Football On the Rise

Football ratings continue to escalate for this young season on both the pro and college side. It's easy to credit the new season and the usual uncertainty, but there has to be more to the story. This past Monday's (9/16) game between Philadelphia and Atlanta drew more than 15 million viewers (12% over the 2023 regular season average), and the third "most watched" telecast in more than 50 games. Even the pre-game show viewership rose 8% over the first week.

The Broadcast Booth will go with TWO reasons this is happening. One is the overall decline in network TV content. Although the endless supply of reality and competition shows are fresh, the premiers of drama and comedy shows keeps getting later and later in the year. Fewer episodes are produced making constant repeats a regular thing. Football is fresh and live programming. The other reason would be the increased presence of betting, especially in-game and parlays. Having the pro leagues endorsing betting activity (partnerships, sponsorships, etc.) has increased the desire to follow the games more closely, which is exactly what the networks were hoping for. Between the betting services and the increase in fantasy football, they have created a ratings monster.

On the college side, those that get the CW Network telecasts might want to take note of the game this Saturday (9/21) between TCU and Southern Methodist which starts at 5 PM ET. The play-by-play voice for this game will be none other than Thom Brennaman.

Swift Improvement For Football TV Ratings

 NFL total viewing audiences had a noteworthy increase over the course of this season, especially when it comes to female viewers. Many point to the Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce relationship as being the driving factor. It is a major contributor, but there is a lot to be said for the fact that female viewership grew by roughly 30% across the NFL for the regular season, which means it was more than just Chiefs telecasts. For example, the Detroit vs. San Francisco NFC Championship Game telecast on Fox was its highest rated since 2012.

The Broadcast Booth theory on why female viewership is up is completely separate from the presence of Taylor Swift, which is the significantly stronger presence of female sportscasters around the dial. The number of female sportscasters has risen dramatically over the past five years, whether on local TV newscasts (sports anchors) or on sports talk radio stations and networks. There have been more and more instances of women discussing NFL teams and games (along with the other sports) with other women. 

What this added presence has done is to make the games more relatable to women. Coincidence or not, the abundance of female sportscasters has taken down the "man's world" image of pro sports, especially the hard hitting games of the NFL. These sportscasters, reporters, and talkers are at it every day, while Swift attends no more than one game per week.

Nick Saban didn't waste any time, joining ESPN to participate in College Football Game Day among other broadcasting assignments. Here's hoping that the constant screaming of the crowd and the many other distractions of the Game Day show will be better contained to allow viewers to be able to hear and understand the analysis of someone the caliber of Saban.

 

The situation regarding telecast rights for a group of MLB teams got a bit better this week as Baseball looks to recover from the Sinclair Broadcast Group bankruptcy situation. Diamond Sports Group has agreed to handle the telecasts for the World Champion Texas Rangers, along with the Minnesota Twins and Cleveland Guardians, paying reduced rights fees for the coming season to help ensure a profit or break even. These one-year deals give these teams a few more months for a long-term media partner to surface. 

Cable Cost Considerations Coming

There might be some relief on the way for sports fans tired of the increasing costs just to watch their favorite teams on TV or devices. More sports sources are working harder to make their network(s) and services available direct to consumer separate from the high monthly charges through cable/satellite distributors. 

 

Reports continue to surface that ESPN will be ready to introduce a direct to consumer service within the next year. The significance is that subscribers would no longer need to access via their cable/satellite distributor. ESPN is starting the new year by locking up an eight year deal with the NCAA to televise 40 NCAA championships to include various sports (such as volleyball and tennis) with men's and women's games.The staggering $115 million annually for this deal is nearly triple the current deal in place. 

Even with financial cutbacks at ESPN over the past year, there are reasons for committing to this deal. Those include having a leg up for upcoming negotiations for the NCAA Basketball Tournament and the college football championship series, the latter of which ESPN has a strong urge to retain. 

Meanwhile, in New York City, MSG Network and YES Network are close to forming a surprising but interesting partnership to offer their independent live streaming services to other providers around the country. Both networks now offer their services direct to consumer, with YES costing $24.99 per month and MSG Network costing $29.99. Rumors are that the two might combine to have a discounted cost to receive both services. We have no idea how much ESPN would charge for a subscription which does not require cable, and doubt that it will be inexpensive.

However, with many cable/satellite monthly bills coming in at well over $100 per month, being able to subscribe to a couple of a fan's "most important" sports network could very well cost less than half of that. Many sports fans don't want to continue paying for a group of channels showing the same reruns every day when they don't need to. Even a $50 per month savings amounts to $600 per year saved.

 

Looking ahead to Week 18 Sunday (1/7), it is quite surprising that the lackluster NFC North Division is receiving such prominent coverage from CBS and Fox. Although the Detroit vs. Minnesota (early) game has playoff implications for both teams, it will be the primary telecast with Joe Davis and Daryl Johnston on the call to most of the country. Among the late games, it is shocking that CBS selected the Chicago vs. Green Bay game as its primary doubleheader game, sending the lead team of Jim Nantz and Tony Romo to most of the country. The Bears chances of making the post-season are extremely slim. Frankly, this telecast is likely to be crushed by Fox having Dallas vs. Washington for its doubleheader game. 

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.

NFL Telecasts To Flex Their Muscles Even More

 NFL viewers are used to key games flexing and moving in to NBC Sunday Night Football late in the season as usual. This season, we already have three announced changes for SNF, including for this coming Sunday (12/11) with Dolphins vs. Chargers, and for Dec. 18th for NY Giants vs. Washington. For next weekend, three games have been moved to Saturday (12/17) and will each be shown on NFL Network. Those three will also have over the air telecasts in each local market. The marquee of those matchups will be Dolphins vs. Bills in prime time.

Because of the Saturday triple header, the Sunday triple header, and the adjoining Thursday and Monday Night Football telecasts, it means that fans can literally view eight entire NFL games for the week. The NFL has taken to making its telecast schedule even more attractive starting next year. In a long overdue move, there will be flex opportunities for ESPN on Monday Night Football. (The fact that playoff contenders will be put in to situations of having additional 'shorter rest' games late in the season is a separate discussion.) There is also expected to be an increase in the number of Monday night doubleheaders on the schedule. In addition, CBS and Fox will have a different divide of their telecast schedule starting next season. Although the AFC on CBS and NFC on Fox model remains, as of next season it only means that each network will have an equal number of "their" Conference games. In other words, no matter which Conference your favorite team is in, you'll have to check your local listings.

INDIANAPOLIS: Dan Dakich, the former Indiana University basketball player and Assistant and Interim Head Coach, is no longer hosting the midday (Noon to 3 PM) sports talk show on The Fan 107.5. (as of Dec. 8). The station was the first to make the announcement, with the Dacich announcement only saying that he is "no longer hosting", but with no reason given. His plan is to focus on his 9 AM to 11 AM show on Outkick.

COLORADO CITY AZ: You can't make this one up. KXFF 106.1 in Colorado City AZ has changed to "Fox Sports Radio Utah". How they can claim one state with all of that is confusing enough. Along with Fox Sports national programming, their regional play-by-play coverage is also spread out. They will air the Utah Jazz, and University of Utah games, along with the Las Vegas Golden Knights and Raiders. Hard to believe, but there will actually be some local flavor, with plans in the works to air Region 10 high school games.

 

 

College Football Conference Battles Could Involve the Networks

Although not official (as of press time), the big change for the Big 10 Conference media rights deals to start in 2023 will be significant for both the networks and the viewers. If ESPN continues its reported bailout of the Big 10 package after the coming season, it appears the expanding Conference's football games will be shared by three over the air networks. As hard as it will be to get used to after all these years, ABC would not be one of them. Fox Sports will be continuing, while CBS and NBC are expected to have exclusive telecast windows each Saturday. 

The expectation is that Fox will continue its "early" window of Noon ET starts, and that NBC will air a prime-time game (which for this year continues on ABC). The expectation is that CBS will get the late afternoon spot of a 3:30 ET start. However, there is a catch (and it's not a wide receiver catch) for CBS in 2023. As of now, CBS is still scheduled to carry an SEC football matchup during that same time slot, even though 2023 is the final season of CBS' current contract. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

It is highly unlikely that either conference would consent to regional distribution and/or their important matchup of the week being moved to CBS Sports Network. It is also unlikely that NBC would even consider switching out of prime time to accommodate CBS. How would this be handled?

This is purely speculation, but The Broadcast Booth thinks that ESPN/ABC would step in and pick up those SEC telecasts which were supposed to go to CBS. That would clear CBS to air Big Ten games when scheduled, but at a steep cost. The hunch is that the SEC keeps the millions of dollars in revenue from CBS while ESPN gets them for a nominal fee. If ESPN truly does stay away from these negotiations, some of the best matchups for 2023 college football just might take place between the networks.

Meanwhile, as we go into the first full weekend of NFL exhibition games, the networks are getting ready for the start of the regular season. Fox Sports has revealed its announcing assignments for Week 1 (Sept. 11). Its new #1 team of Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen start with the doubleheader game between Green Bay and Minnesota. Joe Davis and Daryl Johnston will call the San Francisco at Chicago game (early), while Adam Amin and Mark Schlereth will call the Philadelphia vs. Detroit game. 

 

Fox Sports is also coming off its (8/11) telecast of the MLB Field of Dreams game. Granted, they got stuck with a meaningless game between two sub .500 teams, which gave them more reasons to distract from the game itself. Sorry, but the telecast was difficult for the hardcore baseball fan to get in to. It was more than the constant distraction by showing the happenings aside from the field of play. Having one color for the score box added to the challenge of both teams wearing uniforms which made them hard to recognize. The comparative lack of other scores and baseball news also didn't help. It's not surprising that Fox's ratings were down roughly 50% from last year, when the first ever Field of Dreams game took place and involved two contending teams. (The Fox MLB telecast did comfortably beat out the NFL exhibition game between the Giants and Patriots on NFL Network which was head to head.)

 

However, the bigger issue actually came from MLB Network earlier in the day. It was understandable that MLB Network planned an extensive pre-game show of their own to hype the event. MLB Network was airing the Cleveland vs. Detroit game, which began at 1:00 PM ET, more than six hours before the Field of Dream game's first pitch. At game time, Cleveland was leading the American League Central with two teams within three games of them. With Minnesota idle, Twins fans were among those with an interest in that telecast. Yet, because MLB Network was so locked in to their pre-game hype starting at 4 PM ET, they had the nerve to cut out of the Cleveland game just to go to their pregame programming from Iowa.

 

Although they did a couple of their "live look-ins" the rest of the way, the Cleveland vs. Detroit game was going to the 9th inning when they cut away. It so happened that the Tigers came up with two in the 9th to tie the game before Cleveland won it in the 10th. Cutting away from a live game, especially when it was close, just to have interviews, was inexcusable. If it was that important, then skip the commercials between innings and during pitching changes to cut away for the interviews. It's harder to get fans excited about division races when the official network doesn't deem live coverage important enough to wait 25 more minutes.

 

 

 

 

There Will Never Be Another Vin

It just doesn't seem possible to have a day in our lifetime without Vin Scully being around, even though he retired after the 2016 season. His passing was a huge loss for sports fans even beyond baseball. The tributes coming in from fellow broadcasters, including those at the national level, is incredible, while also being extremely believable. 

I will always remember the distinct combination of his sense of humor and his passion for baseball, even in his later years. Perhaps the most incredible thing about his 67 years of calling Dodger baseball was how "with it" he was during his last few seasons, continuing the same high level of excellence he brought all those seasons before. All of the great calls, and an amazing history of getting to call so many of the most significant plays and event in sports. The Larsen World Series perfect game, the Koufax no-hitters, the Aaron 715th homer, Dwight Clark making "the catch" vs. Dallas in the '82 NFL playoffs, the Buckner play (or lack thereof) ending the '86 World Series, the Gibson homer in '88, and so many more all had the Scully touch to add to their greatness.

Another of my major "only Vin Scully could do this" moments came during the late 80's. I don't recall the season or the date, but the Dodgers had a Saturday night game in Houston which went something like 20 or 21 innings. Vin called all but one inning of that game, with all but his three innings on radio being on TV. The only inning he "missed" was spent recording promos for the next telecasts because the game was running so late. 

 

As can happen in the great game of baseball, the next afternoon, the Dodgers had a one-run lead going in to the bottom of the 9th. Someone for Houston (might have been Craig Biggio, but not sure) hit a game tying homer. Vin's call was, "Deep to left field! DON'T TELL ME!! Tie game!!". That was so special. He had the sense of humor to know how funny it was that the game was likely headed back to extra innings with two exhausted bullpens in action. But he also knew that Dodgers fans watching would know exactly what he was talking about. (The good news for Scully is that this game ended in 10 innings.)

 

It was my pleasure to meet him once or twice in person in the late 70's while I was covering games. Just the chance to exchange a greeting was fine, as even then he had more than 25 seasons in the booth. More importantly, it was mine, and all of our pleasure to be able to listen to him all those years.

 

Meanwhile, even though the All-Star Game did not do well in the ratings, regular season ratings have shown improvement for many of the local and regional team telecasts. Texas Rangers telecasts lead the way with an impressive 42% increase (based on viewership statistics prior to the All-Star break), with the Angels and Seattle Mariners telecasts rounding out the top three. Although the Yankees have the most viewers of any individual team, their increase was 13% from 2021. On the national level, the Yankees vs. Mets national telecast on ESPN last week (7/27) was ESPN's highest rated weeknight regular season telecast in 15 years.

The Marquee Network, owned by the Chicago Cubs which shows every Cubs game it can, has come under fire this year over pulling segments which are critical of the team. However, their game coverage has been solid, and credit is deserved for their programming decision on Tuesday (8/2). The MLB trade deadline had passed at 5 PM Chicago time, with many fans surprised that the team did not trade away a couple of its star players. Team President Jed Hoyer scheduled a media conference for 6:30, even though the Cubs were playing the Cardinals in St. Louis starting at 6:45.

What Marquee did was to go to the media conference live as it began. It was still in progress when the Cubs vs. Cardinals game started at 6:45. To its credit, Marquee went to a split screen, showing both the game action and the media conference live. This included not cutting away for commercials after the top of the first inning was over. When the media conference finished, Marquee went to full screen of the game and announcers Jon Sciambi and Jim DeShaies came on and recapped the earlier action.

NFL fans welcome the action back on Thursday (8/4) as the Hall of Fame game between Jacksonville and Las Vegas is shown nationally on NBC. A full slate of NFL exhibition games takes place next week.

Musical Chairs - Announcer Style

The past weekend (July 22-24) brought an interesting twist for Chicago baseball fans watching either the White Sox or Cubs locally. The 4-game White Sox series vs. Cleveland and the Cubs 3-game series vs. Philadelphia each had something in common. Both teams had different play-by-play voices for every game in those series. 

 

It has become enough of a challenge for sports fans to find their team's games with so many television and streaming packages to go along with a variety in the local packages. Now there isn't even consistency in the telecasts.

 

The White Sox vs. Cleveland series began on Friday night with an Apple TV exclusive telecast, with Steve Nelson calling the game. A split doubleheader on Saturday had the local telecast on NBC Sports Chicago with Jason Benetti calling play-by-play. The evening game was a Fox regional game, with White Sox radio voice Len Kasper assigned to call the game for Fox. (As a side note, Kasper worked the game with A.J. Pierzynski as analyst, giving the regional telecast, also seen in Cleveland, a clear White Sox flavor.) Then, the Sunday game was back on NBC Sports Chicago. However, Benetti had to call the Cubs vs. Phillies game for Peacock, and Kasper was back on the radio call. As a result Connor McKnight, who fills in for Kasper on radio and handles surrounding coverage, was brought in to call play-by-play. The result was four different people calling the four games.

The Cubs at Phillies series was also shown by Apple on Friday night, sticking fans of both teams with the horrible early crew for Apple TV games. On Saturday, the Cubs were on their Marquee Network with Jon Sciambi calling the game. Then, the Sunday game was on Peacock, which had White Sox voice Jason Benetti calling the Cubs game. 

It was also interesting to note that Marquee Network, already coming under fire for removing criticism of Cubs management from its airwaves, chose Ryan Sweeney to be the Cubs analyst for Peacock, instead of Jim DeShaies who is the primary analyst on Cubs actual telecasts. (Sweeney is among the rotating studio analysts.)

Benetti had an even busier week in the days ahead, concluding negotiations to leave ESPN in order to jump to Fox Sports and become an important part of its college football coverage starting almost immediately. Benetti is expected to be calling many Big Ten football and basketball games for the network, thus reducing his travel time. Previously, ESPN assigned him to games around the country. Now, he will be able to call more games in the Midwest, a likely factor in his decision to jump.

Over at NBC Sports, the network continues to expand upon its recent success with auto racing coverage. This weekend (July 30/31) it will feature both Indy Car and NASCAR events on the main platform. In an interesting decision, Dale Earnhart Jr. will serve as analyst on both races. NBC is reportedly getting in to the mix for future Big Ten Conference rights, likely as a result of the increase in revenue Comcast has with help from Peacock and NBC Sports of late.

 

Fox Sports appears to be going with Joe Davis as Darryl "Moose" Johnston as its #2 announcing team for the upcoming NFL season, although there has not been anything official as of press time. 

 

NFL Network fans will be seeing Rich Eisen for years to come, with Eisen agreeing to a multi- year extension of his contract. 

NEW YORK: It's great timing for WFAN AM-FM to be able to announce a multi-year extension for its Yankees broadcasts. The Yankees have aired on WFAN since 2014, having moved over from WCBS, which is now the flagship station for the Mets games. As play-by-play voice John Sterling begins to reduce his schedule, speculation rises that Brendan Burke, known for his NHL on TNT play-by-play role, is in line to eventually take over for Sterling.

Some "Memorial" Mistakes Surround Holiday Weekend

We all know that not all sportscasters are up to date on every sport they cover or talk about. It is especially understandable when former pro athletes turn sportscaster and do not have the expertise of other sports for their first couple of years. Some that have always been sports reporters don't always pay as close attention to all of the sports they cover either.

 

Mark Schanowski has been a TV sportscaster for many years in Chicago. For just over one year, he has been with WLS-TV, the ABC station handling weekends. On Saturday (5/28), Schanowski was doing the station's 5:00 PM news sports segment. Toward the end of his report, he mentioned the running of the Indy 500 to take place the following day. Obviously, it's an important story.

Schanowski finished the story by saying (to the effect of), "And you can see that race right here tomorrow morning starting at 11 AM!". There was one big problem with that. Mark's report was on the local ABC station, while the Indy 500 airs on the local rival NBC-TV station. It's likely that Schanowski was supposed to refer to the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix rate, which aired on ABC later on Sunday afternoon after the scheduled ending of the Indy 500. There was no other mention of anything else related to auto racing during his entire sports segment.

A minor double checking would have prevented Schanowski from promoting an event on a rival channel and allowed him to promote what his channel was showing. Ooops.

 

Another holiday weekend mistake was unintentional, but does provide a lesson for TV crews. On Saturday (5/28) evening, YES Network was showing some of Yankees Manager Aaron Boone's post-game press conference. The angle of their camera clearly showed the post of the Tropicana Field wi-fi and password information. 

 

Although this information is only for people within the stadium (insert Rays attendance joke here), this should serve as a warning about posting of wi-fi information in relation to where media members could be using cameras.

 

Elsewhere on the sports media scene, NBC Sports has confirmed that Al Michaels will continue to work for NBC even after taking on Amazon Prime's Thursday Night Football telecasts beginning with the upcoming season. Michaels will call at least one NFL post-season game for NBC as well as being involved with Olympics telecasts. 

 

Mark Chernoff, after some time off following his 28 years with New York's WFAN, is returning to airwaves this week (May 31) with a lower profile. He will join 101.7 The Boss in Monmouth/Ocean New Jersey as morning sports anchor. He will be a part of the Robby & Rochelle morning show.

 

Meanwhile, WFAN 101.9 and 660 has added Rutgers University football and basketball to its play-by-play roster beginning with the upcoming season. WFAN will air the football games when there are no broadcast conflicts, while sister station WCBS will air the basketball broadcasts. This adds to an already crowded local play-by-play schedule which includes the Yankees, Giants, Nets, and occasional Devils broadcasts. 

 

University of Iowa football broadcasts will be heard in Chicago. Starting with the upcoming season (Sept. 3) season opener of Iowa vs. South Dakota State, WCKG 1530 will air the games via the Iowa Football Network. Gary Dolphin, who has called Iowa play-by-play since 1996, will again be joined by Ed Podolak as analyst.

 

 

Should Be Where Over When

It's understandable and appreciated how much the NFL does to keep football in the media throughout the year, especially in the off-season. Somehow gaining so much publicity and coverage around the country of mini-camps, draft preparation, and events such as the combine are like a public relations person's dreams come true.

However, the release of the upcoming season schedule this past Thursday (5/12) brought this way too far over the edge. Clearly the presence of USFL games has the NFL concerned, while chances are it won't need to be. The onset of the USFL must be reason why the NFL went overboard with the schedule info, especially with tactics such as releasing certain key dates in the days and hours leading to their "official" announcement.

Some of the blame for this unnecessary hype goes to the media. The networks which televise live games are desperate for opportunities to remind their audience that they are home to NFL games. The sports stations around the country love to have anything "new" as an excuse to talk about the NFL.

The problem with all of this wasted time is that we already knew the opponents for each team, as well as which games will be home and away. Consequently, just knowing which order and which days and times for specific games does not carry the appeal that the NFL and the media were acting like.

In recent years, the coming season's opponents and home games have been announced within a couple of days after the conclusion of the regular season. For those that are fans of a team heading to the playoffs, that announcement doesn't mean very much at the time.

How can this be solved? If the NFL wants true excitement about announcing its schedule, then don't announce the coming season's opponents both home and away months before their "schedule release party". If fans didn't know for sure who the non-divisional opponents will be and who their team will host ahead of time, there would be some suspense.

If the NFL insists on maintaining this format, this schedule release party stuff will be right "down there" with the stupid mock drafts that many media outlets thrust upon us as if there is some importance to it.

Meanwhile, congratulations to the NHL on increasing interest in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Those of us who were critical of the NHL for choosing multiple partners (ESPN and TNT) after all the years with NBC doing such a solid job doing it all stand corrected.

Though the first round of the playoffs, the two families of networks have combined for a roughly 9% increase in viewership. What makes this even more significant is that the Chicago Blackhawks, long one of the highest rated and most nationally televised teams, failed to make the post-season. (If they had the feeling is that this ratings increase would have been in double digits this early into the playoffs.)

At the same time, NBA telecast ratings (also shared with ESPN/ABC and TNT) also went up during the simultaneous (to the NHL playoffs) second round of playoff games. The surge for the Golden State Warriors this season is a big part of the ratings increase.

Even with the NBA and NHL playoffs in full swing and the NFL sneaking its way in to the TV schedule, MLB is seeing some progress on the ratings front. A month in to the season, ESPN Sunday Night Baseball ratings are up roughly 4%. (Perhaps the absence of Alex Rodriguez from the primary telecast is a factor.) The ratings for the opening Sunday Morning Baseball telecast on Peacock (from 5/8) were the highest that MLB has had for a Sunday afternoon window in more than three years.

Peacock having a consistent start time (11 AM ET for now, soon to be 11:30 AM ET) will probably be a factor in stronger ratings than TBS used to have for Sundays, when its start times varied almost every week by as much as three hours.

Much Les of the Greats

It's a week of losses for the sports media, topped off by the passing of Chicago sportscasting legend Les Grobstein on Sunday (1/16). He was a walking encyclopedia of Chicago sports over the past 50 years, most recently the overnight host on WSCR The Score 670. He was 69 years of age and showed no signs of letting up.

After a few years of doing play-by-play for high school basketball, Chicago Sting soccer, the Chicago Hustle (women's pro basketball in the late 70's), and later UIC (University of Illinois Chicago) Flames basketball, his first big break came when he joined WLS 890 in 1979. 

It was my personal pleasure to have worked on the air with Les (high school games and some Chicago Sting broadcasts) and off the air during his early days. We both had the "work as hard as you can" work ethic, but Les took that to max, being at seemingly every game in town and taking whatever work he could get. Although he made no secret of being a fan of certain teams, he maintained his composure on air and always knew to respect callers and reporters supporting "other" teams. 

Working overnights brought him certain advantages, such as being able to keep a "good" caller on with him for upwards of 15 minutes or more if the discussion was going well. Yet, one of the many things I will remember about him is how he always kept the games in front of the mix.

Unfortunately, too many sports stations and hosts are far too concerned with opinions and not enough about the games in progress. In many cases, it's because of the station philosophy. Grobstein never let this get to him, as west coast games would still be going into the first hour or two of his shows on many nights. 

While some other hosts on WSCR don't give "out of town" scores on the updates any more, Les never stopped, going through the scoreboard throughout the overnight. He kept that "secret" that giving score updates could keep some fans involved with the show.

He would be between calls or thoughts at 1:15 AM, and mention that "Cleveland just scored 3 in the 8th at Anaheim....." and go back to the topic. Unfortunately, this is a long lost art on too many sports stations, as well as some play-by-play broadcasts. Les knew that his audience shouldn't have to "go to their phone" to get other scores and info, because they might wind up finding something else there which would take them away from listening to his show or the station. Exactly.

His amazing work ethic should inspire others, no matter what we do. He will be missed.

Meanwhile, the sports media world also lost Ron Franklin earlier this week (1/18) at the age of 79. Franlin was known nationally for his work on ESPN. He co-hosted "College Football Prime Time" from 1987 to 2005, and did a ton of football and basketball play-by-play. In Houston, Franklin was Sports Director with KHOU-TV and KPRC-TV over a 16 year period, as well as doing play-by-play for the Houston Oilers.

In addition we also lost Tim Rosaforte, the long time golf reporter at the age of 66. Rosaforte wrote for Sports Illustrated and Golf Digest, also appearing on The Golf Channel in his later years. He covered every Masters Tournament from 1983 through 2019. 

PITTSBURGH: This "loss" is a semi-retirement, as market staple Jim Colony announced that he has left his co-host role on the morning show of 93.7 The Fan. Colony had been with the station since it began in 2010, but his time goes back to WTAE and its sports programming going back more than 30 years. He promised his audience that he will be around and fill in "from time to time" while enjoying having free time.

 

 

Championship Game But Not Championship Numbers

Quite the mixed opinions on how the college football championship telecasts from Monday (1/10) night fared in the ratings. The overall ratings for the entire ESPN group telecasts were above those of 2021, but below those of the previous four years.

Those lower numbers for this year are not surprising for two reasons. First, this came right after a busy Saturday and Sunday which allowed for viewing five entire NFL games, with the primary national games involving teams battling for positions in the post-season. In addition, this year's Alabama vs. Georgia game marked the third time this season these teams met, including the SEC Championship Game in December. Many casual fans were disappointed that a team which did not win its conference still had the opportunity to play for a championship. Most likely, the lower numbers were a combination of those two factors.

Each network did a solid job of covering the NFL games this past weekend. CBS did standout work by switching a couple of their early game audiences to more competitive games which also had playoff indications. In addition, kudos for sticking with regional coverage of the Pittsburgh vs. Baltimore overtime game instead of going to the start of their doubleheader game in markets where there were not local teams involved. Nice to see after all of the times CBS or Fox had to switch away from bonus coverage no matter what was going on in the early game.

 

ESPN was able to boast that its two Saturday telecasts, obviously helped by being aired on ABC, finished among its top five Monday Night Football telecasts. 

It will be interesting to see how the ratings fare this coming week, which will be the first ever with six playoff games on the schedule, including one on Monday night. 

Meanwhile, it could very well be that NBA ratings are, pun intended, on the rebound. Indications are that national telecast ratings are on the rise, with the season approaching the halfway point. It probably helps that New York and Chicago teams are much improved. ESPN hopes to pick up on this with a Knicks and Nets doubleheader on Wednesday (1/12). Adding the Nets at Chicago Bulls telecast as its second game forces Chicago to start a home game at 9:10 PM on a weeknight.

To make the point, consider what happened on Sunday night (1/9). While NBC had the tight Raiders vs. Chargers game with playoff implications on, NBA TV aired the game between Golden State and Cleveland. This was an attractive game given the notable improvement of both teams thus far this season. That telecast wound up as NBA TV's most watched telecast since 2016, and that game was when the Warriors won their 72nd game of that season. Got to wonder what viewership would have been had it not been opposed by the NFL game, and if more fans were made aware of that game being on. Sorry, but it's not like NBA TV telecasts garner a lot of advance publicity.

ESPN has announced its new broadcaster lineup for Sunday Night Baseball for the scheduled coming season. (Still in lockout at press time.) Naming Karl Ravich as play-by-play voice is somewhat disappointing (considering the caliber they have had over the past 30 years). However, going with Eduardo Perez as analyst and bumping Alex Rodriguez helps to make up for that. Rodriguez will join Michael Kay on some sidecasts during the season. With both announcers all having strong ties to New York, they might as well call it the "New York Simulcast", but they won't.

 

BUFFALO: Sorry to learn of the passing of Brian Blessing, who was a big part of Bills and Sabres broadcasts. Many of Blessings' 25 years in Buffalo were with WIVB, with his work being a part of the Bills' Super Bowl seasons in the 90's. Blessing had most recently been working in Las Vegas with a betting firm as well as a talk show about the Golden Knights.

Comings & Goings

Although MLB fans won't feel the impact until the current lockout is resolved, MLB Network took a big step backwards with the reported termination of reporter Ken Rosenthal. While we will continue to be blessed with Rosenthal's in-depth reporting via Fox Sports and other sources, this move could ding the surrounding coverage which MLB Network provides.

It's not only the awful reason, which was reportedly because of Rosenthal's criticism of Commissioner Rob Manfred, although that adds to it. It is because Rosenthal will be tough to replace because of all of his sources and the number of important stories he has brought us over the past 12 years. His thorough coverage needs to be replaced. Obviously, this is far from a typical off-season, which now leaves us without any of their live shows during the weekdays. Let's hope that when MLB Network comes back with their studio coverage that it doesn't decline any further. Either way, it's hard to take getting rid of a significant contributor merely because of a properly expressed opinion.

This coming final weekend of the NFL season includes both Fox and CBS doing national doubleheaders. One oddity is that the primary doubleheader games on both networks are NFC matchups. With CBS losing out on the Raiders vs. Chargers game (selected by NBC for Sunday Night Football), CBS gets and features the Tampa Bay vs. Carolina game in the late slot. At the same time, Fox shows the 49ers vs. Rams game to most of the country. 

As the Cleveland Browns wrap up their disappointing season on Sunday against Cincinnati, radio analyst Doug Dieken will be doing his final broadcast. After 37 seasons in the role, the 72 year old Dieken is retiring. Dieken was drafted by the "original" Browns back in 1971 prior to playing in 203 consecutive games with the franchise.

NBA fans wanting to see the much anticipated matchup between the Chicago Bulls and Brooklyn Nets next week (Weds. Jan. 12) are going to have to stay up later than anticipated. It is understandable that ESPN is picking up this telecast of (as of press time) the top two teams in the Eastern Conference. However, since the Knicks are scheduled for the "early" spot (7:30 ET), ESPN is not going to give up a Knicks telecast. (This is even though the game is against the Dallas Mavericks.) As a result, the Chicago vs. Brooklyn telecast is scheduled for 10:05 PM ET. This means that the Bulls are forced to begin a weeknight home game at 9:05 PM. 

On the college side, James Laurinaitis is leaving his broadcasting roles with both WBLS 97.1 Columbus and the Big 10 Network. In this case, it is not a retirement. James is leaving to join Marcus Freeman's staff at Notre Dame. The two were teammates at Ohio State.

 

Fox Sports has entered in to horse racing. Starting in 2023 Fox will air The Belmont Stakes, giving it a share of the Triple Crown. This will be the first of a reported eight year deal.

PHOENIX: A bit of local history on Tuesday (Jan. 4) when Luis Arturo called play-by-play of the Coyotes game on a separate Spanish broadcast.

Instant Karma to Shine On For ESPN

The recent purchase of the largest ESPN Radio local stations by Good Karma Brands is reason to be curious as to where this fits with ESPN's strategy for the near future. Good Karma is now in the process of purchasing KSPN 710 Los Angeles, WEPN-AM 1050 New York, and WMVP 1000 in Chicago. The NYC purchase also includes continuing the existing LMA (local Marketing Agreement) for WEPN-FM 98.7.

 

What we don't know yet is if this is intended to bring millions of dollars in to ESPN at this point in time, or if it means that ESPN is no longer as bullish on its radio operation. Perhaps time will tell when the various pro league and collegiate broadcast rights come up for renewal. 

Although the preliminary word is that existing local contracts, such as KSPN having the Angels (among other local teams) and WMVP having the White Sox, will remain in place, it will be interesting to see how the funds received for these purchases will be used by ESPN.

Meanwhile, it is curious that Turner Sports appears to be taking the rest of 2021 off from national telecasts (after December 21st) as scheduled. (As of press time, NHL games were postponed through Christmas while the NBA games were still on.) This appears to be deliberate, considering that the typical five game NBA telecast schedule for Christmas Day this year is all to be shown by ESPN and ABC. In past years, TNT would usually have a doubleheader as their portion. Two of the games air on ESPN, two only on ABC, and the prime time Nets vs. Lakers tilt is scheduled to air simultaneously on both.

In its first year of its NHL contract, TNT had been scheduled to air Wednesday Night NHL in its bizarre time slot of 10 PM ET starts. (The scheduled Dec. 22 Edmonton vs. L.A. telecast was scratched, with the Dec. 29 Dallas vs. Colorado game still on as of press time.) Having a national telecast series in which the games run well past 10 PM in three time zones is strange enough. With so many fans home and/or available to watch during the holiday period, it's hard to believe that Turner Sports would be reducing its coverage of both sports.

Its NHL coverage, however, is scheduled to resume Wednesday night doubleheaders on Weds. Jan. 5th with the St. Louis vs. Pittsburgh telecast scheduled for 7:30 PM ET. TNT is also scheduled to air the New Year's Day "Winter Classic"between St. Louis and Minnesota. Amazingly, this year's event is scheduled for prime time, whereas NBC typically aired this game early afternoon on New Year's Day. You would think that TNT would want to be able to maximize the opportunity to promote the New Year's game, especially with the new time. Instead, they have fewer opportunities than ever.

 

 

 

 

Football Ratings Heading For A Big Score

Last weekend's SEC Championship Game telecast between Alabama and Georgia proved to be huge for CBS and its stations. With a peak of nearly 18 million viewers, this telecast became the highest rated conference championship telecast (any conference or network) since 2018. 

Overall college football season ratings were also good for CBS. The network finishes with the highest average viewers amount of any for college football. This becomes even more impressive when you factor in that ESPN and Fox share the highly rated Big 10 Conference package. For example, the impressive Alabama vs. Georgia numbers were slightly below last month's Michigan vs. Ohio State (regular season) showdown on Fox.

Adding to this is the consideration that the Michigan vs. Ohio State telecast was in the early window (Noon ET start), whereas the SEC Championship game was leading in to prime time in the Eastern Time zone. Because of this, the Big 10 Conference stands to do very well during 2022. Their deal with both Fox and ESPN expire at the end of the 2022 season. Could be quite the bidding war, especially if the Conference is willing to add a possible third TV partner.

On the NFL side, it appears that the surge by the New England Patriots is paying off in the TV ratings. The October Sunday Night Football game on NBC with the Patriots facing Tom Brady and the Bucs was among SNF's top three telecasts ever. Their recent Monday Night Football game vs. Buffalo wound up as the most watched MNF Week 13 telecast since 2013. This comes after Patriots ratings were reportedly down by more than 20% during the 2020 season. For this season, overall NFL telecast ratings are up more than 7% over last year.

 

Joe Davis and Kurt Warner will be calling the Saturday Dec. 18th  Las Vegas vs. Cleveland telecast and the Christmas Day Indianapolis vs. Arizona telecast, both of which will be only on NFL Network and in the local markets.

TNT should be getting concerned about disappointing ratings for its NHL telecasts over the first 1/3 of the regular season. The numbers are down significantly from what NBCSN had been doing for previous "comparable" telecasts. It's looking much better for ESPN's telecasts. 

PHOENIX: Baseball fans know the name Garigiola. Chris Garigiola, the grandson of NBC baseball voice Joe Garigiola and son of former Diamondbacks GM Joe Jr., has been named to host the pre-game and post-game shows on the Diamondbacks Radio Network. Chris had most recently been calling minor league games, such as Pensacola, the AA affiliate of the Marlins.

The Cost of Cancelation

As much as the sports fans' collective appetite for watching live sports continues to be strong, the growth on what it takes out of our wallets is also on the increase. Now comes word that Comcast, which is the nation's largest cable provider, is preparing still another round of price hikes for subscribers to start in January 2022. The big reason, according to sources in the know, is due to the increase in the costs for Comcast to carry channels, especially the sports channels.

Of course, these rising costs for cable and satellite are leading to cord-cutting, which is on the increase. A recent report by Leichtman Research Group which covers all of the larger cable/satellite groups around the country, there was a loss of approximately 650,000 subscribers during the 3rd quarter of 2021 alone. For comparison, the 3rd quarter subscriber losses for Q3 of 2020 (same length of time) was around 90,000.

You would think that the loss of this many subscribers would be cause for concern among the networks increasing their fees as well as for the providers. Instead, they all seem content with increasing the costs for the millions of us that keep paying up. It means that they have those of us that continue to spend the bigger bucks to watch these games are paying back the difference those who want to send a message by canceling are trying to send.

The ratings don't lie, however. This past Saturday's (11/27) Big Ten showdown between Ohio State and Michigan drew nearly 16 million viewers, making it the largest audience Fox Sports has ever had for a college football telecast. Keep in mind this game was at Noon ET and not in prime time. Adding to that was the more than 3,000,000 viewers reported for their morning pregame show. 

Even this past Monday Night Football game (11/29) drew nearly 11 million viewers for ESPN. What makes this viewing number significant is that the Seattle vs. Washington matchup was between two teams entering the game under .500. 

 

 If you are still wondering why so many of the TV sports networks are running so many more betting shows than ever before, the answer is in the opening paragraph above. It's more than the revenue generated for airing these shows. The more people are betting on these games, the higher the interest and the more than fans will want to watch them. At the rate things are going, some bettors may have the goal of trying to cover their cost for the next month of cable or satellite.

College football fans get a tough break for the coming Championship Saturday. Casual fans are not as familiar with the University of Cincinnati, which continues to contend for the final four and the championship games. This Saturday (12/4) has the Big 12 Championship at Noon ET (Baylor and OK State) on ABC, which leads in to the much anticipated Alabama vs. Georgia clash in the SEC Championship game on CBS at 4 PM ET. The Big 10 Championship battle between Michigan and Iowa follows at 8 PM ET on Fox.

Meanwhile, U. of Cincinnati's game vs. Houston for the American Conference Championship (also on ABC) also happens to get underway just after 4 PM ET. This puts it up against the Georgia vs. Alabama telecast. Put that together with the expected blowout by Cinci and it probably means that they could be the "least known" team to compete for a national championship.

Two Games Two Sports No Problem

It's fun for play-by-play announcers to handle more than one sport over the course of a year, but now we have a number of announcers doing so within the course of a couple of days. This includes one or more on a national level.

Joe Buck at Fox continues his busy stretch of crossing over from NFL games to the MLB Post-season, even with the World Series in progress. Adam Amin, a rising star at Fox, catches a break this coming weekend by not having to travel for multiple events. Amin is scheduled to call the NBA game between Chicago and Utah for NBC Sports Chicago on Saturday night (10/30) which is being played in Chicago. On Sunday, he calls the NFL game for Fox between the Bears and visiting San Francisco 49ers. He will then travel to Boston to call the Bulls vs. Celtics game on Monday night. 

Steve Levy had quite the experience this past weekend. Levy got the gem of an assignment for any hockey announcer by getting the Seattle Kraken home opener (Oct. 23) against Vancouver. Although he had not called an NHL game on national TV since 2004, you would have sworn that he calls them all the time. He needed to be in Seattle anyway, because, as coincidence had it, he was there to also call his usual Monday Night Football game (10/25) with the Seahawks hosting New Orleans.

CHICAGO: WSCR 670 The Score has a multi-year extension in place for Bulls broadcasts to continue. The Score has been airing the Bulls since 2018. Chuck Swirsky, now in his 14th season as radio voice of the team, will continue in his role. 

WASHINGTON D.C.: A familiar name for the locals, Steve Buckhantz, is returning to NBC Sports Washington. He will serve as analyst for this coming Saturday's (10/30) telecast of James Madison vs. Elon, working with Curt Dudley, who will call the game. Buckhantz is expected to be added to more games in the near future.