In Hartford, Paul Doyle writes of the Big East's negotiations for a new media-rights deal, "Exposure, perhaps more than revenue, is what the new Big East is after." The conference will be "looking for as much air time as possible over the next six years, with an eye on increasing revenue with ensuing deals." Big East Commissioner Mike Aresco said, "The focus has been to get as much revenue as we obviously could, especially after what happened over the past three or four months (with realignment). But also to make sure we had really significant exposure on a lot of platforms, national exposure. We're going to get that with this deal." He added, "The conference is certainly financially very sound. And again, if we perform and we do what we think we can do with our teams in football and basketball and women's sports and Olympic sports, we think down the road we'll be talking to our TV partners about the future and we'll do better the next time around" (HARTFORD COURANT, 2/20).
GET ON THE MIC, MIKE: In Boston, Chad Finn notes WEEI yesterday officially announced that Mike Salk will "join Michael Holley on the station's afternoon drive program," replacing longtime host Glenn Ordway. Salk previously worked for ESPN Radio 890 Boston from '05-09. He will "debut on WEEI in mid-March," and will contribute to WEEI.com (BOSTON.com, 2/19).
MARCH OF THE PENGUINS: In Pittsburgh, Rob Rossi notes about 357,000 people on average "have watched Penguins games broadcast on Root Sports Pittsburgh since the NHL returned in late January." No U.S. NHL market has "done better with its local club." The Penguins' overall regional TV rating "generated an 11.9 average." The Sabres "were also off to a strong regional TV ratings start this season, with an average of 10.1." Rounding out Nielsen's "top five: Boston (7.0), St. Louis (5.0) and Chicago (4.9)." The Penguins have "produced a double-digit rating in 12 consecutive games broadcast on Root Sports Pittsburgh" (PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW, 2/20).
COVERING THE BASES: MLB Network yesterday announced that former MLBer Darryl Hamilton has joined the net as an analyst. Hamilton will make his debut Saturday. Meanwhile, ESPN yesterday announced that former MLBer Alex Cora has joined the net and ESPN Deportes as an analyst (THE DAILY). In Boston, Nick Cafardo wrote Cora "should be great" at ESPN (BOSTON GLOBE, 2/17).
