HBO Sports Announces a Four-Part Boxing Series January 27, 2007 3:27 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Boxing, HBO, New Shows, News, Sports, Television.3 comments
HBO is launching a boxing series, which will tie-in with the bout between Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather, which takes place May 5.
David Beckham signs with L.A. Galaxy in $250M deal January 11, 2007 8:39 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in News, Sports.add a comment
Soccer star David Beckham has decided to leave Real Madrid (of Spain) to join the L.A. Galaxy of Major League Soccer in one of the largest sports deals ever.
NBC’s NHL coverage ready for return this weekend January 11, 2007 10:00 am
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in News, NHL, Sports, Television.add a comment
The second season of NBC Sports’ NHL: Game of the Week kicks off this This Saturday at 2:00 p.m. ET. Brett Hull also will be making his debut as a studio analyst during the game.
The first game of the season will be between the Philadelphia Flyers and the visiting Pittsburgh Penquins.
Florida Gators dismantle the Ohio State Buckeyes January 9, 2007 1:00 am
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in BCS, College Football, News, Sports, Television.2 comments
Those questioning whether or not the Florida Gators belonged in the BCS Championship game with the Buckeyes have been silenced.
The Gators handedly defeated the Buckeyes 41-14 in the championship game. It took an entire half just for the defense of the Buckeyes to adjust to the offensive onslought, while their offense never truely seemed to be in the game once Ginn (who opened the matchup with a 93 yard Kickoff return for TD) was sidelined with an injury. (more…)
Bill Cowher to retire as Steelers Coach January 5, 2007 11:11 am
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in News, NFL, Sports.add a comment
After 15 years of coaching for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Bill Cowher has informed his assistant coaches that he is stepping down as coach of the recent Super Bowl champions.
The Steelers organization have scheduled a 1:00 PM ET. press conference to discuss the Cowher situation.
If Cowher, 161-99-1 in his 15 seasons with the Steelers, decides to return to coaching in 2007, the Steelers control his contractual rights through the season. So any team that would want him to coach for them would have to be willing to give up draft choices to get the rights to talk to him.
But it’s a moot point, as it’s expected Cowher will take the year off from coaching.
Source: — [ESPN] — Cowher expected to retire Friday at news conference
Fox to stream BCS games on the web December 28, 2006 4:02 am
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in BCS, News, Sports, Television.3 comments
Beginning this past Thursday, Fox will be streaming college football bowl games and preview shows on a few Web sites.
The network also has the rights to the AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic (not part of the BCS bowl games) which they will stream on New Year’s Day. This will mark the first time a major college bowl game has been streamed online.
Users will be able to download full games, shortened versions and previews/highlights of the Cotton Bowl, the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, the FedEx Orange Bowl, the Allstate Sugar Bowl and the Tostitos BCS National Championship game.
Web sites participating in the venture included FoxSports.com, Fox Interactive, Apple iTunes and AOL Video. Pricing for the content will be $1.99 for game previews (which became available today) and $2.99 for full-length games which will be available to download within 24 hours of the end of the game.
NBC announces broadcast team for first two NFL playoff games December 12, 2006 10:15 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in News, NFL, Sports, Television.2 comments
On January 6, 2007, NBC will have a doubleheader of football that night. Tom Hammond (Notre Dame football broadcaster for the network) and Cris Collinsworth (currently a contributer to NBC’s “Football Night In America” as well as part of the NFL Networks Thursday night football games) will announce the first game of the night.
NBC’s regular team of Al Michaels and John Madden will call the second game.
Collinsworth and Hammond last worked together for the 1995 Orange Bowl college football game and also worked together calling NBC’s Notre Dame broadcasts from 1992-1994
HBO looking to launch Online Video Service December 11, 2006 6:55 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in Movies, News, Sports, Television, Video Downloads.add a comment
According to HBO’s Eric Kessler, president of sales and marketing for the channel, the network hopes to launch a broadband-video service sometime during the 2007 calendar year.
“We believe we can do with the broadband platform what we did with the on-demand product for our partners,” Kessler said. “Our goal is to create a broadband product with our affiliates that would continue to increase our usage and the value of HBO to our subscribers.”
No other details about the service have been announced, but it is expected to contain the same original series, specials and sports offerings currently available on HBO On Demand (a subscription based VOD channel).
Prince to perform during Super Bowl halftime show December 11, 2006 6:49 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in News, NFL, Sports, Television.add a comment
It was announced today that the 11 time nominated and six-time winning Grammy performer Prince will be entertaining the audience of Super Bowl XLI, as well as the nation, on February 4th in Miami.
Prince makes the third straight Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame member to be the lead act during the Super Bowl, following up on Paul McCartney two years ago and the Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger last year.
ESPN aquires European Football (Soccer) December 11, 2006 6:45 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in ESPN, News, Sports, Television.1 comment so far
ESPN has picked up the rights to air the 2008 UEFA European Football Championshiops, sheculded for Saturday, June 7 through Sunday June 29, 2008.
The tournament, which will be played in Austria and Switzerland, is one of the most popular sporting events in the world today.
On the television front, all 31 games will be shown (exclusively) on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic and ABC as well as on ESPN Deportes.
ESPN Radio also has the broadcast rights to air the games on the radio if they so choose.
Soccer rated very highly during the past world cup on all the ESPN nets as well as on ABC, and ESPN has taken steps in recent months to continue expanding their soccer portfolio in an effort to capitialize and maintain the sports increase in ratings.
It’s Ohio State/Florida for the National Title. BCS Selections Announced December 3, 2006 9:51 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in BCS, College Football, News, Sports.add a comment
The BCS standings have been released and the championship title game will be played between the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Florida Gators.
The Gators barely nudged by the Wolverines for the #2 spot with both teams scoring a .940 in the computer rankings, and Florida leading Michigan in the Harris Interactive Poll (.945 to .931) and the USA Today Coaches’ Poll (.948 to .932).
Here are the official bowl game selections:
- AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic (Jan. 1, 11:30 AM EST on Fox HD):
- #9 Auburn vs. #23 Nebraska
- Rose Bowl (Jan. 1, 5:00 PM EST on ABC HD)
- #3 Michigan vs. #5 USC
- Tostitos Fiesta Bowl (Jan. 1, 8:00 PM EST on Fox HD)
- #8 Boise State vs. #10 Oklahoma
- FedEx Orange Bowl (Jan. 2, 7:30 PM EST on Fox HD)
- #6 Louisville vs. #14 Wake Forest
- Allstate Sugar Bowl (Jan. 3, 7:30 PM EST on Fox HD)
- #4 LSU vs. #11 Notre Dame
- Tostitos BCS National Championship (Jan. 8, 7:30 PM EST on Fox HD)
- #1 Ohio State vs. #2 Florida
For a great up-to-date listing of all the games during bowl season check out this post at the Hot Off The Press! thread over at AVS Forum.
Continue reading for the final BCS standings.
Florida moves past Michigan for the #2 spot in the AP and Coaches Top 25 polls December 3, 2006 4:20 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in College Football, News, Sports, Television.2 comments
The Associated Press is reporting that Florida has passed Michigan to take the #2 spot in the AP Top 25 and the USA Today Top 25 Coaches poll.
After the USC loss last night, the final spot in the BCS Championship game against the Ohio State Buckeyes will be between the Michigan Wolverines and the Florida Gators.
Ohio State’s coach Tressel abstained this week in his voting in the USA Today Coaches Poll.
“We are excited to play in the BCS title game against a tremendous opponent,” he said in a statement. “After consultation with my director of athletics, Gene Smith, and based upon our unique position in the BCS standings, I believe it is only fair that we not participate the final poll.”
With the movement of Florida into the final spot it is expected that Florida will be the #2 team in the final BCS poll, which will be released later today.
Continue reading to see the complete AP Top 25 and USA Today Top 25 Coaches Poll.
Versus to Launch HD channel in January November 16, 2006 9:51 pm
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Comcast-owned Versus, the former OLN network, will launch a high definition channel in January of next year that will offer regular Versus programming for half of the day and golf programming for the other.
From noon to 7:00 PM it will program golf programming from Comcast’s Golf Channel while normal OLN programming will air on the network from 7:00 PM to noon.
So far, the network has deals in place for cable customers who subscribe to Comcast and customers who subscribe to DirecTV.
The channel will offer all of its National Hockey League games which are currently carried by Versus in high definition, Golf Channel programming will be simulcast on that channel and Versus HD and other programming such as boxing, professional bull riding, hunting and fishing shows will also be broadcast in high definition.
The Tour de France will be upconverted to HD for the time being, but negotiations are underway for the network to acquire a pure HD feed of the bicylce race.
Fox/TBS to Rotate MLB ALCS and NLCS Playoffs [Update] October 20, 2006 8:59 pm
Posted by Rosario T. Calabria in News, Sports.add a comment
Update: Final figures reveal that the deal is for $70 million per year.
Original October 20, 2006 article:
In a deal reportedly in the $45-50M range per year, TBS has secured the rights to the 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2013 National League Championship Series and the 2008, 2010 and 2012 American League Championship Series (Fox will air the series’ in the years between).
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