The Peacock Biting Even More From Our Wallets

Just because NBC continues to have the highest rated show and NFL telecast again this year with Sunday Night Football is not reason enough to get away with moving more of their sports programming to a pay tier. Consumers are already paying increasing monthly fees for their cable/satellite programming, which includes NBC. Some pay even more for sports packages which include the NBC Sports Regional Networks. Some pay still more on top of those to receive Peacock, which is being assigned to more and more live sports programming. 

 

This coming Saturday (12/16), Peacock will have exclusive coverage of the Indy Classic college basketball tournament. Exclusive. These are nothing but regular season non-conference college hoops matchups. They expect people not already subscribing to Peacock to pay to get these games. Their live doubleheader starts with Ball State vs. Indiana (12:45 PM ET), and is followed by Arizona vs. Purdue in a battle of two highly ranked teams.

 

Of course, teams ranked highly this early in the season could be long gone from the top spots by March. That's another story. These regular season games are being treated just like NBC coverage, including assigning Noah Eagle and Robbie Hummel to call both games. However, this telecast is only available to those paying much more than regular season prices.

 

Wait until NFL fans realize that Peacock will have the Dec. 23rd game between Buffalo and the L.A. Chargers exclusively in prime time. Peacock will also have an exclusive NFL playoff game during Wild Card weekend. Let's face it. If the NFL is able to get away with an extra pay tier for its games, fans of other sports leagues are doomed.

It appears that Al Michaels will not be calling one NFL playoff game for NBC or Peacock despite it being in his contract. The Network isn't saying why. Some critics point to his "boring" call of his playoff game assignment last year, while others speculate it was because of his comment about Taylor Swift being at the game not being a big deal. The NFL figures that Swift being at the games is good for ratings, and for the millions they pay for the rights, they want to keep it positive. Nice work for Michaels, who could be getting paid for not calling a game.

This Saturday, 12/16, is a day featuring an NFL triple header. For the first time, each of the games will be seen live via NFL Network, only simulcast over the air in each of the local markets only for their team's game. 

Chris Rose and Jason McCourty will call the Minnesota vs. Cincinnati game, while Rich Eisen and Kurt Warner will describe Pittsburgh vs. Indianapolis. The prime time game between Denver and Detroit will be called by Kevin Harlan and Trent Green.

Back on the college sports scene, the Atlantic 10 Conference announced expanded coverage, especially for basketball, with a group of partners. ESPN, CBS Sports, and NBC Sports will divide the coverage throughout this five year extension.

 

Meanwhile, ESPN's NHL doubleheader on Tuesday (12/12) produced its highest ratings since Week 2 of the NHL season. The later matchup (starting after 10 PM ET) between Chicago and Edmonton featured Connor Bedard against Connor McDavid drew more than 400,000 viewers around the country. 

 

 

Finding Gold in Alabama

It's news that is better than gold with the official announcement that Eli Gold has been cleared to return to his play-by-play role in the University of Alabama radio booth! Gold was on the sidelines last season (after 35 years) while receiving treatment for Stage 3 cancer. He is expected to be on the call for the Crimson Tide's opening game on September 2nd. Can't come soon enough.

 

With the college football season starting in a month, one media related development has been set to begin for next year (2024 season) that will be a significant change for long-time fans. The incredible TV partnerships that the Big 10 Conference has with CBS, Fox, and NBC will reach a new level. To reduce the fighting for the lead game each week, according to the Indy Star, starting in 2024 the networks will rotate selecting their primary game. 

 

For this year, CBS finishes its contract with the SEC, allowing it to give a higher priority to the Big 10 games starting next year. NBC will be adding the Big 10 in addition to Notre Dame (ironic given the rumors years ago of ND joining the Conference). Part of the NBC deal is allowing the network to flex Big 10 games in to its prime time slot. Fox will be continuing its contract. Can't overlook the irony of all the years gone by when ABC had exclusive rights to the Big 10. Although a long way off, it will be interesting to see how the three networks showcasing the same product week after week does for their respective ratings.

 

Meanwhile, it's a very disappointing day for Fox and NBC, which have lost the rights to important NASCAR races, starting in 2025. The CW will become exclusive home to the entire NASCAR Infinity Series. With this addition, and an upcoming share of golf tournaments thanks to its having the LIV rights and the subsequent merger with the PGA, CW is growing a presence in sports coverage. They are also expected to add to their roster of college basketball, football, and other motor sports.

DENVER: After only nine months on the job, former Broncos first round pick Derek Wolfe has stepped down from his role as afternoon drive co-host on KKFN 104.3 The Fan. Wolfe claimed "schedule conflicts" but many think this was a result of a backlash from his recent photo of a mountain lion he boasted of killing while on a hunting trip.  No replacement named as of press time.

Bailing Out From Bally Bankruptcy Could be Bombastic

While the nation prepares for the constant flow of March Madness games over the next two weeks, MLB is forced to get ready to take on the financial burden of streaming games to fans of as many as 14 teams. After days of rumors, the NY Post reports that the Bally Sports Regional Networks (currently owned by Diamond Sports) group is expected to file for bankruptcy within the coming week, allowing it to drop scheduled telecasts of the majority of games of the teams it holds the rights to.

The report has MLB taking over the production and offering local packages for fans within the team's current rights areas. This is significant because 14 teams is one short of half of MLB, and a bankruptcy likely impacts the individual teams' ability to collect millions of dollars in anticipated revenue. These regional networks also, in many cases, also have rights to NBA and/or NHL teams, whose telecasts would also be impacted.

This situation bears watching, not only because of the timing, but its potential significance involving millions of dollars in potentially lost revenue for teams in MLB, NBA, and NHL because of this.

 

Not sure what University of Colorado did to bring this on, but their spring football game will be shown on the main ESPN Network. What makes this "interesting" is that this will be the ONLY college spring game shown on the main network, for whatever reason. The University of Georgia spring game will air on ESPN2. However, other spring football game telecasts will appear only on ESPN+ and/or conference channels. Again, wondering how U of Colorado managed to pull this off.  

Another football related mystery involves the XFL, which we normally wouldn't pay attention to. Despite a noticeable decline in viewership over its first three weeks of games, the announcement as come that ESPN/ABC is moving a group of games "up" to its main platforms. Believe it or not, XFL games are now being scheduled to soon air on ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2. 

Local Telecasts May Still Be Down Stream

Perhaps there is a light at the end of the tunnel for viewers of live sports streaming that are understandably frustrated with blackout restrictions. The biggest example is MLB.TV, which continues to enforce blackout restrictions intended for "over the air" viewing even in distant locations. Although blacking out a telecast within a local market is tolerable (based on the reasoning that it could prevent fans from buying tickets and attending), but beyond that is not. The most glaring examples include parts of Nevada, more than a four hour drive away, black out Dodgers games, and that Mariners telecasts are blacked out in Alaska.

The word that MLB has hired Billy Chambers, an executive with Sinclair Broadcasting (which owns a large number of the regional networks which carry MLB teams) to reportedly work with local and regional networks. With overall cable TV subscriptions dropping at a rate of roughly 5% per year since 2019, it appears that MLB recognizes that there are fewer consumers able to watch the local team than in the past. As encouraging as this sounds, the possibility remains that a separate streaming package to watch the local team could keep the blackout restrictions currently in place for MLB.TV. 

Meanwhile, it appears that Al Michaels is not planning on an explanation as to why his call of the amazing Jacksonville comeback vs. Los Angeles in last Saturday's (1/14) NFL playoff game was incredibly tame. It would not have come under fire if his calmness was typical of how Michaels has been calling games over the past 50 years. But it was not. The feeling from here is that, unfortunately, age has caught up with Michaels and the voice we all knew for such a long time simply wasn't there when he needed it. Looks like NBC made the right decision by having moved Mike Torico in to its lead role when they did.

DETROIT - Word is that Jack Morris is off the Tigers telecasts all together. We may never know if it was due to his occasional controversial comments over the past couple of seasons, or it was because he lacked enthusiasm and a broadcast knack throughout his tenure. Reportedly, no one else will be added to the roster of analysts, and that Craig Monroe will be assigned additional telecasts instead.