Olympics
NBC will be a player in the 2014 and 2016 Olympic bidding. Take that to the bank (the IOC no doubt will). Comcast President/CEO Brian Roberts was a guest for a few days in Vancouver at the Olympic Games. He had a chance to chat with a number of USOC and IOC officials while enjoying the events.
As some of you may recall, last summer I did a column featuring USOC advisor and former chairman Peter Ueberroth. In the column we detailed a plan involving Comcast starting a USOC channel. It never got off the ground due to a number of issues, but we know that Roberts is bullish on the Olympics. Look for Comcast/NBC to continue to be part of the Olympic process for many years. That also could be good news for Versus, which could be the home to all Olympic hockey except for the gold medal game.
Recommended Stories
College basketball & broadband
If there were any doubters left, the Olympics proved once and for all that broadband has really come of age as another format to watch sporting events. I like to call it “portable cable.”
This is a big week for broadband, as over 200 college basketball games can be seen online alone. ESPN360 will have the lion’s share, with 150 games during championship week. Fans will be able to see the Colonial Athletic Association Championship Game, the Patriot League Championship Game and, of course, all of the Big East, Big 12, Big Ten and SEC Tournaments. The ACC Tournament can be seen on RaycomSports.com with the semifinals and final also on ESPN360.
League networks
The NHL Network did great work covering the trade deadline Wednesday. They took the TSN Trade Centre feed. Analysts Matthew Barnaby, Michael Peca, Pierre McGuire and Bob McKenzie all thought that the Capitals were the big winners with the four moves they made.
Baseball fans rejoice — there is at least one spring training game every day for the rest of the month on MLB Network. Starting Tuesday at 1 p.m., MASN will have the debut of Nationals first-round draft choice Stephen Strasburg. Bob Carpenter, Rob Dibble and Debbi Taylor will be on hand to call the action.
Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this! on washingtonexaminer.com.
