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Checking Out Some Wednesday Linkage

Let’s provide some mid-week linkage before I get too busy later on.

Austin Karp of Sports Business Daily writes that NBC’s overnight rating for Tuesday’s Olympic primetime was up from the comparable night four years ago.

Tripp Mickle of SBJ says NBC is about to set up a set of exhibition beach volleyball matches between the US and China later this year.

In an SBJ podcast, Tripp meets with Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch to talk about the media coverage of the 2012 Olympics.

Tim Goodman of the Hollywood Reporter will not complain about NBC’s Olympic coverage.

Daniel Miller of the Reporter says swimmer Ryan Lochte is in discussions to star in his own reality TV show.

Also from the Reporter, Marisa Guthrie has five lessons NBC should learn from the 2012 Games.

Another from the Reporter, a majority of those polled think Ryan Seacrest is doing a good job at the Olympics? Who is being polled?

And finally from the Reporter, Eriq Gardner reports that the NCAA has been ordered to hand over TV licensing revenue documents in a case involving video game manufacturer Electronic Arts which is using likenesses of student-athletes without permission from the athletes themselves.

Stephen Douglas at The Big Lead has video of Lolo Jones breaking down on the Today Show this morning.

Meanwhile, Glenn Davis of SportsGrid has video of medal winners Dawn Harper and Kellie Wells being rather candid about their opinions on Lolo with Michelle Beadle this morning.

Jen Floyd Engel at FoxSports.com says despite what the media says, this is not the Olympics of the Woman as the media is stating.

Graeme McMillan of Time asks if NBC should offer the Olympics as reality TV or just straight sports?

Joe Posnanski talks with former NBC Sports Emperor Dick Ebersol about working his last Olympics for American television, the 2012 London Games.

Reid Cherner of USA Today’s Game On has a look at the upcoming slate of 30 for 30 documentaries.

Stewart Mandel of Sports Illustrated profiles ESPN’s Joe Tessitore who is getting a high profile college football assignment after years of taking on crazy schedules.

SI’s Richard Deitsch has a college football roundtable featuring writers Stewart Mandel, Andy Staples and Holly Anderson on what they expect from the TV side of the sport this season.

Tim Baysinger of Broadcasting & Cable says NBC Sports Network is setting viewership records with Olympic programming.

Tim writes that AT&T U-Verse has signed a new agreement to carry NFL Network and RedZone.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News says the 2012 Olympics are on pace to become the most-watched TV event in US history.

Anthony Crupi of Adweek writes that online sports viewers can tolerate the bombardment of ads seen during the Olympics.

Thomas Pardee of Advertising Age says the Olympics are topping social TV sites like GetGlue, but HBO’s True Blood is showing its reach.

Toni Fitzgerald of Media Life looks at the winners and losers from broadcasting the Olympics.

Phil Swann at TV Predictions says DirecTV may be adding five new channels including one sports network run by Al Jazeera.

Ed Sherman of The Sherman Report notes that a former Boston Globe college sports columnist is now on his own and got a big scoop this week.

Ed has a couple of NBC Sports-related announcements that have nothing to do with the Olympics.

Ken Kerschbaumer of Sports Video Group looks at NBC’s operations at Olympic Stadium.

ESPN’s Darren Rovell notes that it’s better for sponsors that Michael Phelps remain retired instead of him being an active Olympian.

CBS Radio has officially announced that Scott Zolak will be the radio analyst for New England Patriots games starting this Thursday. He replaces Gino Cappeletti who retired last month.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette writes that NBC is getting a mixed ratings bag for the Olympics from the last few days.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union tells readers where they can find this week’s New York Giants preseason opener.

Pete has ESPN’s schedule of MLB games for most of this month.

Ken McMillan of the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record notes that former Jets and Giants coach Bill Parcells will appear on ESPN Radio NY opposite his buddy, WFAN’s Mike Francesa during NFL season.

Ken says NBC Sports Network will have Olympic reruns throughout August.

From the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog, Dan Steinberg notes that ESPN Radio Hack Colin Cowherd is up to his old tricks again.

Eric Deggans from the Tampa Bay Times wonders if the Olympic promos for the NBC’s “Go On” might actually hurt the show in the long run.

Adam H. Beasley of the Miami Herald looks at last night’s Hard Knock premiere on HBO.

Izzy Gould at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel writes that the Miami Dolphins put the team up for display on Hard Knocks.

Gould says Hard Knocks did not explore the Dolphins’ injuries.

Mel Bracht from The Oklahoman says the local NBC affiliate’s ratings are down from 4 years ago.

T.J. Simers of the Los Angeles Times talks with Vin Scully about calling Sandy Koufax’s perfect game back in 1965.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says Scully made a great argument for using instant replay in baseball during an argument on the field Monday night.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog says while viewers in the Great White North are complaining about Olympic coverage, the ratings are saying otherwise.

Ben Koo of Awful Announcing goes in-depth into the Turner Sports purchase of the Bleacher Report.

Matt Yoder of AA defends Lolo Jones against the very strange media backlash that began over the weekend in the New York Times.

John Koblin of Deadspin writes that even our troops stationed abroad are victims to NBC’s tape delays and can’t watch the Olympics live!

Sports Media Watch says UFC on Fox set yet another record low for mixed martial arts on network TV.

The Big Lead, in a sponsored post, speaks with CBS’ Clark Kellogg.

That is going to do it for today.

The Olympics Are Here; Let’s Do Some Links

Olympics start today with women’s soccer and there’s more soccer action tomorrow on the men’s side. Let’s bring you some linkage before I get distracted by the live streaming.

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand reports that Erin Andrews will get some high profile NFL assignments working with the Fox Sports “A” announcing team of Joe Buck, Troy Aikman and Pam Oliver on Thanksgiving and the postseason.

Roger Yu of USA Today looks at NBC’s Olympic online streaming plans.

Reid Cherner of USA Today says the Olympic Opening and Closing Ceremonies will not be streamed online by NBC. Both will be held for primetime broadcast. Grrrrr.

David Bauder of the Associated Press has your Olympics Viewing Guide.

I have my own Olympics Viewing Guide.

Ed Sherman of The Sherman Report wonders if NBC will force Bob Costas to back of his pledge to honor the slain Israeli athletes from the 1972 Munich Olympics during this year’s Olympic Opening Ceremony.

Jason Fry and Kelly McBride of the Poynter Review Project as the ESPN Ombudsman review ESPN’s coverage of the Penn State story on Monday.

Sports Business Daily Global notes that the Olympics are the second most valuable brand worldwide.

ESPN may not be the Olympics rightsholder in the US, but it does have the rights in Latin America and John Ourand at Sports Business Journal’s Olympic site looks at its sponsors for the Games.

UK Radio personality Polly James of Absolute Radio has started an Olympics blog and it’s quite good.

R. Thomas Umstead of Multichannel News says Showtime and CBS will team up to show the professional debut of several Olympic boxers.

John Eggerton of Mulitchannel writes that Tennis Channel won a huge victory from the FCC in its carriage battle with Comcast.

Todd Spangler of Multichannel says Netflix feels that growth will be stunted in the current quarter due to the Olympics.

George Winslow of Broadcasting & Cable notes that NBC News will use Storify to piece together certain stories of the Olympics.

Christopher Heine of Adweek reports that one Penn State sponsor has dropped the school in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal.

Jerry Barmash of Fishbowl NY talks with former CBS News and WCBS anchor Dave Marash who covered the 1972 Munich tragedy.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette writes that CBS Sports Network will air some US Open Tennis on Labor Day Weekend.

Ken McMillan at the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record has Fox Sports college football analyst Charles Davis talking about the Penn State sanctions.

Laura Nachman notes that ESPN SportsCenter anchor Ducis Rodgers will be joining the Philadelphia ABC affiliate.

Tim Richardson in Press Box writes that the military will continue its sports sponsorships in the mid-Atlantic region.

Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog says the DC NFL Team has already e-mailed the media on quarterback Robert Griffin III’s availability.

Mel Bracht of The Oklahoman talks about the Olympic streaming smorgasbord online.

Mel also looks at the local ratings from the weekend.

Joe Reedy of the Cincinnati Enquirer says the Bengals aren’t going to relax their requirements to ease TV blackouts.

Robert Feder of TimeOut Chicago says a popular Comcast SportsNet reporter is leaving the Windy City.

Scott D. Pierce of the Salt Lake Tribune has NBC’s Bob Costas lashing out at those who write about Olympic tape delays.

Jon Wilner at the San Jose Mercury News has Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott optimistic about getting DirecTV on board for the Pac-12 Networks.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail talks with CTV Olympic Daytime host James Duthie.

Sports Media Watch looks at NBC Sports Network’s new highlight show.

Joe Lucia of Awful Announcing says the Olympics going digital.

AA’s Matt Yoder feels Fox should ditch the local announcers on its MLB broadcasts.

That’s going to do it.

Bringing You A Few Wednesday Sports Media Thoughts And More…

Let’s do a few sports media thoughts and a couple non-sports thoughts. They’re in bullet form, of course.

• Fox did its usual good job in covering the MLB All-Star Game. The production was spot on. Joe Buck was decent. Ken Rosenthal was good in his role. Fox did not shove Erin Andrews down our throats in her Fox debut as she made just a few appearances. Tim McCarver’s analysis still is lacking and there were times when his statements were head scratchers (“Electric stuff is a new baseball term”). Basing it on the pictures and replays, Fox usually steps up and it did so on Tuesday.

  However, the postgame ceremonies with All-Star Game MVP Melky Cabrera were quite awkward as MLB Commissioner Bud Selig looked confused and wooden like he always does and MLB Nerwork’s Matt Vasgersian wasn’t helpful as Cabrera had difficulty speaking English, yet Matt didn’t try to bail him out. He just let Melky struggle. Bad spot by Matt there.

  While the game was a blowout early and there was most likely a late tune out factor, the All-Star Game’s ratings will probably be on a par with last year’s all-time record low 6.9 rating.

• On Monday night, ESPN carried the Home Run Derby and while ratings for this year’s event were up compared to 2011, one had to think the numbers increased despite Chris Berman’s presence behind the mic.

  While the Derby itself was dull, the highlight of the broadcast was Hall of Fame Kansas City Royals third baseman George Brett bringing barbecue ribs to the set and seeing John Kruk demolish them.

  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Chris Berman’s act is old. ESPN puts him on the U.S. Open and Home Run Derby every year and the complaints about his performance pick up on social media. Every ball that was hit started with either a “WOW!” or an “OH!” How is that a good call? And when Berman tried to get cute with geography by saying one blast was headed to Omaha, Brett chimed in with “Wrong direction,” which made my night.

  Berman is not a play-by man and I wish he was taken off the Home Run Derby.

  The social media bashing of Berman will rise to new heights next month when he handles his first NFL play-by-play assignment.

• The Big Lead reported on Tuesday that ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball voice Dan Shulman could be in demand when his contract expires later this year.

  Jason McIntyre of The Big Lead wrote that Fox and possibly, NBC would be interested in Shulman’s services. Of course, Shulman can call baseball and basketball, both of which he calls very well. If Fox retains baseball, Shulman could easily supplant Joe Buck as lead voice, call the entire season of Fox Saturday Baseball which Buck does not do, and have a role in the MLB Postseason for the network. He could also call college basketball for either Fox’s cable entities, Big Ten Network or Fox Sports Net.

  Should NBC get a piece of the MLB contract, then Shulman again could be the lead voice and also call basketball if NBC gets Big East rights. Of course, NBC could also give Shulman an Olympic sport to call every two years.

  And there’s always the option that Dan could remain with ESPN where he calls the League Championship Series and World Series on Radio and call college basketball with a few NBA games thrown in for good measure.

  Shulman certainly has some options after the final out is recorded at this year’s World Series.

• After failing to come to an agreement, Viacom pulled 17 networks off DirecTV including MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, and Spike, among others. No one wins in these disputes. Both sides blame the other. It all comes down to money. Viacom wants more money from DirecTV, but the satellite provider says it doesn’t want to pay it. No matter what, I see a slide in the Viacom Network’s place. This is all unnecessary and avoidable, yet it happens time and time again.
• Is there a better network meteorologist than Ginger Zee of ABC’s Good Morning America and World News? I didn’t think so. She can chase storms for me any time.

And we’re done.

Guest Column: NFL — Please Take My Money

This will conclude our series of guest columns over the last few days. I want to thank Paul Lebowitz, Ryan Scheb, Corneilus Green, Ed Hannan, Michael Schottey, Jason Chalifour, Andrew Nostvick, Greg Stanko, Matt Lichtenstadter and Jesse Karangu. I would not have been able to provide some fresh content on the site without them and I also thank you for continuing to visit throughout a busy time for me personally.

In this last guest column, blogger Ken Barnes talks about cutting the cord and finding alternate ways of finding your favorite sports action.

Three years ago, my wife and I were blessed with premature twin boys. Due to their serious medical conditions and the need for round-the-clock care, I quit my job while my wife continued her career as an RN nurse. Dropping to one income required financial sacrifices, and one of the first things to go was our pay TV. We went from having AT&T U-verse’s 300-channel package with NFL Network and DVRs (which we loved) to nothing but our local network stations using an over-the-air antenna. As an NFL, NBA, and NHL fan, that was a big sacrifice. Free over-the-air network TV still provides most NFL games plus the playoffs and the Super Bowl. ABC provides NBA games on Sundays throughout the spring, playoffs and the finals. And NBC provides weekend NHL games and playoffs as well.

I get just enough of a sports fix on the weekends to survive without pay TV, and most of our entertainment is now provided by our Roku streaming box and Netflix. The Roku box allows subscribers of MLB Extra Innings, NBA League Pass, and NHL Center Ice to view all games and highlights live and on demand (just like online) right on their TV. The only league missing? The NFL. Of all the leagues, the NFL is my favorite and the one league pass that I would gladly pay for (since I don’t get many Carolina Panthers games here in Arkansas).

If the NFL would allow DirecTV to keep Sunday Ticket but also allow online subscriptions, I know they would make a killing! Please take my money and join the other leagues on my Roku box – please, please, please!

Ken Barnes and his wife have a site (Twins N Tidbits) that features items about twins, special needs, recipes, and tips for saving money.

And that does it for the guest columns. Back to regular posting on Monday.

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

Late Monday Night Links

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post hates everybody.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And we’ll end it there. Good night.

33rd Annual Sports Emmy Nominations Announced

We have the nominations, all 170 in 33 different categories, for the 33rd Annual Sports Emmy Awards. They just came out today. There are some surprises like massive hockey charlatan Pierre McGuire nominated in the Sports Reporter category and for some really strange reason, Skippy Bayless of ESPN2′s First Take was nominated for Best Studio Analyst. What analysis does he do besides yelling and having massive manlove for Tim Tebow?

There are some of the usual suspects are nominated, Bob Costas for Best Studio Host, Al Michaels in Play-by-Play, Cris Collinsworth for both Studio and Game Analyst.

Some of the nominations I agree with include Mike Mayock for Best Game Analyst, College GameDay and Football Night in America as Best Studio Shows and all of the movies in the Sports Documentary category. Sports documentaries were strong this year and I have trouble picking one although Catching Hell, the ESPN Films effort on Steve Bartman and the Chicago Cubs might be the weakest of the bunch, but the doc was still very good.

Ok, get ready to scroll, the entire list is below. We do need a page break so the list of nominees will after the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences press releases.

THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF TELEVISION ARTS & SCIENCES ANNOUNCES THE NOMINEES FOR THE 33^RD ANNUAL SPORTS EMMY® AWARDS

Winners to be Honored During the April 30^th Ceremony At Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center
Jack Whitaker to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award

New York, NY – March 20, 2012 – The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) today announced the nominees for the 33^rd Annual Sports Emmy® Awards.

More than 170 nominees were announced in 33 categories including outstanding live sports special, live series, sports documentary, studio show, promotional announcements, play-by-play personality and studio analyst.  The Awards will be given out at the prestigious Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center located in the Time Warner Center on April 30^th, 2012 in New York City.

This year’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Sports will go to the Sports Commentator and Essayist, Jack Whitaker.

“This is an outstanding year for the sports community and for The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences,” said Malachy Wienges, Chairman, NATAS. “The entries received in this year’s Sports Emmys resulted in a record 175 nominees, illustrating the quality of these entries.  We are also honoring Jack Whitaker with our Lifetime Achievement Award.  I had the pleasure of working with Jack for eighteen years at CBS, and Jack is a sports icon and a class act.”

In addition to Jack Whitaker, many of the today’s leading sports broadcasters, personalities and television professionals will be in attendance as presenters at the event.

The networks of ESPN (ESPN, ESPN 2, ABC, ESPN 3D & espn.com) lead the nomination totals with 55, the NBC Sports Group (NBC, Versus, Golf Channel & nbcsports.com) garnered 32, CBS (CBS, Showtime, CBSSports.com) entries received 26 nominations, while Turner Sports (TNT, TBS, NBA TV, NBA.com & truTV) have 22.

A complete list of all nominees is attached below.

33^rd Annual Sports Emmy Award Nominations by Network Group

ESPN (ESPN, ESPN 2, ABC, ESPN 3D, espn.com) – 55
NBC Sports Group (NBC, Versus, Golf Channel, nbcsports.com) – 32
CBS (CBS, Showtime, CBSSports.com) – 26
Turner Sports (TNT, TBS, NBA TV, NBA.com, truTV) – 22
HBO Sports – 19
FOX Sports Media Group (FOX, SPEED) – 16
NFL Network – 12
MLB Network – 8
DIRECTV – 2
MLB Advanced Media (MLB.com, MLBAM) – 2
NFL.com – 2
NCAA.com – 1
PGA.com – 1

33^rd Annual Sports Emmy Award Nominations by Network

ESPN – 36
NBC – 22
HBO Sports – 19
CBS – 15
FOX – 15
TNT – 15
ESPN2 – 14
NFL NETWORK – 12
SHOWTIME – 10
MLB NETWORK – 8
VERSUS – 7  
TBS – 3
ABC – 2   
DIRECTV – 2
ESPN 3D – 2
GOLF CHANNEL – 2
NBA TV – 2
NFL.COM – 2
CBSSPORTS.COM – 1
ESPN.COM – 1
MLB.COM – 1
MLBAM – 1
NBA.COM – 1
NBCSPORTS.COM – 1
NCAA.COM – 1
PGA.COM – 1
SPEED – 1
truTV – 1

BREAKDOWN OF MULTIPLE PROGRAM/SERIES NOMINATIONS

Program/Nominations/Network

24/7: 8 -  HBO
E: 60: 7 – ESPN2
A Game of Honor: 5 – Showtime/CBSSports.com
MLB on FOX: 5 – FOX
NASCAR on FOX: 5 – FOX
NBA on TNT: 4 – TNT
NBC Sunday Night Football: 4 – NBC
FIFA Women’s World Cup: 3 – ESPN/ESPN2
Outside the Lines: 3 – ESPN
Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel: 3 – HBO
SportsCenter: 3 – ESPN
The Army/Navy Game: 3 – CBS
The Franchise: 3 – Showtime
Winter X Games 15: 3 – ESPN/ESPN3D
2011 Open Championship: 2 – ESPN
2011 Stanley Cup Final: 2 – NBC/Versus
ESPN Monday Night Football: 2 – ESPN
Football Night in America: 2 – NBC
Grand Slam Tennis on ESPN: 2 – ESPN2
Inside the NBA on TNT: 2 – TNT
Joplin: City of Hope: 2 – ESPN2
McEnroe/Borg: Fire & Ice: 2 – HBO
MLB Tonight: 2 – MLB Network
NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament: 2 – CBS/TBS/TNT/truTV
NFL Films Presents: 2 – NFL Network
NFL GameDay Morning: 2 – NFL Network
NFL on FOX: 2 – FOX
Sports Science: 2 – ESPN/ESPN.com
Sunday NFL Countdown: 2 – ESPN
Unguarded: 2 – ESPN

And after the page break, all of the nominees for the 33rd Annual Sports Emmy Awards which will be handed out April 30 in New York City.

(continue reading…)

Quick Sunday Linkage

While I have a moment, let’s provide some rare Sunday links.

The lovely Nicole Auerbach of USA Today notes that ESPN’s Bob Knight won’t mention Kentucky by name on the air. ESPN allows Knight to wear sweaters on the air instead of a suit and tie and now this. I don’t understand it.

The Associated Press reports that Hall of Fame Los Angeles Dodgers voice Vin Scully is cutting back on his schedule even further this upcoming season.

The Biz of Baseball’s Maury Brown writes that the Dodgers have released their 2012 radio and TV schedule with the news about Scully buried deep in the press release.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News says Friday’s historic upsets in the NCAA Tournament gave CBS/Turner record ratings.

R. Thomas Umstead of Multichannel notes that HBO has set the date for its next pay per view boxing event.

Dan Fogarty of SportsGrid wonders exactly what CBS/Turner’s Bill Raftery said during last night’s Iowa State-Kentucky game.

Brandon Costa of Sports Video Group writes that Ball State students are helping Turner Sports drive its social media engine for the NCAA Tournament.

Sox & Dawgs has the funny video of UConn’s Stefanie Dolson taking a knee to the groin, but what’s makes it funny is that ESPN2′s Rebecca Lobo is laughing when she sees the replay.

Phil Swann at TVPredictions says DirecTV aired last night’s launch of Fox Sports San Diego in HD.

The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick can’t stand ESPN’s Stephen A. “A is for Anti-Asian” Smith kissing up to certain New York Knicks players.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union notes the higher ratings for the NCAA Tournament on Friday.

Greg Connors of the Buffalo News says the Bills’ courting of Mario Williams stretched the Western New York media to all corners of the region.

Jim Williams from the Washington Examiner talks with Sirius XM NFL Radio host Ross Tucker about the DC NFL Team.

Tom Jones from the Tampa Bay Times profiles NBC/Golf Channel’s on-course reporter Dottie Pepper.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle says ratings for the first true day of the NCAA Tournament were up.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has writers analyzing the Brewers by each position.

Bill Center of the San Diego Union-Tribune says the Padres got their official launch on Fox Sports last night.

Jim Peltz of the Los Angeles Times writes about Vin Scully cutting back on his schedule this season.

Sports Media Watch notes the increased ratings for the NCAA Tournament on Thursday.

SMW says the NBA drew strong numbers for ESPN/ABC.

And that will complete the links for today.

Some Quick Thursday Links

Ok, going to attempt some linkage here. Quite busy, but I’ll try to sneak some stuff for you.

Eric Fisher of Sports Business Daily looks at the new $3.99 charge for the new March Madness Live app for the NCAA Tournament.

R. Thomas Umstead of Multichannel News/Broadcasting & Cable also writes about the new March Madness Live app.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch talks with ESPN’s Ron Jaworski about being removed from the Monday Night Football booth.

Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio has the impression that ESPN’s Jon Gruden didn’t agree with the decision to take Jaws out of the MNF booth.

Former New York Times columnist George Vecsey is now on Twitter and he’s a bit apprehensive about it.

Glenn Davis at SportsGrid is confused about yesterday’s Colin Cowherd interview with Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit cover girl Kate Upton.

Timothy Burke at Deadspin has audio of CNBC’s Darren Rovell explaining his Valentine Day’s proposal to Kate Upton.

Maury Brown at the Biz of Baseball says not every local MLB deal is equal and fair.

Anthony Crupi from Adweek notes that CBS El Capo di Tutti Capi Les Moonves predicts record ad rates for Super Bowl XLVII which will be aired on the Tiffany Network next year.

Adweek has a video with NASCAR CEO Brian France on the upcoming Sprint Cup season.

Toni Fitzgerald of Media Life Magazine says thanks to the Super Bowl, NBC leads the February sweeps by a 2-1 margin over CBS.

Sam Eifling of The Big Lead talks with a Memphis sports radio host who kept grinding and has been rewarded with national recognition.

At the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center, Ronnie Ramos talks about how to maximize your Facebook and Twitter strategies.

Also at the National Sports Journalism Center, Eric Deggans of the Tampa Bay Times cautions traditional media about falling into prejudicial traps when writing about Jeremy Lin.

Karen Hogan of Sports Video Group explains the logistics for CBC’s Hockey Day in Canada.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says one sporting goods chain is going all in for Jeremy Lin.

Kevin Lincoln at the Business Insider’s Sports Page notes that Time Warner Cable is sending out small refund checks for those missing MSG Network.

WEEI’s Kirk Minihane lists the best and worst Boston TV announcers.

The Boston Herald’s Inside Track found Red Sox first baseman Adrian Gonzalez going through the ESPN “Car Wash” yesterday.

To the Worcester Telegram & Gazette where Bill Doyle gets Comcast SportsNet Celtics sideline reporter Greg Dickerson to talk about epilepsy and Tourette syndrome which have plagued him.

Over to the New York Times’ Richard Sandomir who looks into ESPN’s Monday Night Football personnel move.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union has the New York Mets Spring Training TV schedule.

Ken McMillan of the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record posts the Yankees Spring Training TV and Radio schedules.

Ed Barkowitz at the Philadelphia Daily News says Jaws being taken off Monday Night Football doesn’t mean the end for him at ESPN.

From the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog, Dan Steinberg says DirecTV has added Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic’s overflow channel in HD, finally.

Jim Williams at the Washington Examiner says a two man booth will benefit Monday Night Football.

Tom Jones of the Tampa Bay Times writes that local sports radio talk show host is out of a job today.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle says Astros voice Milo Hamilton may be retiring after this season, but the team won’t be losing him altogether.

The Houston Astros website has an entire section devoted to Hamilton’s career including some of his most famous radio calls.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says the Brewers will be featured at least six times on Fox’s Saturday baseball package.

Helene Elliott of the Los Angeles Times says the NHL finally has a TV partner which is fully promoting the league.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has reaction to Bob Ryan’s announced retirement from the Boston Globe.

Barry Wilner at the San Jose Mercury News gets some details of the new Pac-12 Network from league commissioner Larry Scott.

Blogs and reporters are constantly receiving public relations pitches. Here’s one regarding Jeremy Lin and it’s a bit over the top.

Sports Media Watch notes that the 2012 MLB on Fox schedule is reduced from last year due to the 2012 Olympics.

SMW says Golf Channel set a ratings record last Sunday.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog has the sports TV viewership numbers for last week.

Mike Silva of the Sports Media Watchdog has a review of the new CBS Radio Mike Francesa Show app.

Joe Favorito says the Phoenix Suns are using the Samsung Galaxy tablet on the sidelines.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media has the numbers for the NHL on NBC Sports Network from early this week.

Ben Koo at Awful Announcing notes that ESPN is not tiring of the Jeremy Lin overkill.

Lou Clinton at 38 Cliches is rooting for former Red Sox announcer Jerry Trupiano.

And that’s where we’ll end it. Enjoy your Thursday.

Doing Some Friday Megalinks

With a rainy day in Southern New England, it’s time to provide you with some media links. Lots of them on a Friday.

You can check out the Weekend Viewing Picks for the sports and entertainment programming suggestions.

Now to the links.

National

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand talks with NBC’s Al Michaels about calling his 8th Super Bowl and 2nd for NBC.

Mike Ozanian from Forbes says NFL TV rightsholders will be able to reap financial benefits while non-rightsholders end up holding the bag.

Sam Mamudi of Marketwatch.com says you can follow along the USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter results in real time thanks to a new Facebook app.

Michael O’Connell from the Hollywood Reporter has a sneak peek at some of the Super Bowls ads.

Kelly McBride of the ESPN Poynter Review Project looks at why ESPN made so much of Tim Tebow.

Alex Klein at Romanesko looks into why the Yale Daily News sat on a story for several months and how it took the New York Times to report on former quarterback Patrick Witt’s alleged sexual assault on campus. You may remember that Witt was a candidate to become a Rhodes Scholar but then skipped his interview. Now we know why.

Todd Spangler at Multichannel News says ESPN will let viewers see additional highlights and material from the Winter X Games via the Shazam mobile app.

Mike Reynolds of Multichannel writes that NBC Sports Network goes into the NHL All-Star Weekend with increased ratings for the games.

Austin Karp of Sports Business Daily also has a story on the increased NHL ratings for NBC Sports Network.

Gabriel Beltrone from Adweek says Coke will have a Super Bowl microsite where its famous polar bears will react to the game and ads in real time.

David Gianatasio of Adweek writes one local Super Bowl spot will urge you to pee during its commercial.

E.J. Schultz at Advertising Age has Anheuser-Busch’s Super Bowl plans.

Matt Hardigree at Jalopnik says he’s solved the mystery behind the advertiser behind the Ferris Bueller-themed Super Bowl spot.

Adam Jacobi, the college football writer at CBSSports.com, who put the link to Onward State’s erroneous tweet about Joe Paterno’s death last Saturday has been fired. Jacobi says he understands the decision and has apologized to the Paterno family for his mistake.

Brandon Costa of Sports Video Group says NBC will take a lighter approach for Sunday’s NFL Pro Bowl in Hawaii.

Harry A. Jessell at TV NewsCheck notes that while the national TV ratings for the NFL are good, go inside the local numbers and they’re even better.

ESPN PR man Bill Hofheimer gives you an inside look at the network’s Super Bowl studios in Indianapolis.

Sports Media Watch says college basketball ratings are up on both ESPN and ESPN2.

SMW has some news and notes on some various people in the sports media.

Matt Yoder at Awful Announcing goes into some of the on-screen typos on TV this week.

Jeff Pearlman gets vindication from Chris “Mad Dog” Russo.

Steven Crist from the Daily Racing Form feels returning the Breeders Cup to NBC can only help horse racing.

All Access says a Hartford, CT FM station has flipped to all-sports.

East and Mid-Atlantic

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe says NESN has selected the replacement for Heidi Watney on its Red Sox broadcasts.

Chad says of all of the local TV outlets, Comcast SportsNet New England will have the largest contingent covering the Super Bowl in Indianapolis.

Johnny Diaz from the Globe says Boston DirecTV subscribers will see the Super Bowl after all.

Bill Doyle from the Worcester Telegram & Gazette talks with NBC’s Rodney Harrison about Super Bowl XLII and how some present New England Patriots still remaining from the game want revenge.

Stuart Elliot at the New York Times says some Super Bowl advertisers are returning buyers.

Richard Sandomir of the Times has Joe Namath’s reaction to the HBO/NFL Films documentary on his career that premieres tomorrow.

Richard adds that Namath is right now estranged from his former team, the New York Jets.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post says the Namath documentary for the most part is good.

Justin Terranova of the Post speaks with NBC NHL charlatan Pierre McGuire.

Mike Silva at Sports Media Watchdog wonders why Kim Jones left YES.

Pete Dougherty from the Albany Times Union says a local sports talk show will broadcast live from the Super Bowl next week.

Pete talks with the host of that talk show who also wears other hats in the Albany market.

Ken McMillan from the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record says NYC residents will be able to hear the local and national radio calls of the Super Bowl next Sunday.

The Harrisburg (PA) Patriot-News notes the firing of a CBSSports.com writer for falsely reporting Joe Paterno’s death.

DCRTV’s Dave Hughes at Press Row has media notes from the Baltimore-DC area.

South

The Tallahassee (FL) Democrat writes that a local sports talk show host who left his former station this week will be back on the air at another station later this year.

Billy Cox of the Sarasota (FL) Herald Tribune says ESPN’s Dick Vitale will be the subject of a profile produced by ….. ESPN!

Josh Bowe of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram says Fox Sports Southwest will stream Lone Star Conference football games and a highlight show over the internet.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle talks with a retiring local sports anchor who looks back at the 2011 Texans rather fondly.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman reviews the HBO/NFL Films documentary on Joe Namath.

Mel says ESPNU will be all over National Signing Day.

Midwest

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer talks with former Bengal Artrell Hawkins who is now co-hosting Fox Sports Radio’s national morning show.

Jeff Moss of the Detroit Sports Rag looks into the new program director and on-air host of a local sports radio station.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says Wisconsin sports teams did well in the national TV ratings last year.

Dan McGrath of the Chicago News Cooperative notes the 20 year anniversary of sports talk radio in the Windy City.

Paul Christian of the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin says new Minnesota Twins radio voice Cory Provus has big shoes to fill.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch talks with Bob Costas about returning to host his familiar town hall format next week.

West

Thomas Harding of MLB.com says Root Sports Rocky Mountain’s Alana Rizzo is leaving the network’s Colorado Rockies broadcast team and heading for MLB Network.

John Maffei at the North County Times says HBO’s documentary on Joe Namath is on par with previous efforts.

Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star also reviews the documentary.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News talks with Kings radio analyst Daryl Evans and also lists his best/worst LA broadcast analysts.

Tom has more on Evans in his blog.

Canada

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail says it’s time to play the NHL All-Star Game outdoors.

And that will do it.

The Mid-Week Linkage

I haven’t provided links on schedule so let me try to do it now.

We begin with Michael Hiestand of USA Today who talks about NBCUniversal’s big plans to blanket Super Bowl XLVI next week.

Wow. The secret organization Anonymous plans to attack ESPN.com over its support of SOPA and PIPA. In case anyone from Anonymous is reading, Fang’s Bites is an ardent critic of both bills.

Adrian Melville of Forbes says Fox is hoping to retain the US rights to the English Premier League.

Jeff Roberts at paidContent looks at USA Today Media Group’s purchase of Big Lead Sports.

Funny post. It’s a long one, but stay with it. Complex provides the 100 Worst Sports Tweets in history.

The Nielsen Wire blog reviews the year in sports advertising for 2011.

Rarely do we link to Self Magazine, but it has a story on ESPN SportsCenter anchor Sage Steele training for the upcoming Disney Princess Half Marathon.

Last week, ESPN’s Front Row PR blog posted part one of its behind the scenes look at Sunday NFL Countdown. Today, it provides part two of that look.

Lacey Rose at the Hollywood Reporter writes that current NFL Network analyst Kurt Warner will host a USA Network reality show that will premiere later this year.

James Hibberd at Entertainment Weekly looks at NBC’s plans for the Super Bowl.

John Eggerton from Broadcasting & Cable says Massachusetts US Senator John Kerry wants DirecTV and Sunbeam to pledge that Super Bowl XLVI won’t be blacked out in Boston. Sunbeam’s WHDH-TV is off DirecTV right now over a carriage dispute and it’s the NBC affiliate.

Tim Nudd of Adweek says clothing retailer H&M is trying to put out a social media firestorm in advance of its first-ever Super Bowl ad.

Ken Wheaton at Advertising Age says CareerBuilder is keeping its lovable chimps for this year’s Super Bowl commercial.

Ad Age’s Michael Learmonth has the best Super Bowl ads ever.

Diego Vasquez from Media Life Magazine speaks with two people from a research firm to find out why some Super Bowl ads fail to connect with viewers.

Karlene Lukovitz from MediaPost’s Marketing Daily says Papa John’s is betting on the Super Bowl coin flip to help sell pizzas.

Toni Fitzgerald of Media Life notes that the NBA’s ratings despite the lockout are way up from last year’s record.

Dan Fogarty of SportsGrid catches ESPN2′s Patrick McEnroe firing off an “F” bomb during the Australian Open coverage last night.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell has some myths and facts about the Super Bowl ticket market.

Mary Alice Gill from the Nashua (NH) Telegraph writes about the DirecTV/Sunbeam dispute that could affect Boston’s watching of the Super Bowl.

Johnny Diaz of the Boston Globe says area bars with DirecTV are scrambling for other possible ways to show the Super Bowl.

At SB Nation Boston, Kat Hasenauer Cornetta looks at how small market New England sports radio stations try to serve the needs of their audience.

Stuart Elliot of the New York Times says the pregame show has begun for the Super Bowl ads.

To Newsday and Neil Best who writes that reporter Kim Jones is leaving the YES network.

Justin Terranova and Phil Mushnick of the New York Post report that Jones is talking with a national network.

Don McKee of the Philadelphia Inquirer has an obituary for the late Andy Musser.

Ray Didinger of Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia remembers Musser.

David Jones from Florida Today feels ESPN’s deal with the SEC is bad for the league.

Gregory A. Hall of the Louisville Courier-Journal notes that NBC has brought the Breeders’ Cup back under its fold.

The Houston Chronicle’s David Barron says a long-time local TV sports director is leaving after this year.

Mel Bracht from the Daily Oklahoman notes that the NFL Conference Championship Games drew big ratings locally.

Steve Nitz of the Morris (IL) Daily Herald is no longer a fan of ESPN.

NBC’s Michele Tafoya is ending her Minneapolis radio show.

Jon Bream at the Minneapolis Star Tribune says Tafoya has grown tired of a weekly 7 day grind between her show and Sunday Night Football.

David Brauer of MinnPost.com writes that Tafoya’s ratings weren’t great.

Bruce Pascoe of the Arizona Daily Star looks at ESPN’s College GameDay’s visit to the University of Arizona campus this weekend.

Anthony Gimino of the Tucson Citizen says CBS Sports Network will have inside access to Rich Rodriguez and the University of Arizona during National Signing Day.

Bruce Dowbiggin from the Toronto Globe and Mail wonders if TSN’s Dave Hodge was reaching when he tried to tweet a connection between Boston Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas and the KKK after Thomas refused to go to the White House earlier this week.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog looks at CBC’s dropping of the Curling’s Grand Slams.

To the Big Lead and Jason McIntyre who has a profile of ESPN Radio Hack Colin Cowherd. Actually it’s a very good profile.

Ryan Yoder at Awful Announcing has the Top 10 Sports Media Busts.

Blythe Brumleve at AA looks at CBS’ client stroke for E-Trade during the NFL Today on Sunday.

Sports Media Watch notes that the NHL is getting increased ratings on both NBC and NBC Sports Network.

Steve Lepore of Puck The Media wants the in-game coach interviews during NHL games to end.

Steve tells us where the AHL All-Start Game can be seen in your market.

SportsRantz says NBC Sports Network is using the Super Bowl to get a ratings boost.

And Morgan Wick informs us what the Breeders’ Cup move back to NBC means.

And that is it.

Bringing Out Friday Megalinks

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

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

Now to your links.

National

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tennis Channel laments not being picked up by Cablevision.

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

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

East and Mid-Atlantic

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ken has more from Troy in his blog.

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

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

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

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

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

South

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Midwest

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

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

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

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

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

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

West

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

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

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

Tom has a bit more on O’Neal.

Canada

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

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

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

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

Some Monday Morning Sports Media Thoughts

I’ll provide some thoughts on the weekend in sports media as hopefully, MLK Day is a holiday for you. If not, then I hope you’re able to find a way to honor Dr. King and his message in some manner today.

As always, the thoughts come in bullet form.

• As I watched the Houston-Baltimore game on Sunday, I kept thinking that Ian Eagle and Dan Fouts should be the NFL on CBS “B” team starting next season. I feel I’m in the minority liking Greg Gumbel and Dan Dierdorf, but having heard them extensively over the last half of this season, it’s my opinion that “The Bird and The Beard” have surpassed them as an announcing team. Dierdorf has been a premier analyst for both ABC and CBS, and so has Fouts, but I feel The Beard is better. And while Gumbel has also been the number one play-by-play man for CBS, he is no longer an elite play caller. Ian has continually paid his dues for the Tiffany Network dating back to when CBS reobtained the NFL in 1998 until 2010 when he replaced Dick Enberg on the “C” team with Fouts.

  Ian and Dan have clicked to the point where I named them Best Announcing Team in this season’s NFL TV Awards. CBS should honor them with a promotion and a postseason game next year. It’s about time.

• And while I’m talking about CBS, one of the more blatant client strokes I’ve ever seen came during The NFL Today postgame show when Subway’s sponsorship was all over the screen, not only with the appearance of endorser Ndamukong Suh of the Detroit Lions, but also through company spokesman, Jared Fogle. CNBC’s Darren Rovell was highly suspicious of Suh’s appearance and also criticized the entire Subway integration into the program. With NFL rights fees so high, I understand the networks wanting to recoup their money, but there are other ways to accomplish this.
• The Australian Open has begun and thanks to ESPN’s partnership with DirecTV, I have access to five additional channels that compliment ESPN2′s coverage. I can tell I’m going to hate analyst Luke Jensen. During Li Na’s first round match against Ksenia Pervak, Jensen kept talking throughout the action and hardly took a breath. In fact while play was ongoing, he analyzed points that had previously occurred as if to prove he could keep talking and annoy the viewer. If you don’t have DirecTV, Jensen’s commentary can be accessed through ESPN3.com. If you’re a tennis fan like me, it’ll be hard to put up with him because he doesn’t shut up. The other outer court announcers like Elise Bergin, Jeff Tarango, and Barry McKay are quite good. And ESPN now has a studio show for the five channels to help the transition in between matches and that is welcomed on this end.
• For the first time ever, I actually enjoyed Joe Buck and his call of the New York Giants-Green Bay game. Not only was this related to his transparency on Twitter, I also noticed that Buck was more animated on Sunday than in the past. I’m liking Joe Buck. Cocaine is one hell of a drug. I’m joking, I don’t do coke. But I really don’t know who I am if I can truly enjoy Joe Buck. The Mayans must be right. This year must be the end of the world.

I’m out. Rack me.

NFL Viewing Picks For Week 17, 01/01/12, All Times Eastern

NFL TV Coverage Maps (the506.com)

Blackouts: None

NFL GameDay Morning — NFL Network, 9 a.m.
Fox NFL Sunday — Fox, noon

1 p.m.
CBS
Buffalo at New England — Don Criqui/Randy Cross
Indianapolis at Jacksonville — Spero Dedes/Steve Beuerlein
New York Jets at Miami — Greg Gumbel/Dan Dierdorf
Tennessee at Houston — Bill Macatee/Steve Tasker

FOX
Carolina at New Orleans — Joe Buck/Troy Aikman/Pam Oliver
Chicago at Minnesota — Kenny Albert/Daryl Johnston/Tony Siragusa
Detroit at Green Bay — Thom Brennaman/Brian Billick/Laura Okmin
San Francisco at St. Louis — Chris Myers/Tim Ryan/Jennifer Hale
Washington at Philadelphia — Ron Pitts/Charles Davis/Drea Avent

4:15 p.m.
CBS
Baltimore at Cincinnati — Ian Eagle/Dan Fouts (“The Bird” and “The Beard)
Kansas City at Denver — Jim Nantz/Phil Simms
Pittsburgh at Cleveland — Kevin Harlan/Solomon Wilcots
San Diego at Oakland — Marv Albert/Rich Gannon

FOX
Seattle at Arizona — Sam Rosen/Chad Pennington/Jody Jackson
Tampa Bay at Atlanta — Dick Stockton/John Lynch/Jaime Maggio!!!

7 p.m.
Football Night in America — NBC

7:30 p.m.
NFL GameDay Highlights — NFL Network

8:30 p.m.
NBC — Sunday Night Football
Dallas at New York Giants — Al Michaels/Cris Collinsworth/Michele Tafoya

Midnight
NFL GameDay Final — NFL Network

Westwood One Radio
12:30 p.m.
New York Jets at Miami — Howard David/Tony Boselli

3:45 p.m.
Kansas City at Denver — Kevin Kugler/Mark Malone

7:30 p.m.
Dallas at New York Giants — Dave Sims/James Lofton/Hub Arkush

DirecTV NFL Sunday Ticket Channel Assignments
Sirius XM Week 17 NFL Schedule
NFL RedZone

NFL Viewing Picks for Week 16, 12/24/2011, All Times Eastern

NFL TV Coverage Maps (the506.com)

Blackouts: Buffalo, Cincinnati

NFL GameDay Morning — NFL Network, 9 a.m.
Fox NFL Sunday —  Fox, noon

1 p.m.
CBS
Cleveland at Baltimore — Spero Dedes/Rich Gannon
Denver at Buffalo — Jim Nantz/Phil Simms
Jacksonville at Tennessee — Bill Macatee/Steve Tasker
Miami at New England — Ian Eagle/Dan Fouts (“The Bird” and “The Beard”)
Oakland at Kansas City — Kevin Harlan/Solomon Wilcots

FOX
Arizona at Cincinnati — Thom Brennaman/Brian Billick/Laura Okmin
Minnesota at Washington — Chris Myers/Tim Ryan/Jaime Maggio!!!
New York Giants at New York Jets — Kenny Albert/Daryl Johnston/Tony Siragusa
St. Louis at Pittsburgh — Dick Stockton/John Lynch/Jennifer Hale
Tampa Bay at Carolina — Sam Rosen/Chad Pennington

4:05 p.m.
CBS
San Diego at Detroit — Greg Gumbel/Dan Dierdorf

4:15 p.m.
FOX 
Philadelphia at Dallas — Joe Buck/Troy Aikman/Pam Oliver
San Francisco at Seattle — Ron Pitts/Charles Davis/Drea Avent

7:30 p.m.
NFL GameDay Final — NFL Network

8 p.m.
NFL Primetime — ESPN2

Westwood One Radio
12:30 p.m.: New York Giants at New York Jets — Howard David/Tony Boselli
|3:30 p.m.: San Diego at Detroit — Kevin Kugler/Mark Malone

DirecTV NFL Sunday Ticket Channel Assignments
Sirius XM NFL Schedule
NFL RedZone

Some Sunday Morning Sports Media Thoughts & One Musical Comment

As we get into the home stretch and the Christmas holiday is now just a week away, let me offer a few thoughts on sports media this morning. As usual, they’ll go in bullet form.

• So we have a couple of cable carriage disputes looming large as we end 2011. Looks like MSG Network and Time Warner Cable are heading towards a train wreck unless something drastic happens. It appeared the two sides were heading towards an agreement, but now, MSG Media is encouraging TWC subscribers in New York and Buffalo to find another cable provider in case MSG Network, MSG Plus, MSG Plus 2 and MSG Buffalo are pulled. It’s another example of both sides accusing the other of making ridiculous demands. And in the end, it’s the consumer that gets the shaft, not the cable or content provider.
• The other sports channel that’s in danger of being dropped is Universal Sports. A whole slew of providers are threatening to drop the channel on New Year’s Day unless NBCUniversal can convince them to keep it. Just this year, Universal Sports got an agreement with DirecTV, but any gains made with DirecTV will be lost when it goes dark on a bunch of providers that put it on a sports tier. Universal Sports airs Olympic sports that don’t get much play on the regular networks. Here’s hoping that this dispute will be resolved as well.
• With bowl season starting, I wonder how major college football has gone so long without a legitimate playoff system. The NCAA manages to get a championship done in the other divisions including the smaller Division I schools. Yet, the bowls and college presidents somehow think that they must protect the “integrity” and the “sanctity” of their systems. The Bowl Championship Series has done nothing but raise more questions and the fact that we have a #1 vs. #2 matchup involving teams from the same conference and also a rematch from a game this year totally stinks. Yet, the bowls make money from shoddy accounting and executives lining their pockets. The bowls make their matchup choices based on which schools “travel well” and can sell their allotment of tickets. Often these trips are money losing operations, but because the bowls have such a grip on the BCS schools, they refuse to change. Here’s hoping that at least we get a +1 addition to the BCS when the current TV contract with ESPN ends because what we have is not working right now.
• While we have seen resolution of TV rights for the NHL, Olympics, World Cup and NFL this year, it’s 2012 where we could see some upheaval in rights. Bidding for MLB and NASCAR will open up and there’s a lot of interest in baseball. Walking, Talking Conflict of Interest Bud Selig has said there’s more networks bidding for the rights than at any time. In the last contract, TBS took postseason rights from ESPN and half of the League Championship Series. We’ll see if Turner remains in the baseball business. Will NBC get back into baseball after leaving in 2000? Can Fox stay with MLB despite declining ratings in the regular season and postseason? Will ESPN spend to break back into the playoffs? We’ll find out when the new contracts are signed.And what about NASCAR? ESPN went all in to return for the Sprint Cup series. With three networks Fox, TNT and ESPN taking three different approaches to televising the sport, will the higher ups at NASCAR decide to make one certain style uniform or will we see one of the partners drop out? This will be quite interesting to see this play out.
• And lastly, we learned last week that Etta James, a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, is terminally ill. While this is not sport media news, it’s sad to hear that one of the greatest voices in rock history will be leaving us. Etta gave us great songs like “At Last”, “A Sunday Kind of Love”, “Tell Mama” and “Something’s Got A Hold on Me.” She had a heroin addiction in the 1970′s and kicked that. She’s had several health problems over the last few years including dementia, but they don’t diminish what James gave us. She won’t have much more time with us, but her music will live on long afterwards. I’ll leave you with her signature song, “At Last.”

Enjoy your Sunday.

Providing The Friday Megalinks

Let’s get to the megalinks today. Lots to get to including some interesting news that is breaking today.

First, the Weekend Viewing Picks are back after a week’s absence. Check out what sports and entertainment viewing recommendations I’ve made.

Now to the links.

National

Developing today is a story out of Boston that CBC and NBC NHL analyst Mike Milbury allegedly assaulted a 12 year old boy during a youth hockey game last week. WCVB in Boston has broken the story and we’ll what develops. Milbury has been charged by police, but still worked on Versus this week.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today says expect more reality TV like HBO’s 24/7 in sports.

Jen Floyd Engel from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram writes for Fox Sports that Craig James’ US Senate run should be music to college football fans who have had to endure his analysis on ESPN.

In a related note, Dan Fogarty of SportsGrid notes that James is taking leave from ESPN due to his run.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch says the NFL, the TV networks and the fans are all winners in the latest 9 year rights deal.

Richard says as he becomes more popular, it’s only natural to see more media coverage of Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow.

Tim Baysinger of Broadcasting & Cable writes that Pac-12 Networks about to take operation next year, has secured headquarters in San Francisco.

John Eggerton of B&C says the American Cable Association is sounding the alarm bell on the new NFL TV deals.

Todd Spangler from Multichannel News writes that AT&T U-Verse customers in Connecticut will see MSG Network and its companion networks in HD starting in January just after Verizon Fios picked them up as well.

Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times writing in the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center looks at some of the negatives of the new NFL TV deals.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell tells us to prepare for DirecTV and NFL Sunday Ticket in cars. Yes, cars.

Leave it to Deadspin. Tommy Craggs has video of a young Seth Davis of Sports Illustrated and CBS Sports appearing in an edition of HBO’s Real Sex from the 1990′s. Hilarious.

Matt Yoder from Awful Announcing breaks down the new NFL TV deals.

In the wee hours of this morning, I wrote some thoughts on the NFL TV deals and HBO’s 24/7 season premiere among other things.

Sports Media Watch says new NBA on TNT analyst Shaquille O’Neal will not join Turner Sports’ coverage of the NCAA Tournament in March.

At Puck The Media, Steve Lepore wonders what’s up with a new program listing for NHL Network.

East and Mid-Atlantic

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe feels five NBA games on Christmas Day are too many.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times mulls over the numbers in the new NFL TV deals.

Richard reviews the upcoming Army-Navy documentary produced by CBS Sports/Showtime.

George Vescey has written his last “Sports of the Times” column for the New York Times.

Newsday’s Neil Best says New Yorkers will not see New England-Denver on CBS this Sunday.

Neil notes that TNT’s Charles Barkley now endorses Weight Watchers.

Neil looks at Jeff Van Gundy’s frequent flyer mileage as he works two NBA games on Christmas Day.

New York Post curmudgeon Phil Mushnick says NFL TV analysts give Tim Tebow way too much credit.

Justin Terranova of the Post has ESPN/ABC announcer Sean McDonough complaining about too many bowl games.

Terranova has five questions for NFL Today analyst Shannon Sharpe.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union looks at one local radio station’s move to dump the New York Mets in favor of the Boston Red Sox.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette likes the new edition of HBO’s 24/7 Flyers/Rangers.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call says there’s nothing like the NFL as a ratings draw.

In Press Box, Dave Hughes of DCRTV.com has the latest sports media news from the Baltimore-Washington, DC area.

At the DC Sports Bog, the Washington Post’s Dan Steinberg notes that John Riggins has ended his daily sports talk show in favor of a new outdoors career.

Jim Williams from the Washington Examiner says the Nationals could see a hefty increase in their rights fee from MASN.

South

Tom Jones of the St. Petersburg Times talks with NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock who will call Saturday’s Dallas-Tampa Bay game with Brad Nessler.

David Barron from the Houston Chronicle has some quotes from Fox NFL Sunday analyst Jimmy Johnson.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman has quotes from TNT’s Charles Barkley on the two Los Angeles NBA teams.

Mel has TNT’s NBA analysts discussing the Oklahoma City Thunder’s chances this season.

Mel notes that ESPN/ABC’s Mike Breen and Jeff Van Gundy will be quite busy on Christmas Day.

Midwest

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer looks into the sudden quitting of one local sports talk show host this week.

Michael Zuidema from the Grand Rapids (MI) Press talks with Fox Sports Detroit NBA analyst Greg Kelser about the Pistons.

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

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch notes that CBS’ Dan Dierdorf gets to call a rare “home” game on Sunday.

West

Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune writes that the Chargers have avoided a blackout for Sunday night’s game against the Ravens.

John Maffei of the North County Times says Louisiana Tech is happy to finally to have some exposure on the ESPN mothership after being relegated to ESPNU 9 times this season.

Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star writes that the Los Angeles Clippers are no longer a media laughingstock.

Jim looks into the new NFL TV deals.

Jim has his weekend viewing picks.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News talks with former DC NFL team QB Mark Rypien and his daughter Angela, who’s now one in the Lingerie Football League.

Tom talks with TNT’s Charles Barkley.

Tom has a few more hits that didn’t make his Barkley column.

Canada

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail reviews the season premiere of HBO’s 24/7.

And that’s going to do it.

NFL Viewing Picks For Week 15, 12/18/11, All Times Eastern

NFL Coverage Maps (the506.com)

Blackouts: Buffalo

NFL GameDay Morning — NFL Network, 9 a.m.
The NFL Today — CBS, noon

1 p.m.
CBS
Cincinnati at St. Louis — Greg Gumbel/Dan Dierdorf
Miami at Buffalo — Kevin Harlan/Solomon Wilcots
Tennessee at Indianapolis — Ian Eagle/Dan Fouts (“The Bird” & “The Beard”)

FOX
Carolina at Houston — Ron Pitts/Charles Davis/Drea Avent
Green Bay at Kansas City — Kenny Albert/Daryl Johnston/Tony Siragusa
New Orleans at Minnesota — Dick Stockton/John Lynch/Jennifer Hale
Seattle at Chicago — Chris Myers/Tim Lynch/Jaime Maggio!!!
Washington at New York Giants — Joe Buck/Troy Aikman/Pam Oliver

4:05 p.m.
FOX
Detroit at Oakland — Thom Brennaman/Brian Billick/Laura Okmin

4:15 p.m.
CBS
Cleveland at Arizona — Bill Macatee/Steve Tasker
New England at Denver — Jim Nantz/Phil Simms
New York Jets at Philadelphia — Marv Albert/Rich Gannon

7 p.m.
Football Night in America — NBC

7:30 p.m.
NFL GameDay Highlights — NFL Network

8:30 p.m.
NBC
Sunday Night Football
Baltimore at San Diego — Al Michaels/Cris Collinsworth/Michele Tafoya

midnight
NFL GameDay Final — NFL Network

Westwood One Radio
12:30 p.m.
New Orleans at Minnesota — Mark Champion/Mark Malone

3:45 p.m.
New England at Denver — Howard David/Tony Boselli

7:30 p.m.
Baltimore at San Diego — Dave Sims/James Lofton/Scott Kaplan

DirecTV NFL Sunday Ticket Channel Assignments
Sirius XM Radio Week 15 Schedule
NFL RedZone

It’s The Linkage! At Long Last and It’s Back!

I think it’s about a week and a half since I’ve been able to do links. Been crazy with me, but you’ve still been visiting and I appreciate that. Time to provide you with sports media news links which is what the site depends on to begin with.

Thanks for your patience during this trying time for me. Onward and let’s do the links.

Michael Hiestand of USA Today writes that NBA analysts aren’t holding back as they get ready for a new truncated season.

Mike Foss of USA Today talks with the new ESPN main soccer analyst Taylor Twellman about tweeting while commentating and concussions.

From earlier this week, Tom Weir of USA Today’s Game On blog notes that “Tebowing” has been officially recognized as a word.

This week’s Sports Business Journal lists the 50 Most Influential People in Sports Business for 2011. I’m not in this year’s list (I’m joking).

Terry Lefton of SBJ says the Stadium Formerly Known as San Diego Jack Murphy will have a temporary name for the holiday season.

Dan Shanoff’s Quickish site lists the Best Sportswriting in 2011. Some good choices and good reading throughout.

Toni Fitzgerald from Media Life Magazine says three of the five NFL TV partners are experiencing lower ratings from last season.

From MediaPost, Wayne Friedman writes that smaller market TV revenues played a huge role in the NBA’s nixing of the Chris Paul from New Orleans-to-Los Angeles Lakers trade.

Brian Steinberg of Advertising Age says hoping to tap into a more health-conscious audience, Dannon Yogurt becomes the first of its kind to advertise on the Super Bowl.

At Adweek, Lucia Moses says Rolling Stone magazine will host its first-ever Super Bowl party in Indianapolis come February.

All Access notes that Milwaukee Brewers radio voice Bob Uecker will be inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

Chris Chase at Yahoo’s Shutdown Corner has a video that has gone viral in which a Washington, DC news anchor said that if Tom Brady had died, the DC NFL Team might have had a chance to beat the New England Patriots last Sunday.

Michael Bradley at the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center says don’t expect journalism from local MLB TV partners as they increasingly fund team’s payrolls.

Dan Fogarty at SportsGrid wonders if Shaquille O’Neal will upset the apple cart that is TNT’s Inside the NBA postgame studio show.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell says Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III of Baylor is setting the world afire with his Superman socks.

Matt Yoder at Awful Announcing lists the site’s Top 10 Pammies of the Year.

Gabriel Sherman of The New Yorker magazine writes about sports journalism getting into some hard reporting in the wake of various scandals.

Newsday’s Neil Best writes about tonight’s premiere of HBO’s 24/7 Flyers/Rangers.

The New York Daily News’ Dr. Gloom and Doom reports that YES may hire former MLB manager Lou Piniella as an analyst for next season.

Pete Dougherty in the Albany Times Union says while CBS won the right to keep Patriots-Broncos in Week 15, viewers in the Capital Region won’t see it.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette notes that DirecTV will air a local college hockey game through Fox College Sports.

Ken McMillen from the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record says WGN America will pick up 10 Chicago Bulls games this season.

Laura Nachman has a couple of Philadelphia 76ers announcements.

Dan Steinberg at the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog has gotten a hold of Tony Kornheiser’s high school yearbook picture and yes, he had hair.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner talks with Golf Channel Morning Drive co-host Gary Williams.

Dwain Price at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram speaks with new Dallas Maverick Lamar Odom about his trade from the Lakers and whether he’ll continue to do the Kardashian television abortion.

The Houston Chronicle reports that ESPN college football analyst Craig James is expected to announce a run for the U.S. Senate, a move that would thrill many fans who can’t stand him on television.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman notes that the NFL topped the local ratings in the Sooner State.

Mel says the local CBS affiliate will pick up the rest of the Denver Broncos schedule and air plenty of Tim Tebow.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer says a local sports talk show host has resigned leaving his station in the lurch.

Ed Sherman in Crain’s Chicago Business talks with “NHL 36″ Executive Producer Ross Greenburg about tonight’s series premiere.

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail asks if lightning can strike twice with HBO’s 24/7.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog looks at the effect of media giants Bell Canada and Rogers combining to purchase Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment which would be like ESPN and NBC teaming up to buy the New York Yankees, that’s how big the news is in Canada.

John Daly at The Daly Planet explores the continuing dispute between Sirius XM and Turner Sports over streaming NASCAR on the internet.

Sports Media Watch looks at the final ratings for the SEC on CBS.

And SMW also notes the final ratings of college football on ABC.

SMW says the Heisman Trophy Presentation on ESPN last Saturday did well.

And SMW has some ratings news and notes.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media says today is a pretty big day for hockey fans.

And the Big Lead notes that Tim Tebow is on the cover of this week’s Sports Illustrated.

That will conclude our linkage today and I hope that the next set of linkage will come tomorrow instead of another 10 days.

NFL Viewing Picks For Week 13, 12/04/11, All Times Eastern

NFL Coverage Maps (the 506.com)

Blackouts: Buffalo, Tampa-St. Petersburg

NFL GameDay Morning — NFL Network, 9 a.m.
Fox NFL Sunday — Fox, noon

1 p.m.
CBS
Cincinnati at Pittsburgh — Jim Nantz/Phil Simms
Indianapolis at New England — Marv Albert/Rich Gannon
Kansas City at Chicago — Kevin Harlan/Solomon Wilcots
New York Jets at Washington — Ian Eagle/Dan Fouts (“The Bird” and “The Beard)
Oakland at Miami — Greg Gumbel/Dan Dierdorf
Tennessee at Buffalo — Spero Dedes/Steve Beuerlein

FOX
Atlanta at Houston — Kenny Albert/Daryl Johnston/Tony Siragusa
Carolina at Tampa Bay — Ron Pitts/Jim Mora/Drea Avent
Denver at Minnesota — Thom Brennaman/Brian Billick/Laura Okmin

Westwood One Radio
Cincinnati at Pittsburgh — Howard David/Tony Boselli

4:05 p.m.
CBS
Baltimore at Cleveland — Bill Macatee/Steve Tasker

4:15 p.m.
FOX
Dallas at Arizona — Dick Stockton/John Lynch/Jennifer Hale
Green Bay at New York Giants — Joe Buck/Troy Aikman/Pam Oliver
St. Louis at San Francisco — Chris Myers/Tim Ryan/Jaime Maggio!!!

Westwood One Radio
Green Bay at New York Giants — Kevin Kugler/Mark Malone

7 p.m.
Football Night in America — NBC

7:30 p.m.
NFL GameDay Highlights — NFL Network

8:30 p.m.
NBC: Sunday Night Football
Detroit at New Orleans — Al Michaels/Cris Collinsworth/Michele Tafoya

Westwood One Radio — Dave Sims/James Lofton/Kevin Kiley

midnight
NFL GameDay Final — NFL Network

DirecTV NFL Sunday Ticket Channel Assignments
Sirius XM NFL Week 13 Schedule
NFL RedZone

NFL Viewing Picks For Week 12, 11/27/2011, All Times Eastern

NFL Coverage Maps (the506.com)

Blackouts: Cincinnati

Byes: None

NFL GameDay Morning — NFL Network, 9 a.m.
The NFL Today — CBS, noon

1 p.m.
CBS
Buffalo at New York Jets — Marv Albert/Rich Gannon
Cleveland at Cincinnati — Bill Macatee/Steve Tasker
Houston at Jacksonville — Kevin Harlan/Solomon Wilcots

FOX
Arizona at St. Louis — Sam Rosen/Chad Pennington/Tina Cervasio!!! (good luck, Tina)
Carolina at Indianapolis — Chris Myers/Tim Ryan
Minnesota at Atlanta — Thom Brennaman/Brian Billick/Laura Okmin
Tampa Bay at Tennessee — Dick Stockton/John Lynch/Jennifer Hale

4:05 p.m.
FOX
Chicago at Oakland — Kenny Albert/Daryl Johnston/Tony Siragusa
Washington at Seattle — Ron Pitts/Jim Mora/Drea Avent

4:15 p.m.
Denver at San Diego — Ian Eagle/Dan Fouts (“The Bird” and “The Beard”)
New England at Philadelphia — Greg Gumbel/Dan Dierdorf

7 p.m.
Football Night in America — NBC

7:30 p.m.
NFL GameDay Highlights — NFL Network

8:30 p.m.
NBC’s Sunday Night Football
Pittsburgh at Kansas City — Al Michaels/Cris Collinsworth/Michele Tafoya

midnight
NFL GameDay Final — NFL Network

DirecTV NFL Sunday Ticket Channel Assignments
Sirius XM Satellite Radio NFL Week 12 Schedule
NFL RedZone

NFL Viewing Picks For Week 11, 11/20/2011, All Times Eastern

NFL Coverage Maps (the506.com)

Blackouts: None

Byes: Houston, Indianapolis, New Orleans, Pittsburgh

NFL GameDay Morning — NFL Network, 9 a.m.
The NFL Today — CBS, noon

1 p.m.
CBS
Buffalo at Miami — Marv Albert/Rich Gannon
Cincinnati at Baltimore — Greg Gumbel/Dan Dierdorf
Jacksonville at Cleveland — Bill Macatee/Steve Tasker
Oakland at Minnesota — Kevin Harlan/Solomon Wilcots

FOX
Carolina at Detroit — Dick Stockton/John Lynch/Jennifer Hale
Dallas at Washington — Kenny Albert/Daryl Johnston/Tony Siragusa
Tampa Bay at Green Bay — Joe Buck/Troy Aikman/Pam Oliver

4:05 p.m.
Arizona at San Francisco — Thom Brennaman/Brian Billick/Laura Okmin
Seattle at St. Louis — Chris Myers/Tim Ryan/Jaime Maggio!!!

4:15 p.m.
CBS
San Diego at Chicago — Jim Nantz/Phil Simms
Tennessee at Atlanta — Ian Eagle/Dan Fouts (“The Bird” and “The Beard”)

7 p.m.
Football Night in America — NBC

7:30 p.m.
NFL GameDay Highlights — NFL Network

8:30 p.m. (Listing the actual kickoff time from now on, not the TV listing)
NBC’s Sunday Night Football
Philadelphia Eagles at New York Giants – Al Michaels/Cris Collinsworth/Michele Tafoya

midnight
NFL GameDay Final — NFL Network

DirecTV NFL Sunday Ticket Channel Assignments
Sirius XM Satellite Radio NFL Schedule
NFL RedZone

Unleashing Some Friday Megalinks

Ok, let’s get this done. Lots of linkage from yesterday and today. I need to catch up. Let’s go.

Check out your Weekend Viewing Picks for the sports and entertainment programming for Saturday and Sunday.

National

Mike McCarthy of USA Today wonders if there’s a glass ceiling for women in sports television.

Former Comcast SportsNet New England anchor Jackie Pepper has her take about being a woman in sports television.

Back to USA Today, Michael Hiestand looks at the casting call for the new Broadway play focusing on the Magic Johnson-Larry Bird rivalry and friendship, produced by the same people who did Lombardi on Broadway.

Hiestand writes that Fox Sports will be using some of its own talent for its UFC debut next week.

Paul Thomasch of Reuters talks with CBS head honcho Les Moonves about the network’s SEC deal.

Emma Bazilian at Adweek notes that DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket promotion over the summer paid off in droves in the third quarter of this year.

Phil Swann of TV Predictions has his take on DirecTV’s subscriber spike.

The talk of the sports blogosphere the last couple of days has been the Deadspin story by A.J. Daulerio on a former ESPN executive who’s filed a lawsuit against an employee denying several displays of odd behavior including masturbating in Erin Andrews’ presence.

Congratulations to former ESPN reporter Amy K. Nelson who leaves the Alleged Worldwide Leader for SBNation. Deadspin has that story as well.

Aaron Kuniloff and David Mildenberg from Bloomberg Businessweek co-author a story on ESPN’s Longhorn Network and its ramifications on college sports.

Rick Horrow and Karla Swatek of Businessweek talk about the alternatives to the NBA and how the league’s TV partners have lost money airing the games.

Rick Chandler of NBC’s Off the Bench explains how an ESPN.com story mushroomed into the Occupy Tebow movement.

At ESPN Front Row, network spokesman Mike Soltys notes that the Alleged Worldwide Leader has new policy on employees writing books, something that got Bruce Feldman into trouble earlier this year.

Jason Dachman from Sports Video Group looks at a new MSG Network mobile app that brings live high school sports to your cell phone.

Ariel Sandler at the Business Insider Sports Page has video of two Canadian news anchors going crazy when their sports anchor is named the winner of a $2.5 million lottery on live TV.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell reviews the results of having two In-N-Out Burgers shipped frozen across country.

Sports Media Watch says TNT’s replacement programming for the NBA’s canceled games on what would have been Opening Night of the season failed miserably in the ratings.

Joe Favorito wonders if the Bellator Fighting Championships can co-exist with UFC in Mixed Martial Arts.

Ben Koo of Awful Announcing says Brent Musburger got the job done in his cameo on an ABC sitcom.

Dave Kohl at The Broadcast Booth says it’s the subject matter, not the personalities that drive ratings for sports radio stations.

SportsbyBrooks notes that ESPN Radio hack Colin Cowherd sat with the beautiful people at last week’s Stanford-USC game.

Marisa Ingemi of In Lax We Trust reports that the National Lacrosse League has a deal in place with CBS Sports Network to air games in 2012-13.

East and Mid-Atlantic

Chad Finn from the Boston Globe speaks with former ESPN MMA Live host Jon Anik who will work straight for UFC now.

The Worcester Telegram & Gazette’s Bill Doyle talks with Comcast SportsNet New England Celtics analyst Tommy Heinsohn who’s cooling his heels during the NBA lockout.

Newsday’s Neil Best notes that WFAN’s Boomer & Carton show has really taken off in the ratings.

Neil has more with Boomer and Carton that he could not provide in his feature story.

Scott Shifrel and Bill Hutchinson of the New York Daily News write that former ESPN executive Keith Clinkscales is claiming that he is the victim of a smear campaign.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post wonders where’s the outrage on the Detroit Lions for what he feels was mocking Tim Tebow’s religion.

Justin Terranova of the Post has five questions for Cleveland Browns franchise assassin and ESPN analyst Eric Mangini. No, I’m not bitter about his tenure as Browns coach.

Justin previews MLB Network’s special on the 1986 Postseason.

Pete Dougherty in the Albany Times Union hears from SEC on CBS analyst Gary Danielson on LSU-Alabama.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call also has quotes from Danielson regarding this year’s Game of the Century.

In Press Box, Dave Hughes from DCRTV.com has the latest in Baltimore-DC sports media news.

In the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog, Dan Steinberg looks at a failed lobbyist’s efforts to get DC NFL team owner Dan Snyder to change the brand name.

And Dan has Joe Theismann’s thoughts on the whole John Beck/Rex Grossman QB controversy in Washington.

Monica Hesse of the Post says some of the items from the now-defunct ESPN Zone in DC are being sold at auction.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner finds out ESPN’s plans for this weekend’s Breeders’ Cup.

South

Sean Cartell of SEC.com has Verne Lundquist’s thoughts on LSU-Alabama.

Brian Reynolds in the Tuscaloosa News says ESPN is giving LSU-Alabama the Super Bowl treatment.

David Barron from the Houston Chronicle says both CBS and ESPN are pulling out all of the stops for LSU-Alabama.

Midwest

John Kiesewetter in the Cincinnati Enquirer notes that former Bengals QB Carson Palmer will be profiled on Sunday’s edition of The NFL Today.

Michael Zuidema of the Grand Rapids (MI) Press says ratings for the World Series were good, but the games showed that instant replay was greatly needed.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel notes that former Brewers radio voice Corey Provus now has a new gig with the Twins.

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

Ted Gruber in Chicago Now feels ESPN gets a big fail in covering Mixed Martial Arts.

Joe Christensen of the Minneapolis Star Tribune says Corey Provus takes over for former Minnesota Twins voice John Gordon who retired this year.

Paul Christian in the Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin talks about Provus’ hiring by the Twins.

Dan Caesar from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch feels the national media undersold Albert Pujols’ achievement in Game 3 of the World Series.

West

Jeff Call of the Deseret (UT) News says ESPN’s partnership with BYU has been beneficial for both parties.

John Maffei in the North County Times notes how CBS obtained LSU-Alabama for primetime.

Jim Carlisle of the Ventura County Star says it’s rare to get a #1 vs. #2 matchup in the regular season.

Jim says Brad Nessler is ready for primetime when Thursday Night Football begins next week.

Jim has his weekend viewing picks.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says we’re in a Golden Age of sports documentaries.

Tom has more in his blog.

Canada

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail says Hazel Mae is officially back with Rogers Sportsnet.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog which broke the news of Hazel’s return discusses what her duties will be.

That’s going to do it for the megalinks today.

Doing The Wednesday Links

Let’s provide some mid-week linkage for you.

Sports Business Daily recaps how ESPN’s SportsCenter handled NBA highlights on what should have been the Opening Night of the regular season.

SBD also looks at Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt’s agreement to sell the team at auction.

Paul Thomasch with Reuters says MLB is looking to hit the motherlode in a new round of negotiations for network TV partners.

Michael Hiestand from USA Today talks with SEC on CBS analyst Gary Danielson on LSU-Alabama.

Steve Wieberg and Steve Berkowitz of USA Today explore ESPN’s role in the realignment in college sports.

Tom Weir of USA Today says ESPN’s Jenn Brown tweeted about her experience being locked in a hotel bathroom today.

In Outkick The Coverage, Clay Travis looks into the conflicts regarding CBS’ Tony Barnhart’s reporting of Missouri to the Southeastern Conference.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch delved into ESPN’s coverage of Tim Tebow and found it bordering on the excessive.

Etan Vlessing of the Hollywood Reporter says singer Cee Lo “Eff You” Green will be performing on the NHL float during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC. Of course, the NHL and NBC are partners as well. Green also is a judge on NBC’s “The Voice” so there’s synergy all around here.

Georg Szalai of the Reporter has Comcast’s CEO saying Telemundo’s reported $600 million deal for the World Cup will be profitable for the company.

John Eggerton of Broadcasting & Cable reports that an appeals court has again thrown out the FCC fine against CBS for airing Janet Jackson’s nipple during the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show.

Bill Cromwell of Media Life Magazine says cable had a ratings downturn in October led by ESPN’s Monday Night Football and TBS’ MLB Postseason coverage.

Timothy Burke at Deadspin notes that ESPN’s Erin Andrews had a little problem with a math concept with LSU coach Les Miles.

Dan Fogarty of SportsGrid says ESPN.com’s comment section went haywire thanks to those writing about Tim Tebow.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell wonders if Fox will buy the Dodgers again.

Darren tells us that secondary ticket prices for Saturday’s LSU-Alabama game are reaching astronomical levels.

In the Boston Globe, Bruins beat reporter Fluto Shinzawa writes about being a foodie when he travels on the road with the team.

Edward Wyatt of the New York Times looks at the Third Circuit Appeals court throwing out the FCC fine against CBS.

Mike Tanier of the Times says NFL TV analysts now have to find ways to stand out above the crowd even if it means being confrontational.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette looks at NBC Sports Network’s college hockey schedule.

Pete Dougherty at the Albany Times Union has the Week 10 College Football TV schedule.

Pete also has the Week 9 NFL TV schedule.

Ken McMillan at the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record notes that Seton Hall basketball will air on ESPN Radio New York this season.

Laura Nachman says Sunday Night Football featuring the Philadelphia Eagles won primetime for NBC.

David Salter in the Patriot-News (PA) writes about the progression and in some cases, regression of women covering sports.

Dan Steinberg from the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog says Rob Dibble can’t let his 2010 firing from MASN go without firing another shot.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner writes that the first part of the Big East’s expansion is complete. Now comes the next step.

Jon Solomon of the Birmingham (AL) News says the ESPN Films documentary on the Alabama-Auburn rivalry is top notch.

Dennis Pillion of Al.com notes that ESPN will go inside the Alabama football program leading up to its big game against LSU on Saturday.

David Barron of the Houston Chronicle notes that DirecTV has come to terms with another local station group.

John Kiesewetter from the Cincinnati Enquirer says Time Warner Cable will air four local high school football games.

Bob Wolfley at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says the NFL is about to release the Green Bay Packers championship DVD package.

Ed Sherman at Crain’s Chicago Business writes that Comcast SportsNet is trying to survive without the Bulls.

Mark Anderson of the Las Vegas Review-Journal notes that Air Force is happy to be playing on “an easy to find” TV channel this week and possibly be moving to the Big East where games are also easily found.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News has the Week 10 NFL TV schedule for SoCal.

Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times wonders if media rivals Fox and Time Warner would put forth a bid to buy the Dodgers.

Sports Media Watch has a look at the Week 8 NFL overnight ratings. First, CBS. Then Fox. To Sunday Night Football. And finally, Monday Night Football.

And SMW notes that ESPN is filling programming holes left by the NBA lockout.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media has the national college hockey TV schedule.

Joe Favorito says the baseball season may be over, but the sport continues to keep its brand active in the offseason.

Joe Lucia at Awful Announcing feels ESPN’s presentation of the MLB Gold Glove Awards did not need to be watched.

And that will do us for now.

BREAKING NEWS: Fox & DirecTV Reach Agreement; No Networks Pulled

Just getting word that DirecTV and Fox have come to a carriage agreement which will prevent any networks from being pulled. Reports are coming from various sources that this will keep the 19 Fox Sports Net affiliates plus Speed, Fox Soccer, Fox Soccer Plus and FX along with National Geographic Channel and NatGeo Wild on the satellite provider. Earlier in the day, I was hearing that all channels would have been pulled at midnight Pacific time had an agreement not been reached.

We’ll provide details as soon as they become available. So DirecTV subscribers like yours truly won’t have to resort to other means to watch the programming on the affected channels.

Here’s the joint statement from DirecTV and Fox:

Fox Networks and DIRECTV have reached an agreement for DIRECTV to continue carrying all Fox Networks (including FX, National Geographic Channel, Nat Geo WILD, SPEED, FUEL TV, FOX Soccer, FOX Soccer Plus and FOX Deportes), Fox’s regional sports networks, Fox Broadcasting (FOX), the FOX local stations, Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network. We both know the past ten days have been challenging, but we’re pleased that both sides could eventually come together to ensure our viewers continue to enjoy Fox programming.

That is it for now.

UPDATE, 6:30 p.m.: John Ourand from Sports Business Journal tweets that the agreement includes the main Fox network, its 10 owned and operated affiliates plus Fox News Channel. Carriage agreements would have expired by the end of the year, so this new deal includes all Fox networks.

Importantly, DirecTV deal includes Fox broadcast, which expired Dec. 31, and Fox News, which expired Jan. 31. Fox wanted to do all together.

October 31, 2011 6:25 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@Ourand_SBJ

John Ourand

More information as it becomes available.

Doing A Few Sunday Links

Let’s some linkage on this Sunday.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News writes that the NBA lockout has forced the cancellation of the rest of its November games forcing ESPN, TNT, NBA TV and regional sports networks to fill huge programming holes.

Michael Malone at Multichannel notes that some Hawaiian viewers lost part of Thursday’s Game 6 of the World Series due to a transmission error with Oceanic Time Warner Cable.

Zak Keefer at the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center recaps a lecture given to students by ESPN Sr. VP for Print and Digital Media Rob King.

Dan Fogarty from SportsGrid notes that the ESPN Sign Police failed to do their job during yesterday’s College GameDay.

The Dan Patrick Show has some more signs that slipped through the Sign Police that referred to the show’s #occupygameday effort.

Timothy Burke at Deadspin has video of some possibly drunk Steelers fans bombing Albert Breer’s live shot on NFL Network today.

Phil Swann at TV Predictions looks at DirecTV’s FCC complaint over Fox’s ads regarding their carriage dispute which is fast approaching Tuesday’s drop dead date.

And Phil says now DirecTV has been caught lying.

SportsFans.org have a column in the Business Insider Sports Page criticizing the DirecTV/Fox dispute.

Dave Wedge of the Boston Herald interviews former NBA star Chris Herren, the subject of ESPN Films’ latest documentary.

Alexander Soule at the Fairfield County (CT) Business Journal writes about NBC Sports’ move to Stamford, CT.

Martin B. Cassidy of the Stamford (CT) Advocate says NBC Sports coming to town will be beneficial for neighboring businesses.

Stuart Elliot of the New York Times notes that a new scripted series on ESPN Deportes will have many  products woven into the storyline making for a lot of product placement.

Newsday’s Neil Best talks with former New York Giants wide receiver Amani Toomer taking on his second career as a broadcaster.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post gets on Joe Buck and Tim McCarver.

Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News reports that the Yankees have signed a new deal to remain on WCBS for another season.

Pete Dougherty from the Albany Times Union has late, breaking news from CBS’ Bill Cowher.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner feels the Big East has some options even as other conferences are picking on its bones.

Gary Smits of the Florida Times-Union says golf’s ratings are up across the board this fall.

Tom Jones of the St. Petersburg Times speaks with former Florida State QB and current ESPNU analyst Danny Kanell.

David Knox from the Birmingham (AL) News talks with CBS Sports Network analyst Rich Rodriguez.

The Daily Oklahoman reports that the long-time voice of the Oklahoma Sooners, Bob Barry has passed away.

Jim Benson at the Bloomington (IN) Pantagraph feels Lee Corso adds laughs to ESPN’s College GameDay.

Robert Feder at TimeOut Chicago says popular local sportscaster Paula Faris is leaving at the end of the year to become an anchor with ABC News.

Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes that Game 7 of the World Series drew big ratings for Fox both nationally and locally.

Dan also has a ratings chart for the entire World Series for this year.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News notes that Lee Corso did a tree dance on College GameDay.

Patrick Goldstein of the Los Angeles Times looks at a new genre of sports movies which includes ESPN’s “Unguarded” that premieres on Tuesday.

Sports Media Watch notes that the ratings for the World Series ended being up from last year.

SMW looks at the World Series Game 7′s ratings from Friday.

Joe Favorito says two events, Pro Bull Riding and the New York City Marathon need to tap into their fanbases who can’t attend live in person.

And we’ll end the linkage there.

Back With The Friday Megalinks

Due to a crazy schedule for most of this week and then having a medical procedure done yesterday, I have not been able to blog like I’ve wanted to. Links have been scarce, but I’m available to do them now and hopefully, won’t be interrupted.

Your Weekend Viewing Picks have your sports and entertainment programming for Halloween weekend. Let’s get to the links.

National

Michael Hiestand of USA Today notes that Tim McCarver has been broadcasting for a very long time and reports that Ron Franklin makes a return to the broadcast booth next week.

Georg Szalai of the Hollywood Reporter writes that if the NBA loses an entire season, corporate partners Time Warner and Disney would take some hits in the short term, but see moderate profits in the long term.

Philiana Ng of the Reporter says Game 6 of the World Series dominated the primetime ratings on Thursday.

John Eggerton of Broadcasting & Cable says DirecTV is crying foul to the FCC about Fox’s ad in their carriage dispute over several networks including FX, 19 Fox Sports Net affiliates, Fox Soccer and Speed.

George Winslow of B&C notes that NASCAR.com has developed the first app for Google TV.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News says MSG Varsity will stream high school games for co-owned Cablevision subscribers.

Mike says last week’s bidding for US World Cup media rights doesn’t help FIFA’s corrupt reputation.

ESPN Ombudsman Kelly McBride of the Poynter Institute delves into ESPN’s role in the college sports realignment game.

Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times writes in the Indiana University National Sports Journalism Center that baseball’s problems are magnified when a historic moment as in last night’s World Series Game 6 comes so late for East Coast viewers.

Ben Koo from Awful Announcing criticizes MLB.com for its silly policy of not allowing websites like mine to embed certain videos.

Awful Announcing gives praise to Joe Buck for his plagiarized call of David Freese’s walk off home run in last night’s Game 6 World Series.

Deadspin’s AJ Daulerio exchanged e-mails with Buck on his call.

Glenn Davis of SportsGrid notes that a Dallas TV station jumped the gun in saying the Texas Rangers won the World Series last night.

Sports Video Group reports that CTV/TSN has won the Canadian rights to the FIFA World Cups from 2015 through 2022.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell explains why we’re suddenly closer to an NBA deal and a complete 82 game season.

Sports Media Watch writes about the World Series Game 6 ratings.

Dave Kohl in the Broadcast Booth looks at the reporting on Dan Wheldon’s death.

East and Mid-Atlantic

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe looks at the World Series ratings vs.the NFL this season.

Bill Doyle from the Worcester Telegram & Gazette talks with Fox 25′s Kristine Leahy.

Newsday’s Neil Best looks at MLB Network’s latest Bob Costas special with Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson.

Neil says ESPN2′s SportsNation will do an ode to LIVE with Regis and Kelly on Monday.

Over to the New York Post where Phil Mushnick is again filled with hatred.

Justin Terranova of the Post has 5 questions for Sirius XM MLB Network Radio co-host Jim Duquette.

Pete Dougherty of the Albany Times Union says Fox finally got a ratings payoff for the World Series.

In Press Box, Dave Hughes from DCRTV.com has the latest on the Baltimore-Washington, DC sports media.

Jim Williams from the Washington Examiner interviews the host of Bloomberg’s weekly “Sportfolio” program.

South

Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald says former Dolphins linebacker Channing Crowder gets the opportunity to talk about his former team twice a week on local sports radio.

Barry Horn at the Dallas Morning News writes that Game 6 of the World Series is now the most watched baseball game in the history of the Metroplex.

David Barron in the Houston Chronicle says the Texans continue to top the local TV ratings.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman notes ESPNU will air a basketball fundraiser for the Joplin, MO tornado victims.

Midwest

John Kiesewetter from the Cincinnati Enquirer talks with local website owners who want businesses to help ensure the Bengals won’t be blocked out in the local market.

Michael Zuidema of the Grand Rapids (MI) Press writes that viewers are the losers in the DirecTV/Fox carriage dispute.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tells us that Week 7′s Vikings-Packers game was the most watched TV program of last week, topping all network programming.

Bob notes that Milwaukee and surrounding towns are part of a rare TV marketplace where a significant amount of viewers still don’t have cable or satellite.

Ed Sherman in Crain’s Chicago Business notes that classic Bulls games will be aired on Comcast SportsNet during the winter.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Dan Caesar writes that Fox has hit the megaload with a long World Series.

West

John Maffei of the North County Times writes that last week’s brawl with Arizona gave UCLA some TV time, but for the wrong reasons.

Jim Carlisle in the Ventura County Star says Christmas doesn’t need NBA games.

Jim notes that ESPN took a big hit when it lost the World Cup bidding to Fox.

Tom Hoffarth at the Los Angeles Daily News talks with ESPN’s College GameDay’s Lee Corso.

Tom talks with SoCal broadcaster Steve Physioc.

Tom says people are confused over the battlelines in the DirecTV/Fox carriage dispute.

Tom talks with Dan Patrick about the #occupygameday movement.

Canada

Bruce Dowbiggin of the Toronto Globe and Mail notes that CTV/TSN has wrested the World Cup rights away from CBC.

NFL Viewing Picks For Week 8, 10/30/2011, All Times Eastern

NFL Coverage Maps

Blackouts: None

Byes: Atlanta, Chicago, Green Bay, New York Jets, Oakland, Tampa Bay

NFL GameDay Morning — NFL Network, 9 a.m.
The NFL Today — CBS, noon

1 p.m.
CBS
Indianapolis at Tennessee — Kevin Harlan/Solomon Wilcots
Jacksonville at Houston — Marv Albert/Rich Gannon
Miami at New York Giants — Greg Gumbel/Dan Dierdorf

FOX
Arizona at Baltimore — Sam Rosen/Brian Billick/Laura Okmin
Minnesota at Carolina — Kenny Albert/Daryl Johnston/Tony Siragusa
New Orleans at St. Louis — Chris Myers/Tim Ryan/Jennifer Hale

4:05 p.m.
FOX
Detroit at Denver — Dick Stockton/John Lynch/Jaime Maggio!!!
Washington at Buffalo — Thom Brennaman/Troy Aikman/Pam Oliver

4:15 p.m.
CBS
Cincinnati at Seattle — Bill Macatee/Steve Tasker
Cleveland at San Francisco — Ian Eagle/Dan Fouts
New England at Pittsburgh — Jim Nantz/Phil Simms

7 p.m.
Football Night in America — NBC

7:30 p.m.
NFL GameDay Highlights — NFL Network

8:20 p.m.
NBC Sunday Night Football
Dallas at Philadelphia — Al Michaels/Cris Collinsworth/Michele Tafoya

midnight
NFL GameDay Final — NFL Network

DirecTV NFL Sunday Ticket Channel Assignments
Sirius XM NFL Schedule
NFL RedZone

Providing Some Sunday Linkage

Let’s do some linkage on this Sunday morning. Some good stuff to get to.

TVbytheNumbers says World Series Game 3 easily won the primetime ratings last night over college football and repeats on NBC.

The Associated Press has an in-depth story on how Fox and Telemundo won the rights to the 2015-22 World Cups.

Marisa Guthrie and Georg Szalai of the Hollywood Reporter report on NBCUniversal’s all-in bid for Telemundo for the rights to FIFA’s World Cups from 2015 through 2022.

R. Thomas Umstead from Multichannel News writes on the winning bids by Fox and Telemundo for the US media rights to the World Cup.

Todd Spangler of Multichannel says a Cox Cable employee in Arizona has pleaded guilty to inserting a brief clip of a porno movie during the Super Bowl in 2009.

Also from Multichannel, Mike Reynolds writes that Golf Channel is adding five international tournaments to close out 2011.

Oh here we go again. There’s another silly carriage dispute and it involves Fox again. Remember last year’s Cablevision/Fox dispute that left the network off cable systems in New York and Philadelphia? Well, this time Fox is having a dispute with DirecTV and among the channels that could be pulled: FX, Fox Soccer & Fox Soccer Plus, Speed, Fuel and 19 Fox Sports Net regional channels. That’s just great. We get the latest from Alex Weprin from TV Newser.

John Ourand from Sports Business Daily also looks at the Fox/DirecTV dispute.

Phil Swann of TV Predictions has a suggestion on how to prevent these disputes in the future.

Richard Pagliaro of Tennis Magazine writes that ESPN has obtained the online rights of several women’s tennis tournaments.

Glenn Davis from SportsGrid has the video of Michigan State’s amazing Hail Mary pass to win last night’s game against Wisconsin.

At the Sox & Dawgs blog, good friend Ian Bethune has the full page ad former Boston Red Sox General Manager Theo Epstein placed thanking Red Sox fans.

Jeré Longman of the New York Times looks at Fox and Telemundo winning the World Cup bids.

Newsday’s Neil Best looks back at the 25th anniversary of Game 6 of the 1986 World Series from NBC’s point of view.

The great Bob Glauber of Newsday has a story on several NFL teams showing concern about being miked up for games and having their signals heard not only on TV, but by opposing teams.

The New York Post’s Phil Mushnick has the preposterous theory that the World Series is watered down.

Paul Tharp of the Post says the lure of tax breaks led NBC Sports to move its headquarters to Connecticut.

Harvey Zucker of the Jersey Journal reviews ESPN’s documentary on boxer Chuck Wepner, affectionately known as “The Bayonne Bleeder” and one who knocked down Muhammed Ali.

Tracee Hamilton of the Washington Post says the Nationals deserve a better TV deal.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner talks with Navy’s associate athletic director about allowing Showtime to film a year-long documentary on its rivalry with Army.

Mike Mooneyham from the Charleston (SC) Post & Courier looks at E:60′s profile of WWE wrestler Scott Hall.

Tom Jones of the St. Petersburg Times notes that Florida State and Tampa Bay Bucs radio voice Gene Deckerhoff is pulling off a unique double dip this weekend.

David Knox of the Birmingham (AL) News talks with ESPN college football analyst Ed Cunningham who is also an award-winning documentary filmmaker.

Doug Demmons of the News says ESPN is pleased with its NASCAR Non-Stop Coverage.

Mel Bracht of the Daily Oklahoman says ESPN’s Brad Nessler and Todd Blackledge got the job done during last night’s Texas Tech-Oklahoma game.

John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer says CBS has relented and the market will get today’s Oakland-KC game and Carson Palmer’s Raiders debut.

John notes that Joe Morgan’s syndicated radio show has changed from a nightly program to weekends-only.

Kathleen Lavey from the Lansing (MI) State Journal writes about the crowd that showed up for ESPN’s College GameDay on the Michigan State campus yesterday.

Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel talks with ESPN College GameDay’s Lee Corso about how elaborate his headgear picks have become.

Dan Caesar from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch talks with MLB Network host and Gateway City native Greg Amsinger.

Dan says Joe Buck’s voice rose to the occasion in last night’s World Series Game 3.

The Los Angeles Times’ Lisa Dillman says some soccer fans fear the Fox cross promotion for the World Cup.

Sports Media Watch says the SEC on CBS fell to near season-low ratings.

SMW says college football on ABC is way up this season.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media says Versus is having an up-and-down start to the NHL season.

Joe Favorito says Dan Wheldon’s death should not halt IRL’s initiatives to be more transparent with the public.

And we’ll end it there for today. The Sunday NFL pregame quotage will be posted throughout the day.

Bringing Out The Sunday Links

Let’s provide the links on this Sunday.

Tim Goodman in the Hollywood Reporter writes about how the MLB Postseason remains compelling even without big market teams.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News notes that Game 4 of the National League Championship Series became the third most watched NLCS game on cable.

John Eggerton of Multichannel says DirecTV will air the first ever 3D production of pro bull riding.

Mike says Golf Channel is off to record ratings for the PGA Tour’s Fall Series.

R. Thomas Umstead of Multichannel notes that ESPN has closed its Content Development department which was responsible for its critically acclaimed “30 for 30″ series.

The Big Lead notes that ESPN.com college football reporter Pat Forde is leaving to join Yahoo! Sports.

Barry Janoff of The Big Lead writes that the NHL is now red hot for marketers.

Dan Fogarty of SportsGrid says ESPN will not discipline New York Daily News columnist Mike Lupica for an anti-President Obama piece.

From Media Bistro’s Agency Spy site, Kiran Aditham wonders which agency won the NBC Sports account.

In Sports Media Journal, Southern New England media mogul Keith Thibault delves into the controversial Boston Globe piece on the collapse of the Red Sox.

Matthew Holehouse of the London (UK) Telegraph looks at ESPN UK’s new virtual studio for its English Premier League broadcasts.

The Hartford Courant says both the State of Connecticut and NBC are not commenting about reports that NBC Sports could be moving its headquarters to Stamford.

To the New York Post where Phil Mushnick has some suggestions for the TV networks.

Keith Groller of the Allentown (PA) Morning Call speaks with former CNN Sports Tonight co-host Fred Hickman about his friend, the late Nick Charles.

Neal Zoren of the Delaware County Times says a retired Philadelphia sportscaster will have new book coming out this week.

The Washington Post’s Reliable Source column notes that ESPN’s Lindsay Czarniak tied the knot with an MSNBC anchor.

Tom Jones of the St. Petersburg Times has a few sports media tidbits.

The Miami Herald says E:60 will have a feature on a WWE wrestler who’s been locked in a battle outside of the ring.

Tommy Stevenson of the Tuscaloosa (AL) News says sports television coverage of this year’s devastating tornado has showed the city’s resilience to the nation.

George Sipple of the Detroit Free Press notes that ESPN’s College GameDay will be on the Michigan State campus this week.

Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times looks at HBO Sports tapping the Showtime ranks for its new division president.

The Canadian Sports Media Blog replies to a blogger who wants the CBC to be privatized and no longer be funded by the government.

The Toronto Sports Media Blog notes the passing of a Canadian sportswriter.

Sports Media Watch says the ratings for the NLCS are improving, but still down from last year.

Steve Lepore of Puck The Media goes off the beaten path and says realignment in college football could mean some good things for Versus/NBC Sports Network.

Awful Announcing introduces the Dick Stockton Chronicles.

And that will do it for today.