Fang's Bites

Thursday’s Linkage

Let’s do some links for you on this Thursday. I hope to be able to do a bit more in the later part of the week unlike previous weeks where the links stop on Wednesday. Plenty of stuff to go over.

Michael Hiestand has a couple of articles on CBS/Turner changing the way we’ll watch the NCAA Tournament starting in March. First, he says times will be staggered and games will be spread out more so we can watch games from noon until midnight in the first three rounds of the tourney.

Mike says cable will change the way we’ll be viewing the tournament from now on.

Sports Illustrrated’s Richard Deitsch has the starting times and networks for the first week of the NCAA Tournament.

Sports Business Daily also goes over CBS/Turner’s plans for the NCAA Tournament.

This has nothing to do with sports, but more with the power of social media and establishing a brand. Douglas Alden Warshaw writes in Fortune about Conan O’Brien’s fast rise on Twitter and how he uses social media to engage with his audience.

Jon Lafayette of Broadcasting & Cable writes that the Chevy Camaro Super Bowl ad is now the most-watched TV commercial ever.

Mike Stern of Media Life Magazine says while the Super Bowl became the most watched TV program in US history, it may also be the most listened to program as well.

Anthony Crupi of Mediaweek reports that ESPN is selling ads faster than any other network.

Jonathan Berr from Daily Finance notes that Comcast is not willing to allow its SportsNet Philadelphia to go on satellite without a huge fight.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell tries to find out how much the Super Bowl flyover cost taxpayers.

The New York Times’ Richard Sandomir says several fans are now suing the Dallas Cowboys and the NFL over not being able to see the games after local fire marshals deemed their seating unsafe.

Bobby Cassidy of Newsday says CBS will air portions of Showtime’s Fight Camp 360 series to promote the Manny Pacquaio-Shane Mosley fight.

Neil Best of Newsday writes that SNY is the crown jewel of the New York Mets owners’ empire.

Ken Schott from the Schenectady Gazette has the start times for the first rounds of the NCAA Tournament.

Ken McMillan of the Middletown (NY) Times Herald-Record is happy that two 50,000 watt heritage radio stations have regained the rights to baseball teams in their respective local markets.

Matt Palmer at Press Box notes that Orioles radio announcers Joe Angel and Fred Manfra will be moving with the team to its new home at WBAL.

DCRTV‘s Dave Hughes writes in Press Box about the O’s decision to leave CBS Radio’s FM sports station to return to WBAL.

The lovely Jen Royle of MASN says while the Orioles have left CBS Radio, Baltimore where she works full-time, she’ll figure out her next move soon.

Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog says the Capitals’ Vice President of Communication is leaving his post and will be missed in local circles.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner says it’s time to get ready for NASCAR.

Gary Smits of the Florida Times-Union praises the PGA Tour and Golf Channel for getting behind some marquee groupings during the early rounds of golf tournaments to help ratings and on-site attendance.

Gary notes that former CBS Sports pioneering golf producer Frank Chirkinian will be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame for his contributions to the sport.

Jeff Shain of the Orlando Sentinel says Chirkinian’s stamp on televised golf is still being felt today.

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban says there’s a future for 3-D TV, just not in sports. I totally agree.

Cheryl Hall of the Dallas Morning News says after a slow start due to the weather, area businesses did see an economic impact from the Super Bowl.

Mitchell Schnurman of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram says the Metroplex failed to get the job done during Super Bowl Week.

John Fay at the Cincinnati Enquirer writes that Fox Sports Ohio will carry a handful of Reds exhibition games.

The Detroit News says all but one of the Tigers regular season games will be seen on local TV.

Jacob Newkirk of the Evansville (IN) Courier-Press isn’t happy that most of the St. Louis Cardinals schedule will be on cable.

The Milwaukee Sentinel’s Bob Wolfley says Vince Lombardi, or Dan Lauria playing Vince Lombardi assisted David Letterman on a Top 10 list.

Sharon Roznik of the Fond du Lac (WI) Reporter says the son of the late ESPN reporter Adrian Karsten is telling high school students about his alcoholism and how he almost met the same fate as his father.

Carrie Muskrat of MLB.com has the Chicago Cubs releasing its 2011 TV schedule.

The White Sox have released their broadcast schedules as well.

To Ed Sherman of Crain’s Chicago Business who says the Cubs will have almost all of their Spring Training games aired on radio, TV or the the internet.

The Belleville (IL) News-Democrat talks about the Cardinals TV announcing team for this season.

The St. Louis Cardinals have announced that Fox Sports Midwest will carry 152 regular season games.

The Phoenix Business Journal notes that the Suns’ TV ratings are up from last season while the Coyotes’ are down, the Cardinals beat them all.

Larry Bohannan of The Desert (CA) Sun reports that the LPGA Kraft Nabisco Championship will move to Golf Channel this year after being split between ESPN2 and CBS.

Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News wishes the Pac 10 would get rid of its current archaic TV contracts and begin anew. Right now.

Sports Media Watch talks about the ratings for the Super Bowl postgame shows on ESPN and NFL Network and other events.

SMW wonders with the NBC Sports takeover of Comcast’s sports properties, does it mean that viewers of Comcast SportsNet’s NBA properties in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Chicago, the Bay Area and Portland could hear the old NBA on NBC theme once again? As if you needed a reminder, here it is, the best theme in all of sports.

Steve Lepore at Puck The Media speaks with Versus’ Brian Engblom about his new role as the on-ice analyst.

Mike Vitello of Awful Announcing explains how the NFL really dropped the ball regarding Super Bowl XLV and social interaction.

And that’s where we will end it for today.

More Thursday Linkage

Ok, lets provide some more linkage. Crazy day today.

Well, the long-awaited Brett Favre schlong pics are out including those voicemails to Jenn Sterger that may or may not have come from the quarterback. Deadspin has them all and you can decide whether they come from Favre or a very good impersonator. Just be careful if you’re at work.

Sean Leahy at The Huddle for USA Today says Buffalo will experience its first NFL blackout since 2006 while Detroit gets an extension to avoid one.

CNBC’s Darren Rovell crunches MLB’s numbers and notes that there indeed IS parity in baseball.

The great NHL writer Chris Botta notes on the Islanders Point Blank blog that the team is about to finalize a deal to have its games aired on the Hofstra University student station.

At the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog, Dan Steinberg talks about the perils of live sports radio interviews.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News notes that Texas Rangers radio voice Eric Nadel is on the ballot for this year’s Baseball Hall of Fame Ford C. Frick Award.

Barry says at first glance, the ratings for Game 1 of Rangers-Tampa Bay were nothing to write home about.

Jerry Garcia of the San Antonio Express-News says tonight’s Spurs NBA preseason opener is on TV, but not easy for fans to find.

John Kiesewetter in the Cincinnati Enquirer says Fox Sports Ohio’s ratings for the Reds jumped by almost 100% this season most likely at the expense of the Bengals.

John has former Reds shortstop Barry Larkin saying this year’s Reds team is better than the 1990 team that won the World Series.

Ed Sherman in Crain’s Chicago Business notes that the Sporting News has named the Windy City as top sports city in the nation.

Ed says the Blackhawks season opener being exclusively on Versus and Dan Patrick coming to Comcast SportsNet Chicago.

Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Tribune says TBS and Conan O’Brien are trying to ride the fine line between too little and too much promotion for his new show during the MLB Postseason. 

Don Walker at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says the Green Bay Packers have had a helping hand in the excellent NFL TV ratings.

Bob Wolfley of the Journal Sentinel says the late Packers linebacker Ray Nitschke will be showcased on NFL Network tonight.

Kim Briggeman of The Missoulian (MT) chronicles Brent Musburger’s talk to University of Montana journalism students where he stated the media was out of step on the steroids story. 

Scott Collins of the Los Angeles Times looks at the high TV ratings for the NFL.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says fans just can’t get enough of pro football.

SportsbyBrooks says former ESPN’er Dan Patrick will be a featured player in the new book on the Alleged Worldwide Leader.

In the Biz of Baseball, Maury Brown has the local ratings for Day 1 of the League Division Series. 

Sports Media Watch says the ratings for IndyCar on Versus are up double digits, but still well below ESPN and ESPN2 levels.

Awful Announcing says there’s a new Screamin’ Gus Johnson iPhone app. I must download this.

And that is where we’ll end it. I’ll post NFL TV press releases during the MLB Postseason coverage tonight.

Conan O’Brien Announces The Name of His New TBS Show

Conan did this on YouTube. Why not? This is a new media age, why not do it on a new media platform? Here it is.

Enjoy.

Conan’s With TBS

In a move that no one saw coming, Conan O’Brien, late of NBC, announced on Twitter that he will be joining TBS in November. Really, no one saw this coming. It was thought Conan would be going to Fox, but in a little bit of foreshadowing, BusinessWeek picked up an article last week from Ronald Glover and Andy Fixmer of Bloomberg News, stating that talks with the network had hit a snag.

The article states that there was some infighting among Fox officials, mostly from Fox’s syndication arm that it did not want to give up the 11 p.m. hour where Conan would do his show after several lucrative deals were made with Fox affiliates to put repeats or other fare in that timeslot:

Fox’s syndication arm, which sells reruns of The Simpsons and other shows, could lose a late-night market to O’Brien. And Fox-owned stations would likely be forced to swallow losses for reruns they’ve already licensed. 

So with that in mind, Conan’s management quietly talked with other suitors and during the noon hour today, we learned that Conan will go to TBS as Bill Carter of the New York Times reports.

Michael Schneider of Variety says Conan will occupy the 11 p.m. slot starting in November and moving George Lopez to midnight, but unlike the Leno mess back in January, Lopez is going willingly to 12 a.m.

Of course, this means that we’ll see plenty of Conan promos during TBS’ coverage of the MLB postseason in October. As a matter of fact, TBS has promoted other late night programming during the MLB postseason including the failed Frank TV which starred Fox NFL Sunday’s comedic prognosticator Frank Caliendo and the Lopez show. But in this case, I’ll actually look forward to seeing the Conan promos.

TBS is already running this promo and I’m sure you see more of them down the line.

We’ll follow this story as more developments arise.