In L.A., Flint & Chmielewski write under the header, “How High Can Fees For Sports Rights Go?” Some distributors are “nervous about subscribers cutting the cord to their pay-TV service.” DirecTV Exec VP/Content Strategy & Development Derek Chang said, "In this last quarter our industry has probably lost about a half-million subscribers. What do you attribute that to? Most people are attributing it to the affordability of the product." Mediacom Chair & CEO Rocco Commisso “took the unusual step of asking government to do more to combat rising programming costs.” Commisso: "Sports are the worst culprit. … Why is this the only industry not affected by the recession?" (L.A. TIMES, 9/8).
FANTASY ALERT! CBSSports.com is expanding its online fantasy video series, "Fantasy Football Today," from beyond its traditional Sunday slot to daily Tuesday-Friday each week as well during the NFL season. In addition, CBS Sports Network will telecast the show each Sunday from 11:00am-1:00pm ET. The weekday slots will run during the noon hour ET to help fantasy players set their rosters for the upcoming week and monitor injury updates (Eric Fisher, SportsBusiness Journal).
MAKING A U-TURN: F1 Management Chair Bernie Ecclestone has confirmed that the BBC “will not broadcast full reruns of the 10 races which it is not showing live next year.” In London, Christian Sylt noted Sky next season “will broadcast all races live while the BBC's live coverage will be restricted to 10 of the 20-race calendar.” Ecclestone in July confirmed to F1 teams that the BBC “would broadcast every race in full after it has taken place.” But he said on Sunday, "The BBC will broadcast 75 minutes of every race" (London INDEPENDENT, 9/5).
LEARNING A NEW LANGUAGE: The LPGA has “launched an official Korean version of its website that will feature live scoring, player information and enhanced blogs with special Korean content.” The LPGA “already has a website geared toward the Japanese audience” (AP, 9/6).
