DirecTV Chief Content Officer Dan York said that the value of Comcast SportsNet Houston "continues to plummet as time passes and the channel remains mired in bankruptcy without widespread carriage agreements.” York last week said a "substantial gap" remains between the net’s asking price and what DirecTV believes to be fair market value. He said that DirecTV has had "intermittent conversation" with the Astros, Rockets and RSN on carriage talks, but price "remains a sticking point.” York said, “What we've seen in Houston is unfortunately what happens when content is overpriced to the market." In Houston, David Barron notes DirecTV is “not believed to have suffered major subscriber losses in Houston with its decision not to carry CSN Houston” (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 5/13).
BASEBALL BOON: TOM TAYLOR NOW notes there have been times late in the MLB season when Giants flagship station KNBR-AM was No. 1, but this season, “things are happening early, good things.” The station is No. 2 and “it’s only the April book.” KNBR also is up in San Jose. But the baseball gods “aren’t smiling on all baseball flagships, and in places like Philadelphia, they’re being selective.” Meanwhile, Mets flagship WOR-AM’s age 6+ cumulative audience for April was 968,300, a “jump of 320,000 people in just one month” (TOM TAYLOR NOW, 5/13 issue).
BACK AGAINST THE CAGE? YAHOO SPORTS’ Dave Doyle wrote if Bellator had cancelled its PPV event scheduled for Saturday -- due to an injury to one of the headline fighters -- the MMA outfit would “go 0-for-2 on delivering a product in the highly lucrative Saturday night prime-time slot.” That would make “titans such as Comcast and DirecTV hesitant to offer them a third go-round.” When UFC had to “pull the plug” on UFC 151 in ‘12, its management “already had a decade-long track record of producing money for big cable companies, so they were given a pass” (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 5/11).
PEOPLE & PERSONALITIES: Tampa Bay Times Lightning beat writer Damian Cristodero yesterday wrote on his Twitter feed that after 16 years at the newspaper and 13 seasons covering the team, he is “leaving the paper to join my wife in Washington DC.” Writer Joe Smith “takes over the beat” (TWITTER.com)....SI.com’s Richard Deitsch writes ESPN management “made a wise decision to re-sign” reporter Shelley Smith to a multiyear deal. Smith has “always done solid work and made the network look good as an on-air performer.” Viewers “rarely see women in their 50s on sports television as management always seems to push toward young.” Keeping Smith was a “message to marketplace that quality matters” (SI.com, 5/13)....NYRA track announcer Tom Durkin on Saturday announced that he will "call his last race at Saratoga on August 31, bringing a 43-year career to a close” (BRISNET.com, 5/10)....ESPN hired SI's Jim Trotter, who will appear on "Sunday NFL Countdown," "NFL Insiders," "SportsCenter" and other ESPN shows. Trotter, who also covered the Chargers for nine years for the San Diego Union-Tribune, will write for ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine (ESPN).
