Fang's Bites

Some Thoughts on the Marathon Bombing Coverage

Now that a bad chapter for Boston and America is over, it’s time to look at some of the media coverage. I’ll do it all in bullet form and try to do it all in one sitting.

• First, the good from the week. Local channels in Boston really got the job done. WBZ, WCVB, WHDH and WFXT all provided bang-up coverage and didn’t fall into the trap of pack journalism. They had reporters throughout the area and kept digging for information. Reporters like Kathy Curran and Jack Harper of WCVB, Adam Williams of WHDH, Jim Armstrong, Christina Hager and Joe Shortsleeve of WBZ all provided solid information and showed their experience of being in the local market. WBZ anchor Jack Williams wasn’t afraid to offer an opinion during the coverage calling those responsible for the bombings on Monday, “S.O.B’s” and said as he signed off after a long shift, “Boston will go on. And we’ll get ‘em.” In addition, the stations provided their coverage online to computers, mobiles and tablets, expanding their audience beyond the Boston market. The stations acquitted themselves very well.
• The Boston Globe opened their site from behind the dreaded paywall to all readers and brought forth excellent reporting and writing throughout the week. They did have one hiccup in reporting on Wednesday that a suspect had been arrested, but after that, it recovered and continued to provide tremendous coverage. For an institution that has been maligned over recent management decisions and almost closing a couple of years ago, the Globe stepped up to show that it can report with the best of them. Here’s hoping that the Globe learned a lesson in this new day and age and will adjust with the times. It will bring back the paywall next week, but it probably picked up a lot of new readers as a result.
• Also WBZ Radio, the only newsradio station in town did very well in its reporting. Having listened extensively during the week, the station should win awards for its coverage.
• On Marathon Monday, ESPN’s Bob Ley and Jeremy Schaap anchored the bombing coverage on SportsCenter. Tapping the resources of ABC News and dispatching Steve Levy to Boston, ESPN gave viewers some tremendous coverage. Whenever there’s news that affects the sports world, Bob Ley is the person you want to offer some perspective.
• For network television, CBS and NBC both had extensive coverage. Anchors Scott Pelley and Brian Williams led their networks to understated and restrained coverage throughout. Impressed with both men, Pelley and Williams did not go off-kilter as some network anchors have done in the past. They made appearances in Boston and asked the right questions of their correspondents. In addition, NBC’s Kerry Sanders gave some solid observations while he was in Watertown in the hours after a shootout early Friday morning to the arrest of the suspect later that evening.
• Now to the bad. The cable news stations seemed to be on a one day delay in their reporting. CNN led the charge in reporting a suspect had been arrested on Wednesday. Fox did as well. But it was Megyn Kelly of Fox who began to question whether that was correct and eased Fox News out of that quandary while CNN continued to stay on course. And when a former FBI director shot down John King’s report on CNN, the network then went to debate whether their sources hung them out to dry. It was some of the worst television since ESPN2 allowed Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith to debate full-time. Jon Stewart of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show who has been doing numerous takedowns of CNN over the last 12 months, did another one on Wednesday night calling the network, “The Human Centipede of News. “
• MSNBC seemed to be stuck in political debate and the implications of which side would benefit from an arrest. The network should just give up on reporting news and just stay with political debate.
• While social media has some bad sides, it seemed to be quicker on information than the cable networks. Some of it was wrong, but it was quickly corrected. Whether people were listening to the Boston Police Scanner or local reporters using it to offer information or Boston’s Mayor Tom Menino using it to declare the suspect was caught, Twitter was the medium of record. It’s true. The Boston Police Department’s Twitter feed offered up to date information on the Watertown situation to the one tweet declaring an arrest. Who knew a computer scroll would be “must see?”

Overall, the entire week was a lesson in journalism. And who would have thought that cable news, once the bastion of reporting would become the media dinosaur?

Thursday Stuff

I have some links for you today.

The Boston Herald’s Inside Track Girls report that NESN’s Heidi Watney is dating a former Fenway Park groundskeeper. Thanks to Sox & Dawgs for that link. So much for the rumors Heidi dating Jason Veritek.

The lovely Jessica Heslam of the Herald reports that the New England Patriots are moving their weekly “All Access” show from WCVB to WBZ next season after Channel 5 was its home for 10 years (scroll down).

Newsday’s Neil Best says the “Giants On-Line” crew do not feel this season’s Eagles are like last season’s Giants.

This link comes courtesy of Neil. Marcus Hayes of the Philadelphia Daily News says Fox’s Michael Strahan wonders why Philly does not show the love for Eagles QB Donovan McNabb.

Calvin Watkins from the Dallas Morning News says Pacman Jones plans to sue ESPN for its report stating that he arranged a shooting outside an Atlanta nightclub.

Scott Collins from the Los Angeles Times says the Indianapolis-San Diego NFL Wild Card playoff game on NBC was the highest rated program of the week.

Roger van der Horst of the Raleigh (NC) News & Observer discusses tonight’s 3-D broadcast of the BCS Championship Game.

The Sports Media Watch says Fox Sports had a ratings fiesta for the Fiesta Bowl.

Elton Alexander of the Cleveland Plain Dealer writes that the Mid-American Conference is waiting for news on its new TV package.

Jason Anderson of the Stockton (CA) Record writes that tonight begins the Big West Conference’s 13 game TV package with ESPN and FSN.

Jim Ecker of the Cedar Rapids (IA) Gazette feels the Big Ten Network should have more of a Hawkeye presence.

Christine Hall from Houston Business Journal talks about Fox Sports Houston’s transition to a 24/7 network.

Le Anna Kosub of the San Antonio Express-News writes that the local market will see both Fox Sports Houston and Fox Sports Southwest.

The Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin says Fox Sports North will air a tribute to Twins owner Carl Pohlad tonight.

Eric Degerman of the Tri-City (WA) Herald says FSN Northwest has picked up 24 Utah Jazz games from sister network, Fox Sports Utah.

Awful Announcing also summarizes Dick Vitale’s commentary on last night’s Miami-Denver game.

From On the DL, Dan Levy speaks with CBS Sports’ Ian Eagle. Thanks to Awful Announcing for that link.

Ed Sherman from Crain’s Chicago Business says the new Comcast SportsNet morning show will have some big guests when it premieres next week. And Ed says golf’s heavy hitters are staying away from this weekend’s season opening tournament.

Vlada Gelman of TV Week says Golf Channel is launching an HD feed.

Puck The Media lists the regional sports networks that will carry the AHL All-Star Game.

Broadcast Engineering reports that MLB.com is switching its media player from Microsoft Silverlight to Adobe Flash.

That will do it for now. That might do it for links today, we’ll see.

Black Friday Megalinks, Part I

Because I have to be in several places at once today and my employee here won’t shut up, I’m going to have to post the Black Friday Megalinks in two parts. So without further ado, I’ll provide the Weekend Viewing Picks.

Plenty of college football and college basketball this weekend. This is essentially the final regular season weekend of college football. Last week, the Big Ten ended its regular season. Now it’s time for the ACC, Big East, Mountain West, Notre Dame, Pac 10 and SEC to wrap up their seasons before next week’s conference title games. To go over today’s and tomorrow’s games would make my head explode. So I highly recommend you go to the Black Friday Viewing Picks and the College Football Viewing Picks to review the action for today and tomorrow.

After three blowouts on Thanksgiving, the NFL hopes the Week 13 action Sunday will be much closer. CBS has the doubleheader including Indianapolis at my Browns early, then two intriguing games late, Pittsburgh at New England and Denver at the New York Jets. Fox has regional action including the Giants at Washington and Carolina at Green Bay. The NBC Sunday Night game is Chicago at Minnesota. Check out the entire schedule with coverage maps along with satellite TV and radio channel assignments in the NFL Viewing Picks.

And there’s plenty of college basketball action on the ESPN platforms over the weekend including the Las Vegas Invitational, the Old Spice Classic in Orlando and the 76 Classic in Anaheim.

With golf officially in Silly Season, the annual Skins Game is on ABC at 1 p.m. Saturday and 3:30 p.m. Sunday.

HBO has Boxing After Dark Saturday night at 10.

Now to your links.

National

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand previews HBO’s new documentary, “Breaking the Huddle” which focuses on the integration of college football. I have a DVD of the doc and expect a review from me over the weekend.

Christopher Byrne of the Eye on Sports Media blog notes that CBS decided to use three announcing teams for its SEC action this holiday weekend instead of making Verne Lundquist and Gary Danielson pull double duty like last year.

Todd Spangler from Multichannel News talks about the NFL Network’s 3D test for Thursday’s Oakland-San Diego game.

The Big Lead supposedly has the picture of the woman who was caught cheating on her husband in a Metrodome bathroom stall.

East and Mid-Atlantic

From the Boston Globe, Nancy Marrapese-Burrell writes that Celtics CEO Wyc Grousbeck will make an appearance on Comcast SportsNet New England tonight.

Bill Doyle of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette profiles WCVB sports anchor Mike Lynch who has emphasized high school sports in his more than 25 years with the station.

Newsday’s Neil Best says the MLB Network is preparing for its launch which is fast approaching on New Year’s Day. In his blog, Neil says ESPN is going to kick off the New Year with some silly stunts.

The New York Post’s Justin Terranova asks five questions of TNT/YES analyst Mike Fratello.

Laura Nachman notices that the Philadelphia ABC affiliate is looking for a new sports reporter.

That will conclude the first part of the Megalinks. The second part including the South, Midwest, West and Canadian links will be coming tonight.

It’s Saturday Mornng Linkage

Time to give you some Saturday links. Just because it’s the weekend, it doesn’t mean that people aren’t writing about the sports media. So let’s get to it.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes that Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan is considering legal action against a sports radio station that he says put him on the air without his consent. Caesar has a transcript of the conversation.

Jerry Garcia of the San Antonio Express-News talks about NCAA Tournament viewing.

From the Dallas Morning News, Barry Horn looks at the transformation of FSN Southwest over the years from its beginning as Home Sports Entertainment.

Newsday’s Neil Best writes that Mets manager Willie Randolph will still be a weekly guest on WFAN’s Mike and the Mad Dog this season. And Neil laments the loss of several vintage MLB videos that he had posted with the help of a loyal reader. Some of these videos go back to the 1960′s and for some reason, had not been saved by MLB, but the reader had them.

The New York Times’ Richard Sandomir says that he’s liking Bob Knight’s work on ESPN and even has an interview with the coach. Sandomir also writes that a lawsuit over the exhuming of George Gipp’s body for an ESPN E:60 story has been dismissed.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union was wondering what was the use of having two channels devoted to the NCAA Tournament when both were showing the same game.

Andrew Jones of the Wilmington (NC) Morning-Star says the former voice of UNC-Wilmington basketball team is enjoying his work for ESPN International and ESPNU.

R. Thomas Umstead of Multichannel News says the newly formed ESPN Films unit got off to a rousing start with its Black Magic documentary.

Melody Gutierrez of the Sacramento Bee talks about Comcast officially taking over FSN Bay Area on Monday.

The Boston Sports Media Watch continues its Media Approval Ratings and the latest candidate is WCVB’s Mike Lynch.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell is asking you to grade his performance on his audition to sing the national anthem at Shea Stadium. Be nice.

William Houston of the Toronto Globe and Mail writes that the debate over Jonathan Roy’s pummeling of Bobby Nadeau while being cheered on by Roy’s dad, Patrick, rages on.

Awful Announcing says ESPNU will be showing rowing sometime today.

That’s it for now.

Some Friday Night Links

Some links for you this evening before I watch the Amazing Race Asia, Episode 8.

In his NYP TV Sports blog, Justin Terranova of the New York Post has some news from ESPN’s Dick Vitale who underwent vocal cord surgery late last year and is recovering at his palatial Florida estate.

I forgot to link to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Bob Wolfley in the megalinks. He writes about Fox Sports’ Jimmy Johnson being impressed with the Packers. We told you that the NFL told Wisconsin theaters not to show the Packers playoff game this Sunday, well, Don Walker of the Journal Sentinel says they’re going ahead with plans to show it anyway.

Chris Hubbuch of the LaCrosse (WI) Tribune says the owner of one theater feels he’s showing the games legally.

The Sports Media Watch has the Weekend Ratings Predictions.

Last night, I linked to a story about Nielsen making an error in the ratings for Patriots games on WCVB, well Jessica Heslam of the Boston Herald says that mistake cost the channel a lot of money, especially when you look at the corrected ratings. Also from the Herald, Patriots beat reporter John Tomase has quotes from ESPN’s Ron Jaworski regarding the Patriots.

Bill Doyle of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette writes that the nation is interested in watching the Patriots.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News gives us reader reaction to his column not just once, but twice on Golf Channel’s Kelly Tilghman in his Farther Off the Wall blog.

TV Week’s Andrew Krukowski gives us the national sports TV ratings for the week ending January 6.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News writes about Martina Navratilova’s role with Tennis Channel for the Australian Open and other Grand Slam tournaments this year.

The Atlanta Business Chronicle reports that the Chik-fil-A-Bowl in Atlanta was highest rated bowl on ESPN.

CBC Sports’ NHL Analyst Kelly Hrudey writes about legendary announcer Don Wittman who retired from CBC this week.

That will do it for now.

Thursday Late Links

I’ll give you some linkage tonight.

Let’s start with the news from John Consoli of Mediaweek who reports that CBS is claiming victory as the most watched network for the NFL based on cumulative audience. Katy Bachman of Mediaweek writes that a glitch in the ratings reported an unbelievably low number for WCVB when it aired the Patriots off a simulcast with ESPN.

The Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson writes for Pro Football Weekly that Fox is claiming victory for the NFL saying it had the highest ratings for its NFC package of games.

From Pete Dougherty of the Albany (NY) Times Union’s Best Seat in My House blog, he has comments from Fox Sports’ Terry Bradshaw on the Giants-Cowboys game this Sunday.

ESPN gives us the features it will air this weekend on Sunday NFL Countdown and NFL Matchup.

John Eggerton of Broadcasting & Cable says ESPN plans to broadcast the entire 2008 Indy Racing League schedule in HD.

Newsday’s Neil Best reports in his Watchdog blog that Lee Mazzilli will join SNY as a studio analyst for Mets games.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says bloggers are gaining more prominence at the Sporting News website. And Darren looks at the Portland Trail Blazers’ chalupa promotion.

Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star writes in his blog that new UCLA football coach Rick Neuheisel will appear on FSN Prime Ticket tonight at 10 ET.

CBS Sports previews its college basketball coverage this weekend.

Jeff Rude of Golfweek.com says the Kelly Tilghman controversy is overblown. However, Christopher Byrne of the Eye on Sports Media blog feels differently.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News writes that ACC fans can access 34 regular season basketball games as well as other sports along with highlights and video features on ACCSelect.com.

The NBA and ESPN have announced a scheduling change for the nationally televised game on January 27 on ABC. Instead of airing Phoenix at Chicago, ABC has opted for Orlando at Boston.

That’s going to do it for now. The Friday megalinks will be late as I’ll be at a jobsite.

Some More New Year’s Eve Links

Let’s give you some more links today before I work on some other things.

First, Neil Best of Newsday writes that Patriots-Giants on Saturday was the most watched program of 2007. Not an easy task considering that Saturday are the least watched day of the week.

The Boston Herald’s Jessica Heslam writes in her Messenger blog that WCVB was the winner of the Patriots-Giants ratings sweepstakes easily outpacing WBZ and WHDH.

In his Medium Well blog, Ray Frager of the Baltimore Sun writes his thoughts about the NFL Network production of the Patriots-Giants game.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle writes about the overnight numbers for Pats-Giants in his Four DVRs, no waiting blog.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell tells us the winner of the copyright infringement battle between Western Kentucky University’s mascot, Big Red and beloved Italian TV character, Gabibbo. I’m not making this up. It’s a funny story.

Drew Houff of the Winchester (VA) Star hung out at various sports bars on Saturday to watch the Pats-Giants game with sports fans (many of whom are Boston haters I might add).

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel liked the way the Fox crew called the Lions-Packers game on Sunday.

William Houston of the Toronto Globe and Mail gives us some of the more interesting sports quotes of 2007.

Glen Dickson of Broadcasting & Cable says Tennis Channel has moved into new production facilities to accommodate its High Definition broadcasts.

The Sports Media Watch blog has named Kansas City Star columnist Jason Whitlock as the Worst of Sports Media 2007. And here are Paulsen’s runners up for Worst of Sports Media. Paulsen is working on his Stories of Sports Media for 2007 and when they’re up, I’ll link to them.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News follows up on some of the people he’s met in 2007. And Hoffarth goes even further on this in his Farther Off the Wall blog.

We have some quotes from the last Football Night in America broadcast for the season on NBC last night.

ESPN’s self promotion goes into overdrive with a new “This is SportsCenter” ad starring the always-flamboyant Richard Simmons.

And that will do it for now. Look for Amazing Race and Amazing Race Asia recaps as well as my look into the Best and Worst of Sports Media in 2007.

Primetime & Late Night Viewing Picks coming up.

The Last Saturday Morning Links of the Year

Don’t worry, we’ll be back in 2008, I just felt like writing “last” as 2007 is approaching the end. I’ll do a Year Ender for you in the next couple of days, but let’s get to the links first.

Jerry Garcia of the San Antonio Express-News goes into the entire process to bring tonight’s Patriots-Giants game to CBS and NBC.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch looks at the year in sports media in the Gateway City.

Jim Williams of the DC/Baltimore Examiner writes in his Watch This! blog about how CBS and NBC were selected by the NFL to simulcast tonight’s game.

Joanne C. Gerstner of the Detroit News reports that local NBC affiliate WDIV will not carry tonight’s game due a conflict with the Pistons.

Martin Miller of the Los Angeles Times says the NFL is counting on the Patriots to increase ratings by putting tonight’s game on three outlets.

Bill Saporito writes for Time Magazine on how Cable sacked the NFL.

The lovely Jessica Heslam of the Boston Herald says the NFL has found a way to appease WCVB and WMUR after the two stations lost their exclusivity to carry the Pats-Giants game.

Richard Martin of Information Week writes in his blog that the NFL should make the NFL Network an online subscription service. I agree with this.

Marianne Paskowski of TV Week says cable is the big winner in this.

David Humphreys of the Attleboro (MA) Sun-Chronicle says local sports bars are gearing up for a big crowd for tonight’s game even though fans can now watch at home.

Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald writes a column for Pro Football Weekly on the Best and Worst in NFL broadcasting. You can expect to find Bryant Gumbel’s name in this.

Evan Bevins of the Marietta (OH) Times writes that the game is now on for all to watch.

Rob Longley of the London (Canada) Free Press says the Pats-Giants game is now on for everyone to see, even in Canada.

In an editorial, the Evansville (IN) Courier & Press criticizes the NFL Network for not putting Monday’s Insight Bowl involving Indiana University on a wider platform. Matt Doyle of the Tulsa (OK) World says Cox Communications will carry the Insight Bowl locally.

Michael David Smith of the AOL Fanhouse blog liked the work of the NFL Network’s Mike Mayock on last night’s Texas Bowl.

Jeff Brooke of the Toronto Globe and Mail has his 12 viewing picks for the holiday weekend.

Thank goodness for Awful Announcing. ESPN’s Mike Patrick was caught talking about Britney Spears again.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch talks with former Dallas Cowboy Everson Walls about his friend, Ron Springs who’s still in a coma. You may remember the Real Sports story on Everson giving his kidney to Ron.

Former New York Yankee Jim Leyritz who was doing work with MLB.com last season is charged with DUI in a crash that killed a woman on Friday.

Those are the links for now. Check back later.

Giving You the Friday Megalinks

Let’s do the megalinks today.

Starting with USA Today, we get the weekend viewing picks.

We’ll do the links from East to West today.

Nancy Marrapese-Burrell of the Boston Globe says Patriots fans got a huge holiday season present on Saturday.

A couple of stories from the Boston Herald. The lovely Jessica Heslam writes that the ratings winner among WBZ, WCVB and WHDH for tomorrow night’s Patriots-Giants game will depend on which local pre-game show viewers prefer to watch. Jessica and Jay Fitzgerald report that WCVB is in talks with the NFL about losing its exclusive rights to the game.

From the New York Post, Phil Mushnick rips the NFL Network. Also from the Post, Justin Terranova has five questions for ESPN’s Lee Corso. Terranova talks to the NFL Today’s Bill Cowher about the Giants.

Newsday’s Neil Best talks about Giants fans selling their tickets for tomorrow’s game to Patriots fans. And Neil says in his blog that his scheduled appearance on MSNBC today was pre-empted due to coverage of the Benazir Bhutto funeral in Pakistan.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times says the move by the NFL to put Saturday’s Patriots-Giants game on CBS and NBC was a lesson in humility for the league.

Brian Heyman of the White Plains (NY) Journal News writes that WWOR is still fuming over losing exclusive over the air New York rights for the Patriots-Giants game.

Laura Nachman has the Philadelphia Sports Media Year in Review.

From the Baltimore Sun, Ray Frager says the three way simulcast on Saturday is a win for fans. Bill Ordine of the Sun praises Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter for looking out for fans.

Jon Solomon of the Birmingham News says the ratings for the Papajohns.com Bowl were up for ESPN.

Doug Nye of The State has his Best Bet for viewing this weekend.

Dave Darling from the Orlando Sentinel has his Top 10 Sports Media stories of 2007.

Keeping up with that theme, Barry Jackson has his Best and Worst of Sports Radio and TV for the Miami Herald.

From the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Ray Buck writes about Fox Sports’ Grumpy Old Coaches, Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer.

Marc Katz of the Dayton Daily News says the NFL and the NHL will be the viewing picks for this holiday weekend.

Judd Zulgad of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune says the NFL served its own interests by putting tomorrow’s Patriots-Giants game on CBS and NBC.

Paul Christian from the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin talks about the NHL Winter Classic on New Year’s Day being telecast on NBC.

Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Tribune says the NFL took a sack for this weekend.

Scott D. Pierce of the Deseret (UT) Morning News says the fans win out with the Patriots-Giants being on three outlets.

Over to the San Diego Union-Tribune and Jay Posner says look up “caved” in the dictionary and the NFL’s picture will be there. Here are the ratings from last week in San Diego.

John Maffei of the North County Times says it’s tough to predict the NFL Wild Card playoff picture for next weekend.

Jim Carlisle in today’s Ventura County Star says NBC is trying to sell the NHL’s Winter Classic as a special event.

In the Los Angeles Times, Christine Daniels in her Sound and Vision column says football will be the viewing choice this weekend. Also from the Times, Greg Johnson writes that advertisers get one stop shopping with Fox Sports for the Bowl Championship Series.

Tom Hoffarth in the Los Angeles Daily News talks about the late Stu Nahan’s movie cameos. And Hoffarth talks about NBC’s preparation for the NHL Winter Classic. And in his Farther Off the Wall blog, Hoffarth has his extensive weekly media notes.

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star has his Best and Worst in Canadian and U.S. Sports Media for 2007.

Tony Gallagher of the Vancouver Province says the NHL Network is great for American hockey fans.

The Sports Media Watch talks about the lowest ratings ever for network primetime NFL games this season. And Paulsen has some ratings news and notes.

Jon Friedman of Marketwatch.com says don’t confuse the NFL with Santa Claus on the Patriots-Giants issue.

Maury Brown of the Biz of Baseball website shoots down the rumors that Fox Sports’ MLB Insider Ken Rosenthal is leaving to go to ESPN.

Phil Swann of TVPredictions.com reports about ESPNews’ HDTV plans. And Swann says DirecTV has added Tennis Channel and CSTV in HD today.

Lot of links today. That will do it. I’ll be back later.

Thursday Links or How the NFL Network Lost Its Groove … or Maybe It Never Had It

Time to give you your links for today. I’m sure there will be plenty of stuff on the NFL contracting Saturday’s Patriots-Giants game to CBS and NBC. Let’s get to them now.

Darren Rovell of CNBC wonders who will win the ratings battle between CBS and NBC.

Gary Mihoces of USA Today writes about the move by the NFL to bring the game to the masses.

John Dempsey of Variety also has an overview of the simulcast.

John Consoli of Adweek reports on the preparations of CBS, NBC and the NFL Network for airing the Pats-Giants game.

Newsday’s Neil Best has an article about the simulcast including reaction from WWOR in New York which until yesterday, had the exclusive New York rights to air the game and now will have to share the ratings with the CBS and NBC affiliates. Neil also blogs about the story. From the New York Post, Justin Terranova and Rich Calder write that the decision had a trickle-down effect on several issues.

Mike Reiss of the Boston Globe talks about the simulcast from the Boston perspective as well as getting reaction from WCVB which has lost its exclusive rights in the market. Also from the Globe, Shira Springer writes that pressure from fans and legislators got the NFL to make this move. The Boston Herald’s Jay Fitzgerald and Jessica Heslam also discuss the simulcast.

Aaron Sanborn of the Laconia (NH) Citizen says upstate New Hampshire will now not be excluded from seeing the game. Eric Conrad of the Kennebec (ME) Journal is glad the NFL made this move. Andrew Neff of the Bangor (ME) Daily News says Maine residents went from not having the game to having plenty of outlets to watch.

Mark Maske of the Washington Post says the NFL avoided a potential backlash by bringing the game to a wider audience.

Randy Covitz writes in the Kansas City Star about the unprecedented simulcast.

Tom Jicha in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel says the NFL blinked.

Texas State Senator Kyle Janek writes in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that legislators should not get involved in the NFL Network vs. cable dispute.

Tim Cain of the Herald & Review (IL) compares the Big Ten Network dispute to the Hollywood Writers Strike.

William Houston of the Toronto Globe and Mail says college bowls will take away TV ratings from the NHL Winter Classic on New Year’s Day.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman talks with college football analyst Pat Haden who liked the sport before the BCS. In his notebook, Bracht has stuff on Fox Sports using former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer during the Fiesta Bowl which pits the Sooners taking on West Virginia. And Bracht has his weekend viewing picks.

Jeff D’Alessio of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has the five items ESPN’s Erin Andrews can’t do without on the road.

Brent Hunsberger of the Oregonian writes that the Portland Trail Blazers drew decent ratings locally on Christmas Day.

There you have it for now. Back with more later.

Your Winners and Losers for the Pats-Giants Game

As the news broke late this afternoon that the NFL was going to have CBS and NBC simulcast NFL Network’s feed of Saturday’s Patriots-Giants game, I was thinking who won and who lost. Right off the bat, you can see some obvious winners like the majority of NFL fans who now won’t have to resort to listening to radio or finding other means of finding the game. But with some time, I have thought of some not so obvious winners and losers. So let’s go over the list.

WINNERS

The Fans – Now, that CBS and NBC are on board, the game will be seen by a wide audience. The NFL Network is is 40% of the nation’s homes and while the NFL could have stuck to its guns and kept the game, the league did the right thing by making it available to over the air TV.

CBS and NBC – With a lack of original programming on Saturday nights, the networks can now promote the game and generate some ad revenue on an otherwise dead night for viewing.

CBS and NBC affiliates in New England – While stations WCVB in Boston, WMUR in Manchester, NH and WWOR in New York were contracted by the NFL to carry the game in each team’s home markets, other stations in and around the local region were about to be shut out. While stations in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Vermont all appealed or were appealing to carry Pats-Giants, their requests would have mostly likely been denied. Now with the most recent decision, WFSB (CBS) in Hartford and WJAR (NBC) in Providence can now carry the game from their respective networks without having to pay the NFL Network a rights fee.

The NFL – Yes, while the NFL caved, it also wins here by saving face and making itself look like the hero. It not only prevents some major embarrassment from keeping the game on the NFL Network, but now raises the overall ratings.

John Kerry – I hate to give him credit, but his letter writing campaign to the NFL and threats to have hearings on the subject gave league officials some pause and led to this unprecedented three way simulcast.

Big Cable – Comcast, Time Warner, Suddenlink, Bright House, Insight and other major cable providers are smiling a wide grin tonight because not only do they keep the status quo by not being forced to carry the NFL Network this weekend, they also get to carry the game through local network affiliates for free. They’re the big winners in this along with the fans. The major providers said they wouldn’t cave and they didn’t.

LOSERS

The NFL – Yup, the NFL definitely caved after saying it would not give the game to other outlets. But the NFL Network also gets its widest audience for one of its games, granted, it took two network partners to help it along.

Sports Bars – Sports bars across the country that carried the NFL Network either through DirecTV or digital cable will not be packed. While there will be those fans who will want to go out to see the game, business will not be as good as hoped. And the NFL won’t have to send spies out to take the game off screens larger than 50 inches.

WCVB, WMUR and WWOR – Until about 4:30 this afternoon, these three stations were the only over the air outlets that were going to carry the game. But that all changed when CBS and NBC were contracted as well. Now in Boston, there will be four ways to watch the game. Not only will WCVB carry the game, but so will CBS affiliate WBZ, NBC affiliate WHDH in addition to the NFL Network on Comcast’s sports tier. In New York, WWOR will see WCBS and WNBC also carrying the game thus lowering its rating. So the ratings in New York and Boston will be divided among three to four outlets. Imagine the rates that were sold to advertisers by WCVB, WMUR and WWOR based on market exclusivity. Plus, there might have to be some give-backs to advertisers who bought time thinking they would reach a wide audience in the home markets. That totally goes out the window now.

Fox Sports and ESPN - Why CBS and NBC were chosen by the NFL to simulcast and not Fox and ESPN is not totally known. Yes, this would have been CBS’ game had it been on a Sunday afternoon and NBC’s had it been on Sunday night, but what was the official reasoning behind giving the game to CBS and NBC? Was it the fact the two networks have the longest relationship with the NFL? Or has Fox and ESPN angered the NFL in ways unbeknownst to the public. We’ll never know.

NFL Network – What would have been most likely the highest cable rating ever for the NFL Network will now be minuscule. Now, the NFL Network’s rating will be small and the shine of having the exclusive window is gone as well. But the NFL Network will still get an audience. It will just be through CBS and NBC.

So the NFL with this last minute move gets the wide audience it was seeking for Saturday’s game and also gives its network partners some ratings as well.

Let’s give you some links while we’re at it.

The Sports Media Watch also has some thoughts on this unprecedented simulcast and the potential ratings results. And Paulsen says the politicians with their hollow threats overstepped their bounds.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has some thoughts about the move in his Farther Off the Wall blog.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times writes that NBC Sports President Dick Ebersol helped to bring the simulcast into fruition.

Jon Lafayette and Chris Pursell of TV Week have the story on the simulcast. So does Steve Donohue of Multichannel News. And Jon Hemingway reports for Broadcasting & Cable magazine.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell correctly surmises that the NFL Network is the big loser here.

The Boston Sports Media Watch has a transcript of the NFL Network conference call with analysts Cris Collinsworth and Steve Mariucci.

Here’s the press release from NBC about the simulcast.

In a totally unrelated note, Tom Hoffarth reports the sad news that legendary Los Angeles sports anchor Stu Nahan has died at the age of 81. You may remember seeing Stu on various national NBC broadcasts as well as the Rocky movies and Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

We’ll have more perspective on this story tomorrow. I’m surprised we didn’t hear from Newsday’s Neil Best on this. I’m sure we’ll get his reaction on Thursday.

Saturday Morning Linkage

As I celebrate the Red Sox winning the American League East, Friday night was truly a great night of baseball. The Chicago Cubs clinched the National League Central, but they had to wait until Milwaukee lost to San Diego to celebrate. The Arizona Diamondbacks clinched a playoff spot, but didn’t find out until manager Bob Melvin told them. And the New York Mets continue to crumble in the National League East and the Philadelphia Phillies, counted out a week ago have now taken the lead by one game.

Following the Red Sox, NESN followed all angles of the game with the Twins, constantly updating the Yankees-Baltimore game. And after the Red Sox won, NESN remained in the studio with Tom Caron and Dennis Eckersley, showing shots of the Jumbotron which was showing the Yankees on the screen and cutting to shots of the crowd at Fenway Park which mostly stayed to watch the game as it went into extra innings. And when the O’s won on a strange bases loaded bunt by Melvin Mora, the Red Sox and the fans who stayed got to celebrate. NESN gets extra points for blowing away plans to air a taped debate of “candidates” for President of Red Sox Nation. Instead, NESN covered the celebrations in the locker room and the field (reporters Tina Cervasio and Kathryn Tappen deserve hazard pay for enduring champagne and beer showers). This was a night for the fan who had either the MLB Extra Innings package or ESPN which also updated the scores during the Padres-Brewers game. Fun night to watch.

Ok, let’s go to some links.

Jerry Garcia of the San Antonio Express-News writes that baseball is coming down to the wire on its final weekend and TBS is getting ready to air its first MLB postseason.

The Dallas Morning News’ Barry Horn also writes about TBS and the MLB postseason, but he also laments the passing of the Braves on TBS era and also has an interesting story on how the Texas Rangers almost became the third MLB team to air on a superstation.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes about TBS snubbing Skip Carey for the playoffs and also goes into the channel’s plans for the League Divisional Series.

Jay Posner of the San Diego Union-Tribune writes that Tony Gwynn is just getting started on a whirlwind tour that begins this weekend for Cox Channel 4, then TBS.

Jonathan Okanes of the Contra Costa (CA) Times says TBS is stepping up to the plate for the playoffs.

In his Newsday blog, Neil Best reports that Time Warner Cable in New York and New Jersey will pick up TBS HD so fans of the Yankees (and possibly the Mets) can watch the MLB playoffs.

Mike Shields of Mediaweek says MLB.com and FoxSports.com will increase the online content for the MLB postseason with new pre and postgame shows involving talent from both sites. However, I don’t see anything on streaming games online for the US audience. I know that MLB streams games for International fans, but nothing yet for the United States.

TV Week provides the national sports ratings for the week of September 17-23.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says the Yankees bringing Roger Clemens to pitch was almost worth the price of his salary.

On Sunday, 60 Minutes will have an interview with Tennessee Titans QB Vince Young and he’s still bitter over losing the Heisman Trophy to Reggie Bush.

John Dempsey of Variety has a feature of ESPN Ombudsman Le Anne Schreiber.

Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune reports that city residents can now see the Big Ten Network on RCN Cable. Greenstein says the deals with RCN and Wide Open West (WOW) Cable signed Friday have now put the number of subscribers for BTN at 30 million. The Evansville (IN) Courier & Press says WOW will put BTN on its expanded basic tier.

Laura Nachman of the Bucks County Courier Times marks the 10th Anniversary of Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia.

From the “Don’t They Have Anything Better To Do” Department comes this story from Stephanie Struglinski of the Deseret (UT) Morning News that five Western U.S. Senators are appealing to DirecTV and Dish Network to pick up the mtn. and get Mountain West games on TV. Tony Pizza (I guess that’s his real name) of the Daily Utah Chronicle, the University of Utah’s student newspaper writes about the mtn. picking up more cable carriage, albeit slowly.

Don’t call it a comeback, Mama said knock you out. SI’s Richard Deitsch talks with LL Cool J about his love for boxing.

On Friday, I linked to two stories about Boston’s WCVB-TV launching a new Sunday sports show. Here’s the station’s own story on the premiere this Sunday night. The show will be called SportsCenter 5 OT.

Those are the links for Saturday. When I started, I thought I would only have three or four, but I ended up having more than I expected which is a good thing. I’ll have NFL Picks coming up later today.

It’s Mega-Link Friday

Let’s not waste any time and get to the links. The theme of the day for the media writers across the country is TBS airing the MLB postseason for the first time.

We’ll start with USA Today’s Michael Hiestand who writes about FSN’s Sports Science series which premieres this Sunday and the talk about the USA Women’s soccer team losing to Brazil yesterday.

From the Sports Media Watch blog, we find out that ESPN.com has squashed John Buccigross’ column in which he wrote that the Alleged Worldwide Leader wanted to get the NHL back. I had linked to the column here as well and we find out that it’s gone. Let’s hope there’s no action taken against Buccigross as I’m sure he was writing what he thought was the truth at the time.

Over to David Scott of Boston Sports Media Watch where he opines that Patriots Radio announcers Gil Santos and Gino Cappelletti should be replaced. I disagree, but Scott is more than entitled to his opinion. Scott also writes that WCVB-TV in Boston will launch a new Sunday night sports show.

Susan Bickelhaupt of the Boston Globe also writes about the new Sunday night show on ‘CVB.

Neil Best in Newsday writes about SNY and YES Network covering their respective teams as they get ready for the playoffs or in the Mets’ case, blow their chances for the postseason. Best has particular praise for SNY analyst Ron Darling.

In the New York Daily News, Bob Raissman says the Mets’ Paul Lo Duca makes a lot of waves speaking his mind whether it be his weekly spot on WFAN or to the media after games.

The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick didn’t seem to be in a bad mood when writing today’s column, but he still manages to throw some shots. He does talk about Keith Hernandez’s sometimes puzzling analysis on SNY. And Justin Terranova in the Post talks with NBC’s Tiki Barber about the Giants and his words may surprise you. Terranova also has five questions for MSG Network’s Joe Micheletti about the New York Rangers and the upcoming NHL season.

To the Baltimore Sun where Ray Frager talks about TBS not using long-time Atlanta Braves voice Skip Carey on its MLB postseason coverage. I thought this was going to be a given that Carey would be on. Chip Carey is on the number one team with Tony Gwynn, but this is a fine way for TBS to treat Skip who has been with the Braves since they started on the Superstation in 1977.

Doug Nye in The State (SC) has some news and notes for the weekend. Nye’s TV best bet is a South Carolina-Clemson college football doubleheader.

The Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson writes about the owner of sports radio station 790 The Ticket taking shots at the Miami Dolphins and competitor WQAM. Strange.

Dave Darling in the Orlando Sentinel writes about the Braves on TBS era coming to an end this weekend. I’ll write a blog entry about it this weekend as well.

Dave Barron in the Houston Chronicle reports that the Texans-Falcons game won’t be in HDTV and Cowboys fans in the city won’t be able to see their team either.

Brian Windhorst in today’s Akron Beacon Journal has a story on the Cleveland Cavs’ Lebron James rehearsing to be host of Saturday Night Live tomorrow night.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says if Brett Favre breaks the NFL touchdown passing record in Minnesota, there won’t be much of a celebration and Fox will cover it as much as it can before going to commercial.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s Judd Zulgad writes about the Mayor of Minneapolis declaring tomorrow Big Ten Network Day in the city and giving the appearance that he’s taking sides in the BTN/Comcast dispute.

Paul Christian in the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin discusses TBS taking part in the MLB postseason for the first time, but he calls it “Ted Turner’s cable network”. Ted Turner hasn’t owned TBS since selling it to Time Warner in 1996.

Jay Posner in the San Diego Union-Tribune talks about TBS’ Skip Carey not being used for the MLB postseason.

From the North County Times, John Maffei writes about Tony Gwynn’s busy postseason for TBS.

In the Ventura County Star, Jim Carlisle focuses on TBS taking over the MLB League Divisional Series.

Two Sound & Vision columns from Christine Daniels in the LA Times. First is on the Voice of the Dodgers, Vin Scully, being surprised that the Dodgers fell out of playoff contention. And she gives her choices for the TV sporting weekend.

Tom Hoffarth has his usual series of articles in the LA Daily News today and his first is on ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit being a frequent flyer during the college football season. The second story is on FSN’s Sports Science series plus Hoffarth has his What Smokes/What Chokes feature and Versus is not spared at all. In his Farther Off the Wall blog, Hoffarth expands on the Sports Science story. And he has another extensive expanded media notes entry as well.

There you go. Those are your mega-links for today. I’ll have more later. Check back when you can.

Natalie Jacobsen’s Farewell

This is Natalie’s farewell from her final newscast.

Natalie Jacobsen Leaves

We don’t have Natalie Jacobsen’s final words tonight, but we do have an interview that she did with Chronicle’s Mary Richardson.

When her final goodbye is put up on YouTube, I’ll put it up here. In the meantime, here’s a link.

Natalie Jacobsen Leaves WCVB-TV

When a local news anchor who’s been in one market for a long time announces he/she is going to retire, it’s big news. That’s the case of Natalie Jacobsen who’s been with WCVB-TV for 35 years. Last night, she announced that she will leave next Wednesday to launch her own multimedia business. This is a person who goes back to when the station launched in 1972, co-anchored with the 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts with her ex-husband, Chet Curtis to form one of the most highly rated local stations in the country. Channel 5 in Boston led its 6 p.m. newscast with the announcement.

And here’s a slideshow of Nat from her days at WCVB. Her last day will be July 18 on the 6 p.m. newscast.

When a News Test is not a Test

WCVB (Channel 5) in Boston was testing its new High Definition set with a dummy newscast. Anchors Ed Harding and Natalie Jacobsen were pretty much sailing along when Nat’s cell phone went off. Kudos to the person who happened to find this video on WCVB’s website and posted it on YouTube last month.

By the way, WCVB is part of a group of Hearst-Argyle TV stations that will have its video available on YouTube. Right now, WCVB, WBAL in Baltimore, WMUR in Manchester, NH, WTAE in Pittsburgh and KCRA in Sacramento are storing news stories and promos on their own YouTube sites. Hearst-Argyle expects to have all of its stations, close to 30, on YouTube in the near future.