NBC will not send its Winter Olympic announce teams to Beijing; the NHL has filled in the dates it once set aside for the Olympics; cable distribution continues to shrink; and more.
NBC keeping Beijing Olympic announce teams in U.S.
NBC’s Winter Olympic broadcast teams — including those for the marquee figure skating, skiing and snowboarding events — will work remotely from Stamford, Conn., rather than traveling on-site to Beijing, USA Today and the Associated Press reported Wednesday. The move is motivated by China’s strict policies regarding COVID-19.
NBC still plans to send Mike Tirico on-site to host the Games for the first week of primetime broadcasts before he returns to the U.S. to host the network’s Super Bowl coverage. The company also has 250 staffers already in Beijing and plans to have a number of reporters — from both its sports and news divisions — on-site as well.
NHL fills dates once set aside for Olympics
The NHL announced on Wednesday that it has rescheduled 95 games for the three-week period it was originally going to break for the Olympics (February 7-22), a move that allows the league to preserve its scheduled April 29 end date. A whopping 104 games have been postponed this season, with only six made up thus far.
The league plans to update its national television schedule at a later date. The league website lists TNT as airing a February 9 doubleheader (Predators-Stars and Islanders-Canucks) and a single game on February 16 (Panthers-Hurricanes).
TBS one of just six cable channels in 80 million homes
TBS is one of just six cable channels in more than 80 million homes, according to Nielsen data reported by Sports Business Journal this month, with the network barely surpassing the mark (80.01M). It is joined in the 80 million club by non-sports channels Food Network, HGTV, Discovery Channel, Investigation Discovery and TLC.
TNT (79.95M), ESPN (79.76M) and ESPN2 (79.65M) are just shy of the 80 million mark. Each was well over 80 million two years ago. USA Network, which was in nearly 87 million homes two years ago, is now in 78.89 million — only slightly more than the now-defunct NBCSN (78.56M).
Nielsen is estimating a cable universe of just 82.82 million subscribers, down by nearly ten million from two years ago (92.47M).
Plus: Thamel, Karim, Evert, new hires
ESPN last week announced the hiring of college football writer Pete Thamel, most recently of Yahoo! Sports. Thamel, who made his debut last Saturday, will write for ESPN.com and make regular appearances across the company’s various platforms. … Turner Sports announced last week that it has hired Nabil Karim, most recently a SportsCenter anchor for ESPN, as a host and reporter. Karim will primarily serve as a host for NBA TV but also contribute to Turner’s basketball and hockey coverage broadly. … ESPN tennis analyst Chris Evert, who like nearly all of ESPN’s tennis team is working the Australian Open remotely, disclosed last week that she is battling cancer and undergoing chemotherapy. … ESPN has hired local Baltimore reporter Max McGee as a SportsCenter anchor and Kendra Andrews, sister of Malika, to cover the Golden State Warriors.
