Fang's Bites

Breaking Out Some Sunday Linkage

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

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

John McQuaid from Forbes says NASCAR has a YouTube problem.

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

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

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

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

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post hates Twitter.

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

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

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

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

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

MediaRantz has yet another mistimed headline at ESPN.com.

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

A Late Friday Night/Early Saturday Morning Sports Media Notebook

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

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

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

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

Various Monday Links

Let’s do some linkage on this Monday.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch talks with TNT’s Charles Barkley about the next phase of his career.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today notes that Saturday nights are becoming a sports TV bastion.

Chris Chase at USA Today’s Game On blog has video of an NFL referee cursing which surprised CBS’ Kevin Harlan.

Liana B. Baker and Lisa Richwine of Reuters says US cable sports networks are in a scrum for ad dollars.

Kimberly Nordyke of the Hollywood Reporter writes that Time Warner SportsNet has signed Cox, but Comcast, DirecTV and Dish still remain holdouts.

Jon Lafayette of Broadcasting & Cable says Travel Channel has signed a deal with the NFL to produce a show on the Cleveland Browns traveling to road games.

E.J. Schultz of Advertising Age says despite the NHL lockout, hockey marketers are finding ways to find their target audience.

Media Life Magazine says CBS scored with Alabama-LSU in primetime on Saturday.

Chuck Ross at TV Week explains why baseball remains the greatest game despite its ratings.

Ed Sherman at The Sherman Report talks with CBS/TNT’s Marv Albert about calling games at the age of 71.

Ed wonders where Michelle Beadle will fit in NBC Sports Network’s plans.

CBS Sports reports that Dallas Mavericks announcer Mark Followill got into a bike accident over the weekend.

Radio Ink notes that former NBA coach Stan Van Gundy has joined NBC Sports Radio as an analyst.

Digital TV Europe reports that Al Jazeera’s beIN Sport in France has obtained the rights to air NBA games along with the NFL it previously signed.

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe writes that NBC is going all in with soccer.

Phil Mushnick at the New York Post says Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the New York Road Runners should have admitted fault in attempting to run the NYC Marathon this past weekend.

Sarah Kogod of the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog notes that a Wizards beer ad featured an underaged 19 year old Bradley Beal.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner looks at the NBC deal to air English Premier League games starting in 2013.

Jodie Wagner of the Palm Beach Post talks with a local sports radio personality about working in the local market.

Richard Durrett of ESPN Dallas says the Texas Rangers have announced their broadcast teams for next season.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle reports on the local sports radio ratings.

Jeff Balke of the Houston Press provides fans with ways to watch the Rockets for those who don’t have access to Comcast SportsNet Houston.

Neal Rubin at the Detroit News says a group hopes to land ESPN’s X Games for Motown.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says Fox’s crew found a lot to praise about the Green Bay Packers.

Danny Ecker at Crain’s Chicago Business writes that the Big Ten Network continues to air the so-called non-revenue sports.

Paul M. Banks at the Chicago Sports Media Watch wonders why the Illinois Sports Facility Authority would hire a former TV reporter to run the agency.

John Vomhof, Jr. of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal provides a look at Fox Sports North’s new studios.

The Denver Post’s Dusty Saunders feels some sports broadcasters make predictions that can’t possibly come true.

Dusty says MLB is trying to spin the World Series ratings.

Tom Hoffarth at the Los Angeles Daily News writes about the last two holdouts for Time Warner SportsNet.

Tom has the SoCal sports calendar for this week.

Tom has the five things he learned over the weekend.

Sports Media Watch notes that while Alabama-LSU’s overnights were way down from last year, it still had impressive numbers for CBS.

That’s going to do it for now. Squeezed as many links as I could today.

Bringing Out Your Monday Linkage

Ok, time for some links on this Columbus Day holiday for some of you.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today has a bunch of news and notes in his Monday sports media column including a recap of the NFL Today interview with scab NFL referee Lance Easley.

Tim Baysinger of Broadcasting & Cable says the first-ever MLB Wild Card Games did well for TBS last Friday.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News says Time Warner Cable SportsNet has signed its first affiliate for its Los Angeles Lakers-centric regional sports network.

Over to Ed Sherman at The Sherman Report. He talks with Steve Madden, the man in charge of Sports on Earth, the joint venture between USA Today and MLB Advanced Media. Disclaimer: Fang’s Bites is an independently-owned blog affiliated with USA Today Media Group.

Glenn Davis of SportsGrid has video of San Diego Super Chargers safety Atari Bigby’s creative introduction on Sunday Night Football.

Matt Yoder at Awful Announcing notes that NBC’s Cris Collinsworth called New Orleans’ game-ending strip sack of San Diego Chargers QB Philip Rivers just before it occurred.

Brandon Costa at Sports Video Group says MLB Network prepared to air its first postseason games not knowing where they would be.

ESPN’s Darren Rovell tells us that MLB teams don’t keep any of the playoff ticket money the games generate.

Jim Romenesko notes how ESPN edited a blogger’s KKK-Rod headline.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times says the Mets are looking for ways to refinance its huge debts through its regional sports network, SNY.

As usual, Phil Mushnick of the New York Post hates everything on television.

Jerry Barmash of FishbowlNY notes that long-time New York Knicks analyst John Andariese is retiring.

David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun says TBS stepped up to the task for the New York Yankees-Orioles game on Sunday.

David says CBS’ Ian Eagle got the job done during yesterday’s Baltimore Ravens-Kansas City Chiefs game while his partner, Dan Fouts did not.

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

Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel reports that Fox Sports Florida will air all 81 Magic games this season instead of splitting them between FS Florida and Sun Sports.

David Barron at the Houston Chronicle says the Astros are considering replacements to its radio team of Dave Raymond and Brett Dolan who were let go last week.

David says ESPN’s Jon Gruden brings his enthusiasm for the NFL to Monday Night Football.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reviews the CBS NFL Today interview of former scab referee Lance Easley.

Missouri Sports Magazine notes that the Kansas City Royals have set a ratings record for the 2012 season.

Dusty Saunders from the Denver Post says Sunday gave sports fans plenty of action to watch.

Paola Boivin of the Arizona Republic says there are a number of candidates to replace the Diamondbacks TV team of Daron Sutton and Mark Grace who were let go by the team after the season.

Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times says the Lakers have become the least-viewed team in the NBA thanks to its deal with Time Warner Cable Sports.

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

Tom has the five things he learned from watching sports over the weekend.

Jon Wilner at the San Jose Mercury News updates us on the Pac-12 Network and its dispute with DirecTV.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail says fans are split over which side to support in the NHL lockout.

Ryan Lambert at Yahoo’s Puck Daddy looks at ESPN picking up KHL games in the wake of the NHL lockout.

Ty Duffy at the Big Lead says MLS is doing well at the gate, but not on TV.

Media Rantz informs us that former NFL Network original Kara Henderson left broadcasting to get married. Congrats to Kara.

That’s going to do it.

Big Ten Network Pulled Off Dish

Received a statement from Big Ten Network overnight that the temporary agreement between BTN and Dish Network has expired and the channel is no longer on the satellite provider’s lineup.

Twice over the last few weeks, the two companies had come to terms on temporary agreements that would keep Big Ten Network on Dish while they would continue to negotiate a long-term arrangement. However, the last temporary agreement expired at midnight and Dish chose to pull Big Ten Network from it lineup.

No word if Dish will continue talks or if the two sides will wage a public relations battle in the interim.

Here’s BTN’s statement on the matter.

BTN Agreement with DISH Expired

As of September 14th, BTN’s distribution agreement with Dish expired despite our best efforts to finalize an agreement. We are disappointed that Dish does not see the value in the network in the same way that so many of their customers do, including Big Ten students, alumni, fans and viewers across the country who continue to pay Dish for a channel they no longer receive.

Let’s see how long this lasts. These disputes are so silly and only hurt the customer.

Picking Out Some Sunday Links For You

Let’s do some Sunday linkage on this first NFL regular season Sunday of 2012.

We’ll begin with Pat Eaton-Robb of the Associated Press with an interesting story on how Connecticut is fast becoming home of major sports media companies.

Candace Jackson of the Wall Street talks about her visit to Rich Eisen and his wife, Suzy Shuster’s home in beautiful Beverly Hills.

Jon Gold from CBSSports.com has statements from Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott on getting the conference’s networks on Dish Network.

Also from CBSSports.com, Dennis Dodd says the SEC expects to have new TV deals in place including the super secret SEC Network, not the one run by ESPN.

Media Rantz solves the mystery of what happened to NFL Network’s Kara Henderson.

Liana Baker of Reuters reports that an NHL lockout could hurt ratings momentum for NBC Sports Network.

John Gaudiosi of Forbes.com tells us that Sony Playstation 3 gamers get a discounted price for  DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel says Dish Network has beaten DirecTV to the punch and made a deal with Pac 12 Networks in time for yesterday’s college football games.

Georg Szalai of the Hollywood Reporter writes that movie director James Cameron will be assisting UK’s Sky Sports in producing a 3-D production of this month’s Ryder Cup.

Tim Nudd of Adweek looks at ESPN’s very funny SportsCenter promo featuring John Clayton that has already gone viral.

Anthony Crupi from Adweek notes that NBC broke even on the 2012 Olympics.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch has your NFL Broadcasting Guide for the 2012 season.

Eric Deggans of the Tampa Bay Times, writing for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center has a theory as to why some NFL teams fail to sell out their games.

Ed Sherman of The Sherman Report has former ESPN’er Charley Steiner recalling two of the funniest “This is SportsCenter” ads ever.

Ed also has some videos from the early days of Monday Night Football. Make that very early days.

ESPN’s Darren Rovell wonders if CBS is selling Super Bowl ads on the cheap.

Evan Weiner of Examiner.com says the late Art Modell deserves better from Cleveland fans. I hate to tell you, Evan, but as a Browns fan, Modell made his bed and has to lie in it.

On the other hand, Newsday’s Bob Glauber says he can’t reconcile Modell’s pulling the Browns from Cleveland with the other parts of his legacy.

Rachel Margolis at ESPN’s Front Row PR blog says College GameDay heads to Tennessee for Week 3.

Drew Drawbaugh of Engadget reports that Google Fiber subscribers will get access to NFL Network and NFL RedZone starting tomorrow.

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe says former Celtic and Chicago Bull Brian Scalabrine will join Comcast SportsNet New England as an analyst.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times says two former American Basketball Association team owners who get to collect part of the NBA’s TV revenue in perpetuity, want even more and are suing to get it.

Tanzina Vega of the Times says ESPN Deportes Radio NY will be broadcasting Jets games in Spanish this season.

The Albany Times Union’s Pete Dougherty has NFL Commish Roger Goodell disappointed that the league doesn’t have a deal with Time Warner Cable to carry NFL Network.

David Zurawik from the Baltimore Sun says ratings for the Grand Prix of Baltimore fell by almost 60% from the year before. However, last year’s race was on ABC while this year’s edition was on NBC Sports Network.

David speaks with Amber Theoharis who has left MASN for NFL Network and will replace the aforementioned Kara Henderson.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner talks with Fox Sports college football analyst Charles Davis.

Coley Harvey at the Orlando Sentinel asks if ESPN’s College GameDay will pay a visit to Tallahassee later this month.

Jimmy Burch in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram writes that the new Big 12 deal with ESPN and Fox will allow for more national broadcasts.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle has the college football media guide for this season.

Mel Bracht in The Oklahoman says yesterday’s PPV production of the Florida A&M-Oklahoma game was network quality.

Tim Feran of the Columbus (OH) Dispatch says NFL Network and Time Warner Cable are no closer to an agreement than when the channel debuted.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News wonders how long DirecTV can hold out not carrying the Pac 12 Networks.

Tom says Fox tapped the right man to lead its World Cup coverage.

Sports Media Watch notes that last week’s PGA Deutsche Bank Championship hit a five year ratings high.

Dann Stupp and John Morgan of MMA Junkie write that NBC Sports Network will hire some familiar names for an upcoming World Series of Fighting telecast.

And that will do it. The NFL pregame show quotage is coming up next.

A Few Wednesday Sports Media Thoughts

I’ll provide a few thoughts as we hit midweek. They’ll be in bullet form, of course.

• First, here’s hoping the people of New Orleans will be ok in the midst of Hurricane Isaac. They’ve put up with way too much from Hurricane Katrina to Hurricane Gustav and the BP oil spill, I pray they endure this without major damage.
• I’m going to be interested to see how Fox Sports’ new primetime college football package is going to fare against ESPN’s venerable lineup. Fox will focus on the Big 12 and Pac-12. ESPN/ABC can tap plenty of major conferences from the Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC and place any big game it wants on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2. We’ll see if Fox can hold its own.
• As both CBS and NBC attempt to get their sports radio networks off the ground, both are hoping to get that big name to anchor their lineup. CBS has Doug Gottlieb thus far. The rest of the dayparts have to be filled. NBC has Erik Kuselias plus a few other hires including Rodney Harrison for a weekend show. One of the X Factors for NBC is if it can land Dan Patrick and lure him away from DirecTV/Fox Sports Radio and get him for the 9 a.m. – noon ET slot. That would give NBC some credibility, stations and a big hole filled.
• Original MLB Network reporter Trenni Kusnierek, who’s been co-hosting an afternoon drive radio show in Milwaukee, is shipping up to  Boston where she will become an anchor/reporter for Comcast SportsNet New England. In effect, she replaces Nicole Zaloumis who is at NFL Network.
• While the Pac-12 Networks have launched up and down the West Coast, it has yet to sign satellite providers DirecTV and Dish Network. Issues include the high price per subscriber and the seven networks under the Pac-12 umbrella. DirecTV just wants to carry the national network, but the league wants it to pick up everything. No sign of an agreement with either provider in the near future.
• And speaking of disputes, Time Warner Cable continues its holdout of NFL Network. While the network was able to pick up Cablevision this month, it still can’t get Time Warner in the fold. And it appears that there isn’t an agreement in sight. Time Warner can create its own Southern California regional sports network and attempt to get the Dodgers, but it remains steadfast in its refusal to provide NFL Network and also continues to be stubborn in not picking up MASN in North Carolina. It’s all about power and money in these disputes and who will blink first. Right now, neither Time Warner nor NFL Network are willing to talk. That’s too bad for the consumer.
• It’s unfortunate that none of NBCUniversal’s networks will carry the Paralympics live which begin this week in London. NBC Sports Network will air taped specials in September. Not good enough. Many of these athletes are quite courageous and it would be nice to get some live coverage to learn their stories. It’s not necessary for NBC to pick it up, but how about NBC Sports Network or Universal Sports? They need the inventory. C’mon, NBC.

And we’re done.

Guest Column: Announcer Moves and League-owned College Networks

We continue with the guest columns. This one comes from reader Corneilus Green. Three columns in one for you.

Sports Broadcasting Talent Moves

The summer is definitely heating up with the speculation of who is staying or who is going to new networks.

Michelle Beadle is the most high profile talent to leave ESPN (which was mostly expected) and she gets to do more at NBC. It was definitely a shocker that Michelle Bonner left ESPN and the same for Dana Jacobson.

Scott Van Pelt whom I would have preferred leave for NBC/Comcast, remained at ESPN which is good for him, however, his radio partner, Ryen Russillo is near the end of this contract and who knows where he might go.

Doug Gottlieb, whose contract is up in September, could have a contract offer from CBS Sports according to SportsbyBrooks. Whatever CBS offers to Gottlieb has to be astronomical for him to leave the Worldwide Leader, though I think he should go if the opportunity was presented.

I feel Erin Andrews will stay at ESPN. Her stock has fallen since a few years ago and thus does not have value to another network should she still want to cover sports.

The lowest profile re-signing was John Buccigross. Buccigross stayed at ESPN mainly because he would the #1 voice for NCAA Frozen Four replacing Gary Thorne. Buccigross is one of the few at ESPN along with Linda Cohn and Steve Levy who trumpet hockey, which is amazing because as we know, it gives little to no coverage to the sport.

Had Buccigross not stayed with ESPN, it was expected that NHL Network would have offered him the chance to be its main anchor and be the face of the network. It will be interesting to see where all the sports talent lands.

NBA TV and MLB Network should utilize field reporters who can report from the various team’s headquarters instead relying on the insiders and the writers on the dot-com side.

I will be watching to see who the Pac-12 Network hires in addition to Summer Sanders, Ronnie Lott, and Rick Neuheisel. I would like for the Pac-12 Network to hire Tom Ramsey. I miss hearing him call college football. I fully expect Fox to elevate Craig Bolerjack, Joel Klatt, and Petros Papadakis as the main team for college football on FX, also make Gus Johnson its main voice for the Pac-12 on Fox and move Steve Physioc to part-time on Pac-12 football and become the main voice for college basketball for the Big Ten Network.

Fox should replace Kevin Frazier with Fran Charles on as college football studio host and also add another analyst to Marcus Allen.

Never has there been more interest in sports media and who’s staying or who’s going. This year has unofficially been the year of the media rights deals and sports talent moves. Do not expect that to change during the summer.

SEC Network

An SEC Network could become reality in 2014. The SEC has called this Project X. It’s one of a number of things that has come up during the renegotiation the conference’s media rights deals with CBS and ESPN. With the addition of Missouri and Texas A&M to the SEC, it opened the league to an increase of its media rights fees.

An SEC Network was close to starting in 2009 but ESPN threw a boatload of money at the conference not to start one. It appears that the SEC added two schools just for the sake of addition. The conference was already recruiting Texas and Missouri which wanted more money though they should have gone to the Big Ten had an offer been extended to both, but they were wishy-washy while Nebraska was jumping to the Big Ten without any hesitation. Texas A&M kicked and screamed its way to the SEC, but I’ll save that for another day.

The SEC is close to agreeing to an increase its TV rights fees, but the holdup has been CBS. The Tiffany Network has balked at paying more because its game inventory will not change. CBS is justified in balking. Mizzou and Texas A&M do not have the same attraction as Nebraska.

ESPN, which has been trying to establish a monopoly on televised college athletics, will most likely try to buy CBS’ slate of SEC games if CBS does not change its stance. CBS should hold out to the very end and get more doubleheaders and more night games to justify paying more for SEC games.

It’s being speculated that ESPN will partner with the SEC to establish an SEC Network. This would be likely picked up within a year on all the cable, digital cable, and satellite companies in the conference’s footprint because of the league’s popularity. The SEC has a bigger footprint than all of the conferences and the most rabid fan bases.

An SEC Network would most likely be modeled after the Big Ten Network. Many observers thought the SEC should have started its own network instead of allowing ESPN to talk them out of it by dangling more money. This makes Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany look a lot smarter than SEC head honcho Mike Slive in that perspective.

If the conference agrees to establish a TV network, this would put more cash in the SEC membership’s coffers, surpassing the Big Ten in revenue. The conference has enjoyed six consecutive years of a school wining the BCS National Championship Game.

It’s high time the SEC gets its own network. In my opinion, NBC/Comcast would be a better equity partner for the league in establishing an SEC Network than ESPN.

 

Pac-12 Network

The Pac-12 Network was the crown jewel when it came to the historic media rights deal between the conference and ESPN/Fox. Even more historic was the creation of seven networks, the main Pac-12 Network and seven regional channels.

Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott has proved himself to be a power broker in college athletics and he has grown the conference into a financial power. In addition, his experience in negotiating TV contracts brought four digital cable companies as partners to carry the networks when he announced their formation.

While this all sounds good in theory, the hard part will be trying to convince all of the cable and satellite companies to carry all seven networks. Most likely all will carry the main Pac-12 network, but not the other six. Thus, the challenge of starting a sports channel and ensuring most of the country can watch it.

The Mtn. went dark on May 31 because it could not get distribution beyond DirecTV and various smaller cable providers in the West. Longhorn Network is having difficulty gaining carriage in Texas.

Time Warner Cable will have a tough time convincing cable and satellite companies to pick up its two new regional networks it is starting with the Los Angeles Lakers. As reported by John Ourand from the Sports Business Journal, Time Warner is charging companies $3.95/subscriber fee. That’s insane.

DirecTV President and CEO Mike White said that the satellite provider will not carry the Longhorn Network. Another statement could potentially spell bad news for the Pac-12 Network. White said DirecTV will most likely not carry all seven Pac-12 Networks. If you’re Larry Scott, you should be concerned. It appears DirecTV will only carry the main network and not the regional channels. Dish Network and AT&T U-Verse are probably thinking the same thing.

While Larry Scott’s thinking was out of the box, it could be a bad move for now. The Big Ten Network has been largely successful, but it was just one network. The Pac-12 Networks will have major challenges in gaining carriage. As a U-verse customer, I would like to be able to watch all of the networks from their inception. The question is: Can the Pac-12 convince every digital and satellite company to carry all seven networks? Good luck, Larry Scott.

Corneilus Green resides in Orangeburg, South Carolina. Currently unemployed, but Corneilus is a sports enthusiast who once had a dream of being a sports broadcaster and commentator. He still might do it.

Thanks to Corneilus for the column. More guest columns will published throughout the week.

http://articles.latimes.com/2004/jul/30/sports/sp-tvcol30

Back To Linkage

Been so busy lately that it’s been effecting the blog. Sorry about that. This weekend was planned for me again, so I really couldn’t post too much around the personal events. It also meant I couldn’t watch any of The Masters^® or any baseball. The only things I could watch was The Amazing Race and Mad Men so you could tell what type of weekend it was.

One of these days, I’ll be able to have a normal weekend where I can post what I like.

Anyway, you don’t care about my life or problems, you want links and that’s what I’ll provide.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today looks at CBS’ coverage of The Masters^®.

Mike Foss of USA Today’s Game On has old fossil Fox’s Tim McCarver railing against social networking.

Writing for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Eric Deggans of the Tampa Bay Times says journalists can lead the way to change Augusta National’s sexist policies.

Joe Posnanski writes his last column for Sports Illustrated.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch talks with ESPN NBA analyst Jeff Van Gundy who freely admits who he’s supporting in the Stan Van Gundy/Dwight Howard conflict that arose last week.

John Consoli from Broadcasting & Cable writes about Fox handing over a majority of its Saturday primetime hours this year to Fox Sports.

Toni Fitzgerald of Media Life Magazine says Fox Sports will fill Saturday primetime with existing properties such as college football, MLB, NASCAR, NFL preseason and UFC.

John Ourand of Sports Business Journal explains how Fox Sports came to program a majority of Saturday nights for the network.

Mike Reynolds at Multichannel News reports that Dish Network has picked up the Univision Sports channel.

Sam Thielman of Adweek says NBC will go all out to measure viewing habits on all platforms during the Summer Olympics.

Nat Ives of Advertising Age reports that the poorly promoted NFL Magazine will be shuttered after four issues.

Karen Hogan of Sports Video Group looks at TBS’ plans for Sunday Afternoon Baseball.

The Big Lead explores ESPN kicking out the Colonial Athletic Association from BracketBusters college basketball event after the conference signed a new contract with NBC Sports Group.

Timothy Burke at Deadspin has a screengrab of ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball crew with $78 worth of the new Texas Rangers 2 foot long hot dogs.

Boston Sports Media Watch celebrates 10 years. It’s a great site and Bruce Allen has been very kind to me over the years.

To Phil Mushnick at the New York Post who enjoyed a Tiger-fee Masters.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette has the NHL Conference Quarterfinal schedule.

Jim Williams at the Washington Examiner looks at the Broadway play on Larry Bird and Magic Johnson.

Bob Molinaro at the Virginian-Pilot feels ESPN is being petty by booting the CAA out from BracketBusters.

The Tampa Bay Times’ Tom Jones gives his two cents on the the weekend in sports television.

Jessica Lipscomb and Victoria Macchi of the Naples (FL) Daily News says the host of an Outdoor Channel/ESPN2 fishing show was killed in a plane crash last week.

Dan Caesar at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch tells us to get ready for a lot of hockey.

Dusty Saunders at the Denver Post says CBS got the job done at The Masters^®.

Kelly Lyell of The Coloradoan has Colorado State University disappointed about the end of the mtn.

Scott D. Pierce of the Salt Lake Tribune says it’s no surprise of the demise of the mtn.

Mark Anderson of the Las Vegas Review-Journal writes that the fall of the mtn. was just a matter of time.

Dan Hayes of the North County Times says the San Diego Padres ownership picture is becoming much clearer and that should lead for the formal approval of the team’s rights deal with Fox Sports.

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

Raju Mudhar of the Toronto Star puts a lid on two traditional Original Six NHL rivals who won’t be in the postseason.

Sports Media Watch discusses Fox Sports and the Olympic Trials in primetime plus the end of the mtn. in a news and notes post.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media mostly likes what he sees with NBC Sports Group’s scheduling for the NHL Conference Quarterfinals.

Joe Favorito talks about the latest NHL Playoff beard promotion, continuing activation for the Geico Gekko and promotion for the Family Circle Cup.

And we’re done now.

Doing Some Monday Linkage For You

Let’s do some long overdue linkage for you. It’s been owed big time.

We begin with Mike McCarthy of USA Today who writes that a San Diego sports anchor is in trouble for referring to NASCAR driver Danica Patrick as a “B.”

Michael Hiestand from USA Today says the NBA All-Star Game’s overnight ratings are down from last year.

Michael says Fox did its best to hype Danica Patrick during Sunday’s Daytona 500 rain delay coverage.

John Daly at the Daly Planet is doing yeoman’s work in updating his site on Fox’s plans for the Daytona 500 which is now scheduled to air at 7 p.m. ET.

The Nielsen Wire blog says despite her lack of multiple victories, Danica Patrick remains the most known motorsports driver.

The Associated Press says Fox Sports is looking to extend its current rights deal with NASCAR that will expire in 2014.

Michael Schottey at Bleacher Report has some suggestions on how to improve NFL Scouting Combine coverage.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News writes that Universal Sports has picked up a carriage deal with Dish Network giving the satellite provider “TV Everywhere” rights.

Jeanine Poggi of Advertising Age says CBS/Turner will make a big marketing push for March Madness.

Newsday’s Neil Best talks with new Mets radio voice Josh Lewin.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post finds something to complain about today.

Pete Dougherty at the Albany Times Union writes that ESPN has unveiled its primetime ACC football schedule.

Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog looks at one local anchorman’s thoughts about changing the name of the DC NFL Team.

Skyler Swisher of the Daytona Beach (FL) News-Journal talks with ESPN motorsports pit reporter Jamie Little.

Tom Jones at the Tampa Bay Times looks back at the weekend in sports television.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Bob Wolfley says the paper’s readers blame ESPN for ruining Ryan Braun’s reputation.

Shane Nyman of the Green Bay Gazette feels ESPN is overgushing over Jeremy Lin.

Dusty Saunders at the Denver Post reviews ESPN’s documentary on Magic Johnson’s announcement that he was HIV Positive.

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

Andrew Bucholz at Awful Announcing writes about ESPN college football analyst Ed Cunningham winning an Oscar for Best Documentary feature last night.

That will do it for now.

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.

MLB Network Now On Dish Network

Just received this e-mail from MLB announcing that Dish Network has finally picked up MLB Network. There’s no press release yet, but this is a good way to inform everyone who’s signed up for commercial e-mails from MLB on this latest development.

Dish had been one of the major holdouts to pick up MLB Network. Most of the major providers have MLB Network either on digital basic or a sports tier.

Bringing In The Monday Links

I thought this weekend would be quiet and I would be able to do some good blogging like Saturday and Sunday linkage, some Sunday thoughts and a few press releases thrown in, but it turned out to be very busy. Don’t understand it, but it happened. Can’t go back now. Just moving forward so it’s time to provide the linkage for today.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today notes that this week will be chock full of US Open coverage on three networks.

Ryan Nakashima of the Associated Press says Comcast’s $4.4 billion expensive pricetag for four Olympics may end up paying dividends in the long run.

Tripp Mickle of the Sports Business Journal takes us inside the meetings that left NBC firmly entrenched as America’s Olympic Network.

John Ourand of SBJ looks at ESPN’s and Fox’s perspective on the Olympic bidding.

Lindsay Powers at the Hollywood Reporter notes that Miami Heat star LeBron James was mocked on Twitter after his team lost in the NBA Finals on Sunday.

John Eggerton of Multichannel News says a US Court of Appeals ruling closes the FCC terrestrial loophole exemption, but still allows Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia to keep its programming off DirecTV and Dish.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel writes that Versus saw double digit percentage ratings declines for the NHL Stanley Cup Final.

Mike says Golf Channel’s new show with David Feherty will line up a mix of interesting guests.

Toni Fitzgerald of Media Life Magazine tells us about NBC’s ratings bump for the Belmont Stakes.

George Winslow of Broadcasting & Cable writes that NASCAR.com is launching its first social media-based game.

Andrew Gauthier at TV Spy notes that the now-infamous tape of the Miami Heat’s Dwayne Wade and LeBron James mocking the Dallas Mavericks’ Dirk Nowitzki’s fever shot by a Dallas CBS affiliate proved to be a turning point in the NBA Finals.

Cam Newton of SportsNewser says reserve members of the German Women’s World Cup soccer team appeared in the German version of Playboy.

Cam says Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban spewed an “S” bomb live on ESPN’s SportsCenter last night.

Dashiell Bennett at the Business Insider Sports Page has media reaction to the Miami Heat’s loss in the NBA Finals.

Fluto Shinzawa of the Boston Globe reports that the Vancouver Canucks’ attempts to sell the broadcast rights to a potential Stanley Cup victory parade were shot down.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times looks at the potential conflicts of interest when TV analysts are hired as coaches, but still work for their networks.

Karen Crouse of the Times talks with CBS golf analyst David Feherty about his new Golf Channel show and his role at the network.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union has your U.S. Open broadcast schedule.

Bob Fernandez of the Philadelphia Inquirer chronicles how Comcast bigwigs helped NBC to land four Olympic Games.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner talks with Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic anchor Julie Donaldson who has bounced back after a domestic assault incident in Boston in 2008.

Bill Starr of The State (SC) remembers former sportswriter and television editor Doug Nye who passed away recently.

Tom Jones at the St. Petersburg Times gives his thoughts on the weekend in sports television.

Jeff Schultz of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution notes that the Miami Herald has some egg on its face after running an ad for a Macy’s Heat “Championship” shirts. It would be understandable if this came after Game 7, but Game 6?

The Madison (IN) Courier says former TNT NASCAR voice Bill Weber will be calling hydroplane racing on Versus.

Ed Sherman at Crain’s Chicago Business talks with White Sox TV analyst Steve Stone about his new book.

The Denver Post’s Dusty Saunders wishes Charles Barkley had a bigger role at the NBA Finals.

Over to Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News who has the Southern California sports calendar for this week.

Irwin Block of the Montreal Gazette reports that local media are shocked over the death of a locally-based Reuters photographer who suddenly died over the weekend covering the Canadian Grand Prix.

Bruce Dowbiggin at the Toronto Globe and Mail wants the media to focus on NHL referees who have vendettas against players. Why don’t you do that on your own, Bruce?

My podcast partner Keith Thibault has unveiled a new look at Sports Media Journal. Tell Keith you like it.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media says the overnight ratings for Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final were an improvement from 2009, but a decrease from 2010.

Joe Favorito says in minor league hockey, timing is everything.

And that is where I’ll leave the linkage for today.

Time For Some Tuesday Links

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I think I’ll end it there.

A Special Monday Night Linkfest

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sounding Off On The Thursday Linkage

Let’s do the linkage on this Thursday morning. Some good stuff is already out.

The Financial Times has a look at how European TV money is now either catching up or surpassing US TV dollars for the bidding for certain global sports events.

Todd Spangler from Multichannel News reports that ESPN has released a new app for the iPhone and iPod Touch which allows Time Warner and Verizon FiOS TV subscribers to watch live TV on their devices.

Mike Reynolds at Multichannel notes that SNY is now taking shots at Dish Network after being dropped by the satellite provider.

Mike says YES Network and DirecTV continue their negotiations as a deadline that was extended to today is staring them in the face.

Lindsay Rubino from Broadcasting & Cable says ESPN’s E:60 is being nominated for an award that honors diversity in communications.

Louisa Ada Seltzer of Media Life writes that Tiger Woods appears to be an afterthought for ESPN’s and CBS’ coverage of The Masters^®.

At the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, the St. Petersburg Times’ Eric Deggans feels Mark Cuban’s idea to ban all internet writers to improve sports coverage is quite silly.

Ronald Grover, Brian Womack and Andy Fixmer of Bloomberg report that YouTube is in talks with several Hollywood companies to provide original content including sports.

Marcus Vanderberg of SportsNewser says DirecTV is all over The Masters^® this year.

Marcus says since ESPN’s Captain Blowhard promised not to tweet until the Red Sox won, an online betting site is taking wagers on whether he will indeed keep quiet.

Sports Video Group has provided a site that outlines how to produce live golf in the third dimension.

At the Biz of Baseball, Maury Brown says MLB isn’t serving its Extra Innings and MLB.TV subscribers well through its archaic blackout policies.

Dan Frommer of the Business Insider has a look at the new WatchESPN iPhone app.

Pete Dougherty from the Albany Times Union writes that a local sports TV anchor will be part of the online and DirecTV coverage of The Masters^®.

Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette tells us that NFL Films visited the Steelers last week to film several interviews.

CBS Radio Baltimore’s Jen Royle talks with the Baltimore Sun’s Simon Habtemariam.

Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog says former Nationals analyst Rob Dibble has come out stating that it was a letter from the father of pitcher Stephen Strasburg that led to him being fired from MASN last year.

Dan talks to a local man who came close to winning ESPN.com’s NCAA Tournament Bracket Challenge.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner says CBS and Augusta National Country Club have a unique partnership for The Masters^®.

Iliana Limon in the Orlando Sentinel talks with Conference USA Commissioner Britton Banowsky about the future of the league.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman discusses online coverage of The Masters^®.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer has an update on what happened with Fox Sports Ohio’s feed of the Astros-Reds game from earlier in the week.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes that the Bucks will be pushed to another radio station due to conflicts with the Brewers.

Neal Justin of the Minneapolis Star Tribune says four cable and satellite providers are not carrying the full schedule of Twins games from Fox Sports North.

Tim Engstrom in the Albert Lea (MN) Tribune writes that Charter Communications is at an impasse with Fox Sports North over 45 Twins games that Fox Sports North picked up.

Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times says while the Lakers will not bring back TV play-by-play man Joel Myers, they will bring back analyst Stu Lantz.

That’s where I’ll end it for now.

The Monday Back to Work Linkage

Let’s do some links on this back to work Monday. Many of the links will focus on the NCAA Tournament so let’s get cracking.

Starting with John Ourand and Michael Smith of Sports Business Journal, they report that Fox is about to sign a new cable rights deal with the Big 12 Conference that would include football and basketball and possibly start a new channel.

Mike McCarthy of USA Today says ESPN’s analysts did a lot of yelling about the NCAA Tournament selections.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch does a Q&A on our viewing the NCAA Tournament.

Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times writing for the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, wonders if the new NCAA Tournament on CBS and Turner is an exercise in excess.

Etan Vlessing of the Hollywood Reporters says the controlling stake in Canada’s top TV sports property is up for sale.

Also from Hollywood Reporter, Kimberly Nordyke writes that Dish Network and LIN TV have resolved their differences and 17 markets have their local stations back.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News says MSG Network will air its first live concert in its history tonight.

Bill Cromwell of Media Life Magazine writes that media analysts feel the NFL lockout won’t last very long.

Mike Stern of Media Life says radio would be hurt by an extended NFL lockout.

Dan Fogarty at SportsGrid notes that Charles Barkley and old bastard curmudgeony analyst Billy Packer are continuing their feud.

My Twitter Trophy Wife, Amanda Rykoff of espnW, says watching a baseball game in the press box is extremely different than watching from the stands.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell goes inside the numbers of the NCAA Tournament.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post doesn’t care about eating at the game, he just wants to watch it.

Neil Best from Newsday says it’s time for truTV’s big moment.

Neil says ESPN thumped the desk the loudest over the NCAA Tournament selections.

Neil writes that MLB Network will air some rare footage tonight.

Pete Dougherty at the Albany Times Union has the NIT TV tip times.

Ken McMillan from the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record says WWOR-TV will air a handful of Yankees games this season.

Ken says the NIT will be aired exclusively on the networks of ESPN.

From the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog, Dan Steinberg notes that a Capitals-centric NHL ad will debut tonight.

To Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner who writes that viewers finally have control of their NCAA Tournament viewing.

Jim talks with Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic’s Capitals studio analyst Alan May.

Tom Jones from the St. Petersburg Times reviews the weekend in sports television.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle makes a long answer to a reader’s question.

David says Comcast in Houston will add truTV HD starting today.

And David has the early TV lineup for the NCAA Tournament.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer explains what having four networks airing NCAA Tournament games means for local viewers.

A story that’s being picked up across the country in blogs and newspapers, Bob Hunter of the Columbus Dispatch says ESPN’s and Ohio State alumnus Kirk Herbstreit is moving away from the area because Buckeye fans don’t understand that he has to be objective.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reviews the credentials of TNT’s Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith.

Bob says ESPN’s Jay Bilas came out railing against the NCAA Tournament selection committee.

And Bob has CBS’ Uncle Verne Lundquist recalling a story on the late Al McGuire.

Ed Sherman of Crain’s Chicago Business talks about the new world of NCAA Tournament viewing this year.

Philip Hersh from the Chicago Tribune reports that the International Skating Union has postponed the World Figure Skating Championships originally scheduled for Tokyo this month due to the Japan earthquake. This affects NBC’s plans as it is the rightsholder for the event.

Dusty Saunders of the Denver Post says having Turner Sports involved in the NCAA Tournament is a plus for fans.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News talks with CBS/TNT’s Steve Kerr.

Tom also has your Southern California sports calendar for the week.

Bruce Dowbiggin at the Toronto Globe and Mail says it appears CBC’s Mike Milbury is the Voice of Reason in the NHL violence debate.

The Toronto Star has entertainment reporter Raju Mudhar taking over the sports media beat for Chris Zelkovich. Raju looks at the battle between TSN and Rogers Sportsnet.

At Puck The Media, Steve Lepore has the transcript of the discussion of fighting between NBC’s Mike Milbury and Pierre McGuire.

And we’ll end it there for now.

Bringing Out Some Monday Links

Ok, time to get cracking on the linkage. Haven’t done any since Thursday and the weekend was busy for me as I was out of the house for most of Saturday and Sunday so it didn’t make for conducive blogging conditions. We have a lot of stuff to get to today and a couple of leftover links from last week to give you.

Let’s get going.

From Mike McCarthy at USA Today, he tells us that Fox has extended the contracts of two of its star analysts. For one of them, I use “star” rather loosely.

David Goetzl at Mediapost looks at how the NFL tried to get rights fees from its TV partners in advance of a potential lockout and almost alienating them in the process.

David Broughton of Sports Business Journal writes about Conference Tournaments bearing gifts to athletes during Championship Week.

Also from SBJ, Michael Smith says some colleges are irked at the Capital One Cup’s scoring system to determine an all-sports champion.

Michael chronicles the commitment that has to be made to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Selection Committee.

And Michael talks with two men who will join the Selection Committee next season.

John Ourand at Sports Business Daily says ESPN’s Communications department is going to launch a blog to cover itself. That’s going to be very interesting.

At Press Coverage, Dan Levy announces that he’ll have to give up his regular podcast due to family commitments. Sorry to hear that. Dan is one of the good ones on the internet and I hope everything goes well with his son, Max.

Jason Fry at the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center tackles the no cheering in the press box issue.

The All England Lawn Tennis Club which runs the Wimbledon Championships has announced that the late rounds of the tournament will be shown in 3-D in theaters all around the world. Now this is a good use of 3-D, not on TV where only 62 people can watch.

Phil Swann at TV Predictions says Dish Network has pulled 27 local TV stations which affects March Madness and NASCAR in some markets.

Chris Ariens of SportsNewser says CBS’ Jim Nantz appeared on Golf Channel on NBC’s coverage of the Honda Classic to remember the late CBS golf producer, Frank Chirkinian.

Jon Lafayette at Broadcasting & Cable says NBC and Versus are banding together to promote the NHL ‘s Stanley Cup Playoffs.

And you can check out the new promotional spots right here.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News talks about Versus airing 3 classic Notre Dame football games that had previously been broadcast by NBC.

Bill Cromwell of Media Life Magazine says the NFL’s TV partners are watching this week’s collective bargaining sessions rather closely.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says it’s time for the NFL owners to open their books to the Players Association.

If you’re a regular visitor to Fang’s Bites, you’ll know how much I dislike ESPN.com’s Bill Simmons, but I’ll give him credit for this excellent column from last week on the greed in the NFL labor talks. I’m not unfair where I won’t praise for him a good column, and this is one of the best he’s written in a very long time.

Newsday’s Neil Best tweets that WFAN will have Yankees manager Joe Girardi on every weekday with Mike Francesa. That has the potential to disastrous.

The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick is happy to see Joe Morgan gone from ESPN’s MLB coverage.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union goes over the early MLB on TBS schedule.

Jacques Kelly at the Baltimore Sun says the popular local beer known as “Natty Boh” will be sold at Orioles games this season. That has nothing to do with sports media, I just wanted to write “Natty Boh” in the blog.

Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog tries to determine if the Wizards have or don’t have a new logo.

Tom Jones in the St. Petersburg Times spends a day with ESPN’s Dick Vitale.

Matt Murschel of the Orlando Sentinel also chatted with Dick Vitale, this time about his children’s book and his giving back to the community.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle remembers CBS’ Frank Chirkinian.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Bob Wolfley reviews NFL Films’ Super Bowl XLV DVD which features of course, the Green Bay Packers.

Bob notices that the Milwaukee Brewers are missing from the early MLB on TBS schedule.

The Chicago Tribune’s Phil Rosenthal writes about Versus airing three classic Notre Dame games.

Phil says Headline News’ Rafer Weigel who anchored sports on Morning Express with Robin Meade is leaving and heading back to his native Chicago.

Robert Feder from Time Out Chicago also writes about Weigel’s return to the Windy City.

Kent Babb at the Kansas City Star says local CBS affiliate KCTV is still try to figure out why the network switched away from Saturday’s Kansas-Missouri game and never returned.

Dusty Saunders of the Denver Post reviews HBO’s documentary on the 1990-91 UNLV Runnin’ Rebels.

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

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail wonders what happened to Hockey Night in Canada’s Mike Milbury after he questioned the need for fighting in hockey.

Sports Media Watch says the Miami Heat continue to burn up the NBA’s TV ratings.

The Daly Planet reviews Fox’s production of Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race.

Maury Brown at the Biz of Baseball talks with MLB’s new Official Historian.

Joe Favorito says the MLS’ San Jose Earthquakes made a mundane story about groundbreaking for a new home, into a big media event.

And we’ll end it there.

And I forgot to the Primetime & Late Night Viewing Picks. No one noticed they were missing today. I’ll do them for tomorrow and look for them Tuesday morning.

Doing Tuesday Links

Time for the links. Lots of stuff to get to.

From Sports Business Daily, we learn that the Sporting News has officially taken over Fanhouse. A sad day really as the Fanhouse site was very good and had many good writers on staff (Jay Mariotti excepting). Many writers have lost their jobs while others have decided not to move to the new site. I’ll have more on this later in the day.

Sports Business Daily also notes the increased ratings for the just-completed PGA Tour’s West Coast Swing.

At Sports Business Journal, John Ourand and Terry Lefton tell us that the NHL now has two more suitors for its US cable contract in addition to Versus.

John Ourand and Michael Smith report that ESPN is really looking into the machinations behind Conference USA’s deal with Fox.

Interesting story that’s been developing since the end of last month’s Daytona 500. Apparently, one journalist, a freelancer for SI.com, got caught up with Trevor Bayne winning the race and started clapping in the press box which is a no-no. It got him fired and now, Thomas Bowles writing in Frontstretch tries to justify his actions. Thanks to The Big Lead for the link.

And Dave Kindred at the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center tells you why reporters should not be cheering in the press box.

Southeastern New England Media Mogul Keith Thibault returns to Sports Media Journal with a post on what is right and wrong with sportswriters today.

To Yahoo’s Puck Daddy and Greg Wyshynski who writes that some of the fake NHL trades tweeted during Deadline Day were more entertaining than the ones being made.

Brian Lowry of Fox Sports notes that the Charlie Sheen Career Suicide Press Tour began on the Dan Patrick Show.

Marcus Vanderberg of SportsNewser bids adieu to Fanhouse.

John Eggerton of Broadcasting & Cable writes that as of Friday, Dish Network is ready to drop local TV stations in 17 markets including Albuquerque, NM; Green Bay, WI; Indianapolis, IN; Providence, RI and Springfield, MA, all of which are part of the LIN TV group. That would affect March Madness in several markets.

Mike Reynolds at Multichannel News says MSG Network continues to see ratings spikes for New York Knicks games since the Carmelo Anthony trade.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell tracks down former tennis superstar Andre Agassi.

Darren likes a minor league baseball concession offering of a whole big heap of hot dog toppings.

And Darren really likes an inventive marketing ploy by Jack in the Box at a recent Lakers game.

At espnW, my Twitter trophy wife, Amanda Rykoff, recognizes three women sports executives.

Robin Berger of TV Technology looks at CBS/Turner’s plans for the NCAA Tournament, which include online streaming.

Dashiell Bennett of the Business Insider’s Sports Page says the NHL is suddenly a hot property.

NESN has a slideshow of the preparation Bruins TV voice Jack Edwards goes through just for one game.

At the Springfield (MA) Republican, Fred Contrada writes that the attorney for ESPN.com writer Howard Bryant is using the race card in his arrest on domestic assault charges.

Jessica Heslam of the Boston Herald also writes about the Howard Bryant incident.

Jessica talks with new WEEI midday show co-host Lou Merloni about taking over the timeslot from mainstay Dale Arnold.

Pete Dougherty at the Albany Times Union talks about ESPN’s assignments for the MAAC and America East Championship Games.

The Washington Post’s Dan Steinberg in the DC Sports Bog says ESPN finally took note of George Mason’s basketball team members’ vow not to cut their hair until their 15 game winning streak ends.

To the Washington Examiner where Jim Williams writes about the Nationals’ new flagship radio station’s spring training schedule.

The Petersburg (VA) Progress-Index says the Tri-Cities area gets its own local sports radio network.

Ileana Limon of the Orlando Sentinel writes that ESPN is threatening to sue Conference USA over what it says was right of first refusal over the league’s new contract with Fox Sports.

Laken Litman of the Dallas Morning News says ESPN’s College GameDay will be in the Lone Star State on Saturday.

Mike Chappelle of the Indianapolis Star speaks with NFL Network’s Mike Mayock about the best of this year’s NFL Scouting Combine.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says NASCAR was tops in the local weekend ratings.

Bob has details of the new Green Bay Packers Super Bowl XLV DVD that arrives on shelves next week.

Bob Goldsborough of the Chicago Tribune writes that the radio voice of the Bulls could not stand to leave his local neighborhood despite selling his house last year.

The Arizona Diamondbacks will be aired exclusively on Fox Sports Arizona this season.

In the Toronto Sun, Terry Koshan writes that Twitter played a big role on NHL Trade Deadline Day.

Dan Ilika of the Sun grades the TV coverage of the Trading Deadline.

Lenny Shulman of Bloodhorse.com says the Triple Crown is back together on one network as it should have been all along.

Sports Media Watch has some NBA ratings news and notes.

To Puck The Media where Steve Lepore explores whether the NHL has made a true inroad into the mainstream.

Steve says Jeremy Roenick will be reunited with a former coach and a former teammate this week on Versus.

Steve also has the most watched and least watched NHL games on Versus for February.

The Big Lead wonders how ESPN will handle the delicate Howard Bryant situation.

Dave Kohl at Major League Programs says college basketball owes a debt of gratitude to a television executive.

And that’s going to do it for us today.

Bringing Some Wednesday Linkage

Ok, let’s bring you some linkage. Again, in the midst of a lot of stuff, but taking a break to do some now before work really prevents me from blogging.

Mike McCarthy at USA Today recaps Phil Simms comments to Sirius XM regarding his Super Bowl incident with Desmond Howard.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today says the NBA is experiencing its own ratings renaissance this season just as the NFL has.

TNT’s Marv Albert held a chat with USA Today yesterday and talked about his approach to calling the NCAA Tournament this season.

If you’re a fan of the Dan Patrick Show like I am, then you’ll welcome a relaunch of his website.

Stu Hackel of Sports Illustrated says don’t expect the NHL to leave NBC/Versus anytime soon. Thanks to Steve Lepore of Puck The Media for the link.

Jeff Pearlman talks about the monotony of a postgame press conference.

Milton Kent of Fanhouse looks at CBS’ Sean McManus focusing on sports again.

The Hollywood Reporter says HomeAway’s Super Bowl ad which featured a baby doll being smashed against a window will be re-edited for future showings.

Lindsay Powers of the Hollywood Reporter says the director of the popular Volkswagen mini-Darth Vader Super Bowl ad which went viral before the game feels releasing them online will be the model for future commercials.

Philiana Ng of the Hollywood Reporter notes that Animal Planet’s Puppy Bowl VII received its highest audience ever.

Jon Lafayette at Broadcasting & Cable reports that Disney showed higher earnings in the first quarter of its fiscal year thanks to ESPN and ABC.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News writes that TNT is on pace to have its highest rated NBA regular season ever.

Toni Fitzgerald of Media Life Magazine writes that thanks to the Super Bowl and American Idol, Fox has climbed to number 1 in the all-important 18-49 ratings demographic.

Brad Cohen of SportsGrid gives his first-hand account of surviving Super Bowl Week in the Metroplex.

At the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Eric Deggans from the St. Petersburg Times writes that CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus has plenty of challenges lying ahead of him.

Marcus Vanderberg of SportsNewser says a Dallas radio talk show host went over the line in confronting Michael Vick last week.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell notes that the NFL is stepping up a notch in the ticket snafu that left hundreds of fans watching the Super Bowl in a bar instead of inside Cowboys Stadium.

Nellie Andreeva of Deadline says Comedy Central has given the green light to a Norm Macdonald-hosted sports show.

Josh Halliday of the London (UK) Guadian reports that ESPN is going to launch mobile apps for cricket and Formula 1 racing for the iPhone.

Alex Marvez of Fox Sports writes that NFL labor unrest could put the league’s annual game in London in jeopardy.

Ron Sirak of Golf Digest has the new president of Golf Channel talking about the new corporate synergy between NBC Sports and Golf Channel.

Stuart Elliot of the New York Times says amid complaints, Groupon is revising its Super Bowl ads.

Newsday’s Neil Best attended an event previewing an MSG Network documentary series on the 1986 New York Mets.

Brad Wellen of Fishbowl NY says ESPN The Magazine is packing up its Manhattan offices and heading to Bristol, CT.

Ken McMillan in the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record states that the New York Yankees will have 15 spring training games on TV and radio.

And Ken says the Mets will have a combined 19 exhibition games on the air this spring.

In the Buffalo News, Greg Connors praises Fox’s Joe Buck and Troy Aikman for their work in the Super Bowl.

Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun writes that the Orioles have decided to return to 50,000 watt powerhouse WBAL-AM as its radio flagship station after a three year absence.

MASN says it’s pulling a simulcast of the Scott Garceau radio show effective immediately.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner explores why the Orioles decided to return to WBAL after being on FM.

Shannon Owens of the Orlando Sentinel has ESPN’s Dick Vitale giving some love and support to co-worker Stuart Scott who’s undergoing a second battle with cancer.

Mike Bianchi of the Sentinel says the 9 year old girl who sings the National Anthem at Magic games feels she could have done better than Christina Aguilera at the Super Bowl. Ouch!

Tim MacMahon of ESPN Dallas writes that Mavericks TV analyst Bob Ortegel has decided not to return to the organization after owner Mark Cuban pulled him off the broadcasts last month.

John Henry of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has the city’s mayor feeling his town was the epicenter of Super Bowl Week thanks to ESPN.

Mike Bailey of the Houston Chronicle talks about a local news anchor who loves to hit the links.

David Barron of the Chronicle looks at Sean McManus’ elevation to CBS Sports Chairman.

Jerry Garcia of the San Antonio Express-News has an appreciation of Friday Night Lights which ends its run this week on DirecTV. I’ve never watched the show and I know my Twitter Trophy Wife, Amanda Rykoff and Jason McIntyre of the Big Lead are big fans. Had this show not run on NBC at a time when I was boycotting the network’s primetime schedule, I might have given it a chance. I guess I’ll have to watch the DVD’s. Yes, I know it’s been on DirecTV the last two years which I have, but I just didn’t want to pick it up in the middle of its run.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says Super Bowl XLV set viewing records all over the place.

Bob also looks at the ratings in various local markets.

The Chicago Sun-Times says nearly all of the Cubs’ spring training games will be aired on TV, radio or the internet.

George Diaz of the Chicago Tribune despite the urgings of Fox Sports, NASCAR will not change its start times this season.

KSDK-TV in St. Louis says a local rapper is suing ESPN and two other parties for using his song without his permission.

Mike Sunnucks in the Phoenix Business Journal says Super Bowl XLV is the most watched TV program ever locally.

The San Francisco Business Times reports that Comcast SportsNet California is back up and running on Dish Network systems.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog reports that tennis is headed to Rogers Sportsnet.

Sports Media Watch says public indecency charges have been dropped against an ESPN NASCAR producer who was arrested last year.

SMW also looks at the ratings and viewership for each 2011 NFL postseason game.

SMW says the Super Bowl had slight increases in every key demographic from last year.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media says Versus’ NHL Overtime is showing slight increases in viewership on non-game nights.

Joe Favorito wonders when a sports franchise will hold a Christina Aguilera National Anthem Night.

Dave Kohl of Major League Programs writes about a new talk show on New York’s Off Track Betting channel.

That’s all for now.

Some Snowy Wednesday Links

On this day of massive snow here in the Northeast, I’ll provide you with some linkage. Crazy day as local meteorologists first predicted 4-8 inches, then as the storm organized, the totals were revised upward and upward. Now, it appears we have more on the ground here. Not quite the perfect storm, but damn close. And who would have thought 49 states of the Union have snow on the ground? Including Hawaii? Insane.

Let’s do some linkage today to get our minds off the snow.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today gives us a reality check on ESPN’s ratings for the BCS.

Mike McCarthy of USA Today talks with the head of powerful sports agency IMG about a whole slew of topics including gambling.

Sean Leahy at USA Today’s The Huddle notes Jon Gruden’s announcement that he’ll return to ESPN next season.

Jason Gay of the Wall Street Journal looks at Brent Musburger giving Tostitos free advertising this week.

Ben Klayman from Reuters writes about General Motors signing a huge advertising deal with NBC for the 2012 London Olympics.

Milton Kent at Fanhouse doesn’t like how golf allows viewers to call in to report violations on PGA Tour players.

Fanhouse’s Viv Bernstein finds that former college basketball analyst Billy Packer is not being docile in his retirement from broadcasting. 

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News notes that GolTV will air a Central America soccer tournament.

Anthony Crupi of Mediaweek looks at ESPN’s record ratings for the BCS National Championship Game.

Anthony writes in Adweek that ESPN will be a big sponsor target this year. 

Toni Fitzgerald of Media Life Magazine also writes about ESPN’s ratings for Auburn-Oregon.

The great Darren Rovell of CNBC has his Golden Rules of Twitter.

Noah Davis of SportsNewser looks at LeBron James’ tweeting at the expense of his old Cleveland Cavs team.

Glenn Davis of SportsGrid reviews the premiere episode of Onion SportsDome.

Across the pond, David Evans of Autosport notes that ESPN UK has obtained the rights to the popular World Rally Championship, keeping the sport away from free TV in England. 

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe notes a Boston connection to Onion SportsDome. 

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times wasn’t too thrilled with Brent Musburger’s call of the BCS National Championship Game.

Richard talks about Yahoo! Sports launching an all-new online magazine.

Speaking of the new Yahoo! Sports online magazine, called The PostGame, it has a feature on Fang’s Bites fave, Charissa Thompson. 

Newsday’s Neil Best looks at the love-hate, mostly hate relationship between the New York Jets and WFAN’s Mike Francesa.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union notes that Time Warner Cable will produce several AHL games.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette says ESPN’s Dick Vitale will remain in the fold for a while.

Jason Reid of the Washington Post recaps the DC Sports Owner summit.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle says the BCS’ ratings on cable are down considerably from when the games were on broadcast TV.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer says Dish and DirecTV subscribers will be able to see tonight’s Cincinnati Bearcats game.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel notes that Packers-Eagles is the most watched TV show of the season.

Bob says CBS’ Bill Cowher gives praise to the Packers’ defensive plan to contain the Eagles’ Michael Vick.

Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Tribune talks about Brent Musburger’s Tostitos plug late in the BCS National Championship Game.

The Chicago Sun-Times picks up a story that local NBC affiliate sports anchor Mike Adamle has been arrested on DUI charges.

Scott D. Pierce at the Salt Lake Tribune wonders if ESPN can objectively report on college football and the BCS.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail handicaps the upcoming changes in Canadian sports radio.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media breaks news that NBC will have six hours of coverage for Hockey Day in America next month.

Steve also compares Tuesday’s editions of NHL Overtime and NHL on the Fly.

Paulsen at Sports Media Watch notes that the BCS National Championship on ESPN finished lower in the ratings than the game on ABC last year.

Joe Favorito says the Indianapolis Colts may have lost Saturday, but won with its social networking approach to its FanCam.

Awful Announcing has Twitter reaction to Onion SportsDome.

And that will do it for today. I’ll be digging out the rest of the day.

Saturday Links

Let’s do some linkage on this Saturday. Trying to provide you with a full week of linkage for the first time in a while. And look for reviews of Pony Excess, the last ESPN 30 for 30 documentary, and Lombardi, HBO’s documentary on the late coach.

Here are the links.

Mike Demenchuk of Multichannel News reviews HBO’s Lombardi.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel writes about the new Golf Channel morning show that premieres in January.

Mike says Canadian donut chain Tim Horton’s will advertise during Versus’ coverage of the NHL Heritage Classic in February.

Ryan Ballengee of Pro Golf Talk has some thoughts on the Golf Channel morning show.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says despite polls showing LeBron James may have lost his marketing power, uniform sales prove the contrary.

Matthew Futterman and Jonathan Clegg of the Wall Street Journal report on the two fanbases of John W. Henry’s teams who are jealous of the spending on each other’s organizations.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times says ESPN decided to tape an interview with Cam Newton in advance instead of asking him awkward questions about his father after the Heisman Trophy Presentation. 

Newsday offers the best of Neil Best’s blogging from the week.

Ken McMillan of the Hudson Valley Times Herald-Record writes that Fox College Sports is in town for a national broadcast.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner writes about the Big Chill at the Big House, the outdoor hockey game between Michigan State and Michigan that will be available across the country today.

Jim says ESPN is ready for tonight’s Heisman Trophy presentation.

Sarah Talalay of the South Florida Sun Sentinel writes that four Miami-based athletes have made a Forbes magazine list.

The Dallas Morning News’ Barry Horn talks with NBC’s Tony Dungy about the Cowboys which is quite different than the team he saw playing against Green Bay earlier this season.

Barry previews Jerry Jones’ appearance on 60 Minutes. 

Mark Norris of the Morning News talks with the director of tonight’s 30 for 30 documentary on the SMU football program.

David Barron reviews 30 for 30′s “Pony Excess” which airs tonight.

Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune recaps the funeral services for the late Ron Santo.

Robert Gagliardi of the Wyoming Tribune looks at the Mountain West/WAC moves and what it means for fans.

Diane Pucin of the Los Angeles Times writes that the Pac 10/12′s media rights will be sorted out very soon.

Steve Johnson from the San Jose Mercury News says Dish Network subscribers are losing out on seeing Sharks games as Comcast SportsNet California has been off the satellite provider since Thanksgiving. 

Stephen Tsai of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports on the University of Hawaii’s decision to join the Mountain West for football and Big West Conference for other sports and what it means for its media rights revenue. 

The Toronto Sports Media Blog has a breakdown of the local sports radio ratings.

Over at CBC.ca, Hockey Night in Canada host Ron MacLean discusses how he and Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke cleared the air on a couple of issues and writes about tonight’s 3-D broadcast. 

SportsbyBrooks speculates on whether Jim Gray was paid a half million dollars for his role in “The Decision”.

And that will do it for today.

Some Tuesday Night Links

Let’s do some additional linkage since I had to cut the regular Tuesday links short earlier today.

Bill Krueger of the Poynter Institute looks at how Yahoo! Sports has made a name for itself in sports investigations.

Jason Humphries of Reuters has International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge hopeful that the US TV rights for the 2014/16 Olympics will exceed what NBC paid for the 2012/14 Games.

Also from Reuters, Steve Keating says the NHL is bullish that a new US TV deal could put the league on equal footing with the other major sports leagues.

Craig Custance at the Sporting News has NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman optimistic over the negotiations for a new US TV contract.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says the last bastion of sports sponsorship is time.

From Fox Sports, Brian Lowry says it’s no coincidence ESPN scheduled the Heisman Trophy Presentation and its 30 for 30 documentary on SMU football back-to-back on Saturday.

Dylan Stableford of The Wrap takes a look at the launch of espnW. 

With Newsday free to all for a month, I’m taking advantage. Neil Best has a story on ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentary series which for all intents and purposes ends on Saturday.
From the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog, Dan Steinberg recaps how a local radio station landed the volatile interview with DC NFL team defensive lineman Albert Haynesworth this week.

Leonard Shapiro of the Post notes that the Daniel Snyder-owned sports radio station hasn’t pulled any punches on the DC NFL team.

D. Orlando Ledbetter of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution notes that the local ratings for the Falcons are on fire.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News reports that the Texas Rangers are changing flagship radio stations. 

Bill Livingston of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer says Don Meredith may have helped to make Monday Night Football a party, but not in his private life.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says the 30 for 30 DVD boxed set is LA-heavy.

Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times remembers Don Meredith. 

Eric Young at the San Francisco Business Times says Comcast is urging Dish Network customers to cut the cord over the satellite provider’s decision to pull its SportsNet California channel. 

Sports Media Watch mentions that Captain Blowhard will be on the live call of an NBA game for ESPN this week.

SMW says that the Big 12 Championship scored a four year ratings low.

SMW notes that the SEC Championship’s ratings for CBS were down from last year, but still held its own.

Joe Favorito says George Mason University is going all-21st Century by developing a smartphone app so fans can listen to basketball games and keep up with the school’s sports.

Phil Swann at TV Predictions says MLB Network wants to gain carriage on Dish Network and AT&T U-Verse.

Dave Kohl at the Major League Programs blog isn’t happy over Marvin Miller’s exclusion from the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Dan Fogarty of SportsGrid says ESPN’s Michelle Beadle’s attire is burning up the internet.

And that will do it for tonight. Maybe a press release or two and if I get motivated, an original post. Keep your RSS feeds updated.

Finally, Some Linkage

Well, it’s been a long ten days since I last did linkage. First, it was the Thanksgiving holidays, then work became crazy. I was able to do press releases as they came into the Fang’s Bites inbox, but you’ve been owed some so let’s get to it without further delay.

Mike Reynolds at Multichannel News writes about the big viewership for the Miami-Cleveland NBA game on TNT. 

Mike says Comcast SportsNet California remains off Dish Network systems after being removed before Thanksgiving Day. 

Michael Malone from Broadcasting & Cable says NBC Sports and sister network Universal Sports will air a prestigious international rugby competition starting this weekend.

Dave Kindred at the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center says the Arizona Republic reporter who asked Cardinals quarterback Derek Anderson about his smiling during a bad loss on Monday Night Football was not trying to goad him into a meltdown.

Anthony Crupi from Mediaweek discusses how Super Bowl XLV on Fox will have plenty of car ads.

Speaking of Super Bowl ads, Natalie Zmuda of Advertisting Age mentions that Best Buy will be making its first appearance in the Big Game in 2011.

EJ Schultz of Ad Age says by not abandoning Tiger Woods, Nike helped its bottom line.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell notes that former NFL QB Kurt Warner will be an Amway endorser. 

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times talks about the marriage of the New York Yankees, the Big East Conference and ESPN for the new Pinstripe Bowl.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post continues his nasty vendetta against WFAN’s Mike Francesa by calling him out on his interview earlier this week with New York Governor David Patterson. Nice mention of Friend of Fang’s Bites, Bob’s Blitz.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union mentions that ESPN wants its analysts to be highly sought after.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette breaks news that a local Capital Region sports anchor is leaving for a bigger market.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner has comments from CBS’ Verne Lundquist and Gary Danielson on today’s SEC Championship game.

Jim says MASN will air coverage of a local basketball tournament.

Tom Jones of the St. Petersburg Times has some sports media stories in a rare weekend column.

Barry Horn from the Dallas Morning News reviews ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentary on the SMU football program.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer says the Reds will be bringing back its radio booth intact for next season.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says the Sunday Night Baseball changes by ESPN are definitely an upgrade.

On Friday, we learned of the death of beloved Chicago Cubs third baseman and radio analyst Ron Santo. He was 70. Ron battled diabetes throughout his career and dealt with bladder cancer in his later years. With Ron, you knew where he stood. There were the Cubs and there was everyone else. His love for the Cubbies came through the radio every day. Even though he was never objective, that was ok. He did praise the opposing team whenever there was a good play, but through it all, Santo was the Cubs. And he was also a great third baseman. Why he isn’t in the Baseball Hall of Fame is beyond me. That snub hurt him until his dying day. Let’s hope Ron gets in the next time the Veterans Committee meets.

Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune writes the obituary for Santo.

Phil Rogers of the Tribune also remembers Santo.

David Haugh from the Tribune says the Cubs have lost their heart and soul with Santo’s passing.

WGN Radio has some of Ron’s best highlights and also some audio reaction to Santo’s death.

Rick Morrissey of the Chicago Sun-Times says Ron Santo embraced life.

Ed Sherman from Crain’s Chicago Business has an obituary for Santo from 2003 as he had a health scare back then.

MLB.com has compiled some highlights of Santo’s playing career.

And the Chicago Cubs’ website has a special section devoted to Ron Santo.

MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann feels Santo should be in his rightful place in the Hall of Fame. 

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes that Kurt Warner will be in the booth to witness two of his former teams play on Sunday.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has his extensive media notes.

Sports Media Watch notes that the Miami-Cleveland game on Thursday was the third highest watched NBA regular season game since last the 1990′s.

SMW says ABC’s Saturday Night Football got its highest rating of the season last week.

Joe Favorito says we’ve come a long way in the manner we view Russia in the sports world.

Brendan Frazier at Sports Business Digest talks about how two Los Angeles-based groups are pursuing the Minnesota Vikings.

And there you have it for the linkage. Glad to have it back.

Monday’s Links

Plenty of things going on as we have hit November. In addition, we’re getting reports on the ratings from last night’s head-to-head matchup between Sunday Night Football and the World Series. For the night, Fox won the overall ratings, but with the NFL up directly against the World Series, it appears NBC has won that battle. Both Fox and MLB are claiming victory, but I’m sure I’ll receive dueling press releases from both NBC and Fox about this later today. When I do, you’ll see them here.

Ok, to the links.

From Mike McCarthy of USA Today, he writes that the Sunday NFL pregame shows were full of vitriol towards Brett Favre.

Mike also looks at the World Series ratings from Saturday and Sunday.

Fox Sports’ Jason Whitlock wants to know where’s the outrage surrounding Notre Dame student Declan Sullivan’s death. He’s the student told to go up in a scissor lift last week in the midst of heavy winds to video tape a football practice and died when the lift came crashing down.

To the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center where Jason Fry has a few suggestions where newspaper websites can continue to lead the way in innovation and experimentation.

Georg Szalai of the Hollywood Reporter has several analysts saying that Fox won in the dispute over Cablevision.

John Eggerton at Multichannel News writes that U.S. Senator John Kerry (D-MA) is happy over the resolution of the Cablevision/Fox dispute, but says government intervention may be needed in future carriage fights.

In The Sports Commentary, Melinda Travis gives us some of the reasons why sports public relations works for athletes and clients.

Noah Davis at SportsNewser shoots down a theory that ESPN is getting out of the 3-D business. 

Dan Fogarty at SportsGrid has video from CBS’ The NFL Today of insider Charley Casserly talking about Jenn Sterger ready to file lawsuits over the Brett Favre affair.

Phil Mushnick from the New York Post says Fox’s NFL analysts speak out of both sides of their mouths.

Pete Dougherty at the Albany Times Union has the NFL Week 9 TV schedule for the New York Capital Region.

Pete also provides the college football TV schedule for Week 10. Week 10!

Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog says DC NFL team coach Mike Shanahan’s decision to bench QB Donovan McNabb during yesterday’s game against Detroit drew plenty of criticism from local analysts.

Tom Jones from the St. Petersburg Times shares his thoughts on the weekend in sports television.

Barry Horn at the Dallas Morning News writes that San Francisco is not only beating the Texas Rangers on the field, but also beating Dallas in the head-to-head ratings battle.

John Kiesewetter at the Cincinnati Enquirer notes that Fox Sports Ohio returned to Dish Network over the weekend.

John notes that a Kentucky exhibition basketball game will be aired locally tonight.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel likes Fox’s hiring of Mike Pereira as an NFL rules analyst.

Bob also talks about Jenn Sterger ready to file a lawsuit against anyone who has a living pulse.

Ed Sherman of Crain’s Chicago Business talks with the Sun-Times’ Rick Telander about his new book with former Bears coach Mike Ditka to commemorate the 1985 Super Bowl team.

Ed says the 1985 Bears will get together this week to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of winning Super Bowl XX.

Dusty Saunders from the Denver Post says Brett Favre had a rather tumultuous week. 

Tom Hoffarth at the Los Angeles Daily News has your SoCal sports calendar.

Awful Announcing notes that Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal doesn’t need to be told that he’s diminutive.

Sports Media Watch looks inside the first time the NFL has beaten the World Series head-to-head.

SMW says ESPN got good numbers for the Miami Heat home opener on Friday.

I got bogged down with work in the midst of doing the links so I’ll give you what I have for now.

Providing Some Sunday Links

Yesterday was busier than I expected both personally and sports media-wise. I was out most of the day which prevented me from providing links, but then the Cablevision/Fox story broke and I give tremendous kudos to Brian Stelter of the New York Times who tweeted the news just as Game 3 of the World Series was about to air on Fox. And he was able to get statements from both companies and in particular, the extremely bitter statement from Cablevision that it acquiesced to Fox’s demands. Thanks to you, the traffic to Fang’s Bites was quite heavy for a Saturday and it’s much appreciated.

I published that statement up while I was in a movie theater, about to see “Red” with Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Mary-Louise Parker, Helen Mirren and Richard Dreyfuss. Good movie, but blogging during the previews wasn’t quite what I had in mind, but it was important to get the news out as fast as possible. Here I am, trying to shade my iPhone so people won’t see the light in the dark theater and copying and pasting the press release from Cablevision. Thank goodness for the BlogPress iPhone app which allows me to blog at a moment’s notice.

Ok, to your links.

Mike Farrell of Multichannel News says the Cablevision/Fox accord was hashed out minutes before World Series Game 3.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel writes that Cablevision and Fox could not kiss and make up after firing off terse statements about the agreement.

Minutes after the Cablevision/Fox deal was announced, New York Times reporters Brian Stelter and Bill Carter gave an overview of how the agreement was reached.

Phil Swann at TV Predictions says Cablevision came to an agreement with Fox, then fired a shot across the company’s bow.

Richard Huff and Rich Schapiro of the New York Daily News says the agreement came in time for today’s Jets game against Green Bay which is airing on Fox.

Andy Edelstein of Cablevision-owned Newsday writes about the end of the carriage dispute.

In SB Nation New York, Steve Lepore at Puck The Media looks at how the Cablevision/Fox dispute affected the network’s ratings. 

Ok, we’re moving on from Cablevision/Fox and on to other sports media stories. I’m tired of these carriage dispute stories.

Bill Reynolds of the Providence Journal talks with legendary Boston Celtics TV voice Mike Gorman who got his start on WPRO-AM in Providence. 

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times writes that a reluctant Sandy Koufax agreed to take part in a new documentary on Jews in baseball.

Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News says the opening segment of Football Night in America with Bob Costas, Cris Collinsworth and Al Michaels is must see TV.

Phil Mushnick from the New York Post is blaming ESPN for everything that’s bad in society. He does make a good opening point, then sours into extreme bitterness.

Dan Mangan of the Post says brunette bombshell Jenn Sterger will likely meet with the National Football League to talk Brett Favre. Just get it done and over with, honey. And maybe help your dead show, The Daily Line, with a statement or two about the story instead of clamming up. I was on your side on this earlier, but stonewalling the NFL hasn’t helped you.

Chuck Gormley of the Cherry Hill (NJ) Courier-Post profiles the Vice President and General Manager of Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia. 

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner talks with Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic’s Wizards reporter about the team’s chances this season.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News reports that Fox Sports Houston will lose the Astros and Rockets in 2012-13.

Barry writes that the NFL TV partners don’t want to kill off the Cowboys despite their pitiful record.

Mitchell Schnurman of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram profiles the real owners of the Texas Rangers, the team behind front men Chuck Greenberg and Nolan Ryan.

Bud Kennedy of the Star-Telegram says Fox is showcasing the Ballpark at Arlington in a way similar to how it showed AT&T Park in San Francisco during the World Series. 

David Barron at the Houston Chronicle says Dish Network subscribers could lose the local CBS affiliate later tonight.

David says Comcast SportsNet Houston will become a reality in the 2012-13 season.

The Daily Oklahoman has a video clip from an upcoming ESPN 30 for 30 documentary on former Oklahoma University running back bust Marcus Dupree.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman says the ESPN on ABC crew gushed over Oklahoma’s quarterback last night. 

Don Walker of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has video of a new ESPN NBA promo featuring Stuart Scott and the Bucks mascot, Bango.

Michael Rand in the Minneapolis Star Tribune talks with Dan Patrick. 

Dan Caesar at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch says Dish subscribers get Fox Sports Midwest back on their systems.

Matt Solinsky of the Desert Sun (CA) answers a reader’s question on the chances of seeing NFL Network on Time Warner Cable this season. 

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News talks with disgraced track star Marion Jones about the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary on her and her new book.

Bruce Dowbiggin at the Toronto Globe and Mail says Rogers Sportsnet has chosen to reject Fox’s feed of the World Series and take MLB International’s.

Joe Favorito says NBC is choosing to put the Fright in Fright Night tonight.

Sports Media Watch has its Weekend Ratings Predictions.

SMW speaks with PromaxBDA President Jonathan Block-Verk about the upcoming Sports Media Marketing Awards.

Jonathan Stein at CultureMob would like to see Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia on DirecTV and so would I.

A good amount of links today. Enjoy your Sports Sunday.

Doing A Late Night Friday Megalink Thing

Time to do the megalinkage on this Friday. Lots of things going on today into this evening and let’s get cracking. Of course, we have the Weekend Viewing Picks.

Now let’s do the links.

National

USA Today’s Michael McCarthy wants to know who’s your favorite NFL announcer.

Mike says this year’s World Series ratings are down 26% from last year’s.

David Biderman of the Wall Street Journal says there’s too much laughter on the Sunday NFL pregame shows.

Mike Farrell of Multichannel News looks at Dish and Fox coming to a new carriage agreement which restores several of its cable networks and prevents the broadcast network from being pulled.

John Eggerton of Broadcasting & Cable says the FCC Chairman is pleased over the Dish/Fox agreement.

In Multichannel News, John says Cablevision is accusing Fox of conducting intimidation tactics.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell speaks to a sports executive who feels the Tampa Bay Rays should give away their all of their tickets next season.

At the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Dave Kindred shares memories that shaped him as a sportswriter.

Marcus Vanderberg at SportsNewser says Game 2 of the World Series steered Fox to another primetime ratings win.

The Big Lead notes that not everyone at ESPN was thrilled with Hannah Storm’s ensemble on Tuesday.

Deadspin says The Daily Line’s cancellation really had nothing to do with the Brett Favre/Jenn Sterger story.

Jon Weisman of Variety says a long time CBS Sports Communications and PR person is leaving the network.

Sports Media Watch has an interview with HBO Sports President Ross Greenburg.

SMW says this year’s World Series is barely above 2008′s record low ratings pace.

Steve Lepore of Puck The Media notes that Versus will continue to carry UFC events.

Joe Favorito compares and contrasts the marketing approaches of the New York Knicks and New Jersey Nets.

East and Mid-Atlantic

The Boston Globe’s Chad Finn talks with NESN’s Heidi Watney.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times says ESPN will make a decision on the fates of Jon Miller and Joe Morgan after the World Series.

Richard wonders if the World Series can continue a head-to-head winning streak against the NFL this Sunday.

Stuart Elliot from the Times notes that Fox has sold out its inventory of Super Bowl XLV ads three months early.

Newsday’s Neil Best talks with former New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath who’s embracing new and social media.

And Neil gives us some of his week in blogging and tweeting.

The New York Daily News’ Bob Raissman says the viewers are the losers in the Cablevision/Fox battle.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post says Jets fans are the next victims in the Cablevision/Fox dispute.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union says the World Series is now dependent on market size than actual matchups. I totally disagree with this.

Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog says the DC NFL Team’s flagship radio station will add a delay so fans can sync up the TV broadcasts.

Jim Williams from the Washington Examiner says a CBS College Sports sideline reporter also pulls duty for CBS News.

South

Anne Blythe of the Raleigh News & Observer says several North Carolina news organizations are suing the University of North Carolina in regards to the NCAA’s investigation into the school’s football program.

The Dallas Morning News notes that ESPN Radio Hack Colon Cowherd blasted the Metroplex as a baseball area.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle previews the Monday Night Football matchup involving the Texans with ESPN’s Ron Jaworski.

The Daily Oklahoman’s Mel Bracht talks with ex-Oregon coach Mike Bellotti who will be with ESPN2 calling the Colorado-Oklahoma game.

Midwest

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer notes that ESPN Radio’s Mike and Mike will be in town next month.

Mike Zuidema of the Grand Rapids (MI) Press likes the early start time for Game 3 of the World Series.

At the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Bob Wolfley says MLB Walking, Talking Conflict of Interest Bud Selig isn’t worried about the World Series ratings.

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

Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Tribune says a huge crisis was averted when Dish Network and Fox came to a deal on Friday.

Paul Christian of the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin says Halloween is perfect for a primetime NFL game.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Dan Caesar wonders if the World Series can beat the NFL head-to-head on Sunday.

Dan says Dish subscribers will be able to watch the St. Louis Blues and Missouri sports once again.

West

John Maffei of the North County Times says Saturday’s Armed Forces college football tripleheader on CBS College Sports could go a long way in deciding bowl games in December and January.

Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star writes that local Time Warner Cable customers can now watch ESPN online.

Jim notes that the World Series gets some direct NFL competition this Sunday.

Meg James at the Los Angeles Times looks at the Dish/Fox resolution.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News talks with director John Singleton about his new ESPN 30 for 30 documentary on disgraced track star Marion Jones.

Tom has his extensive media news and notes in his blog.

Tom says with tickets unsold for Saturday’s Oregon-USC game and Sunday’s Chargers contest, can the NFL really consider re-entering the L.A. market.

And that’s going to do it for tonight. 

Dish and Fox Hash Out A Deal

To avoid another embarrassing situation with another content provider, Fox hashed out a deal today with Dish Network restoring its regional sports networks and various cable channels back and also avoiding the pulling of several owned and operated local channels on Monday. Fox still is off Cablevision in New York and New Jersey, but it prevents the network from having to explain to Dish Network subscribers on another carriage dispute.

We have the press release from Fox and Dish.

DISH Network and Fox Networks

Reach Comprehensive Programming Agreement

   

Viewers Ensured Continued Fox Broadcasting

and Fox Television Stations Programming in Major Cities FX, National Geographic Channel, and Fox’s 19 Regional Sports Networks Immediately Restored to DISH Network Lineup 

Los Angeles and Englewood, Colo. — DISH Network L.L.C., a subsidiary of DISH Network Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH) and Fox Networks, an operating unit of News Corporation (NASDAQ: NWS), today announced a wide-ranging distribution agreement to provide the third-largest video distributor in the United States with continued access to programming from Fox Broadcasting and Fox local television stations in major cities. The agreement also included carriage of FX, National Geographic Channel, and Fox’s 19 regional sports networks, which were restored for DISH Network viewers Friday.

“After prolonged negotiations to reach a fair deal, we’re pleased to enter into a long term agreement with Fox and to assure our customers that they can continue to enjoy these channels,” said Dave Shull, Senior Vice President of Programming for DISH Network. “We thank our customers, our retail and channel partners, and our employees for their support through these negotiations, which we believe resulted in a fair deal that reinforces DISH Network’s position as the best value in television.”

“I want to thank our partners at DISH Network who worked tirelessly to help us reach a successful conclusion,” said Mike Hopkins, President, Fox Networks Affiliate Sales and Marketing. “This agreement provides a strategic partnership between Fox and DISH to bring the best programming to DISH subscribers.”

The agreement ensures that DISH Network viewers will continue to have access to Fox’s live national and regional coverage of major sporting events including Major League Baseball’s World Series, the NFL on FOX, the NBA, the NHL, college football and basketball, as well as popular entertainment programming on FOX, such as Glee, House, and The Simpsons; Sons of Anarchy and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia on FX; and the Border Wars and the upcoming Great Migrations on National Geographic Channel.

DISH Network will continue to provide programming from the local Fox and MyNet television stations in the following markets: Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore (MyNet 24 only), Boston, Chicago, Cleveland/Akron, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Gainesville (FL), Greensboro/Winston-Salem, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Memphis, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, Tampa, and Washington D.C.

Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

I’ll be back with more.

Some Thursday Linkage

Yesterday ended up being quite busy and I think today will as well, but at least I can provide you with the linkage that was lacking on Wednesday.

Here we go.

Sean Leahy at USA Today notes that the NFL’s skyrocketing ratings are putting pressure on the league in its collecting bargaining with the Players Association.

In the USA Today’s The Huddle blog, Sean writes that the NFL is facing multiple local blackouts this weekend.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch has your NBA viewing guide for 2010-11 including interviews with ESPN and Turner Sports execs. 

We’re getting word that the overnight ratings for Game 1 of the World Series were quite good and high for a Fall Classic not involving the Red Sox and Yankees. Last night’s overnight rating was 10.4, lower than last year’s 13.8 for Yankees/Phillies, but higher than the 10.3 pulled by Phillies/Rays in 2008.

Locally, the San Francisco-Oakland market pulled a 35.9 rating and the Metroplex, Dallas-Fort Worth had a 33.9 for Game 1. Those are very good numbers. We’ll see how the rating does tonight against a very strong CBS Thursday lineup.

James Hibberd of the Hollywood Reporter says Game 1 beat all primetime programming. 

And we now have the final rating, 8.9 with 15 million viewers, down from last year.

The Hollywood Reporter has this story on a group of Cablevision subscribers filing a class action lawsuit over the loss of Fox.

Mike Farrell of Broadcasting & Cable says Cablevision will reimburse subscribers who have to watch the World Series online through MLB.TV due to its ongoing dispute with Fox.

Jon Lafayette of B&C reports that long-time CBS Sports spokesperson LeslieAnne Wade is leaving the network.

Ben Grossman of B&C has CBS Tyrant Leslie Moonves saying the network won’t be bidding on sports properties that lose money i.e., the Olympics.

Back to Mike Farrell, this time writing for Multichannel News telling us that Cablevision offered Fox to pay what Time Warner Cable was compensating the network. 

Katy Bachman from Mediaweek says Cablevision’s reimbursement offer could backfire on the company.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel says the NBA season openers on TNT delivered record ratings.

Austin Karp at Sports Business Daily writes that MLS saw its ratings go down on ESPN2 this season.

David Goetzl of MediaPost has CBS Sports declaring it won’t produce a 3-D sports broadcast unless it gets a sponsor. Well, ok! 

Anthony Crupi of Mediaweek writes that the Dallas Cowboys and LeBron James are helping to pace the cable primetime ratings.

Phil Swann at TV Predictions feels Fox doesn’t deserve to broadcast the World Series or other big ticket sports events.

Phil says forget about HDTV or 3-D TV, get ready for ULTRA HIGH DEFINITION TV!

Marcus Vanderberg at SportsNewser has the funny video of a Dallas sports anchor smelling something fishy along McCovey Cove at AT&T Park before Game 1 of the World Series.

Kevin Baumer at SportsGrid notes that the World Series has helped the San Francisco Giants turn a profit this season.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell wonders if he has actually found the 1988 World Series Kirk Gibson home run ball.

Reuters picks up a story from Tanya Roth of FindLaw.com regarding a group of former ESPNZone workers suing over the lack of notice before losing their jobs.

Brian Lowry at Fox Sports compares the approaches radio hosts Jim Rome and Dan Patrick take to TV.

David B. Wilkerson of Marketwatch says the recent find of a pristine copy of Game 7 of the 1960 World Series is leading to a new hunt for lost baseball footage. 

Bill Doyle of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette talks with beloved Celtics TV analyst Tommy Heinsohn who can certainly get worked up during games. 

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times says Cablevision subscribers have had to resort to the old school outdoor antennae and indoor rabbit ears to pick up Fox.

Newsday’s Neil Best took a gander at MLB.com’s Postseason TV which some Cablevision subscribers have had to access to watch the World Series.

Pete Dougherty in the Albany Times Union says the University of Albany will have some of its games aired on local cable.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette says TNT received record ratings for its NBA season opening twinbill.

Ken McMillan at the Hudson Valley Times Herald-Record has the MLS postseason TV schedule.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call says area native Meredith Marakovits gets the call up to Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia.

Keith also notes another area native who works for NFL Films and is gaining a YouTube following for recapping each NFL week through song parodies.

Peter Van Allen at the Philadelphia Business Journal says Comcast SportsNet has tweaked its 76ers broadcast team.

Bob Smizik of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says MLB will host a gala showing of Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, a month before MLB Network airs the footage.

Jim Williams at the Washington Examiner says TNT and the local DC media will provide extensive coverage of rookie guard John Wall as he makes his first NBA rounds with the Wizards.

Larry Vaught of the Danville (KY) Advocate talks with ESPN’s college basketball analyst Mark Gottfried about the SEC.

From the Louisville Courier-Journal, we learn that horse racing network TVG will begin to air Breeders’ Cup daily programming starting this weekend.

Dave Walker of the New Orleans Times-Picayune says NBC will attempt to set a Guiness World Record during the Sunday Night Football game between the Steelers and Saints. 

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News notes that the Cowboys’ season is sinking fast in both the standings and the ratings.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle says the Giants-Cowboys Monday night game received high ratings locally.

At the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Bob Wolfley notes that Suds City loves watching Sunday Night Football.

Chicago Tribune media writer Phil Rosenthal says Bears fans are in risk of losing out on watching their team as Fox may be pulled from Dish Network as of Monday.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says five Kings games will be seen on over the air TV meaning all of the team’s regular season contests will be televised.

Cecil Conley of the Rocklin (CA) Placer Herald profiles Comcast SportsNet Bay Area/California program director Ky Bell who got her start as a volleyball player in town.

Sports Media Watch says there’s no need to panic, the World Series ratings will be fine.

Dave Kohl at the Major League Programs blog says legendary Cleveland Cavs radio announcer Joe Tait is missed as a new NBA seaon starts.

Emmett Jones at Sports Business Digest writes that TNT is way ahead of last year’s NBA ad sales pace thanks to increased interest from social media.

MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann remembers a sportswriting colleague who was a fixture at New York City’s baseball stadiums.

And this is where I’ll end it for today. This took way too long.

Let’s Do Some Saturday Linkage

Time to provide some linkage on this Saturday. Lots of stuff going on.

Tom Van Riper of Forbes.com notes that Cablevision and Fox are now acting like spoiled little children. 

John Simon from Bloomberg reviews the Broadway play, “Lombardi”.

At the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Dave Kindred wants to see the wall of ethics return in sports journalism.

Mandi Bierly of Entertainment Weekly writes that TBS has hired “Bull Durham” director Ron Shelton to create a minor league baseball comedy. 

The Lalate blog notes that the TOcho show on Versus garnered really low ratings on Tuesday. Really, really low. 

To SB Nation Boston, where Boston Sports Media Watch’s Bruce Allen discusses the local media and fan reaction to Patriots cheap shot artist Brandon Meriweather.

Dan Mangan of the New York Post reports that Brett Favre tried to contact Jenn Sterger a year after texting pictures of his manjunk. According to the Post, Favre allegedly called her when he was in New York for the premiere episode of HBO’s Joe Buck Live. Thanks to Robert Littal of Black Sports Online for this link.

New York Magazine chronicles Week One of the Cablevision/Fox dispute. 

Dave McKenna of the Washington City Paper notes that a group of former ESPNZone restaurant workers in Baltimore and DC is forming a class action lawsuit saying the the closing of the theme establishments was handled illegally.

Keith Groller at the Allentown (PA) Morning Call notes that the son of the late Phillies announcer Harry Kalas will sing “God Bless America” during the 7th inning stretch of tonight’s Game 6 of the National League Championship Series.

Tim Guidera of WTOC-TV in Savannah, GA is angry over the NFL not allowing his station to air the Falcons and requiring it to show the Jaguars instead. Thanks to the506.com for the link.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News talks with ESPN’s Jon Gruden.

Victor Godinez of the Morning News has Fox skeptical of restoring its cable networks including its Sports Net affiliates to Dish Network anytime soon. 

Jim Ingraham of the Morning Journal (OH) assesses the MLB Postseason announcers.

Patricia Babcock McGraw of the Chicago Daily Herald notes that there are mixed opinions on the new espnW.

Jerry Zgoda of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune notes that the Timberwolves have finally released their TV schedule. 

The Boulder (CO) Daily Camera reports that FSN Rocky Mountain will be all over University of Colorado sports over the next four months. 

Joe Flint of the Los Angeles Times says the FCC wants proof from Cablevision and Fox that they’re bargaining in good faith. Certainly does not appear to be the case.

The Los Angeles Wave looks at the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary on former Dodgers pitcher Fernando Valenzuela.

The Eugene (OR) Register-Guard notes that Versus is picking up the Oregon-Cal game on November 13.

Sports Media Watch says CBS is seeing its highest NFL ratings in over a decade.

SMW points out that Fox garnered a season low for its early NFL window last week and wonders if that was a result of not having Cablevision subscribers.

And SMW says NLCS Game 5 got the highest ratings of this year’s MLB Postseason.

We’re done with the linkage for today. We’ll be on top of any breaking news if it happens.