The Sports Media Thread

[Tracy Jordan]

36 minutes ago, dfwabel said:

https://nypost.com/2019/05/08/nfl-network-shows-slashed-tensions-rise-after-20m-cuts/

 

Do people really watch all these shows on NFL Network? Like, I can understand having primetime shows like NFL Total Access that goes through all the news of the day and maybe a few specialty programs for fantasy news and behind the scenes stuff. But are people really waking up every morning and turning on "Good Morning Football"? I think they'd be better off just airing re-runs of NFL Films programs and classic games all day long.

[dfwabel]

1 hour ago, Tracy Jordan said:

 

Do people really watch all these shows on NFL Network? Like, I can understand having primetime shows like NFL Total Access that goes through all the news of the day and maybe a few specialty programs for fantasy news and behind the scenes stuff. But are people really waking up every morning and turning on "Good Morning Football"? I think they'd be better off just airing re-runs of NFL Films programs and classic games all day long.

 

You know who watches "Good Morning Football"? Players, coaches, and those who think they'll be drafted do.

 

NFL also doesn't own that show. Men In Blazers/Embassy Row's Michael Davies does. 

[CubsFanBudMan]

On 5/8/2019 at 1:20 PM, MadmanLA said:

 

Allen's been on a bit of a spending spree in recent years, including buying NBCUniversal's share of The Weather Channel, and he's also buying three small-market TV stations in Indiana and Louisiana.  

 

Byron has always been low-key banking.

 

I used to watch all those syndicated entertainment/sports interview shows he hosted when my work shift had me up late nights.

 

"Commmmmmin' up next..." an awkward greeting with a celebrity that should have hit the editing room floor, but never, ever did, because Allen wanted to convince you they were all longtime friends.

 

 

 

 

(They weren't.)

[neo_prankster]

Are there any Cubs fans that might know a little bit more about that Marquee channel that the Cubs are launching with Sinclair?

 

Will there still be a way people can catch Cubs games if they have a digital OTA antenna?

[The_Admiral]

Nope, and I suspect that with a new RSN running against Comcast in a market dominated by Comcast, people might have trouble watching the Cubs on cable, too.

[CubsFanBudMan]

I'm expecting trouble as well. Maybe not Dodgers-level, but I think the Cubs will see resistance.

 

Especially with NBC Sports Chicago extending White Sox, Bulls & Blackhawks partnerships -- what incentive do they have to put the Cubs on a basic tier? Add it to a premium level and they'll have the same reach as the Brewers and Cardinals in Illinois.

 

I could see the Iowa cable companies and "downstate" Illinois companies getting in on Marquee early and the actual city be a slow adopter.

 

Hope they have a good streaming app planned. (Or a loophole for MLB.TV blackouts.)

[The_Admiral]

The winning play may have been for the Ricketts family to buy WGN and go back to that particular model of vertical integration, but they couldn't resist the siren song of $3/month from people who never explicitly consented to buy their product in the first place. The era of the high-carriage-fee RSN is ending, just as they're trying to get in on it. And they couldn't even wrangle the Blackhawks over for winter programming, so now they're selling a channel that for at least four months a year won't really have anything. We can only watch Kerry Wood strike out 20 so many times.

[CubsFanBudMan]

When the Tribune owned the Cubs and both WGN TV and radio -- and soon they will own none of the three -- I thought the move was to at least brand the TV station as a sports product. They had Cubs, Sox, Bulls & Blackhawks and a decent chunk of games not so long ago.

 

Instead, they tried to be TBS -- by their own admission -- with the WGN America move with original programming and nothing else but comedy reruns that every other TBS wannabe had. They even pulled the WGN News off the WGN America air, along with all of the Chicago sports teams.

 

I'm sure the leagues loved it but the WGN brand -- or a big piece of it, Chicago sports -- was destroyed. But I guess after many misses with random in-house witch shows, they are starting to turn a profit by re-airing Canadian or British shows or something. 

[Sport]

https://theconcourse.deadspin.com/the-night-the-lights-went-out-1834298070

 

Drew Magary's account of what happened to him. Absolutely terrifying stuff. 

[OaklandIsBack]

https://deadspin.com/if-john-beilein-is-such-a-good-person-why-was-he-a-col-1834763261

 

this is is the kind of :censored: deadspin puts out. Stop reading them

[Digby]

Deadspin contains multitudes, relax.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

3 hours ago, OaklandIsBack said:

https://deadspin.com/if-john-beilein-is-such-a-good-person-why-was-he-a-col-1834763261

 

this is is the kind of deadspin puts out. Stop reading them

 

That story says the NCAA is immoral and the people who profit from it most are similarly bad.

 

How is Deadspin the bad guy there?

[Red Comet]

1 hour ago, DG_Now said:

 

That story says the NCAA is immoral and the people who profit from it most are similarly bad.

 

How is Deadspin the bad guy there?

 

Because Deadspin is on par with Buzzfeed in reliability. Sometimes you see a good article but most of the time you get schlock that is designed to get clicks whether you agree or disagree with the article in question. And sometimes its out and out fake news.

[Digby]

58 minutes ago, Red Comet said:

 

Because Deadspin is on par with Buzzfeed in reliability. Sometimes you see a good article but most of the time you get schlock that is designed to get clicks whether you agree or disagree with the article in question. And sometimes its out and out fake news.

 

Same is true of Deadspin and Barstool and Bleacher Report and whatever SI is doing now and Fansided and

 

Also don’t use the term “fake news”, it’s embarrassing.

[The_Admiral]

The Cubs have been playing on Sunday Night Baseball quite a bit lately and I can't shake the fundamental weirdness of that booth. It sounds like they're all just talking independently of one another. A-Rod doesn't say as much as you'd expect him to and Jess Mendoza says even less. The only time I felt like anyone was on the same page was when A-Rod and Mendoza both started crapping their pants over Trea Turner being charged with an error because the ball bounced off the edge of his glove and he fell down. (It must have worked, because the scorer reversed course and gave Almora the hit, but it sure looked like an error to me.) 

 

I think they kinda threw the baby out with the bathwater on the old Jon Miller/Joe Morgan pairing. They could have just Fired Joe Morgan© and kept one of the best play-by-play men in baseball, but that whole broadcasting franchise has been a mess ever since.

[Sport]

Those three people don't have any chemistry with each other and I don't think any one of them is particularly good on their own. Matt Vasgersian has always sounded to me like a person doing an impression of a baseball announcer, ARod is way better at a desk in a studio than he is in a booth watching a game live, and Mendoza is still trying too hard to prove she belongs. I don't get the feeling she's comfortable on-air.  

 

I don't know what you do about Sunday Night Baseball. it's supposed to be like the baseball version of Sunday night football, the week's showcase game, but you can't plan ahead of time to get the best pitching matchup in that game, which means if like the Dodgers are playing the Mets you're less likely to see Kershaw vs Syndergaard/deGrom than you are some other random starter. Maybe make it like a baseball talk show where you have rotating guests to chat about the game as it's happening with one regular host? Like NBA on TNT, but it's during the game. I don't know if there's former baseball players who could pull that off. Probably not. 

 

[The_Admiral]

People who screech about how Jess Mendoza doesn't belong there give themselves away. She doesn't say anything embarrassing or incompetent. She barely says anything at all, and what she does say is so anodyne that it's impossible to get mad at. Ungetmadatable. This merely puts her among most mediocre game analysts in sports.

 

I think Matt Vasgersian was designed in a lab to be the idealized Thom Brennaman. Why, though.

[Digby]

Per the Boston Globe...

 

Shot:

 

Quote

Kirk Minihane, the contentious host who brought big ratings and frequent controversy to WEEI’s morning show before leaving in November, announced Tuesday he is no longer an employee of parent company Entercom.

 

Chaser:

 

Quote

Minihane predicted on his Periscope, which aired live while he was walking the aisles of a CVS in Lexington, that Entercom would wish him well in those future endeavors. 

 

[The_Admiral]

What happened to WEEI? They were one of the biggest stations in America for a long time, and then they circled the drain really fast.

[Digby]

Someone who actually listens to the radio would probably be able to answer better than I could. But basically it's been a 10-year spiral since CBS launched The Sports Hub.

 

CBS brought over Toucher and Rich from the rock radio station to Sports Hub for their morning yell-fest. Still not something I'd ever want to listen to, but they're more Stern than Hannity, for what that's worth. In general they still have a lot of your typically miserable Boston yokel being :censored:s about sports, but they manage to Stick to Sports better than WEEI did even back then, and they've nabbed a few other WEEI voices through the years. This has positioned them as the smarter, hipper of the Boston sports stations (again, low bar). Obviously WEEI has since leaned even further into political sludge than they always have been.

 

In terms of live rights, CBS already had Patriots and Bruins rights (WEEI lost the Bruins in the 90s if I recall) and mostly launched Sports Hub so they could put those two on a dedicated sports channel instead of preempting the rock or news stations. Since then they've also siphoned away Celtics and Revolution rights directly from WEEI; I'd imagine those are by far the two least-listened-to teams in the market, but the Red Sox are all WEEI has left.

 

Last thing was that Sports Hub launched on FM, so it just had that clear signal and reach where it matters most. WEEI eventually launched an FM simulcast but I suppose it was too late.

 

Combine all that and I think that mostly explains why WEEI has leaned into its basest non-sports instincts, especially in the current political climate. Maybe they wanted to be the radio version of Barstool but a.) they're too scummy even for a lot of Stoolies, in Stoolie City USA, and b.) that's probably giving the management too much credit.

 

Anyway Minihane is too much of a mental trainwreck to ever get a reputable job again, but either way he says he doesn't want to do sports anymore, so I'm glad I'm rid of him as long as I don't run into him yelling into a speaker phone at CVS.