FS Sports's List: Networks

Published March 5, 2012
John Ourand

Every spring, ESPN develops a list of corporate priorities that it will put special focus on during the next 12 months.
Last April, it pledged to "intensify ... efforts to serve U.S. Hispanic sports fans." For ESPN, that meant not only building up its Spanish sports channel, ESPN Deportes, but also making ESPN more accessible to Hispanics.

Published January 2, 2012
By John Ourand & Michael Smith, Staff Writers

Cable customers in Austin, Texas, don’t have access to their hometown University of Texas’ Longhorn Network.
But starting next fall, those Texas subscribers will be able to see plenty of the Longhorns’ bitter rival through hours of University of Oklahoma-branded programming, thanks to a deal that’s close to being signed with Fox Sports.

Published March 5, 2012
By Erik Spanberg, Correspondent

For NBC the script is twofold: Tell the story of Major League Soccer while building the stature of its NBC Sports Network.
Mark Abbott loved this year’s Super Bowl. Not because of Eli Manning’s heroics, but because of what he saw in NBC’s pregame and postgame shows: promotions for Major League Soccer. For Abbott, the president of MLS, feeling proud as a peacock is a mighty fine thing indeed.

Published January 23, 2012
By John Ourand, Staff Writer

California’s biggest satellite and telephone operators are bracing for a one-two sports TV punch, as the Pac-12 Conference and Time Warner Cable start to negotiate carriage deals for their planned sports channels.
The Pac-12 already has started formal negotiations, and sources said the conference is looking to be paid more than 80 cents per subscriber a month in market, which would be on par with the Big Ten Network.

January 11, 2012
by Frank Deford

... This is why, whether you like sports or not — perhaps you'd desperately prefer NPR to have somebody else right now, talking about something really important, not sports — nonetheless, each month, you're charged about eight bucks on your cable bill for the privilege of not watching sports.

John Ourand
Published October 3, 2011

I was alarmed when looking at Nielsen’s most recent report detailing how many subscribers each cable network has. Forty of the 41 biggest cable networks saw a year-over-year drop in the number of homes that get their channels.
For the first time in almost two years, not one cable network eclipsed the 100 million-home threshold.

Published April 2, 2012
Fox Sports executives may have been publicly downplaying reports that it is looking to launch a competitor to ESPN, but the idea has gained a lot of momentum in recent months as Fox has dangled the possibility during rights negotiations with some of the country’s biggest sports properties.

"Published March 19, 2012
Radio broadcasts of the NCAA tournament are running on more than 500 stations nationally, as well as on new online and mobile streaming outlets, in the event’s first year on the Dial Global network."

Published March 12, 2012
Fox’s premium soccer channel picked up the rights to three leagues that have nothing to do with soccer.

Published March 5, 2012
By John Ourand, Staff Writer
Fox Sports Network has filled two of the three openings it had at its regional sports networks, promoting Brian Hogan to lead its Arizona RSN.
Two months ago, FSN placed Henry Ford in charge of its soon-to-launch channel in San Diego.
That leaves FS Ohio as the only Fox Sports RSN that still needs a general manager. Ford had been senior vice president and general manager of FS Ohio for almost three years before leaving to take the reins in San Diego.
Fox is planning to launch its San Diego RSN within the next two weeks, in time for the coming baseball season.

By John Ourand, Staff Writer
Published February 20, 2012,

The first edition of NBC Sports Network’s “Costas Tonight” was exactly what the network’s executives wanted: NBC Sports’ biggest on-air star, Bob Costas, interviewing a who’s-who list of top sports personalities from the Super Bowl.
Only 108,000 viewers watched it live.

By Bill King, Senior Writer
Published January 16, 2012

The last time NBC tried to bring boxing back to its schedule, it teamed with Telemundo to air fights showcasing four young Latino fighters promoted by Main Events: Rocky Juarez, Juan Diaz, Kermit Cintron and Francisco Bojado. The networks stuck a toe in with three dates in 2003, then came back with five in ’04.

Published January 9, 2012
By John Ourand, Staff Writer

It’s easy to see the influence NBC Sports has had on Comcast’s national sports networks since last year’s merger became official, from the renamed NBC Sports Network to the Golf Channel on NBC brand, but Comcast’s regional sports networks largely have remained unaffected.
Until now.
Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic will launch a daily talk show patterned after NBC’s “Sports-Talk” brand. “SportsTalk Live” debuts at 10:30 p.m. Jan. 23, with a logo, branding, graphics and music that mirror “NBC SportsTalk,” which is carried on NBC Sports Network. The set also will look the same."

Published January 2, 2012
Golf Channel’s “Golf Central” will add show dates to NBC Sports this year to give the network a pregame show before its Saturday and Sunday coverage of PGA Tour tournaments for the first time on a regular basis.

Published December 5, 2011
By Terry Lefton & John Ourand, Staff Writers

Following nearly a decade of successful channel launches by most major sports properties, the WWE is deep into negotiations with In Demand on a deal that would see the wrestling operation launch its cable channel in early spring, according to numerous media and sports industry sources.
WWE executives have told cable and satellite operators that it is expecting to reach 40 million homes for its April 1 launch, an impressive number that would put the channel on par with sports networks like Fuel and Fox Soccer."

By John Ourand, Staff Writer
Published January 2, 2012

When NBC flips the switch on Versus this week, it's not just the network's name and branding that will change. With programming from the NHL, MLS and the Olympics, NBC plans to fill the new NBC Sports Network's most desirable time slots with more traditional sports.

November 19, 2011
By Terry Lefton, Staff Writer

Add the National Lacrosse League to CBS Sports Network's burgeoning roster of lacrosse properties.
The nine-team indoor lacrosse circuit has signed a two-year deal that will see it get eight games, including its championship contest, on CBS Sports Network in April and May. The new deal is a barter arrangement, under which both sides will sell air time, and it puts the NLL on at a regular time slot at 7:30 p.m. on Saturdays.

Published November 14, 2011
John Ourand

Can a cable or satellite operator succeed if it doesn’t carry any sports channels?
That idea — a dream, really, for some distributors — was brought up again last week when Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen complained about the high cost of sports channels.

By Michael Smith, Staff Writer
Published November 7, 2011

Major League Lacrosse has signed an agreement with CBS Sports Network that will give the outdoor league significantly more coverage on TV than it’s had in the past.
The contract for 2012 will provide 14 live games on CBS Sports Network, which is now in 44 million U.S. homes.

By John Ourand, Staff Writer
Published September 26, 2011

For a glimpse at what the new NHL-NBC deal will look like on television, NBC executives suggest you check out the end of last season.
NBC and Versus will carry more games and produce more shoulder programming around the NHL than ever before. But NBC’s top programming executive said he’s most excited about the production consistency across both channels that the group is trying to achieve.