COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY - MIKE IN DA - JANUARY 8, 2011

COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY

Written by: Mike in DA
Date posted: 1/8/2011

MOTHERS, LET YOUR KIDS GROW UP TO BE PROFESSIONAL BEER PONG PLAYERS!

RON FRANKLIN FIRED BY ESPN!

Earlier in the week, there was plenty of sports talk about the controversial comments that Ron Franklin made to sideline reporter Jeannine Edwards, which resulted in his being removed from ESPN Radio’s coverage of the Fiesta Bowl on New Year's Day. So you knew sooner or later, he was going to get fired once the media pressure started going against him.

The AP report is short and offered just a brief statement: “ESPN spokesman Mike Soltys said Tuesday that "based on what occurred last Friday, we have ended our relationship with him." A brief statement was read on SportsCenter by one of the anchors that was also short and to the point.

The 68-year-old Franklin had been working at ESPN since 1987, but his career comes to an end in this low class and embarrassing manner. He was a good announcer associated more with college sports, but the last thing ESPN needs is another person enhancing their ugly, fraternity guy image.

This move had to be made - it's tough enough for women working in sports journalism without schmucks like Franklin acting like we're back in the first half of the 20th century. Of course, there are those who think ESPN might have overreacted or was out to dump Ron anyway and now had an excuse.

On a side note, I'm curious about Jim Miller's book on ESPN,  “Those Guys Have All The Fun: Inside the World of ESPN,” that comes out this year.




HOMELESS WOMAN WITH BIG TITS GETS A JOB!

BAGWELL GETS OVER 41 PERCENT OF HALL VOTES!
 

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The fact that Jeff Bagwell got 41.7% of the 581 returned ballots from the Hall of Fame voters shows that many of them are not lumping him in the same guilt by association “steroid era” category as Mark McGwire (19.8%) and Rafael Palmeiro (11.0%).

Personally as previously stated, I believe that Bagpipes is a first-time ballot for the “Hall of Very Good Players”, but not a “Hall of Famer”. In an earlier blog, I mentioned that I thought that Fred McGriff’s stats and playoff performances warranted him a better shot at the Hall than Bagpipes, but McGriff who garnered 21.5% of the vote in his initial appearance on the HOF ballot last year, dropped down to 17.9% this year.

Luckily for Jeff, he didn't have that much competition from first-timers, as Palmeiro and Larry Walker (20.3%) were his main competition.

There are many, at least locally, who thought that Jeff should have gotten in on the first ballot. However, there's a dark cloud that hovers over Bagwell, as he is one of the many names associated with the steroid era. Many question his numbers because of the "era" he played in, and though he's never tested positive for PEDs, the question will always linger. You may have read all the negative e-mails in a previous blog here concerning suspicion about him.

Nonetheless, gathering 41.7 percent of the Hall of Fame voting is a solid outing for a first-time entry. Will Bagwell make the Hall next year? Perhaps a better question is: should he?

THIS LADY'S OTHER SIGN SAID, "HEY HANDSOME, TAKE A PICTURE OF MY SIGN"

TOP 100 MOST-VIEWED SPORTING EVENTS OF 2010

The list of the 100 most-viewed sporting events on broadcast television during the 2010 calendar year was recently released by Nielsen Ratings and the NFL dominated the list with 65 of the top 100 spots, including 20 of the top 25. The 2010 Winter Olympics took up another 18 spots.


Of the seventeen non-NFL, non-Olympic telecasts to make the list, just two made the top 20 - January's BCS National Championship Game (30.7 mil) and Game 7 of the Celtics/Lakers NBA Finals (28.2 mil).


Overall, those remaining seventeen events included six NBA games (all from the Lakers/Celtics NBA Finals), three World Cup games (Spain/Netherlands, USA/Ghana, USA/England), three college football games (the National Championship Game, Sugar Bowl and Rose Bowl), two college basketball games (both from the Final Four), horse racing's Kentucky Derby, and just one Major League Baseball game (Game 4 of the World Series). The lone baseball game ranked 97th, with just over 15.5 million viewers.

 

The Top 20 events were the following:

Event – Network – Audience Size (millions)

1. Super Bowl XLIV: Saints/Colts - CBS - 106.4
2. NFC Championship: Vikings/Saints - FOX - 57.9
3. AFC Championship: Jets/Colts - CBS - 46.9
4. NFC Divisional: Cowboys/Vikings - FOX - 37.7
5. AFC Divisional: Jets/Chargers - CBS - 35.6
6. NFC Wild Card: Packers/Cardinals - FOX - 34.4
7. Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony - NBC - 32.6
8. AFC Wild Card: Eagles/Cowboys - NBC - 32.1
9. Regular Season: Saints/Cowboys - FOX - 31.9
10. BCS National Championship Game: Alabama/Texas - ABC - 30.8
11. AFC Divisional: Ravens/Colts - CBS - 30.6
12. Regular Season: Patriots/Bears (or other regional action) - CBS - 30.5
13. Primetime Winter Olympics - NBC - 29.4
14. NBA Finals: Celtics/Lakers Game 7 - ABC - 28.2
15. Regular Season: Packers/Eagles (or other regional action) - FOX - 28.0
16. NFC Divisional: Cardinals/Saints - FOX - 27.9
17. Regular Season: Colts/Eagles (or other regional action) - CBS - 27.8
18. Regular Season: Patriots/Lions - CBS - 27.8
19. Regular Season: Vikings/Saints - NBC - 27.5
20. Regular Season: Cowboys/Colts (or other regional action) - FOX - 27.4

From the above and you probably already knew this, we can see that the NFL is fairly popular. Regional coverage and regular season games consistently do better than the showcase events of other sports and nothing touches the Super Bowl. With 65 of the Top 100 and 20 of the Top 25 sporting events belonging to the NFL, the NFL is KING!

Over 106 million for the Super Bowl, 57 million for the NFC Championship, and 31 million viewers for the Thanksgiving Day game between New Orleans and Dallas! Those are impressive numbers. That regular season NO/Dallas game even out-rated the BCS National Championship Game (#10 on the list). It's amazing to see the numbers of how big the NFL has become. Of course, the Saints-Colts Super Bowl was the highest rated TV show of all-time.

Let the collective bargaining begin MOFOs.


BCS RATINGS: SUGAR BOWL DOWN, BUT BCS STILL SCORES A TOUCHDOWN FOR ESPN!

Buckeyes Win! Buckeyes Win!

According to Nielsen Ratings, the Sugar Bowl game between Ohio State and Arkansas drew an 8.2 U.S. rating and 13.6 million viewers on ESPN Tuesday night (1/4), down 4% in ratings and 12% in viewership from last year (Florida-Cincy: 8.5, 15.5 mil), but up 5% and 2%, respectively, from 2009 (Utah-Alabama: 7.8, 13.4 mil).


This marks the third-lowest rated Sugar Bowl of the BCS era, and the tenth-lowest rated since the 1985-86 season. That said, the game ranks as the second-most viewed non-NFL program in ESPN history, behind only Saturday's Rose Bowl (TCU-Wiscy: 20.6 mil). The previous #2 telecast was Saturday's Fiesta Bowl, which drew nearly three million fewer viewers (UConn-Oklahoma: 10.8 mil) than this year's Sugar Bowl.


This year's BCS now accounts for the four largest non-NFL audiences ever on ESPN and Monday Night's BCS Championship Game should easily beat the Rose Bowl audience of 20.6 million.

Prior to showing the BCS this year for the first time, ESPN's largest non-NFL audience was 10.6 million viewers for a Cubs/Cardinals MLB regular season game in 1998, when Mark McGwire hit his 61st home run of the season.

Please note that originally (1998-99 season), ABC held the rights to all four original BCS games picking up the Fiesta and Orange Bowls from their former homes at CBS, and continuing their lengthy relationships with the Rose and Sugar Bowls. This relationship continued through the bowl games of January, 2006. Beginning with the 2006–07 season through the 2009–10 season, any BCS game (including the National Championship Game) hosted by the Fiesta, Orange, or Sugar Bowls aired on Fox while the Rose Bowl was shown on ABC. Starting with the current season, ESPN will air all BCS games, including the Rose Bowl. The TV deal expires with the January 2014 games

THIS HEADLINE SAYS IT ALL AS FLORIDA STATE BEATS SOUTH CAROLINA!

THEY MAY HAVE LOST, BUT THIS WOMAN STILL LOVES HER COCKS!

FOX TO AIR FIRST PAC 12 CHAMPIONSHIP GAME!

Fox Sports has announced that it had acquired the rights to the first PAC 12 Championship Game later this year. The deal is worth about $25 million. Actually, it’s only $14.5 million, as there is another $10.5 million on top of that that Fox is paying to broadcast some extra conference games that are available due to Utah and Colorado being added to the PAC 12.


Unlike other conference championship games that usually are played at a site selected in advance, the Pac 12's championship game will be played at the home stadium of the first place team, which is a great idea because of the conference's poor history travelling to neutral site games.


I never liked the idea of having conference championships at a neutral site. The NFL doesn't do it, so why should the colleges. Besides it's unfair to make the fan base of both teams travel. Times are tough economically for many people, so the fans of the team that had the best record should get some kind of advantage.


No date has been set for the game, but it’s likely to be played on December 3, which would give Fox a doubleheader with the Big Ten championship game. Since the Big Ten game will be played indoors at Lucas Oil Stadium it could be the late game with the PAC 12 game being played late in the afternoon Eastern Time.


MNF TO STAY ON ESPN THROUGHOUT THIS DECADE!

Word in the hood is that ESPN has made a deal with the NFL for Monday Night Football with ESPN bidding in the neighborhood of $19 billion for ten years or roughly $1.9 billion per year. This is an extension to the current deal for $1.1 billion per year that expires in 2013.


To show you the enormity of this deal, ESPN will be paying about as much as NBC, CBS, and FOX combined until those deals are renewed. FOX currently pays $720 million annually for the right to the NFC; CBS pays $620 million for the AFC; and NBC pays $603 million, mainly for "Sunday Night Football" and two Wild Card playoff games.


According to the report from my source, "Basement Bertha" (and her word is “golden”), the major parts of the new deal were worked out during the regular season and will keep "Monday Night Football" on ESPN for at least the next nine years.

Neither ESPN or ABC will be in the rotation for the Super Bowl, which currently switches between FOX, CBS and NBC. But ESPN could reportedly gain access in the future to at least one Wild Card playoff game.


However, the NFL has long been hesitant to move playoff games off of the broadcast networks, so I really don't see that ever happening, though if it does, I'm sure the teams involved in that game will be able to broadcast those games locally.


Last year, the NFL extended its agreements with FOX, CBS and NBC through 2013, though all three pay significantly less than ESPN.


Using ballpark figures and for the mathematically-challenged out there, the NFL is getting about a 70 percent increase from ESPN. Therefore would a similar increase from the other networks be expected? Why not?


If that is true, that could mean roughly $1.2 billion a year from Fox, almost $1.1 billion from CBS, and roughly $1 billion from NBC. Of course, an 18-game season would be part of the deal.


Nielsen Ratings (please see above section – "Top 100 Most-Viewed Sports Events") for all of the NFL's rights-paying network partners (this excludes the NFL Network) shows record regular-season ratings. The NFL is a sure-fire ratings winner in TV.

Using my accounting knowledge from Mr. Masheb’s Economics 33 class: let’s add the $1 billion per year the league gets for the Sunday Ticket from DirecTV and the NFL's annual TV take could be in the neighborhood of $6.2 billion per season.

Next you divide $6.2 billion by 32 teams , the number of teams in the league. That would leave each team, including the Texans, with almost $194 million a season before ticket sales, parking fees, beer sales, team paraphernalia, radio rights, etc. You get the idea.


Let the collective bargaining begin MOFOs!


WHAT DOES THE ABOVE MEAN TO THE TV MEDIA?


MNF on ESPN signals that ESPN/ABC is likely not going to make a bid on acquiring any more NFL rights, as money doesn’t grow on trees even for them. This would be good news for CBS, FOX, and NBC, which can likely rule ESPN out as a possible bidder for their current packages. Unfortunately, as mentioned above, the MNF deal will probably set the market much higher, which is the bad news for these three networks.

Fox's move to get the Pac 12 Championship is another attempt to get into a market that ESPN has kept them out of in the 2000's. Fox was able to get the BCS bowl game rights for three years in hopes they'd be able to attract rights for a major conference, but it blew up in their face as ratings went south and the coverage was heavily criticized.


Fox missed out on acquiring any conference rights but was able to get the Big 10 Championship Game, but then Fox missed out on acquiring rights to the Texas Network.


However, Fox, which is headquartered on the West Coast, is in good position to be the partner of the PAC 12 for the PAC 12 Network as well as the regular season TV rights to the conference.


With now two conference championship games now, the Cotton Bowl, and ownership in one-half of the Big Ten Network, you have to think Fox is just desperate to make a deal with the PAC 12.

Fox’s ratings with MLB and NASCAR have declined in recent years. The NFL has consistently been an anchor for their sports coverage, but if you have been a follower of the Peanut Gallery, we have critcized Fox constantly for declining announcer talent, poor production, and too many gimmicky segments. The same can be said about its MLB coverage. The PG doesn't follow NASCAR, but there is a suspicion the same could be true there.


We'll see if Fox can fix things up. They can always bid for the NHL, if NBC doesn’t extend its contract, but for right now getting into bed with the PAC 12 may be a steppingstone to hooking up with other college football conferences.

Stay tuned!

MIKE IN DA
 
HMW

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