Sportsnet yesterday announced it reached a 10-year extension with the Canucks through the '22-23 season, continuing a 14-year relationship as the team's regional TV broadcaster that began in '98. The new agreement begins with the '13-14 season. The 30-minute weekly show "Canucks This Week" will continue as part of the new multimedia package (Sportsnet).
LET’S CHAT: Georgia Tech acting AD Paul Griffin at the recent ACC ADs meeting said that “talk of an ACC cable network was a well-received topic of discussion.” In Atlanta, Ken Sugiura noted with the league “looking for additional revenue sources that can help member schools compete with the other BCS conferences, a network in partnership with ESPN could provide that aid.” Griffin described the conversation as “very preliminary.” Still, he said that it is “conceivable it could be running" by the '14-15 academic year. The ACC’s 15-year contract with ESPN “gives member schools an average" of $16.9M annually. Even without its own network, the ACC is "estimating an additional" $3.5M in annual revenues per school in '14-15 (AJC.com, 2/11).
SURPRISE CALL: In St. Louis, Dan Caesar notes Fox announcer Joe Buck “had a brief -- unplanned -- foray into hockey play-by-play on Monday night, when he stopped by Fox Sports Midwest’s booth to chat.” He then “ended up calling a few minutes” of the Kings-Blues game, and the result was “an entertaining, albeit choppy, segment.” Buck yesterday said, “It’s really the enactment of every play-by-play announcer’s nightmare -- you show up in the booth and it's a Super Bowl or a World Series and you don’t know the teams, you don’t know anybody’s name and you don’t know who you’re working with and your headset doesn’t work. I got to live it” (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 2/13).
