In Indiana, Eric Hansen reports Notre Dame's football season opener against Texas in South Bend "will be a night game," with kickoff slated for 7:30pm ET. A recent clause "added to the ND television contract with NBC allows for three night games at Notre Dame Stadium in each two-year cycle, moving forward." A Notre Dame official said that there "would be two night games" in '15 at the stadium. The USC game on Oct. 17 "figures to be the other, but that has not been made official yet" (SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE, 4/17).
NEW TO THE NEST: WCAU-NBC, CSN Philadelphia and the Eagles on Thursday announced a comprehensive new broadcast partnership that makes WCAU “The Official Television Station of the Philadelphia Eagles.” Under this new deal, WCAU will broadcast all four Eagles preseason games. The partnership includes live game day, pre- and postgame programming and weekly magazine shows. Eagles programming on WCAU and CSN includes pre- and postgame shows, “Eagles Game Plan” and “Inside the Eagles" (NBCU).
DAN THE MAN: SPORTING NEWS' Jesse Spector wrote the rhythm was "good at the start" for ESPN's season-opening "Sunday Night Baseball" telecast of Red Sox-Yankees. Play-by-play man Dan Shulman was the "best thing going." But analyst Curt Schilling mostly went "back and forth between talking about himself and jabbing" at fellow analyst John Kruk, whom "stumbles over his words with such frequency that you wonder how he wound up in the booth for a national game of the week." Spector: "This broadcast is better than you would think from reading social media sites on a weekly basis, almost entirely because of Shulman’s mastery of his craft" (SPORTINGNEWS.com, 4/13).
HOT OFF THE PRESS: The AP reports Churchill Downs Inc. has "started a print and online publication focused on thoroughbred racing." CDI said that the "first edition of its self-titled magazine Churchill Downs will reach homes this week." The company on Thursday said that the first edition will "focus on the Kentucky Derby as well as people involved in thoroughbred racing in the spring." CDI CEO Bill Carstanjen said that the goal is to "produce a magazine with a unique and interesting perspective on horse racing." The magazine is being "produced by" Louisville-based Blue Equity Publishing (AP, 4/17).
