Golf Channel this week debuts Playing Through, a split-screen commercial break, which provides more continuous coverage of tourney action while showing ads. Playing Through will be used during the European Tour Final Series, starting with this week’s BMW Masters. Golf Channel’s coverage will go to a split screen during commercial breaks with simultaneous live golf and ads. The commercial’s audio will be featured during the Playing Through breaks. The format will be featured during the final two hours of tourney coverage, which will include eight Playing Through breaks and four traditional commercial breaks (Golf Channel).
LACK OF INTEREST: In S.F., Eric Branch notes of Sunday’s 49ers-Jaguars game in London, “A quick scan through the newspapers at Heathrow Airport revealed only a few paragraphs about the upcoming annihilation, um, game.” Another plausible explanation for the “collective media yawn, of course, is that nobody gives a flip about an NFL game five days away when [EPL clubs] Arsenal and Chelsea both played real football Tuesday night” (S.F. CHRONICLE, 10/23).
CRUNCH TIME: In Syracuse, Lindsay Kramer noted that although no TV deal between Time Warner Cable and the AHL Syracuse Crunch for a “package of games this season has been announced yet, the team is optimistic that one will be reached soon.” Crunch COO Jim Sarosy said that “negotiations are ongoing and there could be an agreement in the near future.” Kramer noted in past seasons, “at least part of a broadcast package was settled by the time the season started” (SYRACUSE.com, 10/22).
