orioles pitcher and broadcaster Mike Flanagan demonstrate the need for due diligence by news organizations.

Marcus Vanderberg of SportsNewser says a short two days after Vin Scully announced his return to the Dodgers, so did Spanish voice Jaime Jarrin.

Dan Fogarty of SportsGrid notes that Houston Texan RB Arian Foster is not a fan of ESPN Radio’s Colin Cowhack. Really, who is?

Zombie Journalism has a problem with ESPN’s social networking policy that bans its reporters from breaking news on Twitter.

TMZ reports that wrestler Ric Flair is contemplating a lawsuit against Captain Blowhard-led Grantland.com for a long article on him that was published last week.

The New York Times’ Richard Sandomir speaks with Fox Sports’ Joe Buck about his ailing voice.

The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick decides that he’s a man of the people, which probably couldn’t be further from the truth.

Jim Williams from the Washington Examiner talks with CBS college football host Tim Brando about his radio show being aired on CBS Sports Network.

Tom Jones at the St. Petersburg Times looks at the weekend in sports television including a poor local broadcast of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers preseason games.

Sean Pendergast in the Houston Press says the Longhorn Network doesn’t have enough content to be successful.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says ESPN’s Chris Spielman picks Wisconsin to win the Big Ten title.

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Dan Caesar writes that Missouri’s new football analyst has a football background, but also one in intelligence. As in CIA. Yup.

Dusty Saunders of the Denver Post is amazed at the media controversy swirling around Broncos third-string quarterback Tim Tebow.

Andrew Malcolm from the Los Angeles Times says ESPN has warned golf analyst Paul Azinger over his tweet criticizing President Obama.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News speaks with Olympic swimmer Janet Evans who turned 40 on Sunday. Wow.

Tom writes about Dodgers Spanish broadcaster Jaime Jarrin’s return for next year.

Tom also has your sports calendar for this week.

Raju Mudhar of the Toronto Star says the lockout doesn’t seem to be effecting the NBA.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail advises us not to look for Rogers Sportsnet to wrest the CFL rights away from TSN in the next bidding.

The Toronto Sports Media Blog says the Maple Leafs are close to hiring a new announcer.

Sox & Dawgs has a look at the UConn Radio Network for the 2011-12 season.

Mike Shields at DigiDay notes that ESPN’s College GameDay will really sink its teeth into social networking this season.

Ryan Yoder of Awful Announcing is critical of the ESPN Ombudsman for letting ESPN off the hook for airing the Little League World Series.

Joe Favorito feels the World Fire and Police Games taking place in New York are brand and activation opportunities for potential sponsors.

And lastly, here’s a video I made last night driving down the main road of my town showing how dark it was. Definitely no fun without power.

That’s all. Back later.

Finally Back To Linking

The last couple of days have been tough to provide links as I was out of the office. Glad to be back linking again, although you never know if I’ll be called away again. I’ll try to do what I can.

Mike McCarthy of USA Today attended the NFL on CBS media day on Tuesday which introduced the network’s announcing teams for this season. Mike got some interesting quotage from NFL Today analyst Boomer Esiason on Denver Broncos third string QB Tim Tebow.

Mike reported earlier this week that ESPN’s Brian Kenny is leaving the network to possibly take a position with MLB Network.

Erik Brady of USA Today writes that the late Al McGuire’s granddaughter, once a basketball player at Virginia, is now an accomplished model.

John Ourand at Sports Business Journal chronicles what NBC Sports Group is doing to position Versus as a major player in sports television.

Jon Lafayette of Broadcasting & Cable says CBS Sports officials were worried about a potential NFL lockout, but continued to sell ads and carried on with its business of getting ready for this season.

Tim Baysinger of  B&C has Marv Albert pleasantly surprised to be calling the NFL on TV again.

Over to Multichannel News and Mike Reynolds who writes that the Pac-12 Conference has hired a sports media veteran to run its seven Pac-12 Networks.

Mike says Tennis Channel has signed a new deal with the National Cable Television Cooperative that takes it off sports tiers on member’s cable systems.

R. Thomas Umstead of Multichannel says MTV2 will air some live Lingerie Football League games starting on Friday.

Anthony Crupi of Adweek writes that concerns over the NFL lockout led advertisers to turn to college football for commercial buys.

Crupi adds that NFL Network has signed up another cable provider leaving Cablevision and Time Warner as the last two major holdouts.

Gregg Rosenthal of Pro Football Talk writes that former Patriots, Dolphins and Saints running back Heath Evans will retire and join NFL Network’s large cadre of analysts.

Mike Florio of PFT says NFL owners realize that empty stadiums don’t make for exciting TV.

Marcus Vanderberg at SportsNewser writes that ESPN is hiring another WWE veteran to join its on-air staff.

Dan Fogarty of SportsGrid notes that ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown crew was dressed in SWAT uniforms for an promo shoot.

Jason Dachman of Sports Video Group says the Baltimore Ravens are successfully producing all home preseason TV games in-house rather than outsource production to a local TV or cable network.

The Big Lead’s Barry Janoff recaps the NFL on CBS Media Day.

Rich Arden at ESPN’s Front Row PR blog says you can now put the Monday Night Football schedule into your Google calendar. Seriously!

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times writes that if it’s US Open time, then it must mean another battle between Cablevision and Tennis Channel.

Richard says after many repeated offers, MetLife is finally taking the plunge and buying the naming rights to the New Meadowlands Stadium.

Barry Bearak of the Times profiles former play-by-play announcer Dom Valentino who’s currently fighting several life battles.

Richard Huff of the New York Daily News reports that WCBS-TV sports anchor and sometimes CBS Sports reporter Sam Ryan is leaving to take a job with MLB Network.

Newsday’s Neil Best looks at MetLife slapping its name on New Meadowlands Stadium for a rather large fee.

During Tuesday’s NFL on CBS Media Day, Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union asked CBS Sports President Sean McManus about a few non-NFL related issues.

Pete says 18 years later, CBS NFL analyst Steve Tasker is still correcting those who think it was he who prevented Dallas Cowboys defensive lineman Leon Lett from scoring at Super Bowl XXVII.

Ken Schott in the Schenectady Gazette says the University of Albany is shifting its football season opener to a different radio station as its flagship has a conflict.

Ken McMillan from the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record writes that Time Warner Cable won’t be airing any local high school football games this season.

Matt Murschel of the Orlando Sentinel talks with ESPN College GameDay analyst Desmond Howard about his new book and his usage of social media.

Henry Unger of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution speaks with NBC Sports Chairman Mark Lazarus about replacing the former Emperor Dick Ebersol.

Jimmy Burch of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram says the ESPN College GameDay crew will be in Austin to help launch the Longhorn Network.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle says the Longhorn Network’s immediate future looks rather murky right now.

Mel Bracht in the Daily Oklahoman notes that former Sooners safety Roy Williams will be a part of the school’s radio broadcasts this season.

Mel says the NFL preseason topped the local TV ratings.

Mike Baldwin of the Oklahoman says ESPN’s All-Access series on the Sooners is compelling TV.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer writes that the Bengals garnered a huge local rating on Sunday.

John says the new Joe Morgan radio show is being heard locally.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers will appear weekly on the local NBC station.

The Provo (UT) Daily Herald notes that ESPN has released the 2011-12 West Coast Conference men’s basketball schedule.

Ryan Casey of the Denver Post tells us that Root Sports Rocky Mountain will air the state high school football and basketball championships this year.

The Reno (NV) Gazette-Journal reports NFL Network will be seen on the local cable provider this season.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail writes that CBC is shooting down claims that it’s biased against Western Canadian NHL teams in its new Hockey Night in Canada schedule.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog says TSN and CBC are teaming up for coverage of this weekend’s LPGA Canadian Women’s Open.

Sports Media Watch says the PGA Championship’s ratings fell to a three year low.

SMW also has some various ratings news and notes.

Daniel Feuerstein of MLS Talk feels NBC will be a big boost for Major League Soccer.

Joe Favorito writes that Fordham University has been a fertile training ground for several of NYC’s sports voices.

Last night, I had the privilege to be a guest on the Sports-Casters podcast. Steven Bennett and Don Russ interviewed me on several subjects including the NFL on CBS, Marv Albert’s role at CBS, Joe Buck’s voice, NBC Sports Group, Olympics and a whole plethora of topics. I’m at 1:17:14 into the podcast. Michael Fabiano is also on so give it a listen.

The only Steeler fan I really like, Steelergurl, explains why she hasn’t been blogging lately. Get well soon, Lahne.

Dave Kohl at the Broadcast Booth looks at what NBC Sports Group is doing to improve Versus.

And that is going to finish out the links today.

Tennis Channel’s 2011 U.S. Open Coverage Plans

Tennis Channel’s partnership with ESPN2 continues with the final Grand Slam tournament of the year in the U.S. Open. Tennis Channel will open its coverage at 11 a.m. each day starting Monday, August 29 and continuing through Thursday, September 8. It will mostly carry daytime coverage starting with the first match on Arthur Ashe Stadium, then cover the outside courts as ESPN focuses mainly on Ashe and Louis Armstrong Stadiums. During Labor Day Weekend, Tennis Channel will have primetime coverage on Saturday, September 3 and Sunday, September 4.

Bill Macatee will be the main host along with Mary Carillo. They’ll also call selected matches. Joining them on play-by-play will be Ted Robinson, Ian Eagle and Leif Sheras. On analysis will be Martina Navratilova, Tracy Austin, Jimmy Connors, Jimmy Arias, Justin Gimblestob and Corina Morariu.

In the Tennis Channel studios, Kevin Frazier and Lindsay Davenport will co-host Breakfast at the Open and U.S. Open Tonight. Frazier has not improved as host and remains one of the worst at pronouncing names. As a sports host, he’s a very good entertainment reporter if you catch my drift.

Bud Collins will contribute essays and reports throughout Tennis Channel’s coverage.

We have the press release below.

TENNIS CHANNEL’S US OPEN COVERAGE GETS UNDERWAY WITH FIRST MATCH MONDAY, AUGUST 29

Mary Carillo Joins On-Air Team with Martina Navratilova, Tracy Austin, Lindsay Davenport and Others, as Sixth Television Court  is Made Available for Broadcasters This Year
Prime-Time Labor Day Weekend Highlights Two Weeks of More than 230 Hours, with 72 Hours of Live Matches and 41 Hours of US Open Tonight and Breakfast at the Open

And that will do it.

Our Mid-Week Links

Any time I put “Quick” in the title, it appears I find more linkage than I set out to. Nothing wrong with that. Again, I ended up being outside of the office for an extended time and it looks like that will happen again tomorrow. Don’t know work is so crazy all of a sudden. I hope the weekend won’t be too busy, but you never know until it gets here. So I won’t put “Quick” in the title today.

In the meantime, I’ll do as many links as I can.

Mike McCarthy of USA Today writes that ESPN has actually dropped two NFL studio analysts to help make room for five new guys coming to the network.

Michael Hiestand at USA Today explains why Jerry Rice chose to become a TV analyst now.

In Sports Business Daily, John Ourand has the story on how NBC Sports Group signed a new multiyear contract with MLS.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch writes that the NBC Sports deal might be the boost that MLS has been seeking.

Jack Bell of the New York Times looks at the particulars of the deal.

Joe Flint of the Los Angeles Times’ Company Town blog says NBC Sports Group grabbing the MLS is a big blow to Fox Soccer which previously had this portion of the contract.

Daniel Feuerstein from MLS Talk also reviews this new MLS contract.

Now to other links.

Mike Reynolds at Multichannel News says Cablevision and Tennis Channel may spar again when its contract with a cable collaborative expires. Again, this could affect viewership of the U.S. Open in New York.

Autoweek talks about ESPN renewing its deal to air the Indianapolis 500 on ABC for the long-term.

Marcus Vanderberg of SportsNewser notes that a longtime Baltimore Sun writer is leaving to join the WWE.

Cam Martin of SportsNewser tells us that age was a factor in having CNBC’s Darren Rovell replace John Feinstein on the ESPN Radio affiliate in Washington DC. It’s never good to admit that publicly.

Ben Axelrod from SportsGrid says U.S. Women’s Soccer team goalie Hope Solo will be posing nude for ESPN The Magazine’s Body issue.

Major League Baseball has announced its postseason schedule and it starts early and would end well before Halloween.

Over to the aforementioned Darren Rovell who provides us with his annual College Football All-Name Team.

Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog looks at Darren joining a DC sports radio station for a weekly guest spot.

Dan writes that a DC TV station will air Baltimore Ravens preseason games for the first time.

Bert Pfankuch of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune is changing cable companies and tearfully says goodbye to Golf Channel.

Angela Woolen in the Macon (GA) Telegraph says ESPN is in town to air the Little League Baseball World Series Southeast Regional this week.

Ben Flanagan from the Huntsville (AL) Times recaps comments from South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier to Dan Patrick in which he stated that he felt ESPN gave Alabama preferential treatment.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says former Packers running back Ahman Green joins Big Ten Network for selected games this college football season.

Bob talks about former NFL coach Bill Parcells rejoining ESPN for this season.

Scott D. Pierce of the Salt Lake Tribune writes that NBC Sports plans to put one or two Notre Dame games on the NBC Sports Network starting next season.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily finds an angry message to Dodgers owner Frank McCourt inside Dodger Stadium.

Ferd Lewis at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser says an announcement to tout a new University of Hawaii sports channel has been delayed again.

Bruce Dowbiggin in the Toronto Globe and Mail goes over caddie Steve Williams’ bitter remarks to CBS shortly after Adam Scott won the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.

Kristen Douglas of the Campbell River (Canada) Mirror says NBC Sports was in the local area to shoot a segment for an adventure show.

Sports Media Watch advises us to keep on an eye on the battle between ESPN and the NBC Sports Group.

Awful Announcing’s Matt Yoder goes over Jerry Rice’s hiring at ESPN.

And AA talks with soccer announcer extraordinaire Ian Darke.

The Biz of Baseball’s Maury Brown says MLB’s attendance numbers are quite deceptive.

The Football Girl blog looks at the ESPN/NFL Network analyst wars plus the NFL on Fox announcing lineup.

And that is going to conclude the linkage for today.

Tennis Channel To Air The US Open Series

Starting next weekend, Tennis Channel gets back to airing live tennis with the preliminary rounds of several US Open Series tournaments. These are the prelims before the final Grand Slam tournament of the year, the U.S. Open in New York. A total of 8 tournaments will be aired starting with the Atlanta Tennis Championships on July 22 and ending with the Winston-Salem Open on August 26. Through its agreement with the USTA and ESPN, Tennis Channel will air early rounds and one singles semifinal. It will also air the doubles final in several championships as well.

We have the schedule plus the announcers who will work the tournaments.

TENNIS CHANNEL TO AIR CLOSE TO 100 HOURS OF LIVE AND SAME-DAY COVERAGE DURING SUMMER’S US OPEN SERIES

Network will Carry Nine Tournaments in High-Definition During Annual North American Hard-Court Season that Leads to the US Open

LOS ANGELES, July 15, 2011 – Tennis Channel will provide the sport’s fans with close to 100 high-definition hours of live or same-day match play during the 2011 Olympus US Open Series this summer.  The network will cover singles semifinal, quarterfinal and early round matches during the annual North American hard-court circuit this year, in addition to prime-time Sunday doubles finals.  Matches from the six-week series will first appear on the channel Friday, July 22, and conclude Friday, Aug. 26, on the eve of the network’s US Open telecast that begins two days later.

During the 2011 Olympus US Open Series players will compete at five men’s ATP tournaments, four women’s WTA competitions and one combined event that features both men and women at the same venue.  Tennis Channel will cover nine of the 10 tournaments that make up the series, with the exception being the women’s New Haven Open at Yale the week of August 21.

In Tennis Channel’s 2011 US Open Series lineup: ATP – Atlanta Tennis Championships (Atlanta), Farmers Classic (Los Angeles), Legg Mason Tennis Classic (Washington, D.C.), Rogers Masters (Montreal) and the new Winston-Salem Open (Winston-Salem, N.C.); WTA – Bank of the West Classic (Stanford, Calif.), Mercury Insurance Open (San Diego) and Rogers Cup (Toronto).  The network will also cover the combined men’s and women’s Western and Southern Open (Cincinnati).

Tennis Channel has televised the Olympus US Open Series every summer since the United States Tennis Association (USTA) first linked the tournaments into a season in 2004, along with ESPN and CBS Sports.  Other than the Cincinnati and Canada-based events, Tennis Channel will produce all Olympus US Open Series coverage for the three networks this year.  The channel has been producing most of the series for the three networks since 2008.

On-Air Talent
Emmy Award-winning announcers Ian Eagle and Brett Haber will handle play-by-play duties for Tennis Channel during the 2011 Olympus US Open Series, as will former player and longtime Tennis Channel booth presence Leif Shiras.  Analysts’ responsibilities fall on former players Lindsay Davenport, Jimmy Arias, Justin Gimelstob and Corina Morariu, with Morariu again sharing sideline-reporting duties with Australian doubles specialist Ashley Fisher on occasion.

The network will also feature a desk on the tournament grounds in Atlanta, Stanford, Washington, Montreal, Cincinnati and Winston-Salem.  An Olympus US Open Series tournament-by-tournament breakdown of the network’s booth assignments follows, included in the on-air coverage schedule.

Tennis Channel’s 2011 Olympus US Open Series live and same-day telecast schedule (all times ET):  For encore replays, visit www.tennischannel.com/schedule.

July 22-24            Atlanta Tennis Championships (ATP)
Friday, July 22 – 12 p.m.-2 p.m. (singles quarterfinal)
Saturday, July 23 – 7 p.m.-9 p.m. (singles semifinal)
Sunday, July 24 – 10 p.m.-11:30 p.m. (doubles final)
Talent: Play-by-Play – Brett Haber, Analyst – Justin Gimelstob, Sideline Reporter – Ashley Fisher

July 29                 Bank of the West Classic (WTA)
Friday, July 29 – 5 p.m.-7 p.m.; 9 p.m.-11 p.m. (singles quarterfinals)
Talent: Play-by-Play – Brett Haber, Analyst – Lindsay Davenport, Sideline Reporter – Coriana Morariu

July 29-31            Farmers Classic (ATP)
Friday, July 29 – 3 p.m.-5 p.m. (singles quarterfinal)
Saturday, July 30 – 5 p.m.-8:30 p.m. (singles semifinal, doubles semifinal)
Sunday, July 31 – 10 p.m.-11:30 p.m. (doubles final)
Talent: Play-by-Play – Leif Shiras, Analyst – Justin Gimelstob, Sideline Reporter – Ashley Fisher

Aug. 4-7                Legg Mason Tennis Classic (ATP)
Thursday, Aug. 4 – 4 p.m.-8 p.m. (singles round of 16)
Friday, Aug 5. – 2 p.m.-4 p.m.; 9 p.m.-11 p.m. (singles quarterfinals)
Saturday, Aug. 6 – 7 p.m.-9 p.m. (singles semifinal)
Sunday, Aug. 7 – 10 p.m.-11:30 p.m. (doubles final)
Talent: Play-by-Play – Brett Haber, Analyst – Justin Gimelstob

Aug. 6                    Mercury Insurance Open (WTA)
Saturday, Aug. 6 – 5p.m.-7 p.m. (singles semifinal)
Talent: Play-by-Play – Leif Shiras, Analyst – Lindsay Davenport, Sideline Reporter – Coriana Morariu

Aug. 8-10              Rogers Masters/Rogers Cup (ATP/WTA)
Monday, Aug. 8 – 1 p.m.-9 p.m. (early round action)
Tuesday, Aug. 9 – 1 p.m.-9 p.m. (early round action)
Wednesday, Aug. 10 – 1 p.m.-9 p.m. (early round action)
Talent: Play-by-Play – Leif Shiras, Analyst – Lindsay Davenport, TPL World Feed Commentators

Aug. 15-17            Western & Southern Open (ATP/WTA)
Monday, Aug. 15 -11 a.m.-11 p.m. (early round action)
Tuesday, Aug. 16 – 11 a.m.-11 p.m. (early round action)
Wednesday, Aug. 17 – 11 a.m.-11 p.m. (early round action)
Talent: Play-by-Play – Ian Eagle, Analyst – Lindsay Davenport and Justin Gimelstob, Sideline Reporter – Fisher

Aug. 25-26            Winston-Salem Open (ATP)
Thursday, Aug. 25 – 5 p.m.-9 p.m. (singles quarterfinals)
Friday, Aug. 26 – 9 p.m.-11 p.m. (singles semifinal)
Talent: Play-by-Play – Leif Shiras, Analyst – Jimmy Arias, Sideline Reporter – Ashley Fisher

That will do it.

Bringing You Sunday Linkage

I’m at work again, but I’m trying to cope by flicking on the Watch ESPN for the Women’s World Cup game against Brazil. I’ll give you what linkage I can find today.

Mike McCarthy of USA Today says Turner Sports has reportedly hired Shaquille O’Neal for its NBA coverage. Still no official comment from Turner.

John Eggerton of Multichannel News reports on an FCC Enforcement Bureau recommendation to an administrative law judge about carriage for Tennis Channel.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel recaps YES’ special postgame show on Yankees shortshop Derek Jeter after he achieved baseball immortality on Saturday.

Mike writes that YES saw a ratings season high for the Jeter 3,000th hit game.

From Advertising Age, Brian Steinberg asks if Wimbledon is willing to put its matches all under one TV roof, will other sporting events follow its lead?

Yahoo Sports’ Michael Silver talks with NFL Network’s Rich Eisen about how the channel is handling the lockout.

Stephen Douglas at The Big Lead wonders if the LPGA should be selling sex to help market its stars.

Marcus Vanderberg at SportsNewser says Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson has issued a statement about berating a caller with a gay slur late last month.

Marcus points out that CNN is no longer into sports.

Jesse Sawyer from the Avon (CT) Patch notes that ESPN’s Kenny Mayne will be hosting a football skills clinic this week. Before ESPN, Kenny was the starting quarterback at UNLV. The story also reveals that Kenny is moving back to Seattle, WA where he lived before hitting it big with ESPN.

Newsday’s Neil Best has the transcripts of both the radio and TV calls of the Jeter 3,000th hit.

Neil talks about a new era of TV coming into Wimbledon for next year.

George Vescey of the New York Times says the best way to view the Tour de France is from your TV.

Karen Crouse of the Times talks with an LPGA Tour rookie Ryan O’Toole who prepared for life on the tour through Golf Channel’s Big Break reality show.

Brent Briggeman of the Colorado Springs Gazette also spoke with O’Toole about her time on Big Break.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette says ESPN2 will have the replay of today’s dramatic USA-Brazil Women’s World Cup game which had a lot of twists and turns.

Adam Sichko of the Albany (NY) Business Review notes that a local company will help produce live horse racing from nearby Saratoga for NBC.

Jim Williams from the Washington Examiner talks about Showtime getting into the sports reality TV realm with the new MLB TV series, “The Franchise”.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman talks with ESPN’s Nomar Garciaparra about the Home Run Derby.

From the Dallas Morning News, Barry Horn discusses the Longhorn Network making some on-air hires.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle tries to reassure readers about the availability of the Longhorn Network.

Kevin Benz at Culture Map Houston wonders if ESPN is making the Longhorn Network all about ESPN instead of University of Texas sports.

Joe Reedy of the Cincinnati Bengals talks with ESPN Monday Night Football analyst Jon Gruden about the NFL lockout.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says TBS and MLB Network analyst John Smoltz still has a dream to be a professional golfer.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch talks with Fox’s Joe Buck about his recovery from an ailment that affected his voice. And many of you have either tweeted or e-mailed me about this and have noticed how he has sounded since the Super Bowl. Dan’s story pretty much explains what happened.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says Joe Buck didn’t mince words when it came to the Dodgers ownership debacle.

That’s going to do it for today.