Sports+

Published on Thursday, April 19, 2012 the most

Indies west fast bowler Kemar Roach brakes captured two wickets in four balls to Australia's push for a series clinching victory in the second test in Trinidad lodge yesterday.

Roach, the five wickets in Australia's first innings in sacks, ' once again rattled the visitors by dismissing opener David Warner for 17 then press Shane Watson for a duck.

Four FC, Queen's Park was captured at lunch the day, breakfast for two, Australia 40 Leadinng with 94 runs were 257 at the start of the day after bowling from West Indies total.

Ed Cowan was unbeaten on 13 while Australia Captain Ricky Ponting was retired from four, when rain, which all four days has interrupted the game, play ended before the scheduled lunch break.

The West of polished Indian Australia of innings in the first over of the day when left arm spinner Michael beer Carlton Baugh LBW for 21 captured.

Australia, last week won the first test in Barbados, and only one of the two last tests, are subject to recording Frank Worrell trophy must, made a bright start to their second innings despite batting on a pitch characters, which proved difficult to score on free.

Set on 26 which runs bowling in the first ten overs to the West Indies with Fidel Edwards and spinner Shane Shillingford opened.

Cowan given a life before he had got off the mark when the West Indies Captain Darren Sammy a regulation hooks on the first sheet from Edwards, but the introduction of Roach in the attacks and quickly deleted things turned around. Angled the ball into a Roach in his first, and the outer edge of the Warner and Darren Bravo bat instead of a low catch safe on the second piece of paper found. Watson's knocked out three balls later Roach dull with a good length ball that kept low.

Published at Tuesday, April 24, 2012 the most

CRICKET: Glasgow Academy student Lyle Hill scored a superb 179 runs in the first cricket match of the season for the school first XI on Saturday. The innings by the player, the under 21 captain of Scotland was lighted in the past year, new Anniesland, and helped out the Academy to a 213-run victory over Lomond school, Helensburgh.

The fifth year students scored the runs of only 80 balls, nine fours and an amazing 17 sixes beat, as he was during his innings of team 258 ' all out dominated. Some of the sixes, he hit were so great that the ball a few times crashed the clubhouse roof and suppressed a slate. In reply the Academy put out shell for 45 Lomond.

Glasgow Academy Master cricket Gregor wood said: "it was a brilliant innings by a talented young cricketer." I hope you can continue in this form of Lyle.

"The way he hit the ball was he must have because it's like a basketball and the guys are all looking forward to the rest of the season." "Work hard and have a big heart, so we will go see how things."

In the meantime Scotland cricket captain Gordon Drummond attended the dollar Academy last week and spoke to the first and second XIs.

A question and answer session allows the student him questions about a variety of different aspects of the game, starting with individual player responsibility the necessary intellectual focus for success.

Jamie Frost, master of the cricket $, commented: "there is no doubt, that" the young who took part in the session, professional approach was inspired by Gordon Drummond. He was able to play a real insight into what it is at the top level.

It was a real honor for us host Gordon and thank you to d ' him for his time spent with us. "

The Twenty20 tournament scheduled for the dollar last week went because of rain and will be later in the function for arranged.

Published at Tuesday, April 17, 2012 the most

KRICKET Scotland Chief Executive Roddy Smith has revealed that the body and the right to host the 2015 format the photographic World Cup qualifier for a fairer qualification.

ICC announced yesterday that the qualifier will be staged in New Zealand co-host in 2014, six years explains that the event in Scotland would take place in 2013.

It would be the first senior ICC tournament have in this country - hosted the World Cup and the World Twenty20 qualifier - enraptured Ireland CS but not quite the way were took place when the Queen came tournament, had their eyes on the world of Twenty20 finals to glamorous hosting.

However, agreed in the countless negotiations during the attempt qualification for the World Cup 2015 total held in the ICC, shell scrap last year, Smith and CS Chairman Keith Oliver, sits on the Board of ICC - hosting rights renounce.

"When the WCL [world is a Cricket League] came was, [was decided, the] the League is a would stop not until 13 December (2007), so that the qualifier could be not in summer 2013" last night, Smith said. "On this basis we have as the host to avoid as we all at the new format.""The new qualifier had early 2014, which obviously excludes us."

The new qualifying format pits Scotland against associate Nations in a home-and away round robin over a period of three years, and is "as a more deserved than its predecessor was method of a single qualification decide."

But give way by the home advantage, life more difficult before the CS for Scotland of what is composed of 14 teams for the last World Cup, "foreseeable."

The ICC also announced yesterday, that the 2019 and 2023 events are both, as expected, guaranteed a place Nations on ten teams, with eight test and two other qualified Nations be restricted.

In a further sign of things to come the right to a third successive world qualifier of Twenty20 in October 2013, given before the final the following year host the United Arab Emirates.

The ICC has also provided undergo an administrative realignment that cause that the creation of the post of a powerful Chairman and a purely ceremonial role of President in the Football Federation is transformed.

Chairman Board of Directors ordered, instead of the President, have the effect that the organization in the "future will be resolved post during the Vice President".

Steve 1853-october batting for Heriots.

By BILL LOTHIAN
Published on Friday, 13 April 2012 14: 28

Captain Steve 1853-october prepares for a new look side in which complete Heriot opening match of the Scottish Club cricket season tomorrow "."

National Cup cross section study help relations, ushering in the campaign with Heriot, outfit for the Cup back in the year 2000, with up to seven players, who were the last capital either elsewhere in 2011, or take a break from the game.

1853 October wintered in Whangarei, New Zealand, where he on average around 50% with the bat in cricket and used also the invite contacts teenage Wicketkeeper/batsman Bradley Kneebone, role to fill an overseas amateur.

Kneebone makes his debut tomorrow "at the Golden massacre against Ferguslie in addition to Kevin Farrell, McLaren and cam ' the new coach, the club who have returned from Dunfermline, as well as David Ross, which is RHESUS from a spell in Corstorphine."

In addition, Neil Wicks has moved from Grange during Ali Farouk and Akshay Phale are both back from a spell.

Ex-Saltire 1853-october, now happily recovered from a back complaint that hampered Pack said his contributions in Scotland,: "I knew Bradley sought conditions experience overseas and what convinced he could make me a job with the Heriot the 100 was made, he when we of plenty were opening for Northland against Bay in a % match."

"With Simon Smith to Grange and Gav McIntyre availability because of family responsibilities, incomplete" there was an opening and make the stumps and Neil Wicks provide secure "."

Others who come into the frame, if clarify violations are ex-Scotland Seamer Craig McKellar Qasim Ashraf is currently set, and Peter Ross for playing time between University in England back and position could fight Australia with Scotland under-20 World Cup.

Series known faces in the Heriot "Sean Weeraratna and Andre van Niekerk." are Keith Morton, tomorrow In the same section Edinburgh of Falkirk hope new overseas amateur Kyle Blanchard for the trip have to Stirling County.

Blanchard, a top batsman/Wicketkeeper, links with experience, provincial side counties Manakau while New Zealand for Weymouth in the Devon League is and more during the northern hemisphere summer order 16.

However Falkirk will be hindered on the opening weekend by a club tour to Cardiff which was arranged when it was expected that the domestic season would be a week later always in progress.

Champions League is, Carlton, with warm-up fixtures against Watsonians and Irish North down have prepared. "The talent of left arm marked these disputes spinner Windows Chayank Davies, a competitive debut against Poloc at Grange makes loans after taking five wickets for 19 runs victory over Sonians '." New head coach Toby Bailey (formerly of Northants) connects the Fraser Watts Saltires, Mommsen, Gordon Drummond Preston and Steve Gilmour at the top of the order.

Stuart Chalmers takes the reins as Watsonian captain and has passed to former 19-directed debut Cap Andy Hislop (formerly of Greenock, CLYDESDALE) and hired Scottish-American Seamer Shaun Wilkie with Saltires hand of expected next week of Jean Symes.

CLYDESDALE are Grange Renfrew expect during SMRH and RHESUS Corstorphine, respectively, and wet.

Published at Friday, April 13, 2012 18:

MICHAEL Leask Stoneywood-get the chance, Dyce is his Scotland Saltires claims. xls use, if the lions on Warwickshire next week.

The young Aberdonian is unlimited only two players on the side for the three-day battle in Coventry. Leask 203 impresses with a half-century on his debut last lions and since then has his mark at the ICC Academy in Pune, where he twice posted scores of more than 80.

Greenock captains of the side and Berrington Rev.richie "there is a place for Moneeb Iqbal, who last month returned for Scotland in world T20 qualifier after 18 months of absence ' s."

Lions Squad (V Warwickshire of 2nd XI, 24-26 April): R Berrington (c), R E C Flannigan, Chalmers, MacLeod, P, M, M Iqbal Mommsen Haq, C Wallace w/k, M, T Parker, M Buchan Leask.

Published on Monday, 52 23 April 2012

CALUM MacLeod was opened their Warwick Scottish Cup title with a clear victory over Fauldhouse Victoria links satisfied after the defense.

Day opening the season may rise the showers politics long enough due to rain which but the Cup holders had retreated to Bothwell Castle to their campaign to a plane.

Thinking about a seven-wicket success (by the Duckworth/Lewis method) MacLeod, for the first time United in a competitive fixture, said: "The guys produced a very professional performance, what was very pleasant."

"It is their first game of the season especially impressive, because for most of them, was how our friendly matches rained out were".This gives us on "Something.bak competition goes on."

Submitted, bat, were against it when Fauldhouse Ricky Bawa and Scotland U19 and pace bowler Gavin main Durham Academy both twice beaten. "It was, is no respite for the former League East side middle and lower order whose Weg was blown by Scott Mackenzie." Returns the high Seamer, were figures of 6-18 as Fauldhouse exceptionally dismissed for just 81.

Uddingston of reply was beaten by Amir Gul, 25, but the run Chase was stopped by an early shower with the owner of the House on 65-2. After a long delay, they were used something, a d/l target 68 whips, revised. The Cup holders went on to lose a further wicket but had no trouble to secure the victory.

Grange, United main group rivals expected to s, saw their home clash with Renfrew washed out and added MacLeod: the format of the "competition means that this could be as one of them win." "It is nice an a-point lead on Grange already."

Somewhere else matched the Fifers in Ayr Cambusdoon disturb Freuchie by Kash Khalil six gates as Mackenzie here. The released Khalil from 6-12 hosted helped for only 84 and, while the Freuchie response was never smooth, she eventually won by three wickets.

John Blain has an impressive start to his tenure as player-manager of West of Scotland. The former World Cup bowler claimed three wickets at the concede of only four Saltires Corstorphine runs in a one-sided affair at Hamilton Crescent.

Blain had sterling support from Dave McNulty, took 4-15 as running Club Edinburgh for 56-142 killed their revised d/l finish out.

Earlier Ian young arrived unbeaten 73 and flowing of Jamyang Luthra 53no as West 209-3 accumulated.

Dumfries accumulated day version a total 318 s-5 against defense with five players recording optimizes space on the disc recording, half-with. Manages only 100-5 Weirs in the response.

Former Scotland batsman Steve stroked an unbeaten 70 as 1853-october Heriot all-rounder is a seven wicket victory over the d/L Ferguslie on the Golden massacre for the Western warriors forged to 47no Josh Edwards, Dso ' an eight wicket success against Edinburgh academical in another rain affected game on new Williamfield led.

Published on Thursday, 40 19 April 2012

Police have some of the labeled shipped late Ben Hollioake of England restored cricket equipment stolen by burglars from his family '.

Brother Adam Hollioake said yesterday of the crime which tragically short international career robbed him and his parents of valuable items of Ben's assigned to.

Melbourne-born Hollioake, died in a car crash in Perth at the age of 24 in 2002 won two test matches and 20 in-a day internationals for England.

His brother, also a former England Player, broke the message on Twitter from the collapse last night in the Hollioakes family house in Perth on Monday.

Former England Captain Michael has current test player, and Kevin Pietersen and James Anderson, who soon called "- again via Twitter - for all the efforts that are being made to restore the property and to catch the criminals."

Hollioake of the contemporary England ', and subsequent ashes winning captain, wrote: "Please seek help the idiots, the in @ Adamhollioake have broken parents House and stolen Ben ' the England possession." Adam Hollioake, his brother for years in Surrey, test and ODI t-Shirts, listed ODI as well as helmets, boots and a County team-mate bats Blazer "The stolen property."

And all other structures in Australia and elsewhere be required to "in the case of one personal items for sale online or otherwise will appear."

Perhaps owing to this cause of action West Australia police allegedly carried out a search warrant and since recovered some of the kit. But Adam Hollioake later made it clear that much still untreated.

"Guys, WA police have a great job done and a half restored bag Kit." Have still a lot missing, including his play shirts, "tweeted it."

By BILL LOTHIAN
Published on Thursday, 19 April 2012 12: 14

Fraser Watts leads champions Carlton in the new season of competitive cricket this weekend on a high after getting Scotland's most capped player ' in the winter.

If the right batsman Cup qualifier appeared against Uganda in the last month of Twenty20 World ", it was his occurs, overtake reached former Scotland captain Craig Wright." Since then, Watts has gone to his country six times represented one more.

Watts said it was "especially someone like Wrighty, overtake" a proud moment. "But hopefully a few more innings" me it stay still. "

For Watts, the Carlton team start with a cross section-Scottish Cup-study at Poloc Grange Loan order tie number against, is the last stage of a journey that started in the South Morningside school his 201st Cap.

"I was fortunate that my father (David) always hot already, turned out that on Cricket at some point for Leeds in the League is before you was in Edinburgh."

"Papa and the Carlton of Cricket Club a form of South Morningside and a. got on if I was Boroughmuir high" were a few ways to play, but my interests to promote continued mainly by the Association.

"When I was a little interests at Loughborough University was of Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire shown in my skills but I be she saw was then clear I wasn't yet ready for such a step." It doesn't matter. I'm incredibly happy, so often to play with for Scotland and have been to many of the great players.

"The like of which over"(Pakistani_fast_bowler) Shoab Akhtar characterized as well as Australians Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee and Shaun Tate. There was also a fantastic privilege to be, if we had as our foreign players Rahul Dravid, Scotland. Dravid is so technically gifted and so a modest guy.

"I was in and out of the Scottish national team more during this era and right at the beginning of my career, I was happy that the coach Tony Judd, must be" a little potential he have me involved only work to experience in addition to the ban on the international team in the nets. "Graham Dilley (former England ashes hero) was an another coach who helped me, but at the beginning, what I could see was my father took me to the value of a technically very good player and up and running."

As far as the new club scene goes, the man whose Debüt came in 1998 and whose first appearance came two years earlier as a teenager against Bangladesh for Carlton thinks that Carlton must ascended to the Summit for the first time for the challenge of remaining at the top have braces are.

After our first Bundesliga is a "title last year people for us will be gunning are and our look at perch do not least Grange, which have been on a large setting drive I suppose, because the sight of their cross city is to win the League rivals would chill have sent back the membership."

"I am Americans was a mixture of disbelief and dismay am when we finally delivered what we threaten to do for years." "Have we awakened a sleeping giant?"

In the Carlton new series you are overseas amateur Mike Herdman, of Brisbane, such as Mohammad Umair, John Hutton and coach Toby Bailey. But five of last year's side moved on including the experienced Cedric English.

"Watts says:" there will be opportunities for "we have through some of the younger players bring was and perhaps a secret purchase of the game Poloc!"

Published on Sunday, 15 April 2012 14: 51

It took throughout the winter but England finally won a test match on the sub-continent and proved that they win are suitable in all conditions and on all surfaces.

In fact, when in the last four play which had focused batsman, as in Colombo, bright, and above all played as straight as in the game, then a few other tests would have won. Their troubles have been well documented, but pleasing Kevin Pietersen scored great century, that many big players was worthy.

Not even, Mahela Jayawardene scored as easily or as freely as Pietersen, apart from the dispute about his switch hit, proved that he had learned from its mistakes in the UAE and developed to survive a technology and method and leads to secure results.

The significance of Pietersen's England cannot be stressed enough. Destroyed in the first innings he Sri Lanka confidence make which is correct, but occasionally repellent strokeplay. It was not notable, self indulgent and superlatives, but, clinical and aggressive. The Andrew Strauss of joy for his captain, is not only running, but the speed at which he scores. If he had along the meanders, collect in the style of Jonathan Trott, it was the same result achieved and England still option would in a strong position if you must, but the game would have three hours closer at the end of a tie make more likely than an England win.

Awarded the bowlers, since they have been of comfort "for a long time, to dismiss Sri Lanka in the second innings." On flat wickets tends seam or swing, that hardly a team have two new balls, so this means that innings lasts around 100 took over. Bowling is that hard, which is why James Anderson was the outstanding cricketer of the winter.

Anderson has England seam attack with incredible endurance, skill and success carried. The heat in this bright Colombo has debilitating was and yet if the ball at the last meeting raised it to consistently deliver a different search spell awakened. His fitness and willpower should is not refuted by his boy band, everyone sees. Over the five games he has 18 wickets at an average of 25, the figures, which would be good for a spinner to drive spin-friendly wickets, hit, but absolutely amazing considering he is a pace bowler, the swing depends on.

Stuart broad was also outstanding before injury forced his return home and Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar proved that they can mix it with the locals. He was strong back to his best in this match, the ball before immersion, fizzing and spiders. Therefore England now the No. 1, should be retained on the ground at least until the series of the year in the middle of summer when the South Africans came to England. Anderson and broad square against Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel.

Both types of dough will be a thorough examination of the art and the courage and this time the England six have no excuse on the conditions.

Published on Thursday, April 12, 2012 the most

Sri Lankan batsman Kumar Sangakkara became the first person to be called at the same time as the Wisden cricketer Leadinng in the world and one of the five cricketers of the year,.

The elegant left-handed compiled 2.129 runs in three international formats last year - no other player broke 2,000 - with five and 13 of fifties, with the table and reached four figures in tests and one-day internationals for the third time.

Century probably his final test on English soil in guarantee while he was accepted the cricketers of the year, the award, awarded by the publication editor - a coat of one this year by Lawrence booth-the practice that most influenced the English Cricket summer, and a player can only won once.

"I had always a test with Lord United hundred but, if not to be, then expressions anywhere in England Sangakkara told David Hopps" published today in the almanack. "The Rose Bowl Stadium as it felt to l would be my last chance."

Sangakkara also was praised for its prices of MCC spirit of cricket Cowdrey lecture, partially reprinted in: Wisden in which he cricket faced the level of government interference in his country.

Join the 34-year-old as cricketers of the year are fellow veterans Glen Chapple, Lancashires title-winning captain and talisman and Worcestershire Seamer Alan "," the wicket-taker in Leadinng Division, one of the last season of LV = County was formed with 73.

England pair, the Alastair Cook, 83 in addition to his return to the international a day side as captain and Tim Bresnan, of 21 wickets in 28, the test scored 189 runs at 63 and profit of ten tests - summer with 100 percent had ended, will be concluded at an average 3 v.s.o.p. running test-quintet.

"" Said: "World class cricketer along recognized as such as Alastair Cook, Tim Bresnan, Glen Chapple and Kumar Sangakkara is a real honor."

Used elsewhere in the almanack, as his first comments that a wide range of subjects, which most continued to address in particular the global shift of focus towards Twenty20 cricket and the role of the Board of control for cricket in India in the governance of the World game.

Description T20 as a Pandora s Box "disguised as panacea","outside AD DS booth: England Test match increasingly resembling the quiet zone of the world cricket gravy: respected in theory, in practice ignored."

"The real damage is done by the prevalence of the two-match series." "For each series not with Zimbabwe and Bangladesh must be three tests at least."

About BCCI, makes stand - the youngest Wisden editor in 72 years-writes: "India have ended up with a special gift: the power to make an entire sport." But all too often their game seems driven by the interests of the few. Other countries run that game along the lines to even serve, but no exercise that makes BCCI's-their shares and superlatives. "

Posted: Sat., Jan. 7, 2012, 4:00am PTCostly rights fees move sports goal line

With sports rights fees going through the roof, few are benefiting more than those with college football and basketball to sell. But for the so-called minor collegiate sports -- including everything from baseball to soccer, women's softball to lacrosse -- the playing field is tilting toward a stripped-down, do-it-yourself production model.

Historically, athletic departments have taken rights fees and relied on outside professionals -- whether they be regional sports networks, local television stations or national broadcasters -- to do everything from camerawork to beaming transmissions from satellite trucks. And while universities aren't about to give up the most lucrative paydays for their big-ticket sports, they are increasingly taking matters into their own hands everywhere else.

Oklahoma U. is at the top of the class in the DIY trend. Its television production capabilities for live athletic events would be the envy of many RSNs; the school recently completed a $5 million upgrade that includes two control rooms and state-of-the-art equipment. This gives its 60-person-plus inhouse staff (most of them students) the ability to create high-definition telecasts from any venue on campus. As a result, OU directly produces approximately 60 sporting events, including track and field as well as baseball and softball, for broadcast on Cox Cable's CST network in Oklahoma City and Tulsa as well as other regional affiliates around the state.

"If we weren't producing, we would have 20 games on (TV) that are contracted by our rights holders and that's it," says Brandon Meier, Oklahoma U. assistant athletic director for broadcast operations.

But by lowering the production overhead, OU hasn't had difficulty convincing outlets to run another 40 or so events.

"We hire students and they help keep the cost of production down," Meier says. "And we don't have to tear down completely after a telecast if we are going to do, say, five straight games."

Even for institutions without sophisticated video infrastructure, it is possible to take control of production and cut costs significantly. Earlier this year, sports media consultant Tom Buffolano convinced Rice U. and Conference USA he could deliver a high-def broadcast of a three-game baseball series between Rice and the U. of Memphis at a fraction of the cost regularly required by an RSN or local broadcast station. Normally, production costs would range between $45,000 and $75,000 for a single game, but Buffolano successfully produced all three matchups for around $45,000, with two of the contests airing on cabler CBS Sports Network.

Savings were realized by avoiding the use of a production truck (that work was done from a box inside the stadium) and a satellite (they were able to send the feed through an Internet provider).

Universities getting into the production game aren't seeing returns on investment anywhere near those of the big conference television deals like the Atlantic Coast Conference's 12-year, $1.9 billion agreement signed last year with ESPN. Yet bringing production inhouse hasn't been a money-losing venture when done on a scale like Oklahoma and, more important, it gives schools the ability to get exposure for minor sports.

"Rice baseball has traditionally been a national powerhouse," Buffolano says. "Conference USA and Rice didn't have a TV contract in place that would get Rice baseball or Conference USA baseball on the air. The (claim) was it was cost prohibitive, but that didn't make any sense. … Using the high-def, low-cost model for local over-the-air TV stations or regional sports networks can solve that problem."

One concern these deals present is how the use of college students -- who are becoming increasingly involved in all facets of these productions -- might reduce opportunities for behind-the-camera professionals.

Buffolano, however, says that the DIY telecasts present games that might never otherwise be aired, and adds that, inasmuch as students generally can't handle all aspects of a production, the broadcasts can create jobs for below-the-line freelancers.

"There is absolutely no downside to this," Buffolano says. "When it comes to creating a high-quality, lower-cost economic model, you still need (professionals). While students are becoming more involved, they are not as experienced as people who have been doing (a job) for 15 years. You still need those experienced directors, cameramen (and) sound mixers." nNevertheless, on a smaller scale, some production will completely bypass outside professionals.

At the U. of South Carolina, the athletic department, like most major programs, is crafting reality-based streaming video shorts about various sports programs for the Internet. Last year, students working with the school's Gamecock Prods. created a series of five- to seven-minute features on the school's new softball coach, Beverly Smith. Following the series' Internet run, season ticket sales skyrocketed by 311%.

Buoyed by that success, South Carolina recently produced a pair of shows on their men's and women's soccer programs that caught the attention of Fox, though a deal to air them could not be finalized.

Paul Danna, director of South Carolina's Gamecock Prods., believes there is a future for his school's product on television

Many schools appear keen to expand their efforts, according to Buffolano. For most, that means edging into producing live events. But even at a school like Oklahoma where they consistently do just that, there's room for growth. Meier hopes to produce more pre- and post-game programming and ramp up the production of documentaries and other longform fare.

"There is always other content that goes untapped," Meier says. "We want to utilize all the access we're given." Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

View the original article here

Posted: Sat., Feb. 11, 2012, 4:00am PTWith sports routinely outdrawing other genres on TV, those with shows or films to market are taking notice. And it doesn't matter whether a production is sports-focused or simply a project that might appeal to fans; the feeling among film and television producers is that sports media can be an essential part of a publicity campaign.

Columbia Pictures actioner "21 Jump Street" has brought in a consultant to ensure that sports media is a part of the PR plan. While the action film doesn't highlight home runs, touchdowns or goals scored, "Jump Street" thesps Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill or Ice Cube may well end up chatting on sports TV and radio about their reboot of the popular 1980s television series in the runup to the movie's March 16 release.

"Having talent on either sports radio or sports-themed television programming tends to reach a heavy concentration of males who are 18 and older -- along with sports-savvy women," says Sony Pictures Entertainment's Steve Elzer, senior VP of media relations. "So if we have a film that targets men -- whether it has a sports theme or not -- we believe (sports media) is a very important slice of our campaign."

ESPN shows like "First Take," "SportsCenter" and "Sports-Nation" consistently attract audiences in key male demographics. "SportsCenter," for example, has a 75% male audience with a median age in the hard-to-reach 33- to 38-year-old range. Radio sports talkshows regularly welcome movie and TV stars not only to talk sports but also to tubthump their latest projects. Even less obvious outlets like the NFL Network's "The Rich Eisen Podcast" can be an excellent venue for stars to pitch their work. Eisen's podcasts, simulcast on TV and the Internet, regularly feature celebs such as Matt Damon and Adam Sandler talking both football and Hollywood, and have exceeded 4 million downloads since April.

Since 1993, Jeff Freedman, founder of praisery FSPR, has worked for nearly every studio in Hollywood as a publicist-for-hire focused on courting sports media coverage. He's seen movies increase their tracking by as many as eight points when a sports media-specific push goes well.

Freedman, who is working with Columbia on "21 Jump Street," points to "Moneyball" as an example of a well-executed sports campaign. ESPN had numerous segments devoted to the movie, including ones with star Brad Pitt on "SportsCenter" and the show "Numbers Never Lie." The MLB Network also did a Bob Costas-hosted special, featuring Pitt and co-star Hill, among others.

The marriage of sports media and a film like "Moneyball," based on a book that chronicled a change in the way baseball players are valued and which boasts a big name like Pitt, was a no-brainer for outlets like ESPN and the MLB Network.

But Freedman argues that projects without sports-driven plotlines can also benefit from such exposure. A common misconception among some studio execs, according to Freedman, is that the courting of sports fans may pigeonhole a project as simply a movie for rabid armchair jocks.

"Sometimes (studios) feel that sports are confining, which is not the case," Freedman says. "If Brad Pitt does an interview on the MLB Network, you don't have to worry that some women are going to be (turned off), because he's talking about the baseball in 'Moneyball.'?" The only women who are going to see the interview are women who are baseball fans, he says.

From the sports media side, there is certainly a healthy appetite for Hollywood talent appearing on programming.

"It adds a bit of celebrity sizzle," says Fox Sports media group president and chief operating officer Eric Shanks. "Overall, it is just another kind of way to broaden sports and make it entertaining."

Shanks, a producer on the former Fox Sports talker "The Best Damn Sports Show Period," included stars like Mark Wahlberg, Bradley Cooper and Kid Rock on Fox's NFL telecasts this past season. Fox Sports Net simulcasts "The Dan Patrick Show," a radio program that is a popular destination for stars, and Shanks says he would always consider new talk projects that combine Hollywood and athletics.

Eisen, an on-air personality for the NFL Network, books his own guests for his podcast. He has grabbed a long list of film and television talent to discuss sports and their projects, including Bryan Cranston ("Breaking Bad"), Josh Charles ("The Good Wife") and Larry David ("Curb Your Enthusiasm").

"I love to have relaxed conversations with (people) from various spectrums of pop culture, and the NFL is a major slice of pop culture," Eisen says. "What better way to have somebody promote their movie, their show or their album than to come on in a relaxed easy environment and show their fans that they are just like them?"

A veritable blitz of Hollywood regulars have descended upon ESPN's Bristol, Conn., headquarters to take part in what the company calls the Car Wash, where talent from films like "The Hangover Part II" (Justin Bartha), "Grown Ups," (Sandler, Chris Rock, David Spade, Rob Schneider, Kevin James) and "Hall Pass" (Peter and Bobby Farrelly) are booked as guests on a laundry list of ESPN shows across TV, radio and online.

"We're in a world where media is being ever-increasingly fractured," Freedman says. "Every day, there are more channels, more websites and more radio (options). Sports (platforms) can be most effective if (used) in sync with the overall marketing campaign." Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

View the original article here

Posted: Sat., Feb. 11, 2012, 4:00am PT

Super Bowl XLVI was the most-watched telecast in U.S history.

Thanks to a 300-plus channel universe, the Internet, DVDs and other newer media forms, the eyeballs of America are splintered more than ever these days. But there's one thing that brings us all together: the NFL.

The Feb. 5 Super Bowl between the New York Giants and New England Patriots on NBC drew the largest average aud on record for a U.S. program -- 111.3 million -- marking the seventh straight year of gains for pro football's championship game. When the same teams met four years earlier on Fox, a similarly competitive contest drew 97.4 million.

How big is the NFL these days? Consider that the 111.3 million who watched the Super Bowl is more than the combined audiences for the most recent deciding games of baseball's World Series (25.4 million), college football's BCS title game (24.2 million), basketball's NBA Finals (23.9 million), college basketball's NCAA men's championship (20.1 million) and hockey's Stanley Cup Finals (8.5 million).

This came on the heels of the conference championship games that determined the Super Bowl teams averaging a whopping 53.7 million -- the most for the penultimate round in 30 years.

Of course, it helps that the sport has never been more competitive, including some nail-biter Super Bowl finishes (unlike a stretch a generation ago when the game more often than not was a blowout). But the league has done its part to make sure more viewers see meaningful games season-long, with some key changes to its television packages in recent years.

For example: The Saturday playoff games traditionally skedded for 1 p.m. ET kickoff decades ago were moved to primetime, and one of the conference championships is now also played in primetime; there's flexible scheduling on Sunday, which shifts games to either the 4:15 p.m. or 8:30 p.m. ET timeslot if the one originally scheduled is a dud; and top-tier teams can appear in primetime up to six times, up from five a decade ago.

As much of a roll as the NFL is on, there are already some questioning the league's recent decision to add early-season Thursday night games to its television slate.

The matchups in these games don't figure to be as attractive as the primetime package on either NBC or ESPN -- and certainly won't draw as well, since they'll air on the lesser-available NFL Network -- but is it too much of a good thing? Contact Rick Kissell at rick.kissell@variety.com

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Posted: Sat., Jan. 7, 2012, 4:00am PTColleges reduce cost of sportscasts

People have traditionally been able to "ooh" and "aah" at big-money sports contracts and TV rights deals with cool detachment, as if the salaries paid star point guards or fees extended to football owners were bits of gee-whiz accounting, otherwise divorced from reality.

Moving forward, though, consumers and a mostly docile sports media contemplating those mind-boggling figures will have to start to realize the shit is going to start hitting the fans -- and even more so, the non-fans.

For all the talk about "American Idol" or myriad award shows building toward the Oscars, one commodity dominates the TV calendar in January and early February like no other: football. And with a flurry of new TV contracts enriching the National Football League to the tune of roughly $5 billion annually once they kick in -- a staggering increase of more than 60% over existing agreements -- well, somebody's going to have to pay the freight on all this.

Broadcast networks will no longer be content to view sports as loss leaders -- the kind of must-have commodity they're willing to take a financial bath on to maintain circulation. They're going to want to offset their investment, either through sweetened retransmission fees from cable and satellite operators or altered agreements with affiliated stations.

Meanwhile, cable channels and systems -- especially ESPN, but also entities like Fox and Time Warner Cable -- have rolled the dice on sports as the best hedge against the worst possibilities of a digital future. While the prospect of people dumping cable, or "cord-cutting," has perhaps been overstated, championship games and playoffs represent the kind of live events people will absolutely demand, and potentially pay through the nose to get. (Full disclosure: I'm a part-time contributor to Foxsports.com.)

The push-comes-to-shove element hinges on the simple fact that TV isn't a landscape of unlimited resources. If networks shell out huge amounts of money for something, they're going to try getting it back somewhere, somehow. To quote the old song, something's gotta give.

So who'll feel the pinch? The aforementioned affiliates, and almost certainly smaller cable networks, which will get squeezed in future contract negotiations with system operators trying to offset higher fees to sports-carrying channels.

And, of course, consumers.

The prospect of rising cable bills has simultaneously renewed talk of establishing pay tiers and a la carte pricing -- both of which would require fans to ante up directly for the sports they crave -- probably more fair, on the face of it, than forcing said super-fan's grandma to shell out $5 a month for the privilege of getting an ESPN service she doesn't watch.

Of course, at least ESPN provides year-round service, which is more than can be said for something like NFL network, which still demands steep monthly fees -- more than 70¢ per sub per month, per SNL Kagan -- even when the league is essentially dormant more than half the year. And now college conferences and individual universities such as Texas U. are capitalizing on the insatiable appetite for sports by creating their own dedicated channels, further slicing away at the pie.

Theoretically, more choices for consumers are a good thing. But enterprises like ESPN are all about leverage. Having rights to the NFL, NBA or MLB actually creates more of that in dealing with distributors, advertisers and consumers.

Moreover, if some form of a la carte pricing does come to pass (or punt or kick), premium sports channels will only exacerbate the have/have-not divide that already exists between those who can afford arena luxury boxes and a majority resigned to watching their local heroes on TV (or the computer or hand-held device).

Highlighting this point, a reader recently wrote the Los Angeles Times lamenting the migration of all but a handful of college bowl games to cable.

After losing his job, he said, "I had to cut back on a lot of things -- one was cable TV," which now means he "can't even watch the Rose Bowl thanks to ESPN and the almighty dollar."

The leagues, universities and networks would no doubt clear their throats and feign sympathy when presented such cases. But the harsh reality is a marked shift from free TV toward a world favoring those who can afford to pay in order to watch others play. Because despite the prevailing image of sports as our shared sandbox, entering the new digital playground comes at a price. Contact Brian Lowry at brian.lowry@variety.com

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Posted: Sat., Nov. 26, 2011, 4:00am PT

Tiger Woods

It has been almost two years since Tiger Woods was involved in a single-car accident outside his estate in the posh Isleworth enclave of Orlando. His personal life has turned inside out, and his golf game derailed. He has had health issues as well, and has not won a tournament since capturing the BMW Championship in September 2009; his last victory at a major was the 2008 U.S. Open.

And many would say Woods has taken the business of televised golf with him down into the bunker.

Though the sport's core aud of upscale men 35-64 remains substantial (and an attractive one for high-end advertisers), golf has lost a big chunk of the more casual viewers, including women, who would tune in only to see Woods in action. This can be seen in the viewership numbers for recent years, which don't exactly paint a rosy picture.

For instance in 2008, the four-day Nielsens for the U.S. Open (which spilled over into a fifth day that featured a playoff between Woods, then the world's top-rated golfer, and Rocco Mediate) cumed a scintillating 47.9 million viewers on NBC and ESPN. The next two years, as Woods' game began to founder, U.S. Open ratings came in at about 37 million viewers. And this year, in which Woods did not play, total viewers for the four-day event fell to 30.2 million. In golf, lower scores are desirable; in TV ratings for golf, though, not so much.

Naturally, there is always the chance Woods will get healthy, re-discover his swing and claw his way back to the top. His game for the U.S. at the recent President's Cup showed flashes.

Woods' popularity was so singular that it's difficult to see any player able to pick up his mantle.

Luke Donald of Great Britain is the top-ranked player; Steve Strickler, at No. 4, is the top American. Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland, at No. 3, has gotten a lot of publicity. But can any one of them entice casual fans to watch?

"There's no one that I know of right now (to replace Tiger)," says Art Spander, Bay Area sports columnist and longtime golf writer. "The PGA Tour keeps throwing names at you, trying out people. Rory McIlroy seems like a good kid, with some charisma. But I don't think Americans will follow him like they do Tiger."

Still, the health of golf is all about perception in a "glass half full or half empty" kind of way.

The PGA looks at a tournament as twice as interesting when Woods participates, but the public looks at one without him as only half as interesting, Says Darren Rovell, sports business analyst for CNBC: "People may define the state of golf as when Tiger is playing really well. But the PGA Tour doesn't look at it that way."

The weird thing is, the PGA may have a point.

In September, the PGA Tour announced it had agreed to contract extensions with NBC and Golf Channel (both owned by Comcast) and CBS that last until 2021, despite Woods' uncertain future. While terms of the deals were not disclosed, insiders say the PGA managed to gain increases over its existing deals.

A key reason for that may be due to the meteoric rise in sports rights. While ratings often decrease for certain sports because of audiences drifting to other forms of entertainment, that migration doesn't seem to be reflected in sports-rights fees.

For instance, in May, NCAA football's Pac-12 conference signed a 12-year contract with ESPN and Fox for close to $3 billion, the largest rights package for a college sports league. In September, ESPN and the NFL announced an eight-year extension worth $1.9 billion per year, a 72% increase over the average price of the current deal.

And in late October, Telemundo and Fox scooped World Cup soccer rights in the U.S. for north of $1 billion -- more than twice what Univision and ESPN had been paying -- for four tournaments, beginning in 2015.

"I don't think (golf) is in that bad of a position," Rovell says. "They did get a rights fees increase." Though he allows that the hike is "more a factor that TV rights in general are more valuable than anything having to do with Tiger."

Ty Votaw, the PGA's executive vice president of communications, says the PGA Tour operates from a different business model than most sports, with a unique major sponsorship mix that includes financial institutions, insurance companies, automakers, pharmaceutical firms and golf equipment producers.

"Advertisers want to be associated with our sport because of the quality of our audience," Votaw says, adding that the PGA Tour does not have ratings guarantees in its television deals.

And while the average golf audience may skew older than those of most other sports, Brad Adgate, senior vice president/director of research at Horizon Media, says the need for brand recognition ultimately outweighs demographics.

Moreover, the PGA Tour says its cumulative ratings for telecasts on CBS and NBC this year are up 7% over last season, and up 17% on the Golf Channel.

So ultimately, whether the sport, or its most popular player, can find its way out of the rough -- or whether it already has -- depends on how one looks at it, and who is doing the looking. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

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Posted: Sat., Feb. 4, 2012, 4:00am PT Super Bowl XLVI viewers will be able to get interactive with the New England Patriots and New York Giants, as well as with films from Disney, Relativity and Universal, if they have a smart phone. This year's championship marks the first in which the game itself, the halftime show and about 40% of the commercials are "Shazamable."

Shazam, the popular audio/music recognition app, has seen its TV incarnation become one of the most popular iTunes downloads. It offers users exclusive content tagged to a number of programs, including awards shows, dramas and music competitions.

During the Super Bowl, Shazam users can tag ele-ments within the NBC broadcast to vote on their favorite ads, participate in game polls, receive discount offers, free downloads, enter sweepstakes, buy music, share their experiences on Facebook and Twitter and support charities. During the game, fans can get up-to-the-minute statistics and keep track of key plays and players, as well as buy official team and artist merchandise.

The rapidly growing London-based company, which logs 6 million tags a day, is working with 15 brands, including the three studios, on the biggest television advertising day of the year. Shazam charges them an incremental CPM on top of the TV buy. If the spot has an expected 1 billion impressions, its rate card is 35¢ on top of those impressions.

"For companies to trust us during the Super Bowl is a big deal," says Evan Krauss, exec VP of advertising sales for Shazam Entertainment. "We're not just putting a logo on the screen, we're part of the campaign in a big way. If you're running spots that cost $3.5 million apiece, plus creation, the extra time and work to make them Shazamable in a compelling way is huge."

Spots for Disney's "The Avengers" and "John Carter," Relativity Media's "Act of Valor" and Universal Pictures' "Battleship," as well as some programs on cable network Syfy, are slated to get the Shazam treatment: Viewers who tag the spots will receive extended trailers and other program or ticket purchase information.

And while Shazam pitches concepts to its clients for infusing interactivity, Krauss says industry creatives have been coming up with ways to use a film or show's characters to drive the added value Shazam offers.

Pepsi's interactive ad features the winner of the "The X Factor," Melanie Amaro, performing Otis Redding's "Respect" and will invite people to unlock a free video.

Shazam users who tag the halftime show, sponsored by Bridgestone, can unlock exclusive content, including new music and apps by Madonna and guests -- reported but not confirmed at press time to include Nicki Minaj, M.I.A., LMFAO and Cee Lo Green.

Other Super Bowl commercials that are Shazam-enabled include Toyota, promoting a sweepstakes to win two Camrys, and Best Buy, pushing a $50 gift card offer for consumers looking to buy and activate a mobile phone in 2012.

Call it the game within the game. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

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Posted: Sat., Oct. 15, 2011, 4:00am PTThe need for attention-grabbing properties has made TV's hunger for sports more ravenous than ever. Yet all the cash flowing into these games has only made the sporting world more chaotic than ever -- and must have left networks wondering about the sobriety of their business partners.

Buoyed by the unquenchable appetite for sports, the new trend is for every pro franchise, college conference and even an individual marquee team, like the U. of Texas, to demand its own channel. And instead of pausing to wonder at what point the banana slices become too thin for consumers to notice, such outfits as ESPN, Fox Sports and Time Warner Cable appear content to let the inmates run the asylum.

While all of this raises questions about whether greed might strangle the golden goose, since nobody wants to risk being left behind, there's little evidence of concern about death by gluttony.

Despite splitting $9 billion annually, pro football's owners and players engaged in labor strife over the summer, then grudgingly reached a deal -- and returned in time to post predictably boffo ratings. Meanwhile, sharing a mere $4 billion a year has resulted in poverty-pleading NBA owners sidelining pro basketball players for at least the season's first two weeks, and possibly much longer.

Like the NFL, the NBA is coming off a terrific season ratings-wise, fueled by the free-agency fracas unleashed by pitchman supreme LeBron James and his Miami Heat teammates. Yet the league could squander that momentum if it sacrifices most or all of the season -- a distinct possibility.

The NBA's absence leaves the spotlight on Major League Baseball, whose postseason pyrotechnics actually have people buzzing about the game again. Of course, in order to fully appreciate America's pastime, one has to ignore the scandals pertaining to steroids or insolvent owners that have recently filled courtrooms.

Still, the wackiest developments have involved the aforementioned creation of an ever greater number of local or regional sports networks, some of which will suffer if the NBA lockout lingers.

Time Warner initiated a bidding war in Los Angeles by snagging rights to the much-beloved Lakers, prompting Fox Sports to preemptively seek to extend its relationship with the Dodgers via a 17-year, $3-billion deal. The only problem was that Dodger owner Frank McCourt desperately needs the cash to, among other things, settle his messy and very public divorce, prompting MLB commissioner Bud Selig -- concerned about how McCourt might spend the $385 million Fox pledged to commit upfront -- to step in and halt the agreement. (Full disclosure: I'm a part-time contributor to Foxsports.com.)

College football, meanwhile, has tampered with decades of tradition and upended historic rivalries in a frenzied attempt to reconfigure itself into "super-conferences" in order to maximize TV revenues.

Although the conference-hopping has temporarily cooled, the amount of time devoted to pondering where teams would land during the off season was exceeded only by the steady drip of scandals over players receiving improper benefits. In their own way, each thread illustrates the lack of rational authority governing what many derisively refer to as amateur athletics.

Through all of this, major media companies have essentially thrown up their hands, insisting their billions in fees play no part in perpetuating flaws in the current system.

This much is certain: The money keeps growing. Consider ESPN's $15 billion deal to extend its "Monday Night Football" rights through 2021 -- increasing its annual payment more than 70%, to $1.9 billion. For a network that needs exclusive programming to command lofty fees from cable operators and consumers, the NFL is simply must-have TV -- suggesting additional payments from other networks, and thus plenty more cash for owners and players to fight over in the future.

Still, focusing on networks and leagues ignores another constituency in this equation -- and perhaps the most significant one: Die-hard fans, who might periodically express their disgust over battles pitting millionaire players against billionaire owners, but who in practice can't stay away for any length of time.

As long as fans remain addicted to the exploits of their favorite teams, in other words, all the major sports will have them -- and the TV industry -- by the balls. Contact Brian Lowry at brian.lowry@variety.com

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Posted: Fri., Dec. 30, 2011, 4:00am PTThe National Football League has never been hotter, and that is evident in the list of TV's most- watched sports telecasts of the year.

Fifteen NFL games -- including last season's playoffs and this regular season -- drew a larger audience in 2011 than any other sport. The college football championship game and the deciding game of the World Series came closest (see chart).

Of course, the NFL's primetime broadcast package, NBC's "Sunday Night Football," is bigger than most of primetime's top entertainment series in demographics as well as total viewers. Five years ago, in the franchise's first year on the Peacock, "SNF" was the season's No. 6 show in adults 18-49, but it has vaulted to No. 1 this season (8.0 rating/19 share in the demo, and more than 20 million viewers overall).

NBC has done little else in primetime this season -- it has only one entertainment series among the top 25 shows -- but football has enabled it to hang in the ratings race in the fourth quarter.

And after adding an 18th regular-season game to its "SNF" roster last season (against the World Series), NBC was recently awarded a 19th game -- on Thanksgiving night -- beginning next season.

It wouldn't be a surprise to see rival networks (especially ABC, the only major that doesn't air NFL games) start to more aggressively tout nonsports averages, as gaudy numbers for the country's most popular sport are a misleading representation of NBC's performance and only masks the net's underlying problems. Contact Rick Kissell at rick.kissell@variety.com

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Posted: Sat., Nov. 26, 2011, 4:00am PT

A Penn State student participates in a candelight vigil on campus for victims of child abuse.

December is associated with many things, but for sports fans, it's an especially bountiful period. Not only is the NFL building toward the playoffs, but there are dozens of college bowl games and the traditional Christmas-day showcase for NBA basketball.

Only this year, those holiday stockings are looking frayed -- not that it's easy to trust the networks, as reliant as they are on televising sports, to adequately reflect the distastefulness surrounding the games people play.

Pro basketball narrowly averted sitting out the holidays, as owners and players jockeyed over how to divide an annual $4 billion in revenue.

The college bowls, meanwhile, have been sullied by scandals. Allegations of child sexual abuse at Penn State has eclipsed all others, but it took a story of that hideous magnitude to overshadow headlines involving potential rules violations by traditional powers like Miami, Ohio State and LSU.

"I honestly don't think the sport has ever had as tumultuous of an off-season as we had during this year," ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit told CNN.com in August -- and that was before Penn State was forced to oust legendary coach Joe Paterno.

Suddenly, Southern California's forfeited national title and returned Heisman Trophy look almost quaint by comparison.

In newspapers, sportswriters and editors appear almost giddy to have the opportunity to write about bigger stories than just wins and losses. Many have attacked the various scandals and labor discord -- first the NFL, now the NBA -- with gusto, anticipating the sort of front-page placement that normally eludes them.

Television, by contrast, is in an especially tough position. After all, TV helps make all those big-money salaries and disputes possible by throwing billions in rights deals at owners and university presidents.

If big money is a corrupting influence in spheres from politics to Hollywood, it can be especially corrosive in sports. And the payments only promise to keep growing.

Whatever pleas of poverty they might make elsewhere, network fees for sports rights aren't going anywhere but up. That's been clear in a flurry of recent TV deals, including ESPN's renewal of "Monday Night Football" through 2021 for about $1.9 billion annually, an increase of more than 70% from the previous pact.

In addition, various entities are in pitched bidding wars to ally themselves with major franchises by sweetening the pot with dedicated cable channels, from the U. of Texas to the Los Angeles Lakers, who split from Fox Sports and signed with Time Warner Cable in a 20-year deal valued at $3 billion. That left Fox scrambling to cement its relationship with the L.A. Dodgers, and being drawn into the legal woes of owner Frank McCourt, who tried to leverage TV rights to maintain his hold on the team. (Full disclosure: I'm a part-time contributor to Foxsports.com.)

As the sports universe's biggest spender, ESPN winds up ignoring its role more often than most. Analysts spend untold hours wringing their hands over who belongs in the Bowl Championship Series title game, for example, but seldom mentions the $125 million their employer pays annually for BCS rights, which make a terribly flawed system an equally lucrative one. (Recent reports of a proposed overhaul don't elicit much hope, since the same university officials -- who have steadfastly resisted a playoff -- remain in charge.)

In many instances, television accounts for more than half of a particular sport's revenues. With live sports one of the few DVR-proof commodities, it's no wonder those games have become so precious and vital to programmers.

The corollary of that, though, is understandable skepticism as to whether those same networks will dare bite the hands they're feeding, and report on excesses when doing so risks damaging relationships with the very parties they need to sign on the dotted line.

In terms of watching sports, modern TV innovations provide the best seat in the house -- often superior, notably, to the experience sitting in an arena or stadium. If you want to know what's going on within a sport, however, look elsewhere. Because for the networks, it's hard to honestly present a clear picture when you're in the middle of it, blemishes and all. Contact Brian Lowry at brian.lowry@variety.com

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Posted: Fri., Dec. 23, 2011, 6:37pm PTFox Sports earned a favorable U.S. District Court ruling Friday in its efforts to halt an accelerated sale of the Los Angeles Dodgers' post-2013 cable rights.

Judge Leonard Stark issued a stay, pending a Jan. 12 hearing, of a federal bankruptcy court ruling two weeks ago that enabled the Dodgers to begin selling those rights, even though they were not to come to market for nearly a year.

The bankruptcy court had previously ruled in the Dodgers' favor on the theory that it would maximize the value of the bankrupt franchise, which is legally bound to be sold by April 30.

The stay upholds, for the time being at least, Fox Sports' contractual exclusivity through Nov. 30 on negotiating with the Dodgers for cable rights that follow the expiration of their current deal.

Had Fox lost on these grounds, it would have accelerated the ability for others to make a play for the Dodgers, namely Time Warner Cable, which is likely to seek complimentary programming for its soon-to-be-launched cable channels dedicated to the Los Angeles Lakers.

However, it has been stipulated that the next owner of the Dodgers is not bound to accept any TV rights deal made by the Dodgers' current owner, Frank McCourt. As a result, the Dodgers' ultimate cable TV fate will likely remain open until the ownership transition takes place.

The fate of Fox Sports' Prime Ticket channel is widely believed to depend on its ability to retain the Dodgers long term. Contact Jon Weisman at jon.weisman@variety.com

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Posted: Sat., Oct. 15, 2011, 4:00am PT

Greenscreen technology and virtual sets even pass the acid test of live TV sports shows, such as ESPN's 'Baseball Tonight.'

TV's pioneers could never have imagined the extent to which greenscreen -- the technique of melding a foreground image with a different background -- would become so integral to production. But now, with advances that have proven both economical and time-saving, the technology, called "chroma key" in TV antiquity, has become ubiquitous.

From news and weather reporting to visual effects-laden shows such as "Game of Thrones," the technique, which largely relies on computer-generated backgrounds, often is cheaper and easier than shooting on location.

Greenscreen for TV got a major boost from the technology developed for use on "Avatar." In the past, anyone directing actors against a such a matte background had to wait until post-production to see if and how the actors blended with the background. On the set of "Avatar," real-time compositing enabled helmer James Cameron to see his actors in the computer-generated environments while he directed. It's a leap that has unlocked greenscreen's potential for increased use for broadcasting -- even for sports, where live action is front and center.

"We started with a virtual monitor in 'Sports Center' that came down from the ceiling," says ESPN vice president of emerging technology Anthony Bailey. "We've expanded into our 'EA Virtual Playbook' and moved to virtual logos, graphics and analysis tools. Shows like 'Sports Nation' are now based on virtual sets. It allows for us to have more in a smaller space and make it feel like it's much bigger. Virtual is the way for us to grow."

John Gross, creative director/vfx supervisor at Eden FX, which provided greenscreen services for NBC's recently cancelled "The Playboy Club," points out that greenscreen offers producers more bang for the buck.

"If you go on location, you need location permits, you need to clear the streets and you need a whole crew," Gross says. "It's always much cheaper to shoot on set."

TV shows interested in greenscreen don't need to look far to find companies that offer it as a service, at TV prices. Zoic Studios' Zeus (Zoic Environmental Unification System) was first used on ABC sci-fi show "V," says owner/visual effects supervisor Andrew Orloff. "It was a technique born out of necessity, because they needed us to create an environment that couldn't be physically or economically built," he says.

This season, Zoic is using Zeus technology on two ABC shows in production: "Once Upon a Time" and "Pan Am." "This is a whole new paradigm for productions," says Orloff. "It changes the way that departments interact with each other. We work directly with directors and cinematographers to match the lighting they want. Before we shoot, we have a fully rendered version of the set."

Stun Creative, an L.A.-based advertising agency that specializes in network branding, series launches and content creation, relied on Light Craft Technology to provide real-time compositing for its work on the recent "Summer by Bravo" promo campaign. "In the past, we would have had to seriously (weigh) the advantages," say principals Brad Roth and Mark Feldstein. "Now it's a viable option."

Advancements in greenscreen are enabling TV's top shows to create the kind of sophisticated effects that were once found only in blockbuster features. On HBO's "Game of Thrones," the men of the Night's Watch guard the ramparts of the Wall, a 700-foot-high ice barrier with a fortress on top, all of it generated in the computer and composited with the actors.

"We were trying to create this fantastical world that was digital greenscreen territory through and through," says Lucy Ainsworth-Taylor, visual effects producer at BlueBolt in London, which created the digital environments for the show. "Ten years ago, I don't know if (these kinds) of visual effects could have been done … certainly not for the budget we had." Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

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Posted: Sat., Jan. 21, 2012, 4:00am PT"The Tim Tebow Show" is done for the season, thanks to the Denver Broncos' ouster from pro football's playoffs. Yet the question of how to commercially tap into the evangelicals who flocked to watch the devout quarterback is something of an evergreen, especially since few in Hollywood have mastered the playbook.

As with "The Passion of the Christ," the 2004 Mel Gibson feature whose box office muscle caused salivating studio execs to sit up and take notice, networks couldn't help but gawk at TV ratings for Tebow's playoff games. The stat sheet included 42.4 million viewers for Denver's overtime victory against Pittsburgh -- nearly a 50% increase over last year, and a record for any NFL wild-card game in the quarter-century for which CBS has data.

Some might recall, though, how the hunt for conservative Christians initiated by "The Passion's" success rather quickly fizzled. And a slew of entertainment projects aimed specifically at that market for the most part proved stiff and boring -- either apocalyptic, or as soft and gooey as the center of a caramel sundae.

Reaching a happy medium in the uneasy relationship between Hollywood and the Christian faithful is clearly a tall order, especially for those in showbiz like yours truly, who derived biblical learning by way of Cecil B. DeMille's epics, or musicals like "Jesus Christ Superstar." Good shows, but I'm not really sure how true they are to the book.

So I decided to solicit advice from someone with a better grasp of what might be called Team Tebow: Syndicated columnist Cal Thomas, a Fox News contributor, former vice president of the Moral Majority and -- at the risk of destroying his credibility with conservatives and mine with Hollywood -- an occasional pen pal.

Like many conservatives, Thomas sees Hollywood as being uncomfortable with the issue of religion and in many ways hostile toward traditional values. "I am unaware of any other demographic that Hollywood would knowingly reject as a potential income stream," he says.

At the same time, he also acknowledges the existence of a cottage industry consisting of "groups making money off criticizing Hollywood," and says, regarding material produced directly for evangelicals, "There's a lot of this stuff that's an embarrassment. I wouldn't go to it if it was free."

Indeed, hitting people over the head with overt expressions of faith is every bit as irritating, and potentially limiting, as insulting believers. (Granted, one can argue those slights are frequently more perceived than intended, but for the purposes of this discussion, the distinction isn't significant.)

In terms of a model lacking a crucifixion, Thomas harked back to the Oscar-winning "Chariots of Fire," a movie that organically wove religion -- if you'll recall, a lad who wouldn't run in an Olympic event because of commitment to his faith -- into an inspirational story.

At the time, Thomas recalled, "It sent a powerful message to the believing community that Hollywood is not your enemy all the time."

Still, that was 30 years ago, and the relationship has soured in the interim -- in part due to a sharp rift over gay rights between the religious right and Hollywood.

To an extent, the great divide can be overstated, usually for effect by those with political motives. For all the talk about shunning Hollywood's tainted product, plenty flock to big-tent items like "American Idol" or the next Batman movie, and a good deal of mainstream entertainment is inherently conservative in its values.

Where the fracture does exist, however, there are few easy solutions -- in part because stoking Christian indignation and feelings of victimization has, for some, been so good for business.

Thomas maintains each studio ought to employ somebody who can credibly interface with the Christian community, and conversely suggests the faithful who wish to penetrate the media must educate themselves and build relationships if they "want to play in the big leagues."

Notably, CBS Sports reached out to Tebow to participate in this weekend's NFL coverage, recognizing a hot commodity when they saw one. He declined, but the quarterback has already gained ground for his religious brethren -- at least, temporarily. Because like any strained relationship, it takes hard work and commitment to keep the passion alive. Contact Brian Lowry at brian.lowry@variety.com

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Posted: Wed., Dec. 28, 2011, 10:45am PTMSG Network and Time Warner Cable seem ready to duke it out to a bitter year-end deadline, with New York sports fans pawns in the battle between the host of the Knicks, Rangers, Sabres, Islanders and Devils and the New York area's major cable operator.

The two sides have "not had any recent, meaningful discussions" MSG Media president Mike Bair said in a statement Wednesday; their carriage deal expires Dec. 31.

A Time Warner Cable rep said "negotiations are ongoing and we are still hopeful." But insiders acknowledged that while the two sides talk every day, contact hasn't been fruitful.

Pressure is high as the NBA's long-suffering Knicks finally look like a team to cheer about and there's pent-up demand for basketball in particular with the start of the season having been delayed by a players' strike until last weekend.

The fight also comes amid a growing clamor over the cost of sports rights and the dynamics of how they get passed down the chain from programmers to operators to consumers. News Corp. chief operating officer Chase Carey commented recently that the pricetags on sports "make you swallow hard"; a prime example is the multiyear deal signed by Fox, NBC and CBS with the National Football League earlier this month worth nearly $28 billion.

The only winner here may be Verizon's FiOS service, a rival to TWC, which has a strong and growing New York regional presence and carries MSG Networks. MSG itself, in the war of words, has been urging subscribers to dump TWC in favor of other video services, including FiOS, DirecTV and RCN.

A spokesman for Verizon declined to comment on any uptick in sales from the current dogfight but noted, "We continue to sign up new customers each day."

Smaller satcaster Dish dropped MSG networks in 2010 after its own spat over carriage fees.

"Sooner or later Verizon and DirecTV will have to renew their deals" too, warned a person close to TWC -- meaning that switching providers may not be the solution longer term.

The question is whether it could be one short-term answer for subscribers who want to see the Knicks play the Toronto Raptors on Jan. 2 -- the first game of the new year.

MSG claims that Time Warner Cable has "rejected every one of our fair proposals for nearly two years and are unwilling to value our programming in the same manner as other distributors or even engage in good faith negotiations on behalf of their customers."

Time Warner Cable says it won't pull the channels, but neither will it pay a 53% rate hike MSG demands. The cabler said it's willing to abide by a previously discussed 6.5% increase while the two sides continue to talk. If the network goes dark, TWC insiders have indicated, it will be MSG pulling the plug. The cabler has said that the requested increase would make MSG the costliest sports network in the country -- above even Disney's mighty ESPN.

MSG has insisted that TWC "grossly mischaracterized its demands."

Bair noted Wednesday that "early ratings have already shown tremendous enthusiasm for the Knicks, the Rangers have one of the best records in the league, and there are passionate fanbases for the Sabres, Islanders and Devils. Given the approaching deadline of Dec. 31, we continue to urge fans to find alternate providers so they won't miss their favorite teams."

MSG lamented Time Warner Cable's recent deal with the Los Angeles Lakers, said to be worth as much as $3 billion, to launch several regional sports networks. It makes a good rallying cry. "They spent billions to acquire the Lakers' rights. In New York, their own backyard, they don't seem to value the Knicks as they do the Lakers," said a person close to MSG.

MSG was very unhappy as well when the cabler yanked MSG's music network Fuse from its lineup this month. Fuse's contract had expired, and TWC refused to bundle it into current negotiations for the sports nets.

But "Fuse is a footnote to the conversation," an MSG rep said. "This is really about sports and Time Warner Cable not willing to value MSG sports programming the way all the other operators do. Nothing more, nothing less." Contact Jill Goldsmith at jill.goldsmith@variety.com

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Posted: Thu., Jan. 26, 2012, 10:48am PTThe FCC's enforcement bureau says Comcast should be ordered to comply "immediately" with a ruling that the cable operator place Tennis Channel on equal footing in its lineup with channels in which it has a stake, including the Golf Channel and Versus.

Last month, an administrative law judge ruled that Comcast had violated program carriage regulations when it refused to place Tennis Channel in a position similar to those of sports channels it owns. Tennis Channel argued that its placement cost it advertising revenue, and that it was placed in upper tiers even though its ratings consistently beat those of the Comcast-affiliated networks.

After the ruling, Comcast argued that it did not have to comply until its appeals to the full FCC and to the Court of Appeals were exhausted.

But in comments released Thursday, the FCC's enforcement bureau said that carriage laws "unambiguously" show that orders from administrative law judges are effective "upon release" of the ruling. Their comments are recommendations to the full commission.

At the time of Administrative Law Judge Richard Sippel's ruling last month, Comcast said that it "has the contractual right to distribute Tennis Channel as it does currently, and Comcast firmly believes that the exercise of that right to minimize costs to consumers is not discrimination."

After Comcast's merger with NBC Universal, it rebranded Versus as NBC Sports Network.

Tennis Channel said in a statement that "the rules are clear that Comcast now has to give us the same carriage that it gives to its own Golf Channel and the NBC Sports Network." Contact Ted Johnson at mailto:ted.johnson@variety.com?subject=FCC: Comcast should comply with Tennis ruling

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Posted: Sat., Dec. 17, 2011, 4:00am PT

Bell Canada and Rogers Communications' purchase of the Maple Leafs leaves pubcaster CBC playing defense.

MONTREAL -- Hockey rules Canadian ratings, so when rival broadcasters and telcos Bell Canada and Rogers Communications teamed to buy the Toronto Maple Leafs, the TV world predicted a big sports rights shakeup, both on the smallscreen and in the digital realm.

But Bell Canada's plan to air sports exclusively on its cell phone service has been smacked down by the country's media watchdog, while the rich deal puts the future of hockey on pubcaster CBC in doubt when its NHL contract ends following the 2013-2014 season.

On Dec 9, Bell Canada and Rogers paid C$1.3 billion ($1.2 billion) to acquire a 75% stake in Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment, which owns the National Hockey League franchise and National Basketball Assn.'s Toronto Raptors, from the Ontario Teachers Pension Fund. Both companies want the properties to feed free-to-air networks and pay TV channels, notably Bell's TSN (The Sports Network) and the Rogers-owned Sportsnet.

The Maple Leafs draw the highest sports ratings because the team is located in the country's most populated area.

"Bell and Rogers are mortal enemies, but what brought them together was a common interest in securing content, and their fear that an unfriendly media competitor would get it," says Ian Morrison, spokesman for the watchdog group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting.

CTV has long coveted these hockey rights, and Bell made it clear from the moment it took over the commercial broadcaster in fall 2010 that picking up prime sports properties was a key part of its plan for the web. The team ownership puts Bell and Rogers in a prime position to snare national rights to NHL games once the CBC deal expires.

The loss would be a major financial blow for CBC. The pubcaster pays a hefty sum for the property -- industry insiders suggest an annual fee in the range of $100 million -- but its "Hockey Night in Canada" on Saturdays is consistently its top-rated program. The CBC uses the ad money it rakes in from the NHL playoffs to fund pricey local drama fare.

In a statement, CBC executive VP of English services Kirstine Stewart congratulated Bell and Rogers, and noted that CBC has partnered with Rogers for the 2014 soccer World Cup and is preparing a bid for the 2014 and 2016 Olympics with Bell. Tellingly, she made no mention of NHL rights.

But Bell's strategy of spinning sports content to fans via smart phones and laptops has taken a blow. A couple of days after the Maple Leafs deal was announced, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission ordered Bell to cancel its exclusive deal to stream NHL and NFL games to its Bell Mobility subscribers and open up the properties to competitors within a month.

"Canadians shouldn't be forced to subscribe to a wireless service from a specific company to access their favorite content," says CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein.

The CRTC examined the deal after cell-phone service provider Telus complained it was unable to negotiate with Bell on rights to hockey and football games. In September, the CRTC ruled that big media firms would not be allowed to control exclusive access to content on different platforms, and that they would have to make this content available to their competitors. "You shouldn't have to go to one supplier to get a particular type of programming," Morrison says.

BCE, banking on sports to drive its mobile service, says it likely will challenge the ruling. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

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Posted: Tue., Jan. 31, 2012, 2:01pm PTFormer Reveille and Warner Bros. exec Eric Pankowski has entered the ring at WWE as senior veep of creative and development.

Pankowski had joined Reveille in September as SVP of creative affairs, overseeing syndicated programming. In his new role with WWE, he will be responsible for all TV creative development, including reality and kids programming.

He will also manage WWE's creative writing teams and oversee the sale of programming to networks, studios and other distributors.

"Eric is a creative veteran whose knowledge and experience will be a tremendous asset in both the creation of new WWE content as well as enhancing our core product," said WWE exec veep of creative Stephanie McMahon, to whom Pankowski will report.

Pankowski spent 12 years at Warner Bros, culminating in his role as SVP of production company ParaMedia ("Lopez Tonight"). He has also been director of programming at Telepictures ("The Ellen DeGeneres Show"). Contact Jon Weisman at mailto:jon.weisman@variety.com?subject=WWE pins down Pankowski

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Posted: Sun., Dec. 18, 2011, 9:00pm PT

'Red Bull Signature Series'

NBC Sports Group will add a new action-sports package to its programming portfolio with "Red Bull Signature Series."

NBC and NBC Sports Network, the new name for cabler Versus, will divvy up 35 hours of shows from Red Bull Media House, the content arm of the energy drink brand that has built up a formidable business making programming out of events including snowboarding and mountain biking.

"Signature" brings another property to the combined assets of Comcast and NBCUniversal, which includes rights to NFL, NHL and the Olympics.

"This partnership is an amazing opportunity to create a new global property with a terrific brand in Red Bull, which already produces premium events and world class content," said Wade Martin, president of Alli Sports, NBC Sports Group's extreme sports division.

Since launching out of Austria in 2008, RBMH has assembled a deep roster of partners for cutting-edge sports programming including Nintendo, 3net and theatricals like "The Art of Flight." RBMH opened offices in Santa Monica earlier this year.

"Signature" kicks off Jan. 21 on NBC with Crashed Ice, a showcase for a new sport known as ice cross downhill. Contact Andrew Wallenstein at andrew.wallenstein@variety.com

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Posted: Fri., Oct. 21, 2011, 11:02am PT

Fox reportedly paid $425 million for the FIFA World Cups in 2018 and 2022.

The soccer broadcast landscape in the U.S. abruptly shifted Friday with all the subtlety of a golden goal.

Fox won the recent two-day bidding by handing FIFA (soccer's governing body) a check in the neighborhood of $425 million, with NBC's Spanish-language network Telemundo forking over about $600 million. That's a substantial increase from the previous rights agreement, which saw ESPN pay about $100 million and Univision $325 million.

Fox sports topper David Hill and president Eric Shanks have long been soccer supporters, and the money they didn't spend in losing out to NBC on the most recent Olympics bid played a part here.

The package figures to give the broadcast side a huge bump in ratings when the World Cups roll around, and it will greatly increase the exposure of cabler Fox Soccer, which has for years been trying to make its mark with viewers and is a priority for the conglom.

Pact also reps a major coup for Telemundo, which has seen its bigger rival Univision take over Spanish-lingo soccer rights each time they were available since 1978. Telemundo had the support of NBCU in its bid this time around.

With global soccer an avowed priority at ESPN the past several years, it was surprising the behemoth sports cabler wasn't able to extend its World Cup rights to the next two available events.

ESPN has always been about having exclusive content and owning marquee events -- the cabler recently scooped Wimbledon rights from NBC, paying $400 million for 12 years -- and with exec VP John Skipper such an enormous soccer proponent, the loss of future World Cups is an opportunity lost. ESPN would have liked nothing more than to have been branded the World Cup network, much as how NBC has become synonymous with the Olympics, for which it most recently paid $4.4 billion for a four-Games package through 2020.

Soccer was never a priority when Mark Shapiro ran the programming side for ESPN, but when Skipper took over, he made the sport as vital to the net's future as any of the American four major-team sports. For example, one of Skipper's biggest coups came when ESPN acquired the rights to Premier League soccer.As for not winning the World Cup rights, the cabler said in a statement: "We made a disciplined bid that would have been both valuable to FIFA and profitable for our company, while continuing to grow our unprecedented coverage of the World Cup and women's World Cup events. We were aggressive while remaining prudent from a business perspective."

Fox will not only have rights to the 2018 (Russia) and 2022 (Qatar) World Cup but also the two women's World Cup tourneys that take place from 2015-22, the time frame of the new pact.

The popularity of the women's game shouldn't be underestimated. This summer's final between the U.S. and Japan drew a very healthy 13.5 million -- the most ever to view a soccer match (men or women) on ESPN -- and the cumulative audience for the tournament was 52 million for the net. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

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Posted: Sat., Oct. 15, 2011, 4:00am PT

With the Big 12 surviving the NCAA conference shakeups, ESPN should find it easier to match its dedicated U. of Texas Longhorn Network with buyers.

When the Pac-12 announced its 12-year, $3 billion TV rights deal with ESPN and Fox in May, nearly every major sports-playing university saw dollar signs floating in the air, setting off a game of musical chairs among schools and collegiate athletic conferences that threatened to realign college sports into four super conferences of 16 teams each, reducing the number of rights-sellers and enriching the packages they had to sell.

Over the past few weeks, the music has stopped long enough for everyone to scramble for seats in this huge media rights game, and the winner may be … the broadcast, cable and regional sports networks that air the games.

The movement of teams from one conference to another has been far less than envisioned, and the Big 12 Conference, which many considered to be on the verge of failure, has survived. With the six majors all still doing business, winners and losers can be determined more on a conference-by-conference level based, perhaps unsurprisingly, by location more than by football prowess.

Of all the conferences involved, the Atlantic Coast Conference appears to have done the best in terms of improved earnings potential. The addition of the U. of Pittsburgh and Syracuse U. (both previously in the Big East) represents an important broadcasting opportunity for the conference. And while it may not feel as jarring to fans as the moves of the U. of Nebraska to the Big Ten or Texas A&M's plan to bolt from the Big 12 to the Southeastern Conference, in terms of sheer broadcasting dollars, it figures to have the most heft.

"From a TV perspective, Pittsburgh is a larger market than any other in the ACC other than Boston (with Boston College), Miami (U. of Miami) and Atlanta (Georgia Tech)," says sports media consultant Tom Buffolano, who chairs the College Sports Video Summit for the Sports Video Group.

And because of its strong New York City alumni fan base, Buffolano says Syracuse puts the ACC in the No. 1 market in the country. "Other than (New Jersey-based) Rutgers, there are no other schools that would allow the ACC to reach that market," he notes.

Last year's ACC championship football game between Virginia Tech and Florida State earned a lackluster 2.0 rating on ESPN; the SEC's title game between Auburn and South Carolina pulled in a 6.3 rating on CBS, and the Big 12's Oklahoma-Nebraska matchup scored a 5.3 on ABC. The ACC's draw was comparatively small even when accounting for its having aired on cable instead of broadcast TV.

With impressive football and basketball histories -- Syracuse and Pitt have won a combined 10 national football titles and have appeared five times in NCAA basketball's Final Four -- these universities will undoubtedly spur some changes to the ACC's already lucrative 12-year, $1.9 billion deal, which it signed with ESPN last July. But those changes won't be dramatic during the life of the current contract.

ESPN senior VP of college sports programming Burke Magnus says there's a provision in agreements between conferences and the cabler that allows for universities to come and go within the life of the contract. "It doesn't reopen a deal and it doesn't take an agreement that we had and make it null and void," he says.

It does, however, allow the conference to ask for more money, and it does let ESPN revisit such elements as preferred scheduling, broadcasting windows and increasing the number of the conference games it can broadcast. But based on experience, Magnus believes that while the conversation with the ACC will be complicated, it will not be one beset by brinkmanship.

The U. of Texas also has indirectly benefitted from this round of changes. While the departure of Texas A&M means an end to one of UT's biggest rivalries in the Big 12, which will engender modifications in rights fees (an increase for the SEC, a decrease for the Big 12), the lack of further movement of teams away from the Big 12 marks an end to the instability that has plagued that conference over the past year. With Texas' recent launch of its proprietary Longhorn Network, distributed via ESPN, it means a key reason the network had struggled to maximize distribution has been addressed.

"The realignment conversations … paralyzed conversations (with distributors)," Magnus says. "I think that has cleared up at this point. It is obvious the Big 12 wants to stay together."

The Big East, meanwhile, has been hit hard by the two defections. Earlier this year, the conference passed on an offer from ESPN for a TV deal reportedly worth $130 million a year for overall rights. Now, the league is in a much-weakened bargaining position when its current six-year $200 million deal with ABC/ESPN ends after next season. It was counting on powerhouse Texas Christian U. coming aboard in 2012, but the school has elected to join the Big 12, leaving the traditionally strong basketball conference suddenly thin on high-profile football programs. And while basketball programs are nothing to sneeze at, it's football that brings home the bacon when negotiating rights deals.

Despite the loss of Pitt and Syracuse, if the Big East is successful in courting enough football schools (estimates for what it will need range from four to six additional programs), its future may not be as dim as many think.

"They still have an opportunity because they are the last one to go into the marketplace," says Chris Bevilacqua, who served as adviser to the Pac 12 in their TV rights deal. "All the other product (from major conferences) has been bought for the next 10, 12 (and) 15 years so there is an opportunity for the Big East."

If that's the case, then this game of musical chairs may be far from over.

"College sports are now a mature industry," Bevilacqua says. "And when industries mature, businesses consolidate."

Bevilacqua says just as pay TV distributors have consolidated to gain greater buying power, content players like collegiate conferences must consolidate to maintain leverage at the bargaining table.

ESPN's Magnus agrees that more schools will change conference affiliation, but "it won't necessarily be the seismic shift that seemed inevitable over the last couple of months -- that march to 16 teams by at least four conferences. The Big 12 will need a 10th team and the SEC will need a 14th."

But for now, there are plenty of buyers -- and sellers -- to go around. n Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

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Nico Rosberg (Center), Lewis Hamilton (left) and Michael Schumacher to celebrate after the qualifying session. Photo: AFP/Getty Images

Posted on Saturday 14 April 2012 09: 45

NICO Rosberg was the first Pole of his career at the end of the Formula 1-the place to ask the 111th time.

And the 26-year-old took it easily and at a series of spare parts for the Shanghai International Circuit, Chinese Grand Prix today.

Rosberg blitzed his first lap belt quickly, the top ten shoot-out on the course and do not bother the title again, Finishing half a second for McLaren's Lewis Hamilton.

Mercedes is also the first column because they are back at the beginning of the year in F1 2010, 55 out of the sport.

Even if the second fastest Hamilton, he begins to drop five points today-the seventh amendment of the gearbox in the grid.

It means Michael Schumacher to join team-mate Rosberg in front of all of the Mercedes line when the competition gets under way.

Rosberg described his "very special feeling" in the countries of the pole, such as adding: "Now I am looking forward to start at the end of the first."

Asked where he found the time, Rosberg said: "the track was a reflection of the low temperatures were coming and the rear tyre started to work a little better.

"We have changed the car testing facility shortly before the last run, and then I had a full lap belt. It worked really well. "

However, so far only with the Mercedes scoring one point for two of the races-that, starting from the Schumacher-Rosberg know he is ready in today.

"For me this year, because there was a good start," he added. "It is quite clear that, race, we are not as good as intended, and we have done that to improve the cooperation in the field of hard, but is not one of a few weeks.

"It will take some time, but for the benefit of development and find it difficult to know if we are going to, but I'm going to race and make the most of it."

Having grown with Rosberg and against him was to provide his congratulations to the karting, Hamilton quickly.

Hamilton said: "I am a penalty, but I'm in a good position.

"For some good testing of the car, that feel good.

"It is going to have a hard, but a lot of good people and we have, but I may be pushing I can."

Also Rosberg Schumacher spoke of the "phenomenal", he is described as the period of the revolution, "a bit of a surprise."

Schumacher added: "he is known as a good extension, but no reason to be dissatisfied with. The opposite-I am happy for him, and it is going to have the appropriate Mercedes silver arrow, which is to take place tomorrow in the first front row. It is not good for Lewis, but it is good. "

Hamilton's penalty on the grid – because – Mercedes behind Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi for his highest card for the third place.

Lotus n Kimi Räikkösen begins with the fourth and fifth, followed by Jenson Button in his McLaren, Red Bull of Mark Webber-. Hamilton will on the back is the second Sauber Sergio Perez, Ferrari's Fernando Alonso the championship-leading and Lotus Romain Grosjean.

The second session was a disaster for reigning champion Sebastian Vettel, who may have access to only his Red Bull, not for the first time in 42 races to Q3 of the eleventh. It was The worst for the performance of the Brazil 2009, he had 15 days and that the maintenance work. Cannabis problems, and what to prove to the satisfaction of the most galling Vettel Mark Webber finished at the end of Q2 is the quickest.

Vettel behind Ferrari's Felipe Massa and the Williams duo of Pastor Maldonado and Bruno Senna, although both are currently impeding Heikki Kovalainen for the Caterham, and Pedro de la Rosa is a HRT incidents under investigation.

Paul di Resta Force India managed Scot team-mate Nico Hulkenberg, in the 15th and 16th, starting with Toro Rosso duo at the end of the 17th century, Daniel Ricciardo, in advance. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso led to the finishing of the 0.8 secs behind Ricciardo first 20 minutes qualifying session of the departees.

Underline gap, this eye-catching large more than two identical cars, the same period covers the Q1 17 drivers for him.

The battle is on the edge of America saw Kovalainen out of Vitaly Petrov in the grid in the 19th century, but the Finn three quarters of a second behind Vergne.

Glock will start 21st after comfortably at a faster pace than that of Marussia team-mate Charles Pic at the same time, the RESCUE TEAM, will start 24th and the last group Narain Karthikeyan-De la Rosa at the rear.

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