Media Notes

YAHOO SPORTS' Greg Wyshynski reported Time Warner Cable (TWC) and the NHL both indicated that there "isn't yet a deal in place between TWC and the League for this season's Center Ice package." However, TWC Senior Dir of Integrated Communications Maureen Huff said "there is no contract dispute." Huff added the two sides "haven't finalized an agreement yet, but we fully expect to do so before" the start of the NHL regular season on October 1. The NHL "shared the same sentiment, saying the sides were 'really close to a deal,' although it hasn't been completed yet" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 9/21).

LIVE ON DELAY? SI.com's Mark Beech noted NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson "entered pit row for his final stop of the day" with 39 laps to go in Sunday's Sprint Cup Series Sylvania 300 while ESPN "was on a commercial break." But when ESPN returned to race action, the net "announced Johnson's pit stop as if it was happening live." Beech wrote though the pit stop "didn't matter within the context of the race," in the "big picture, it's not comforting to know that ESPN isn't troubled by a little line blurring." ESPN issued a statement saying, "Showing Jimmie Johnson's pit stop was our effort to bring the viewers up to date on what happened while we were on a commercial break -- there was no intent to portray it as happening live" (SI.com, 9/21).

ON THE MOVE: In Philadelphia, John Gonzalez reports WCAU-NBC sportscaster Jade McCarthy is leaving the net for a role at NESN. McCarthy's WCAU contract "runs through November, and she won't begin working at NESN until early next year." Gonzalez notes McCarthy at NESN will "serve as an anchor and specialty program host" (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 9/22).

SO MUCH TO SAY: SI.com's Stewart Mandel wrote he has "yet to hear a logical explanation for why ESPN has chosen to relentlessly interweave snippets from sappy 15-year-old Dave Matthews songs like 'Ants Marching' into its college football broadcasts." Meanwhile, CBS producers "set up the long-awaited showdown" between Florida and Tennessee Saturday with a "rockin' intro set to Green Day's 'Know Your Enemy'" (SI.com, 9/21).