- Comcast and Fox Sports Net are launching their own local websites, posing a challenge to ESPN — which debuted several local-specific websites earlier this year. Fox Sports Net quietly unveiled “a dozen local sites over the past couple of weeks,” each of which corresponds to a FOX-owned RSNs (e.g., FSDetroit.com for FS Detroit, etc). Meanwhile, Comcast relaunched its New England site earlier this month,”hiring several new writers and reporters to provide news and analysis,” with plans to “[beef] up its news operations” in other markets in which it owns RSNs. (Sports Business Daily, Sports Business Journal, paidcontent.org)
- The WNBA Monarchs are leaving Sacramento. The team, which won the 2005 WNBA championship, will either fold or move to the Bay Area. According to a league statement, the WNBA is in “active discussions with potential investors” to relocate the Monarchs “to the Bay Area in time for the start of the 2010 WNBA season.” The Monarchs are now the third WNBA team in less than a year to move or fold, with all three of those teams having previously won championships. (WNBA, ESPN)
- The November 28 edition of ESPN’s College Gameday will take place from Gainesville, FL, site of that day’s Florida St./Florida battle on CBS. This will be the 5th time in 2009 that Gameday will visit the site of a game not on the ESPN family of networks. Previously, the show aired from the site of Florida/LSU (CBS), TCU/BYU (Versus), Army/Air Force (CBS College Sports), and Utah/TCU (CBS College Sports). (twitter.com/mikehumesESPN)
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...
