Time Warner’s Witmer won’t back down

Time Warner Cable’s new chief programming executive believes in reining in the cost of sports networks and putting them on digital sports tiers. And she won’t be shy about fighting public battles with programmers. In other words, when Melinda Witmer takes over for retiring industry ico ...

Tags: This Week's News

What’s in store on television

Viewers will see more use of special cameras this season. Hit the road ABC plans to go on the road with its pregame show, which will travel to the site of its Sunday afternoon games. Dan Patrick will host, with Michael Wilbon and Mark Jackson providing a ...

Tags: In-Depth

Nontraditional NASCAR

Turner Broadcasting is trying to convince advertisers that its schedule of six NASCAR races is more valuable without traditional 30-second ads. TNT, which will begin an eight-year, $640 million rights deal next year with the stock-car circuit, is floating a package to potential advertisers that ...

Tags: This Week's News

FSNY next up for rebranding

As MSG Network completed an on-air rebranding earlier this month, the network’s parent was quietly making plans to retool its other New York-area regional sports network, Fox Sports Net New York, early next year. FSNY will be rebranded in the first ...

Tags: This Week's News

On-demand demand: Dedicated HBO Sports category scoring with view ...

HBO Sports is reporting dramatic on-demand usage numbers in the three months since HBO’s popular on-demand service created a dedicated HBO Sports category. In its first two months, HBO Sports has seen the number of people accessing its programs double, ...

Classic stretches in effort to grow

ESPN’s biggest on-screen change over the past year has occurred at ESPN Classic, which has been moving away from showing vintage games to a lineup featuring more original programming presented on a more consistent schedule. The network has accompanied the move with an on-air change that fe ...

Tags: This Week's News

ESPN ship sails smoothly under Skipper

The contrast between ESPN’s new and old regimes was never more apparent than at FedEx Field on Sept. 11, the first “Monday Night Football” game of the season. The network’s former programming chief, Mark Shapiro, was near the center of all the off-field action, mingling with Hollywood s ...

Tags: This Week's News

TV partners project ratings, ad revenue gains

In August 2005, OLN executives were ecstatic when they picked up the cable rights to the NHL. Hockey represented the biggest sport on the network and was viewed as a linchpin for the network to acquire an eight-game NFL package later that year. By the time the St ...

Tags: In-Depth

D-III conference’s games on Fox College Sports

What do you do if you’re up against several college sports networks and you need to fill your schedule? If you’re Fox College Sports, you start looking to Division III sports. Last week, Fox College Sports signed a one-year agreement to carry football games from the Wisconsin Intercolle ...

Tags: This Week's News

Flop hangs an ‘L’ on ESPN

ESPN’s unexpected and swift shutdown last week of its highly publicized wireless venture, Mobile ESPN, marked an unusual position for the self-proclaimed Worldwide Leader in Sports: unquestionable failure. To be certain, the company has had more tha ...

Tags: This Week's News