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.