In Seattle, Geoff Baker notes a group of five execs from Univision, including VP/Sports Programming & GM for FIFA Properties Eric Conrad, "spent most of Monday night watching other people watch" the FC Dallas-Sounders playoff game at CenturyLink Field. The group was were there "to see how the crews working for NBC went about televising the live broadcast." Univision "will be doing its own production" of MLS games "for the first time next season." The net up until now "has relied on a live feed from other networks and substituted in its own play-by-play." The Univision execs "flew to Seattle to meet some of the local crew ... and discuss their opinions on how to best handle a Seattle telecast" (SEATTLE TIMES, 11/11).
EYE DO DECLARE: The HOLLYWOOD REPORTER's Georg Szalai noted CBS President & CEO Les Moonves during a webcast session yesterday "addressed current carriage fee talks with Dish Network." CBS' current deal with Colorado-based Dish is set to expire "at the end of the month." Moonves pointed out that the "importance of NFL games airing on CBS helped get a Time Warner Cable carriage deal done earlier this year." Moonves: "That gives us a lot of clout." He added, "As I said to [Dish Chair & CEO] Charlie Ergen ... 'Your people won't be very happy with the Denver Broncos not on the air Sunday'" (HOLLYWOODREPORTER.com, 11/10).
PULLING THE PLUG: In St. Louis, Dan Caesar reports key investors in KFNS-AM parent company Grand Slam Sports met last night regarding the station's future. Grand Slam Station Operations Manager Mike Calvin said that the decision was made to "discontinue broadcasting ... because of a large amount of debt." He recently estimated the deficit "being more than $580,000" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 11/11).
