Media Notes
With Comcast last week finally agreeing to carriage terms with the Big Ten Network, in Detroit, Drew Sharp wrote, "The problem for both Comcast and the Big Ten is that they overvalued the worth of the [BTN]." The BTN went "from 'must-see television' to 'it's-not-that-bad-we-can't-see-it television' and that adjustment will definitely hurt both the Big Ten and Comcast when determining where the real audience for this product exists." The Big Ten's problem is that "when Comcast subscribers finally see what they previously missed on BTN, they'll realize that they weren't missing all that much" (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 6/21). A Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE editorial stated there are "some signs that the Big Ten might have been a little too greedy at the negotiating table." It is "difficult to put a figure on the PR damage done to BTN and Comcast, but the two companies must have known that they needed to have a deal in place by the time" the '08 NCAA football season begins (Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 6/21). In Detroit, Michael Rosenberg writes, "At the end of the day, this isn't about Big Ten fans. It's not even about the Big Ten. It's about a cable monolith that wants to make as much money as humanly possible, then invent new ways to make more money. ... Comcast is in this to win. And Comcast gets to define winning" (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 6/23).
WORTH THE WEIGHT? The FINANCIAL TIMES' Jonathan Soble noted NBC plans to offer "hundreds of hours of coverage of this summer's Beijing Olympics online," a strategy that Liberty Media Chair John Malone predicted "would flop for the network." Malone: "Very expensive events -- expensive to buy and expensive to produce -- are not going to have adequate underwriting through advertising." Malone added, "You've got to be very careful what you promise to the public on the internet. They're going to have a very hard time getting anyone to pay them for their content" (FINANCIAL TIMES, 6/21).
JOB WELL DONE: San Diego Union-Tribune Editor Karin Winner said it took a "companywide, coordinated effort" to cover the '08 U.S. Open in special print sections and online at golf.uniontrib.com. In San Diego, Carol Goodhue notes readers described the paper's coverage as "fabulous," "extraordinary" and "a great fit to the community." Union-Tribune Sports Editor Doug Williams said that AP golf writer Doug Ferguson "complimented the work effusively." Williams: "He said he had never seen a paper cover a tour the way we did" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 6/23).
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