Fang's Bites

Anatomy of a Very Bizarre Day

Monday was quite the day in the sports world. As people were getting up and preparing to go to work on the East Coast, little would they know how things were going to develop. Let’s review what happened as events occurred. All times listed below are Eastern.

7:53 a.m. — Reports trickle out of New York Jets camp that backup quarterback Tim Tebow was going to be released.

9:00 a.m. — ESPN’s Morning SportsCenter signs on with all-out coverage of Tim Tebow being released by the Jets.

Courtesy Will Brinson, CBSSports.com

11:02 a.m. — Sports Illustrated releases the first-person account from NBA center Jason Collins declaring that he’s gay. News organizations across the country and around the globe pick up the story of the first athlete from a U.S. professional sports league to come out.

11:04 a.m. — Dan Patrick interviews Sports Illustrated’s Jon Wertheim about the Collins story.

John Koblin of Deadspin notes while other outlets are covering the Collins story, ESPN and ESPN.com continue in Tebow DEFCON 2 mode. While ESPN and ESPN.com were not reporting the Collins story, Colin Cowherd was talking about it on his ESPN Radio show which was also simulcast on ESPNU.

Noon — Awful Announcing discovers that the 12 p.m. edition of SportsCenter mentions Tebow 25 times before moving to the Jason Collins story.

After 1 p.m. — Scott Van Pelt on the SVP & Russillo Show on ESPN Radio plays Ombudsman and calls out the Morning SportsCenter for going overboard on Tebow coverage.

On WFAN, Mike Francesa downplays the Collins story as “a dramatic attempt to sell magazines.” Francesa says, “I don’t get it” as to why Collins chose to come out.

3 p.m. – ESPN’s Outside the Lines covers the Collins story and has ESPN.com openly gay columnist LZ Granderson and ESPN NBA beat reporter Chris Broussard to discuss the topic. Broussard declares homosexuality is a sin and it’s “walking in rebellion with God..”

6:20 p.m. — CBS’ Tim Brando creates a firestorm by tweeting that Collins is not a hero for coming out and making history. Then Brandi tweets something about a sex tape. Holy frijoles.

10:50 p.m. — ESPN issues a terse statement on Chris Broussard’s comments.

12:05 a.m. — Broussard issues an apology.

It’s been a long day. Very bizarre to say the least.

The Big Dozen Sports Media Stories of 2012

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

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

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

12. Embrace Debate Leads To Rob Parker Suspension

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

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

11. Steve Sabol (1942-2012)

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

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

10. Big Media Taps Into New Media

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

9. NASCAR Renews with Fox

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

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

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

7. NFL Network Picks Up Its Last Two Holdouts

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

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

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

5. CBS & NBC Announce New Sports Radio Networks

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

4. ESPN Free Agency

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

3. Fox Spending Spree

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

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

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

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

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

1. NBC’s Olympics Both Fail and Succeed

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

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

Honorable Mentions:

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

The 6th Annual Fang’s Bites College Football Awards

With another college football regular season over and another bowl season about to begin, it’s time to go hand out the college football TV awards once again.

As Fox increases its presence in college football thanks to its new contracts with the Big 12 and Pac-12, we have a bigger pool to choose from. And there’s always the usual stalwarts of ESPN and CBS as well. Let’s see who got which award for the 2012 season.

The College GameDay Award for Best Pregame Show – College GameDay, ESPN. This show is the standard for all pregame shows in any sport. Other shows have tried to match the energy of College GameDay’s live remotes and failed. Even the college basketball version of College GameDay pales in comparison to the football edition. The show picked up from the loss of Erin Andrews to Fox, brought in Samantha Steele to host the first hour on ESPNU and did not miss a beat. With host Chris Fowler handing off to Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard and Lee Corso, College GameDay has one of the stronger casts for any studio show. Tom Rinaldi’s heartstring-tugging stories provides College GameDay with some of the strongest features in any year. There have been some bizarre moments, but we’ll get to those later. CBS’ College Football Today is also good, but doesn’t come close to GameDay.

Best Studio Show – A new category. I decided to reward a non-pregame show and for this year, I’ll go with College Football Final, ESPN2. Manned by ESPN’s other college football studio crew, Rece Davis, Lou Holtz and Mark May, this show also has very good chemistry. Holtz and May Day appear to barely tolerate each other, but they work off one another quite well. In addition, the show wraps up the day in college football in a very neat package. This season, I purposely stayed up each week to watch the program and was very impressed. And the Final Verdict segment that could be over the top never strays thanks to Davis keeping control. College Football Final is the first winner of this category.

Best Debut – Scott Van Pelt and Samantha Steele (tie). Two very good moves by ESPN. One was to give Scott Van Pelt a role on its college football coverage and the other was bringing in Samantha Steele to replace Erin Andrews on College GameDay. SVP hosted Thursday nights in the studio and also traveled to selected College GameDay sites to provide features and interviews. And by having the SVP & Russillo radio show at the GameDay site, ESPN got some extra promotion and synergy.

By bringing Samantha Steele over from Longhorn Network to host the first hour of College GameDay on ESPNU, it made many fans forget about Erin Andrews who left for Fox. There was no awkward transition and by the end of the season, Steele gave viewers something to look forward to every week. Michelle Beadle tweeted me that Steele would crush on College GameDay and she ended up being right.

The Keith Jackson Award for Best Play-by-Play – Tom Hammond, NBC. Tom has called Notre Dame football for the Peacock annually except for one year dating back to 1994. He’s a very good nuts-and-bolts announcer and with Mike Mayock has formed one of college football’s best announcing teams. Unfortunately, Tom did not get to call the Fighting Irish’s biggest games this season as Oklahoma and USC were aired on ABC and the Pittsburgh game at home was called by Dan Hicks. However, Hammond remains as one of the best announcers and calls a very good game.

Honorable mentions – Kevin Calabro, Pac-12 Network; Gus Johnson, Fox; Sean McDonough, ESPN/ABC; Verne Lundquist, CBS; Brad Nessler, ESPN/ABC, Dave Pasch, ESPN/ABC; Joe Tessitore, ESPN/ABC

The Frank Broyles Award for Best Game Analyst – Chris Spielman, ESPN/ABC. I seemed to get a lot of games that Spielman and Sean McDonough called on ABC this season. Whether it was the luck of the draw or the region where I live, they seemed to be on every Saturday afternoon game. I was impressed by Spielman’s calm on-air demeanor. He didn’t yell nor did he call attention to himself. He spotted trends and did not come off as condescending to the viewer. Spielman impressed me throughout the season.

Honorable mentions – Todd Blackledge, ESPN/ABC; Gary Danielson, CBS; Charles Davis, Fox; Brian Griese, ESPN/ABC; Glenn Mason, Big Ten Network; Mike Mayock, NBC

Best Announcing Team – Dave Pasch/Brian Griese/Jenn Brown, ESPN/ABC. They were assigned to the noon ET game that often involved the Big Ten. Dave Pasch who also calls the Arizona Cardinals on radio is very good. Pasch also is involved with college basketball for ESPN. He and the son of NFL Hall of Famer Bob Griese have formed a strong team in the booth. In fact, the younger Griese often sounds a lot like his dad. Dave and Brian mesh well and are on top of trends. They let the game breathe and allow the action to come to them. We know that Jenn Brown is eye candy, but she does a decent job. I admit I haven’t been a fan of hers over the years, but as long as ESPN keeps her from being flashy, she’s fine.

Honorable mentions – Tom Hammond/Mike Mayock, NBC; Gus Johnson/Charles Davis, Fox; Verne Lundquist/Gary Danielson, CBS; Brad Nessler/Todd Blackledge, ESPN/ABC

The Jim Lampley Award for Best Studio Host – Liam McHugh, NBC. One of the best young hosts on sports television, McHugh has had a very good year. He’s proving to be quite versatile whether he’s hosting the NHL, Olympics or college football. McHugh does a good job with the highlights, meshes with analysts Hines Ward and Doug Flutie and has a very good camera presence. I like his work.

Honorable mentions – Tim Brando, CBS; Rece Davis, ESPN; Chris Fowler, ESPN; Adam Zucker, CBS/CBS Sports Network

Best Studio Analyst – Kirk Herbstreit, ESPN College GameDay. I’m not a fan of Herbstreit’s work in the booth, but there’s no doubt that his strength is on GameDay where he has made his fame. Kirk works well with the entire GameDay crew and is the best analyst on the set. Unlike his picks where he’s not allowed to choose winners for the game he’s calling, Herbstreit is not afraid to take a stand and offers strong opinions. Of course, those opinions have led him to move from his native Columbus to Tennessee as Ohio State fans have vented their anger at him, but Herbie is one of the best analysts in the studio.

Honorable mentions – Doug Flutie, NBC; Mark May, ESPN; Jesse Palmer, ABC; Spencer Tillman, CBS

The Jack Arute Award for Sideline Reporting – Heather Cox, ESPN/ABC. Replacing Erin Andrews on Saturday Night Football and joining the “A” team with Brent Musburger and Kirk Herbstreit, Heather received a high profile assignment and she handled it swimmingly. Coming off another high-profile assignment at the Olympics for NBC at the Beach Volleyball venue, Heather handled halftime coach’s interview very well. I heard that Heather got a raise from ESPN going into this season and it’s well deserved. Very good reporter.

Honorable mentions – Alex Flanagan, NBC; Quint Kessenich, ESPN/ABC; Holly Rowe, ESPN/ABC; Tracy “The Wolf” Wolfson, CBS

Most Valuable Network – NBC. Thanks to Notre Dame’s resurgence, it led to its best ratings for the Fighting Irish package dating back to 2005. The seven games on NBC saw a 67% increase in ratings from a year ago and if Notre Dame wins the BCS National Championship Game in January, NBC will be in prime position for another ratings increase in 2013.

Honorable mentions – CBS; ESPN

Best Overall Coverage – This is always a controversial choice because this is very subjective. ESPN. College Football is a sport where it steps up and provides good coverage. It blankets Saturdays from 9 a.m. ET until 3 a.m. on Sunday. What other network can do this? Maybe CBS Sports Network, but you can start with College GameDay on ESPNU at 9 a.m. ET, watch games starting at noon and flip around to as many as five games spanning to 1:30 a.m. and then watch College Football Final ending your day at 3 a.m. ET. You shouldn’t be up that long, but if you love college football you can.

Honorable mentions – CBS/CBS Sports Network, NBC

Best Move – Fox College Football in primetime. Fox entered the primetime mix with Big 12 and Pac-12 games this season. Having Gus Johnson, Charles Davis and Julie Alexandria on most of the games, they helped to give Fox a big game feel on its college football package. Most of the time, ABC beat Fox in the ratings, but Fox had some decent games this season. We’ll probably see primetime college football on Fox Sports 1 in the next couple of years, but let’s enjoy the games on the Fox mothership for as long as we can.

The Pam Ward Award for Worst Play-by-Play – Craig Bolerjack, Fox. He gets it for the second straight year. Read last year’s post for my reasoning.

Worst Analyst (Game or Studio) – Eddie George and Joey Harrington, Fox (tie). Both on Fox College Saturday, George and Harrington were extremely shaky. They had trouble doing highlights and stumbled a lot. They improved as the season progressed, but it was not enough to wipe away their failing grades from the beginning. I hope to see some major improvement next season.

Worst Debut – Fox College Saturday. This show had potential, but got off to a rough start when a baseball game ran over and wiped out its premiere to most of the country. And it happened again in following weeks when Fox Saturday Baseball would run long. And the show with Erin Andrews, George and Harrington never clicked. The chemistry among the cast never jelled. Here’s hoping with one year under its belt, the show will get better in 2013.

Worst Studio Host – Erin Andrews, Fox. The studio is not Erin Andrews’ strength. She’s best on the sidelines. Erin was shaky in the studio and there was the moment when Stanford beat USC where she said students would not be going to school the following day. Technically that was correct as school would be closed on the following Sunday. Anyway, I hope that she will improve next year, we’ll be watching.

Most Bizarre Lee Corso Moment – We have a couple, but I have to cull this down to one. Lee Corso remains an American treasure and his mascot head picks remain high comedy. However, they can become extremely bizarre like this one in November when Corso almost strangled a duck at the University of Oregon by holding its head under his arm. Luckily, the duck turned out ok, but the ASPCA almost had to be summoned.

Truly one of the most bizarre moments this year.

Honorable mention – Lee fires off guns in Oklahoma once again scaring off Kirk Herbstreit.

And that’s going to complete the Awards for 2012.

It’s Official: Scott Van Pelt Signs New ESPN Contract; Adds College Football Duties

Earlier this summer, Scott Van Pelt announced that he was staying at ESPN after overtures from Fox and NBC. Van Pelt has become one of the more popular personalities at the Alleged Worldwide Leader after coming over from Golf Channel. He will continue hosting his ESPN Radio show from 1 p.m. until 4 p.m. ET.

In addition, Scott will be in the 11 p.m. rotation for SportsCenter and remain on the golf beat on the major tournaments. He will pick up college football duties especially for College GameDay. Van Pelt will travel to some GameDay sites and he will be part of the network’s BCS Championship Game coverage.

No financial terms of the agreement were disclosed. Here’s the press release.

Van Pelt Signs Extension with ESPN – Adds College GameDay Role

ESPN SportsCenter anchor and ESPN Radio host Scott Van Pelt has signed a multi-year extension which will add several on-site College GameDay appearances throughout the football season. He will travel to some of the GameDaylocations in support of his features, interviews and reports related to the game, teams and players involved. He will also be part of the network’s BCS Championship Game coverage.

Van Pelt, who joined ESPN in spring 2001 as its lead professional golf reporter, will remain among SportsCenter’s 11 p.m. ET anchors, and continue to host ESPN Radio’s Scott Van Pelt Show (M-F 1-4 p.m., simulcast 1-3 p.m. on ESPNEWS). He will also remain as the lead reporter and host of the network’s major golf coverage, including the Masters, U.S. Open and The Open Championship.

“Scott’s versatility makes him a valuable member of the ESPN team and we’re pleased he’s staying with us,” said Mark Gross, senior vice president and executive producer, production. “The GameDay opportunity provides Scott with yet another platform on which to express his enthusiasm, insight and opinion.”

“The things I got to do, and the people I got to do them with, ultimately I couldn’t walk away from,” Van Pelt said in this Front and Center  podcast on ESPNFrontRow.com.

Van Pelt joined ESPN from The Golf Channel where he was an anchor and reporter for the sport-specific network from 1994-2000. Following Tiger Woods’ victory at the 1997 Masters (his first at the tournament), Van Pelt conducted an exclusive half-hour interview with the young Woods for a critically acclaimed network special, Tiger Woods: In His Own Words.  

Van Pelt began his sports broadcasting career at WTTG-TV (FOX) in Washington, D.C., in 1990. He worked in WTTG sports studio production department contributing content for the station’s The 10:00 News, Sunday Night’s Sports Extra and specials on the Washington Redskins.

A native of Brookville, Md., Van Pelt graduated from the University of Maryland with a bachelor’s degree in radio/television and film.

More posts are on the way. Keep your feeds updated.

A Couple of Early Thursday Sports Media Thoughts

I’m writing this past midnight on a Thursday. I want to sleep, but I’ll pound this out to get these off my chest. This will be in bullet form as always.

• It seems every sports media writer and blogger has offered thoughts and potential landing spots for ESPN’s Big Three Free Agents, Michelle Beadle, Erin Andrews and Scott Van Pelt. All are coveted within ESPN circles and while the Alleged Worldwide Leader has in the past stepped up to keep their free agents from flying the coop, the network may be hard pressed to keep all in the Bristol nest this time around. Let’s handicap all three and give a prediction on where each could possibly sign.

  Starting with Michelle Beadle, the co-host of ESPN2′s SportsNation, she has made it no secret that she’d like to branch out from sports. While she has enjoyed co-hosting with SportsNation with Colin Cowherd, he has said he wants to leave that show by next year. Could that influence Michelle’s thinking? Absolutely. Michelle is not the typical ESPN’er. She speaks her mind. She’s not afraid to mention or talk to ESPN’s arch-enemy, Deadspin. Michelle has a block of ESPN higher up’s solidly in her corner, but even with that said, I think she leaves Bristol and heads to New York or LA to host an entertainment show or become a panelist on a talk show.

  Erin Andrews has become a rock star at the Alleged Worldwide Leader and to be honest, I was a little surprised when she signed a contract to return to ESPN back in 2010. I don’t think she’ll stay this time around. I think she could go to NBC which can give her a combination package of Access Hollywood, the Today Show, the Olympics, other major sporting events like the Super Bowl and maybe a special or two every year on NBC Sports Network. Erin’s days as a sideline reporter are over.

  Scott Van Pelt was lured to ESPN from Golf Channel and while NBC can offer him a role on his old home and on the PGA Tour, a possible hosting job on the Olympics, a regular show on NBCSN and even more if The Group gets more inventory, I think he stays in Bristol. Van Pelt likes hosting his radio show and I predict he’ll get an expanded role on SportsCenter plus host ESPN’s big events.

• Can we get Bonnie Bernstein a major radio or TV gig soon? She deserves it.
• Lastly, I want to do a mailbag soon so if you have a sports media question, send it to kzf1@fangsbites.com. One e-mailer at random will get the first season DVD of VH1′s Mob Wives courtesy of Klout. I’ll be happy to answer your questions.

I’m done.