Baseball Tonight is returning to a nightly schedule during the postseason; Sinclair Broadcasting says it would need a partner to acquire Fox Sports’ RSNs; HBO will no longer broadcast boxing.
Baseball Tonight Back to Nightly Schedule in Postseason
ESPN’s Major League Baseball studio show Baseball Tonight will return to a nightly format during the MLB Postseason, ESPN announced Friday. The show will air at Midnight or 1 AM ET each night during the Division Series and League Championship Series and then shift to a 5 and 7 PM schedule during the World Series. Each edition will air on ESPN2 or ESPNEWS, with the exception of an October 28 telecast scheduled for the flagship ESPN network.
Baseball Tonight, which at one point aired nightly on ESPN, was cut to once-a-week after the company’s May 2017 layoffs. [ESPN PR 10.5]
Sinclair Would Need Partner to Acquire RSNs
The CEO of Sinclair Broadcasting Company — which operates Stadium, Tennis Channel, and dozens of right-wing local stations — this week reiterated the company’s interest in purchasing the 22 regional sports networks 21st Century Fox is selling to Disney, but added that it would likely need a private equity partner to do so.
Disney agreed to divest the RSNs to win justice department approval for its $71.3 million acquisition of most 21st Century Fox assets. [Bloomberg 10.2 via Sports Business Daily 10.4]
HBO Done With Boxing
HBO announced late last month that it will no longer carry boxing events after this year, marking the end of its 45-year run airing the sport. The outlet has one card remaining on its 2018 schedule, on October 27, though it could still add additional dates. In stating the rationale behind the move, HBO Sports EVP Peter Nelson noted that subscribers no longer rated boxing a primary reason for purchasing the channel, and that boxing events have become widely available on a number of networks. HBO has not ruled out the possibility of airing more fights down the road, “just not for the foreseeable future.” [ESPN.com 9.27; The New York Times 9.27]
