Media Notes

Following a New York state Supreme Court ruling allowing Comcast to put NFL Network on a sports tier, the MSO said that it will offer the net in Houston “as part of its Sports Plus package, which costs $4 per month and includes nine other sports-themed channels.” The net charges Comcast a monthly subscriber fee of $0.55 (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 5/12). SI.com’s Peter King writes the ruling “seems fair.” In N.Y., Comcast’s sports tier costs consumers $5-6 per month. Had the network “been put on a basic cable tier, it would have raised the bill for all consumers by about 75 cents a month” (SI.com, 5/14).

LOOKING BACK: MSG Network has ordered a slate of six documentaries, via Star Crossed Pictures, tied to sports and entertainment events at Madison Square Garden. The first, premiering next Monday, is "Spring of '94," which chronicles the '94 playoff runs of the Knicks, who lost in the NBA Finals, and the Rangers, who won their first Stanley Cup in 54 years. In June, "Mecca of Boxing" will focus on the history of boxing matches held at the venue (MSG).

GOING LOCAL: Louisville’s WWSZ-AM has dropped its ESPN Radio programming “to focus on area sports and teams” from 7:00am-7:00pm ET. WWSZ co-Owner Dugan Ryan said the station would air all local talk shows during daytime hours “because we feel like we can attract larger audiences that way.” Ryan: “There are too many places you can get ESPN and only one place you can get Dave Ragone [the former Univ. of Louisville QB who hosts a show from 7:00-10:00am].” Ryan indicated that ESPN Radio “attracted less than 1[%] of the area’s radio audience” (Louisville COURIER-JOURNAL, 5/12).

ACCESS CARD: Kraft Sports Productions’ “Patriots All-Access” won an Emmy Award for outstanding sports series from the Boston/New England chapter of the National Television Academy. The show had previously won for best sports series in ’99 (BOSTON GLOBE, 5/14).