Surprise move came with no warning In a move that has Dish and Sling customers fuming, cable and broadcast channels owned by The Walt Disney Company were pulled off of their systems at 2 a.m. Central Time Saturday morning in a retransmission dispute. The decision to yank the channels surprised everyone as usually, customers are given a heads-up on if […]
The Worldwide Leader frozen out of the Big Ten after carrying games from the conference for 40 years After 40 years, ESPN is apparently out of the Big Ten business. The network on Tuesday withdrew from negotiations on trying to keep a Big Ten package in some form after the conference is expected to strike mega-deals with Fox, CBS, and […]
New offerings include devoted channels to Wheel Of Fortune, Jeopardy!, and Judge Judy; National Geographic, and Canada’s CBC as business continues to grow The growth of free, ad-supported streaming television channels – or FAST for short, isn’t just blooming – it’s exploding. On Monday, Paramount Global’s Pluto TV announced the addition of channels dedicated to classic Jeopardy! and Wheel of […]
Move of longtime ABC competition show is due to the return of Monday Night Football In an announcement that raised eyebrows, Disney announced Friday the move of Dancing With The Stars from broadcast network ABC to its streaming service, Disney Plus. The move means the long-running series – airing on ABC since 2005, will now have season 31 and 32 […]
Also: Blackhawks latest Chicago team to drag down national telecasts as the team names Chris Vosters as their new play-by-play guy; CBS Media Ventures cancels two syndicated shows The fun is over for four game shows as ABC late last Friday canceled them, part of its “Summer Fun and Games” initiative. Among the four dumped was Match Game hosted by […]
Also: NewsNation makes more changes with the departure of Jon Donlon; Jussie Smollett saga ends with a jail sentence…or does it? One thing is guaranteed next NFL season: The Bears won’t be good. Outside of that however, is the mystery of who’s going to be calling games when The NFL Lakefront Team (for now) gets blown out by […]
Hall of Famer and video game innovator leaves marks on sports and media John Madden didn’t invent the game of football, but he sure helped contribute to it. The pigskin icon, who was a coach and broadcaster died Tuesday in his Bay Area home at the age of 85. Madden was an innovator in sports broadcasting, injecting enthusiasm and his […]
Restores ESPN and ABC programming After off for more than a day, Disney programming has returned to Google’s YouTube TV. The deal was announced Sunday and comes in time for Monday Night Football between the Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears, a game that carries playoff implications (for at least one team.) Returning to YouTube TV are ABC, ESPN and their […]
ABC 7, ESPN are off Google-owned platform Just like a thief striking in the middle of the night, Disney has taken all of their channels off the Google-owned YouTubeTV platform at 11 p.m. Friday Central Time in a carriage dispute, leaving four million subscribers of the virtual multichannel video programming distributor pissed. Vanishing are seventeen channels, including ESPN, ESPN 2, […]
Same old Sunday Night Football story for Bears I’m not going to bore you whining about why the Chicago Bears keep getting national prime-time TV appearances; I’ve covered the topic aplenty over the years, most recently here and here. But the decision to keep Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace around for another year is one of those “Chicago Way” type […]
Primetime specials also coming to ABC With the worst kept secret in Hollywood, Jeopardy! producers named Mike Richards as host of the long-running game show as expected. But in a bit of a curveball, actress Mayim Bialik was named host of several prime-time special editions starting next year, with the Jeopardy! National College Tournament first on tap. The news was […]
Reportedly gets a huge severance in return When you announce you are “stepping away” from a franchise temporarily, believe me – it usually isn’t “temporarily”. This is exactly what happened to Chris Harrison, The Bachelor host who now isn’t The Bachelor host as he was fired by ABC and Warner Horizon Television Tuesday after nearly two decades with the franchise. […]
Fewer new shows reflect today’s reality of network television With television viewership shifting to streaming preferences, it seems a “fall schedule” for linear TV networks seems antiquated, especially when viewers are watching shows on their own schedules. Plus, the pandemic has all but canned the in-person upfronts experience. But old habits are hard to break, and despite plunging ratings, the […]
Also: remembering Dick Kay; Broadcast networks makes moves Longtime Chicago radio personality Greg Brown is calling it a career this week after five decades on the city’s airwaves, as first reported Friday by Radio Insight. The current WLS-FM personality started his Chicago radio career in 1970. His longest tenures were thirteen years at WKQX-FM (during its CHR/Hot AC era); eleven […]
Seven-year deal brings the league back to the Worldwide Leader In Sports In news certain to please hockey fans across the United States, the NHL officially announced its return to ESPN on Wednesday after seventeen years. This came as the league decided to split its television rights package with two different partners as opposed to one media outfit – in […]