SPORTING NEWS' Michael McCarthy reported Turner Sports is "considering a possible bid" for NFL TV rights in '22 after the league's current deals expire. Turner Exec VP/Property Marketing & Corporate Partnerships Will Funk said, "We’re always looking at the NFL. Everyone looks at the NFL. You’d have to be crazy not to look at the NFL." TNT split the Sunday night package with ESPN from '90-97. If TNT decides it wants back in, it would "have to beat out at least one of the league's current TV partners," namely CBS, Fox, NBC, ESPN and NFL Network. Those partners pay the NFL about $7B combined annually to broadcast its games. It is "hard to imagine those partners giving up their piece without a fight" (SPORTINGNEWS.com, 5/22).
COULD BE WORSE: In Buffalo, Alan Pergament writes the NHL has to be "breathing a sigh of relief" now that the Penguins have taken a 3-2 series lead over the Senators in the Eastern Conference Finals. A Canadian team in the Stanley Cup Playoffs "would be a killer for NBC" since Nielsen is not rated there. If the Penguins advance to the Final to play the Predators, it will be between two teams in "medium-size markets, which won't help ratings." But the Penguins "at least" have C Sidney Crosby (BUFFALO NEWS, 5/23).
BETTER WITH TIME: In Ft. Worth, Mac Engel writes the MLB Rangers' new broadcast team on FS Southwest was a "primary crisis and concern" heading into the '17 season. But the new TV lineup of play-by-play man Dave Raymond and color analysts C.J. Nitkowski and Tom Grieve "is good." Leave them alone and they will "do nothing but improve, and eventually they will grow on you." They "take their job and craft seriously and produce a professional product for each telecast." Engel: "That is all you can ask for as a viewer" (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 5/23).
