In N.Y., Christine Haughney notes Bloomberg News yesterday "starting laying off and reassigning employees." The layoffs "cut across several departments, including culture and sports." It will "stop covering sports matches and focus more on sports stories that intersect with business." Bloomberg News Head of Communications Ty Trippet said that the company "expected to lay off fewer than 40 employees, less than 2 percent of Bloomberg News's 2,000 employees" (N.Y. TIMES, 11/19).
SUBSTITUTE ANNOUNCER: In Portland, Mike Tokito noted veteran broadcaster Scott Lynn "will fill in for ailing Brian Wheeler as the radio play-by-play man" for two Trail Blazers games, starting with yesterday's game against the Nets. The Blazers "went with a simulcast format for the first two games of the trip, using the audio of the team's television broadcast on their radio network" (OREGONLIVE.com, 11/18).
HEADED NORTH: The CFL Divisional Finals on TSN on Sunday delivered an overall audience of 7.3 million viewers. The Hamilton Tiger-Cats-Toronto Argonauts Eastern Final averaged 1.7 million viewers, making it the most-watched English-language Eastern Final ever. The Saskatchewan Roughriders-Calgary Stampeders Western Final averaged 1.9 million viewers, up 2% compared to last year's Western Final (Bell Media).
FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT: MULTICHANNEL NEWS' R. Thomas Umstead noted while the Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez bout last November and Pacquiao-Timothy Bradley bout in June "averaged 1 million buys each, it's unclear whether the former champion still has enough juice to reach PPV boxing's gold standard." If Pacquiao-Brandon Rios on Saturday "approaches 1 million buys, that should be enough for the boxing category to match or surpass the nearly 4 million buys generated by the category" in '12. Showtime Exec VP & GM Stephen Espinoza said that the net in '14 "plans to offer Floyd Mayweather PPV fights on May 3 and Sept. 13." He added that Showtime also expects Canelo Alvarez to "fight at least three times in 2014, the first of which will be March 8 on PPV" (MULTICHANNEL NEWS, 11/18 issue).
