- The Sports Business Journal reports that the NBA and Comcast are near a deal to move NBA TV from the digital sports tier to the digital basic tier, increasing NBA TV’s distribution to 22 million subscribers. A deal is expected by this spring, and the move would come by the start of the 2009-10 season. To get the deal done, the NBA apparently looked to Major League Baseball. The league threatened not to renew Comcast’s NBA League Pass deal unless NBA TV was moved off the sports tier. Similarly, Major League Baseball “made its Extra Innings package dependent on carriage of [MLB Network]” last year.
- A local media outlet is looking to pick a fight with already embattled Florida State University. In the wake of harsh NCAA penalties against FSU athletics for a widespread cheating scandal, Tallahassee CBS affiliate WCTV set up an interview with Florida State football QB Christian Ponder. After setting up the interview, the affiliate was informed by a high-ranking FSU employee that “we were not allowed to speak to Mr. Ponder and threatened us with the loss of our credentials to cover FSU athletics if we did so.” WCTV paints this is a first amendment issue, noting that “FSU is not a private institution. As a public institution it belongs to all the people of the state of Florida.”
- In its continuing quest to be more like MTV, ESPN is getting back into the movie business. ESPN Films announced earlier this week that it will release two theatrical motion pictures based on stories originally reported on SportsCenter and Outside the Lines. The first film chronicles the “story of the basketball-playing grandson of infamous cult leader Jim Jones,” while the other tells “the tale of Louis Mulkey, a beloved high school hoops coach who died on duty as a firefighter.”
Ted Turner, whose cable business transformed TV sports, dies
Ted Turner, the media mogul and team owner whose TBS "SuperStation" helped pave the way the era of cable...
