Tag: television

Agassi makes major comeback

Post ImageI’m not really all that into tennis. I like Maria Sharapova, but probably not just because she’s a great player. I also find it interesting when the Williams sisters play each other. As far as the men are concerned, I don’t really pay attention, but I do like Andre Agassi. I only saw two sets of last night’s US Open match between Blake and Agassi (one he lost, one he won), but I did catch the highlights later on. And what a match it was! From the official site:

Champions like Agassi specialize in finding a way back into seemingly impossible matches, and once into the fourth, he seemed to gain confidence and move a lot better against a flagging Blake. Agassi came through to go up an early break. It seemed that the ball had moved, quite literally, into Agassi’s court. The previously stoic Blake let loose a roar of frustration as he lost his serve and the rejuvenated veteran went on to break to send the match into a fifth set that would have seemed improbable just half an hour before.

Pretty amazing stuff, especially for Agassi who is the oldest player in the tournament. It’s also interesting to note that this is his 20th consecutive US Open.

It seems I wasn’t the only one who missed part of the match though, as JD Lasica explains:

In the fifth set of the hugely anticipated Andre Agassi-James Blake tennis match at the U.S. Open, with Agassi leading Blake 2 games to 1, USA Network announced it would be cutting away to regular programming “due to contractual obligations.” What was so important? A rerun of “Law & Order: SVU.”

I have to say, I completely agree with JD:

Whoever made this decision, or whoever negotiated that no-exceptions contract, needs to be fired. Seriously.

For more on the match, check out the recap on ESPN.

CBC workers to launch competing service

Post ImageNormally I hate unions, but this bit of news caught my fancy. In addition to the current Telus strike, the CBC is facing a labour dispute all across the country. And as Tod Maffin reports, things are about to get interesting:

Next week, locked-out workers of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation will use the Internet to compete against their employer. They are even setting up office and studio space in Toronto.

The site will have a national daily newscast available via podcast or download, released at the usual time of CBC Radio’s flagship World at Six news program (currently off the air). Phase two will include local and regional news, expanded current affairs coverage, and perhaps video-casts.

Watch for the new site at CBCunplugged.com. At least, it sounds like that’s where things will be located:

Turns out a number of locked-out producers have been working on a podcast/news site of their own and they’d planned to call it — go ahead, guess — CBC Unplugged. Great minds think alike I guess. Rather than cause confusion, I’m going to hand the domain over to them and let them run with their own service. So as of next week, CBCunplugged.com will be managed by a different group of people. Stay tuned, they have some exciting things planned!

Will be pretty interesting to watch next week. Apparently if works volunteer ten hours a week on the new site, they only have to walk the picket line half the usual time to get their strike pay. I wonder if anything like this has happened before? I doubt it. Ah, the wonders of the Internet.

Read: I Love Radio.org

Can podcasting save hockey?

Post ImageI’ve been pretty silent about the NHL and its labour dispute, but before you start laughing at the above title, check out the post of the same name by Matt May, in which he says:

The NHL is going to need a full-court press to get and keep the fans’ attention and interest. OLN will also need to increase its exposure, as it treats its NHL content as a draw for its other programming. And Comcast, which owns OLN, is heavily invested in digital cable and broadband Internet. Comcast will be pushing NHL content on its on-demand cable services as well as online.

So, we’re most of the way there: a sports league and a television network both with a vested interest in reaching people more people than they currently have access to. This is a great situation for podcasting, and even better for video in RSS enclosures. I don’t think we’re quite ready for full-game feeds, and we may never need them, given the real-time nature of sporting events. But OLN will be creating hockey-related content around their coverage, and that’s no good to them if nobody is watching it at 11pm. They will already be offering it on demand. Why not serve an MPEG for download on their own broadband network?

He makes a number of good points in his post, noting for example that ESPN recently refused to pick up the NHL coverage for the next few seasons, forcing he league to hook up with the Outdoor Life Network. NBC has also picked up rights for the next two seasons, but without any license fees. Basically, it comes down to the NHL needing to be creative in finding delivery vehicles for its content.

Would people subscribe to NHL podcasts? Might seem crazy, but I think you’d be surprised. Websites for sports are often extremely cutting edge, with advanced real-time statistics, audio, and video, so it’s not unlikely that at least some fans would be willing to try it out. It’s definitely an interesting idea.

While the other major sports in the US are all still swirling their toes in the online water with monthly subscription charges for streaming content, the NHL has a real chance to rebuild by letting more people in. There are millions of monthly impressions to be had. Even OLN and Comcast stand to benefit in this arrangement by increasing their own profile. It would be fascinating for everyone involved to see the league and the network take such a bold step.

I don’t think podcasting is going to “save hockey”, but I think it would be an excellent experiment in delivering content to fans.

Read: Corante

The Simpsons Movie?

Post ImageIf you’re a fan of The Simpsons, and let’s face it who isn’t, then you might be interested to know that there is a Simpsons movie in the works:

A spokesperson for the popular cartoon series revealed to MTV.com that the actors who provide the voices for the characters read the script, under the close watch of show creator Matt Groening. “They did do the script read, that is correct,” “Simpsons” rep Antonia Kaughman told MTV.com. “It was all of our six principal actors, and then we have a couple secondary actors, and they do all of Springfield — over 100 characters amongst them.”

A Simpsons movie would be so much fun! I hadn’t heard of this before, so I did a quick search on IMDB, and they do indeed list the film as a November 2008 release. With the release date being so far out, I wonder if they are planning to stop making new episodes by then? Matt Groening has long said that a movie would only be made after the TV series went off the air, though the above-quoted article claims that “The “Simpsons” TV show and the film will be produced simultaneously.” I certainly hope so!

Read: JAM! Showbiz