In Oklahoma City, Mel Bracht noted the Bulls' 101-97 victory over the Heat Wednesday night, which ended the Heat's 27-game win streak, "produced a 3.0 overnight rating on ESPN, the second best this season and fifth-best regular-season rating ever." It delivered "a 6.6 in Miami and 5.0 in Chicago" (NEWSOK.com, 3/28). FORBES.com's Kurt Badenhausen noted there was a 32% jump in ratings for Heat games on Sun Sports "compared to season-to-date ratings over the first 24 games of the streak (20 of the games were on Sun Sports with four on national TV)." The March 18 game against the Celtics "set a new ratings record on Sun Sports with a 12.2." Sun Sports averaged "8.9 during the first 24 games of the streak" (FORBES.com, 3/28).
BOBBY'S WORLD: Sacred Heart Univ. AD and former MLB manager Bobby Valentine will join SportsNet N.Y.'s on-air team as an analyst for its pre- and postgame coverage of the Mets. Valentine is expected to make 12-15 appearances throughout the season on SNY, beginning with Opening Day on Monday at 11:30am ET (SNY). The SNY agreement is "apart from Valentine's third job, as an NBC Sports radio commentator" (NEWSDAY, 3/29).
OPEN ACCESS: As part of the WNBA and ESPN's expanded TV deal, which was formally announced Thursday, broadcasts will "feature a referee cam worn by officials during select games and the inclusion of former players to provide their perspective on the progress of the sport through the years." The net also will have "increased access to practices, shootarounds and the locker rooms before games and during halftime" (AP, 3/28).
BEST-SELLER LIST: MLBAM President & CEO Bob Bowman appeared on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" Wednesday morning, noting the "At Bat" app is the No. 1-selling sports app because "what you want in an app is reliability and coolness so every day there's something going on in baseball." He added, "The game itself lends itself to what our app does and the app is reliable." Bowman noted MLBAM has been a "step ahead of everybody and we've attracted great developers" and it has been a "big moneymaker" for the organization ("Morning Joe," MSNBC, 3/27).
