Impasses with Fox, others and costs makes it tough for carriage If you are a Cubs fan and you are looking forward to watching Kris Bryant and Co. on their new Marquee Sports Network on Dish, let me give you a heads up: it’s not likely to happen. With nearly 150 games set to air exclusively on the Cubs’ new […]
Sinclair is the winner in auction; pays $10 billion for 21 Fox RSNs including Fox Sports Wisconsin The long national nightmare is over: after months of being on the sales block, the Fox Sports RSNs (regional sports networks) finally have a new owner. Sinclair Broadcast Group announced Friday it is buying the 21 sports networks and three Fox Sports College […]
New entity not interested in reacquiring regional sports networks In a setback for Disney, “New Fox”, the entity formed after the bulk of the original 21st Century Fox was sold to the company, said in a filing Friday it has no plans to re-purchase the 22 regional sports networks, or RSNs put up for sale as part of the deal. […]
Changing marketing conditions could be factor; AT&T may be only hope If the Cubs are looking to launch their own TV network in 2020, their options are becoming quite limited. According to a report Monday in Sports Business Journal and Awful Announcing, AT&T is considering looking to add the baseball team to their portfolio of sports rights. AT&T operates a […]
Disastrous season on both sides of town had fans fleeing for the exits – but at least they’re not the Astros After the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup June 24, most local sports fans checked out for the summer, thanks to the inept play of both the Chicago Cubs (66-96) and Chicago White Sox (63-99), each finishing last in […]
With no Derrick Rose, casual fans tune out With the Chicago Bulls currently a half-game behind the Indiana Pacers for first place in the Central Division in the Eastern Conference, you’d think ratings would go through the roof, right? In Chicago – where even a contending White Sox team couldn’t draw viewers or fans to U.S. Cellular Field last year […]
The NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers signed a new superstar Monday to a 20 year deal – and it’s not an athlete. The “star” is Time Warner Cable, who announced Monday it has signed a 20-year deal with the Lakers to broadcast all non-national televised games on not one, but two regional sports networks it is planning for 2012. The first […]
While Chicago’ baseball teams did not have a successful season on the field, they had some success on the tube. Sports Business Journal ranked the 2009 regular season of thirty teams, and the Chicago Cubs finished ninth among regional sports networks, with a 4.1 household rating – but this number was down 16% from 2008 numbers. Meanwhile, the Chicago White […]
Two men had different paths in life, and both die of the same disease – cancer. Former Fox News commentator and White House press secretary Tony Snow and former Yankee great Bobby Mercer both died yesterday from cancer. Snow died at the all too-young age of 53 from colon cancer. He was one of the original Fox News personalities when […]
New York’s WWOR is borrowing a page from its old WOR days – by signing a deal to bring the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers back to the station – though for two games each. The Rangers games that are scheduled to be televised are at the home against the Dallas Stars on Nov. 25, and Dec. […]
While basketball and hockey playoff ratings were dead in the water this past spring, The New York Yankees and the Chicago Cubs are on fire this summer, and so are the regional sports networks that carry them. Tuesday’s Brewers-Cubs game on Comcast SportsNet drew a 8.1 Nielsen rating, easily outranking other fare on both broadcast and cable in the Chicago […]