The NFL has expanded another revenue stream, but could also indirectly benefit from informal research. Sprint's "NFL Mobile Live" is being expanded for the upcoming season, with Sprint users having access to live NFL games via some of the paid plans it offers.
Although I am generally against paying "extra" for game information, the subscriber access to live game broadcasts and team updates is not the only feature this service will offer.
This service brings NFL.com's fantasy league to cell phones. Fantasy players will be able to track the performance of their players with real-time stats and rankings. That is quite the service for the hyperactive fantasy players that is truly an amazing use of technology. To think that 20 years ago a lot of people didn't understand what a "fantasy league" was and how it worked, let alone having no idea this technology would come about. Now, fans can literally keep track of "their" team, whether the real thing or one they have personally organized. And do so wherever they are via cell phone - even if they are attending an NFL game. What a great idea!
Meanwhile, I normally don't start rumors, but I'm going with this one. The Sirius XM signing of the "Mad Dog" channel seems a bit much for a New York City area sports talker.
But take the elements of well known talkers from major markets and put them on the same channel, and just maybe a few satellite subscribers could be pryed away from their usual sports outlet at some point during the day.
Mike North, recently dropped from Chicago's WSCR "The Score" after a 16 year run including morning drive, has said he will be back on the air after Labor Day. I'm thinking that the Mad Dog Channel could be where. North had a fill-in on WFAN between Imus and the current morning show. The idea of a Chicago or midwest oriented talk show for mornings or middays on Sirius XM prior to a New York based show in the afternoon could make for an interesting combination. (The Mad Dog himself will host 2 - 7 PM ET.)
There are some other well known hosts who might fit in during other dayparts. Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton has been on the outs lately with teams in Southern California, but has a 20 year track record as a Los Angeles and San Diego area talker, as well as some national filling in. And while Sid Rosenburg is doing well with his Miami morning show, he has been national in scope when he handled sports for Don Imus until 2007.
Again, this is my hunch only, and I'm sticking with it.
Meanwhile, while the Southeast Conference gets ready to enjoy its windfall from the new CBS-TV contract, the SEC may not done with the cash cow yet. The Conference's deals with ESPN and Raycom are set to expire after the coming seasons. Yet, the SEC is reportedly meeting with both regarding a future deal.
OKLAHOMA CITY - The football and basketball seasons are about to start, but it is already too expensive to deal with it. Whether you have tickets or not. Sorry, but I continue to be offended about college football telecasts being pay-per-view. There are no multi-million dollar payrolls to worry about. The Oklahoma season opener on Aug. 30th is against Chattanooga. Yet, this game will be available as a pay-per-view for, get this, $29.95. Not for a ticket on the 40 yard line, but to watch the game live on home TV. Tim Brando and Spencer Tillman will call the game, each of whom are part of the CBS-TV college football package. All I can say is that the people who fork out the big bucks for this telecast should look in the mirror when they want to complain about the high cost of cable TV for channels they don't want. If people spend $29.95 additional for one game, what does that show the cable companies?
But it doesn't end there. The new OK City NBA team has announced its ticket prices for the coming inaugural season. Lower level tickets at the Ford Center for regular season games will range from $50 to $250 per game. And that is without factoring in parking and concessions.
There is still room for radio in that market. Fans can listen to OU football and soon to NBA basketball - for free.
In their defense, it might not be just the Oklahoma City market for college football pay-per-view. FSN Midwest is expected to feed the University of Missouri games on Sept. 6 vs. Southeast Missouri State and Sept. 13 vs. Nevada on pay-per-view. Even though it would be because none of the networks have picked up these non-conference games. Let me get this straight. The networks won't touch these games because they can't draw enough interest from advertisers, but fans will be asked to pay $30 each for these telecasts??
INDIANAPOLIS: The ratings debut of WFNI 1070, the former WIBC-AM, was impressive against rival WNDE 1260. While WNDE won middays and afternoon drive, WFNI also easily outdistanced WXLW Sports 950 and did slightly better in the morning with its airing of Mike & Mike from ESPN Radio. WFNI is expected to add one or more locally based shows between 10 and 3 within the next month, and should get an added boost with the start of its Colts broadcasts this month and the Pacers starting in October. WNDE carries national broadcasts of MLB and other Westwood One games, along with Purdue football and basketball.
WASHINGTON D.C. - While the Nationals aren't setting the baseball world on fire both on the field and in terms of ratings, it was good to see the news that TV voice Bob Carpenter has been renewed for next season. 2009 will be his fourth year as the voice of the Nationals. He earns his pay and then some for making that team sound good.
HOUSTON - Nice to see Gene Elston being honored still again for his 25 seasons of describing the Astros (and, for trivia buffs - the Colt 45's) games. Elston was elected into the Houston Baseball Media Wall of Honor, becoming the second individual to be so honored. The Astros have announced (pun intended) a pregame ceremony to honor Elston on Sept. 24th before the Astors play the Cincinnati Reds.
BUFFALO - Former Niagara basketball coach Jack Armstrong begins co-hosting a sports talk show on Monday. What makes this so interesting is that it will not be on WGR 550 AM. Instead, Armstrong will be heard right next door on The Fan 590, along with hockey expert Doug MacLean. (MacLean is the former coach and GM of the NHL Columbus Blue Jackets.) 590 AM is the Toronto all-sports station, which is also home to the Toronto Raptors. Technically, Armstrong replaces Chuck Swirsky on 590's afternoon show, as Swirsky has moved to Chicago to become radio voice of the Chicago Bulls. Let's see if or how WGR reacts locally.
This is over-the-air TV, but here goes the NFL. Rochester TV is subject to the NFL blackout rule and can only air Bills home games when sold out 72 hours in advance, due to its being within 75 miles of the originating team's market. Yet, this Sunday (Aug. 24) night when the Bills take on the Indy Colts in a pre-season game, WHAM-TV cannot carry the telecast. The reason? The game is being shown on the NFL Network, which only provides for a "local market" TV station to also carry its telecasts. It's time to throw the review flag on that one!
NORTH CAROLINA:
North Carolina State fans will have "Wolfpack Sports Today" on local 99.9 FM The Fan every weekday afternoon at 4:55, hosted by Gary Hahn and Tony Haynes. In addition, a weekly one hour show began last Saturday at 9:00 in the morning on 99.9 and is available at no cost on GoPack.com for fans around the region and nationally. Nice concept - a free show for the fans.
Showing posts with label football. Show all posts
Showing posts with label football. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Sports Media Report - August 13th Update
How about promoting instead of battling? Radio owners including Clear Channel just spent literally hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to block the satellite radio merger. That money would have been better spent on an effective publicity campaign for theirs and other FM and AM radio stations in general.
As I've said thousands of times, if FM-AM radio had varied playlists with thousands of songs and wider format variety, unlimited local and national sports events, entertainers hosting their own programs, and stopped the five minute plus commercial clusters, millions of people wouldn't feel compelled to spend a monthly fee to listen to satellite radio in the first place. Instead, they would have bought HD radios to enjoy these niche channels along with the local stations they used to enjoy.
Another advantage radio has is specific to the sports fan. No blackouts of local teams and games. They are all on. As a fan paying a rising monthly fee for cable TV, I'm feeling ripped off, just as I would with satellite TV. Not the case with radio. I am paying for a service and I subscribe because I can get certain channels. But there are still instances where basic and subscription packages still black out telecasts in certain markets.
These days, the blackout crap even extends to online streaming by MLB.com. At first I welcomed the Yahoo Sports story the other day about how the folks at MLB.com are looking at lifting local blackout restrictions for their online streaming of live games package as soon as next season. It seems that presently local teams have the right to stop additional games from being seen online by subscribers in defined geographic areas. While changing that would be a positive, it never should have been an issue in the first place.
This is in the same category as situations in baseball and with the NBA where a national cable telecast is blacked out in one or both of the teams' local markets. It is to "force" us to watch the local telecast. Sorry again, but I am paying for a choice I'm not getting. There are situations where fans such as myself don't enjoy the local announcers and/or are not fans of the anchor team of the telecast and prefer a national perspective. We should have that choice.
Without every possible game shown being available, I won't even think about paying for the games online. I don't like the TV announcers for my favorite team, so I would consider buying the MLB package if I could then watch the other team's local telecast. But I can't do that either with the pay package on cable or online.
If the local telecasts lose rating points and ad dollars because people are watching a national version, it should be a red flag for the local team to make changes. The bottom line should be that the teams and the games have the full amount of viewers they could get, no matter where they are being seen.
Fans in the New York - Boston corridor probably don't realize that TBS has a Sunday afternoon MLB package. So far it has been mostly NY and Boston games, and TBS is presently blacked out by cable systems carrying the local telecast. Yet, those same fans still pay the same price each month for TBS, even though they are not getting all of its programming.
What does this have to do with radio? This lack of choice is non-existent. The home team broadcasts are always heard, and when a national broadcast airs on another station in the market, they both air. Examples include Sunday Night Baseball when ESPN Radio's broadcast goes up against the local team's regular broadcast if they are on separate stations. Baseball post-season games also are often carried with both the local and national feed competing.
This is the sort of thing that radio in general could be promoting. Stations can make it look like they play more than 500 songs each, point out that they have no local sports blackouts like TV, and offer live local coverage not found anywhere else. The rest of that money should be spent on using their HD channels to carry additional sports broadcasts, replay games, plus additional music and local information channels.
Meanwhile, we have had another example in sports of how one player can impact thousands of media dollars within a matter of hours. This week it is Brett Favre. Or it could be. Hours after his being traded to the Jets, the NFL Network adjusted its TV schedule for the pre-season, getting the first Jets exhibition game on live and scheduling the others for tape delayed showing across the country of the Jets telecasts. (Ironicially, Favre was traded by Green Bay and the majority of Wisconsin still cannot receive NFL Network, but that's another story.)
There will be even more impact on the TV regular season. ESPN will not be sending its entire crew to Green Bay for its Monday Night Football opener on Sept. 8th and the surrounding program since there will not be a Favre retirement ceremony. That was the reason for scheduling this as the Monday opener in the first place. Yet, WFRV-TV Channel 5 Green Bay is reported to be looking at scheduling as many of the Jets' games as it can as part of its CBS-TV schedule of games. Since the majority of the Packers Sunday and non-national games are carried by Fox, WFRV gets to choose which game(s) to carry the majority of the Sundays. Yet, 3 of the first 4 Jets telecasts scheduled for CBS-TV are games against Miami, Cincinnati, and Kansas City. Not exactly the cream of the crop. The Sept. 14th game Jets vs. New England is already slated as the CBS-TV doubleheader game, and that figures to be the only big draw of the bunch, even in Green Bay.
The whole thing could backfire if Favre's "arm fatigue" leading into this coming weekend results in him not even playing regularly. I doubt that fans will tune in every week to watch him patrol the sidelines if that is where he winds up.
COLUMBUS - While the Big Ten Network finally debuts over the next couple of weeks in many of the Big Ten markets on basic cable, still no such luck for most Ohio State fans in the heart of the Buckeyes region. Even the BTN deal with Comcast didn't get it done with Time Warner Cable in Ohio. And the BTN will likely carry 3 of their first 5 games during the coming football season.
St. LOUIS - The legal action between former KFNS 590 AM sports talk host Kevin Slaten and the station over the Dave Duncan interview months ago when Duncan was not told he was on the air has taken the next step. A judge has ruled that Slaten indeed must stay off the St. Louis area air waves until at least October 5, 2008. The action means that Slaten was not able to remove the non-compete clause in his contract. This ruling is independent of the non-compete legal action underway in New York.
PHILADELPHIA - WIP and the Flyers welcome Chris Therien as the new radio analyst beginning this coming season, replacing Brian Propp. Tim Saunders continues on play-by-play. Therien has experience with Comcast SportsNet Post Game Live locally, and has also done some work on NHL Network. He played 11 seasons with the Flyers.
BUFFALO - Congrats to Ron Jaworski. The ESPN Monday Night Football analyst and former Eagles QB has been named to the Buffalo Broadcasting Hall of Fame. Ron is antive of suburban Lackawanna.
As I've said thousands of times, if FM-AM radio had varied playlists with thousands of songs and wider format variety, unlimited local and national sports events, entertainers hosting their own programs, and stopped the five minute plus commercial clusters, millions of people wouldn't feel compelled to spend a monthly fee to listen to satellite radio in the first place. Instead, they would have bought HD radios to enjoy these niche channels along with the local stations they used to enjoy.
Another advantage radio has is specific to the sports fan. No blackouts of local teams and games. They are all on. As a fan paying a rising monthly fee for cable TV, I'm feeling ripped off, just as I would with satellite TV. Not the case with radio. I am paying for a service and I subscribe because I can get certain channels. But there are still instances where basic and subscription packages still black out telecasts in certain markets.
These days, the blackout crap even extends to online streaming by MLB.com. At first I welcomed the Yahoo Sports story the other day about how the folks at MLB.com are looking at lifting local blackout restrictions for their online streaming of live games package as soon as next season. It seems that presently local teams have the right to stop additional games from being seen online by subscribers in defined geographic areas. While changing that would be a positive, it never should have been an issue in the first place.
This is in the same category as situations in baseball and with the NBA where a national cable telecast is blacked out in one or both of the teams' local markets. It is to "force" us to watch the local telecast. Sorry again, but I am paying for a choice I'm not getting. There are situations where fans such as myself don't enjoy the local announcers and/or are not fans of the anchor team of the telecast and prefer a national perspective. We should have that choice.
Without every possible game shown being available, I won't even think about paying for the games online. I don't like the TV announcers for my favorite team, so I would consider buying the MLB package if I could then watch the other team's local telecast. But I can't do that either with the pay package on cable or online.
If the local telecasts lose rating points and ad dollars because people are watching a national version, it should be a red flag for the local team to make changes. The bottom line should be that the teams and the games have the full amount of viewers they could get, no matter where they are being seen.
Fans in the New York - Boston corridor probably don't realize that TBS has a Sunday afternoon MLB package. So far it has been mostly NY and Boston games, and TBS is presently blacked out by cable systems carrying the local telecast. Yet, those same fans still pay the same price each month for TBS, even though they are not getting all of its programming.
What does this have to do with radio? This lack of choice is non-existent. The home team broadcasts are always heard, and when a national broadcast airs on another station in the market, they both air. Examples include Sunday Night Baseball when ESPN Radio's broadcast goes up against the local team's regular broadcast if they are on separate stations. Baseball post-season games also are often carried with both the local and national feed competing.
This is the sort of thing that radio in general could be promoting. Stations can make it look like they play more than 500 songs each, point out that they have no local sports blackouts like TV, and offer live local coverage not found anywhere else. The rest of that money should be spent on using their HD channels to carry additional sports broadcasts, replay games, plus additional music and local information channels.
Meanwhile, we have had another example in sports of how one player can impact thousands of media dollars within a matter of hours. This week it is Brett Favre. Or it could be. Hours after his being traded to the Jets, the NFL Network adjusted its TV schedule for the pre-season, getting the first Jets exhibition game on live and scheduling the others for tape delayed showing across the country of the Jets telecasts. (Ironicially, Favre was traded by Green Bay and the majority of Wisconsin still cannot receive NFL Network, but that's another story.)
There will be even more impact on the TV regular season. ESPN will not be sending its entire crew to Green Bay for its Monday Night Football opener on Sept. 8th and the surrounding program since there will not be a Favre retirement ceremony. That was the reason for scheduling this as the Monday opener in the first place. Yet, WFRV-TV Channel 5 Green Bay is reported to be looking at scheduling as many of the Jets' games as it can as part of its CBS-TV schedule of games. Since the majority of the Packers Sunday and non-national games are carried by Fox, WFRV gets to choose which game(s) to carry the majority of the Sundays. Yet, 3 of the first 4 Jets telecasts scheduled for CBS-TV are games against Miami, Cincinnati, and Kansas City. Not exactly the cream of the crop. The Sept. 14th game Jets vs. New England is already slated as the CBS-TV doubleheader game, and that figures to be the only big draw of the bunch, even in Green Bay.
The whole thing could backfire if Favre's "arm fatigue" leading into this coming weekend results in him not even playing regularly. I doubt that fans will tune in every week to watch him patrol the sidelines if that is where he winds up.
COLUMBUS - While the Big Ten Network finally debuts over the next couple of weeks in many of the Big Ten markets on basic cable, still no such luck for most Ohio State fans in the heart of the Buckeyes region. Even the BTN deal with Comcast didn't get it done with Time Warner Cable in Ohio. And the BTN will likely carry 3 of their first 5 games during the coming football season.
St. LOUIS - The legal action between former KFNS 590 AM sports talk host Kevin Slaten and the station over the Dave Duncan interview months ago when Duncan was not told he was on the air has taken the next step. A judge has ruled that Slaten indeed must stay off the St. Louis area air waves until at least October 5, 2008. The action means that Slaten was not able to remove the non-compete clause in his contract. This ruling is independent of the non-compete legal action underway in New York.
PHILADELPHIA - WIP and the Flyers welcome Chris Therien as the new radio analyst beginning this coming season, replacing Brian Propp. Tim Saunders continues on play-by-play. Therien has experience with Comcast SportsNet Post Game Live locally, and has also done some work on NHL Network. He played 11 seasons with the Flyers.
BUFFALO - Congrats to Ron Jaworski. The ESPN Monday Night Football analyst and former Eagles QB has been named to the Buffalo Broadcasting Hall of Fame. Ron is antive of suburban Lackawanna.
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