NBCSN earned a 2.9 overnight rating for Kyle Busch's win in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Crown Royal 400 yesterday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. That figure is down 9% from a 3.2 overnight last year on ESPN for Jeff Gordon's win. ESPN earned a 3.4 rating in '13 for Ryan Newman's win (Josh Carpenter, Staff Writer).
BREAKING THE ICE: SI.com's Richard Deitsch reported NBC Sports Group "will air 105 regular-season NHL games" in '15-16, including its season-opener doubleheader on Oct. 7 on NBCSN featuring Blackhawks-Rangers at 8:00pm ET and Kings at Sharks at 10:30pm. NBC Sports Group in total "will air 12 games on big NBC and 93 games on NBCSN." The 105 regular-season games are the "most ever scheduled across NBC Sports Group heading into the season." All games "will be streamed live via NBC Sports Live Extra" (SI.com, 7/26).
SETTLE FOR BOGEY: In Des Moines, Daniel Finney wrote ESPN's coverage of the '15 British Open at St. Andrews was "all agony of defeat and no thrill of victory." The agony was for Jordan Spieth, who despite ESPN's "desperate wishes, did not win." Zach Johnson won, but he was "denied his thrill of victory by ESPN, who didn't like the storyline." Finney: "ESPN is about brand promotion. Spieth is the brand ESPN wanted to promote next. And our man Zach messed it up for them" (DESMOINESREGISTER.com, 7/26).
QUARTERBACK RATING: THE MMQB's Peter King notes his website has "decided to make a change." King: "I wanted us to be more diverse, particularly on our home page. Under the old system, we’d rotate four major stories on a timer." Now, without scrolling “below the fold” on the screen, readers "will be able to see a main story in large view -- and you’ll be able to, for instance, know where The MMQB Training Camp Tour is stopping today, with a link to our camp blog." Soon, readers will "find better photo/gallery pages and slideshows, and more prominent places" for videos (MMQB.SI.com, 7/27).
