New Orleans Pelicans moves games to over-the-air TV

Follows move by Bulls, Blackhawks, and White Sox Monday Expected after the soon-to-be-defunct Bally Sports New Orleans and the NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans parted ways, the team announced a multi-year deal with Gray Television to form the Gulf Coast Sports Network to air all non-network games on Gray’s stations stretching from the Ark-La-Tex area to the Florida panhandle starting next […]

Amazon pulls Diamond/Bally offer to fund RSNs

$115 million investment taken away as broadcaster plans to exit bankruptcy Anaheim Ducks dump Bally for new over-the-air/streaming venture [Editor’s Note: This article was updated at 4:47 p.m.] If you are in a Bally Sports market and hoping to stream your favorite games through Amazon, it won’t happen.   The tech and e-commerce giant announced Monday it was pulling its $115 […]

Amazon, Bally Sports announce partnership

Amazon to invest in Bally parent Diamond; could save RSN It looks like Bally Sports, targeted for extinction this fall due to bankruptcy, may be saved after all. On Wednesday, Amazon announced they were taking a minority stake in Bally Sports parent Diamond Sports as part of a bankruptcy restructuring agreement. This means Amazon could potentially stream Bally’s teams on […]

The Media Notepad: WLIT takes early Chirstmas ratings lead

WGN-TV hires new traffic reporter; NBC Sports Chicago adding alternative Blackhawks telecasts; New Orleans Pelicans latest Bally team to seek an over-the-air TV deal  The PPM ratings survey for November was released this week and to no one’s surprise, iHeartMedia’s 93.9 The Lite is ahead of the competition. WLIT took first place from Hubbard’s The Drive as the Gold AC […]

Jennifer Lyons named president and GM of CBS 2 and CBSN Chicago

Former WGN News and NewsNation exec succeeds Derek Dalton Also at CBS 2: Drew Barrymore, Let’s Make A Deal swap time slots In hopes to turn around its moribund ratings, CBS-owned WBBM-TV hired WGN-TV and NewsNation veteran Jennifer Lyons as president and general manager, effective Monday. She will also oversee local news streaming channel CBSN Chicago. “We feel extremely fortunate […]

25 years ago: The deal heard around the world

25 years ago this week, Fox’s Rupert Murdoch changed the TV world by inking a deal to trigger the biggest affiliation switch in history.  It goes back to what happened on December 17, 1993. The networks were complaining about paying too much for sports – the NFL in particular – as the packages were losing money and looking to pay […]

“Katie” clears 60% of U.S. for Fall ’12 launch

Disney-ABC Domestic Television Distribution’s new fall 2012 talk show strip featuring Katie Couric has now been cleared in 60 percent of the country. Titled Katie, the series has now cleared though several broadcast groups including Allbritton, Belo, Cox, Hearst, Gannett, and Scripps, in addition to the entire ABC-owned-and-operated station group (including WLS-TV here in Chicago.) To no one’s surprise, most […]

Fox affiliates drift away from off-net sitcoms in early fringe and access

Yours truly had to do a double take when John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer reported last week that Fox affiliate WXIX-TV in Cincinnati was dumping off-network sitcoms Seinfeld and Family Guy for… Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy? It is indeed true – the Raycom-owned station in Cincinnati has purchased the older-skewing game shows for airing beginning in September 2012, […]

ABC O&Os renew "Wheel", "Jeopardy!" through 2014

In good news for the syndication business, two of the platform’s highest-rated shows are going to be around for at least a few more years. CBS Television Distribution’s game-show duo of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! has been renewed on the seven ABC-owned and operated stations who carry the programs through 2014. The news broke a week ago on TheWrap.com. […]

Football Championship Sunday draws big

Blackhawks a big draw in Canada over the weekend Even though three of the four teams who participated in last Sunday’s NFL Conference Championship games came from smaller markets, the ratings were certainly big enough. The NFC Championship Game between the Minnesota Vikings and the New Orleans Saints drew a whopping 58 million viewers, the most for a NFC Championship […]