Will Mid-Majors Hurt CBS' Ratings?

When both VCU and Butler made the Final Four, instant reaction from many in the sports community was that the lack of a marquee school in one semifinal would hurt CBS's ratings. THE DAILY asked ESPN Senior VP/Research & Analytics Artie Bulgrin whether marquee teams or competitive games drive r ...

Sources: Fox-Big 12 Rights Deal Increasing 350%

More details are emerging about Fox'  planned cable rights deal with the Big 12, which sources say is worth an average of around $90M over 13 years. At that rate, Fox would pay a 350% increase over its current fee of $20M per year. But as part of the deal terms being negotiated, Fox would end up wi ...

Tags: Media

More Details Of Fox-Big 12 TV Deal

More details are emerging about Fox' planned cable rights deal with the Big 12, which sources say is worth an average of around $90M over 13 years. At that rate, Fox would pay a 350% increase over its current fee of $20M per year. But as part of the deal terms being negotiated, Fox would end up ...

Q&A With SNY President Steve Raab

Raab discusses the first five years of SportsNet N.Y. It was five years ago today that SportsNet N.Y. launched as the Big Apple’s fourth RSN. The RSN is majority owned by the Mets, with cable operators Comcast and Time Warner Cable retaining partial ownership. In an int ...

"Baseball Tonight" Airing On Site On Sundays

ESPN studio show "Baseball Tonight" will be produced from the site of the network's "Sunday Night Baseball" games this season, starting April 3 with the Giants-Dodgers game. The set-up will resemble ESPN's popular "College GameDay" sets. "Baseball Tonight" will position the sets just outsi ...

Tags: MLB, ESPN, Media

ESPN, Versus Pull Big Hoops Viewership

Saturday night was a big TV night for college basketball on ESPN, which recorded a season high 3.291 million viewers for its Big East Tournament final between Connecticut and Louisville and 2.351 million viewers for its Big 12 Tournament final between Kansas and Texas. The Big East final was up 14.6 ...

DirecTV Launching truTV HD For Tournament

DirecTV will carry truTV's NCAA men's basketball tournament games in HD under the terms of a deal the satellite operator finalized with Turner Sports yesterday. Sources said DirecTV has committed to launch the HD version of the channel later this year, but is committed to carrying all the ...

Tags: Media, DirecTV

ESPN Execs To Meet With IOC About Rights

Top ESPN production execs are meeting the Olympic broadcasting execs in Madrid tomorrow, the latest signal that ESPN is interested in bidding for the '14 Sochi and '16 Rio de Janeiro Games. ESPN VP/Int'l Development Rob Simmelkjaer, the net's point person on the Olympic bid, Senior VP/Content M ...

Tags: Media, ESPN, IOC

NBC Putting Sports Content On Versus

NBC is putting its programming on Versus for the first time next week, when the cable channel re-runs three Notre Dame football games on St. Patrick's Day, from 5:00-11:00pm ET. The channel also plans to carry Notre Dame's spring football game, marking the first time the game will be televised natio ...

Judge Overturns NFL Media Fee Decision

U.S. District Court Judge David Doty late yesterday overturned a decision that would have allowed the NFL to use $4B in media fees during a potential lockout later this year. He said he planned to hold hearings to set damages. Doty's decision comes as the NFL and NFLPA are engaged in federally o ...