ALL-STAR GAME A WINNER FOR FOX

The National League trounced the American League 8-0 to win Tuesday night’s All-Star game — and Fox, which carried the game, did the same to most of its rivals as the telecast drew at least 10 million viewers, according to Nielsen overnight ratings. That figure, like those for all live sporting events, is expected to […]

MLB MAY SCORE $1 BILLION IN DEAL WITH NETWORK

With its current deals with ESPN, Fox and Turner set to expire at the end of the season next year, Major League Baseball is being wooed by CBS and NBC, each of which is offering what today’s (Tuesday) New York Post described as “a mountain of cash” to take over exclusive rights to the telecasts. […]

GM STAYS IN THE GAME WITH MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL

Although it has had to compete against NBC’s Olympics coverage for ad dollars from affluent businesses that can afford to shell out the big bucks, Fox said on Thursday that it had sold out all its ad availabilities for next week’s MLB All-Star Game at an average of $550,000 for each 30-second commercial, slightly more […]

COFFEE, TEA OR BASEBALL?

Giving new meaning to the term “fly balls,” Major League Baseball’s Advanced Media unit announced today (Tuesday) that it will deliver in-flight live streaming of games to passengers aboard planes equipped with Row 44 wi-fi technology. The deal is presumably a straight programming-for-equity pact. Howard Lefkowitz, Row 44’s chief commercial officer, said that it represented […]

MLB COMMISSIONER NIXES DODGERS TV DEAL WITH FOX

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig has rejected a deal between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Fox TV because most of the Fox money would have been earmarked to pay for the settlement of a divorce by the team’s owners, Frank McCourt and his ex-wife Jamie, and to pay off their lawyers. In a statement, Selig condemned […]

BASEBALL LIKELY TO BENEFIT FROM NFL, NBA PLAYER DISPUTES

Disputes between players and owners of NFL and NBA franchises that threaten to shut down the fall seasons for professional football and basketball have caused advertisers to redirect some of their spending to Major League Baseball and college football telecasts, Daily Variety reported today (Monday). The first weeks of the baseball season have already shown […]

ESPN MAKING BIG PLANS FOR MLB COVERAGE

ESPN’s plans to air another season of Monday Night Football may have been placed in limbo by the current NFL lockout, but baseball is another matter. The cable sports network has announced plans to launch its MLB coverage in a big way beginning on Thursday by televising three opening games over four days. The new […]

APPLE TV GETS BASEBALL, BASKETBALL PACKAGES

In the latest online challenge to cable-TV operators, Apple said Wednesday that it has signed a deal with Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association that will allow users of its settop box Apple TV to buy season TV passes to MLB and NBA games in 2011. The NBA is offering two packages to […]

FOOTBALL EASILY BEATS BASEBALL SUNDAY NIGHT

The Fox-vs-Cablevision dispute did not prevent Fox from recording 17.79 million viewers for the Giants-Lions game during a half-hour overrun at 7:00 p.m. Sunday night. That figure slightly exceeded the 17.22 million viewers who tuned in to the Indianapolis-Washington matchup on NBC’s Sunday Night Football. But SNF faced sportsfan competition from Game 2 of Major […]

POST-SEASON BASEBALL HITS ONE OUT OF THE PARK

Live sports specials continued to build muscle on Wednesday as 6.91 million viewers watched the New York Yankees beat the Minnesota Twins by a score of 6-4 to usher in post-season baseball. Total viewers for the American League Divisional Series game were up 5 percent over last year’s first game, which featured the same two […]

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