BASKETBALLINSIDERS.com's Ben Dowsett reported Comcast will upgrade all of its "NBA League Pass" channels to HD beginning this season (TWITTER.com, 9/19). In N.Y., Fran Kilinski notes until this year, the service "only offered one of their channels in HD." However, other TV providers like Cablevision, DirecTV and Dish have "all had the bandwidth to offer their viewers multiple HD League Pass channels." It is "unclear" why Comcast "took so long to give their subscribers a full HD experience" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 9/21).
WORD FINDER: In DC, Matt Bonesteel noted Fox News had eight on-air discussions about ESPN and "SC6" co-host Jemele Hill between Sept. 12, the day after Hill’s tweets calling President Trump a "white supremacist," and the Sunday-morning talk shows on Sept. 17. And that number "probably is low." The word "ESPN" was mentioned on Fox News "zero times in the comparable Tuesday-Sunday stretch from the week before." Bonesteel: "A now-vigilant Fox News gives ESPN a much more potent foil than Fox Sports 1" (WASHINGTONPOST.com, 9/20).
PRIME PITCH: In London, Charles Sale noted there is "widespread speculation" that Amazon will bid on a set of three-year packages for EPL rights beginning in the '19-20 season. Amazon is regarded as the "most likely" of the digital media firms to bid for EPL content ahead of Facebook, Google, Twitter and Netflix (London DAILY MAIL, 9/19).
