ABC posted a 12.4 overnight rating for Game Four of the NBA Finals between the Thunder and the Heat. The 12.4 overnight is up 12% from last year and marks the second best NBA Finals overnight ever for ABC. The four-game average for this year's Finals is the highest since '04 (THE DAILY).
BROADCAST BOOT CAMP: In Indianapolis, Phillip Wilson notes 23 current and retired NFLers are "participating in this week’s sixth annual NFL Broadcast Boot Camp at NFL Films in Mount Laurel, N.J." NFL Network's Brian Baldinger is among the announcers from the league's media partners serving "are boot camp instructors." Baldinger said, "We try to be honest with the guys and temper their expectations. To think they will step right in and be Troy Aikman, Terry Bradshaw or Michael Strahan, there are only a few of those positions available" (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 6/20).
TAKING A BREATHER: In Denver, Irv Moss notes former baseball announcer Wayne Hagin's "radio voice is silent this year, for the first time in 33 years." Hagin served as one of the "first radio voices of the Rockies," before spending five years with the Cardinals and four with the Mets. After parting ways with the Mets last winter, Hagin's version is that he "walked away from the job," but the Mets said in a statement that they "didn't renew his contract." Hagin now is "recharging his battery." He said, "I've already been contacted by a couple of teams in baseball. But I might want to extend myself and do other sports. I'd like to do events and then go home" (DENVER POST, 6/20).
ACQUISITIONS: News Corp. said that it has "agreed to pay roughly" $2.2B to acquire Consolidated Media Holdings. The company added that if the deal is approved by Australian regulators, the takeover would "double its stakes in Australia’s leading pay television business, Fox Sports Australia and Foxtel, to 100% and 50% respectively" (NYTIMES.com, 6/19)....ONE World Sports has "obtained the exclusive rights to distribute 28 selected home baseball games" of Nippon Professional Baseball's Hiroshima Carp in the U.S. (CABLEFAX DAILY, 6/20).
