SI.com’s Richard Deitsch wrote FS1 has “made some notable hires, poaching college football reporter Bruce Feldman from CBS Sports and adding Yahoo Sports NBA columnist Adrian Wojnarowski as a contributor to Fox Sports Live and America's Pregame.” Fox Sports execs “made the contact with the agency that represents Wojnarowski -- the Atlanta-based CSE -- a month ago and a deal came together quickly.” Wojnarowski “will have a camera in his home -- similar to ESPN's Adam Schefter -- so he can pop on the network if news breaks” (SI.com, 5/26). In Tampa, Tom Jones called Wojnarowski’s move to FS1 the “best hire.” His hire “also means that Fox likely wants to get in on carrying NBA games” (TAMPA BAY TIMES, 5/26).
WINNING FORMULA: In Cincinnati, Tom Groeschen noted actor Charlie Sheen joined ESPN’s “Baseball Tonight: Sunday Night Countdown” prior to the Cardinals-Reds game with host Karl Ravech and analyst Barry Larkin. Sheen had “done his homework and seriously answered baseball questions, including when Ravech asked him about the strong pitching match-up of the Reds' Mike Leake against the Cardinals' Adam Wainwright” (CINCINNATI.com, 5/26). Meanwhile, in San Diego, Nick Canepa gives “kudos to MLB Network for switching” to Dodgers P Josh Beckett’s no-hitter Sunday against the Phillies (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 5/27).
TOO MUCH POWER? A N.Y. TIMES editorial states there are “good reasons" the Justice Department and the FCC "should block” Comcast’s $45B acquisition of Time Warner Cable. The merger will “concentrate too much market power in the hands of one company, creating a telecommunications colossus the likes of which the country has not seen” since ‘84 when the government “forced the breakup of the original AT&T telephone monopoly” (N.Y. TIMES, 5/27).
WHAT THE FUTURE COULD HOLD: USA TODAY's Michael Wolff examines the future of possible Time Inc. titles and speculates that SI could be sold to ESPN. He also estimates that the magazine is "down to a third" of the $100M that it was throwing off in the '90s, with "as much as half coming from the swimsuit issue" (USA TODAY, 5/27).
