Media Notes
In N.Y., Richard Sandomir reports NBC Universal-owned USA Network, recently replaced by ESPN as the cable home of the first two rounds of The Masters, “declined in late summer to make a deal, unwilling to pay a new rights fee sought by Augusta.” Augusta National “reimburses [ESPN and CBS] for their production costs,” but the nets “receive no revenue from the four minutes each hour of advertising sold to [Masters sponsors] IBM, AT&T and ExxonMobil and cannot promote their programming.” USA is also “expected to shed its money-losing coverage” of the tennis U.S. Open “as soon as its deal ends,” opting to carry its dramatic programming rather than evening replays of The Masters or tennis (N.Y. TIMES, 10/11).
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Colts President Discusses Lack Of
Home "MNF" Games For Team |
POLIAN DYNAMITE: Colts President Bill Polian, when asked why there are so few primetime games in the RCA Dome, said, “NBC told us they don’t like us at home, because we tend to win by rather large scores and that doesn’t make for good TV. Monday Night is ESPN and I think we’re only on once – Jacksonville. They chose Jacksonville as the host there. That’s partially the schedule-maker and partly television and partly how they juxtapose the schedule and fit every game in. It tends to run a little bit in cycles. We’ve had our share of Monday Night games at home, I think, and this year it tends to go the other way." He added, "We’re on the road on Monday night [October 22] at Jacksonville and then have to go back and play on the road the following Sunday at Carolina. That is extremely rare. I can’t remember it happening to any team that I have been with” (Colts.com, 10/10).
CSI SOUTH BEND: The body of George Gipp, the Notre Dame football player who inspired the phrase “Win one for the Gipper,” was exhumed recently for DNA testing. An ESPN crew filmed the exhumation for an upcoming story, but an ESPN spokesperson said that the network “played no role in arranging it” (AP, 10/10).
DOWN COMFORTER: Churchill Downs dropped a lawsuit against simulcasting partner TVG after TVG “promised to stop assigning broadcast rights for Churchill-owned tracks to a third party” (AP, 10/11).
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