FS New Orleans yesterday announced it will televise 75 of the Hornets' 82 games in the '12-13 season and the net's Senior VP & GM Jon Heidtke said, "We’re anxious to get the season started and to begin our new partnership with the New Orleans Hornets." In New Orleans, John Reid notes FS New Orleans "will become the 21st regional sports network in the Fox Sports Networks family" when the net is re-branded in October for the New Orleans market to coincide with the start of the ‘12-13 NBA season (New Orleans TIMES-PICAYUNE, 8/23).
HOOK 'EM: Longhorn Network yesterday formally announced plans to televise two Univ. of Texas football games in '12. The net's slate of games will consist of this season's first two home contests: UT's Sept. 1 season-opener against Wyoming and the Sept. 8 game against New Mexico. ESPN play-by-play announcer Mark Neely and analyst Ray Bentley will call both games. The net also will broadcast two Texas State Univ. games against Louisiana Tech and Nevada (ESPN). In Austin, Gary Dinges noted LHN in central Texas "is available only to Grande Communications customers" (AUSTIN360.com, 8/22).
ALL ATWITTER: In N.Y., Perlroth & Bilton cited a report from Twitter and NBC showing that "jokes and critiques made up only a slim minority -- under 0.5 percent -- of all Twitter messages about the Olympics." Twitter and NBC said that commentary "drove more viewers to turn on their television sets and watch the games than ever before, even hours after the events had actually happened" (NYTIMES.com, 8/22).
SNOW BUNNIES: In Denver, Jason Blevins notes Vail Resorts is adding Gold Medal-winning U.S. skier Lindsey Vonn "and racing to the third iteration of its wildly successful EpicMix." The "innovative app and online program saw Vail Resorts harvest more than 2 million social-media posts last season as the company added free on-mountain photography to its EpicMix platform." The third generation of EpicMix "will let Epic Pass users race on courses at six of the company's seven ski areas and post times online, as well as compare race times with vaunted racer Vonn with 'seconds behind Lindsey' scores" (DENVER POST, 8/23).
