Viewing Picks for May 13, 2013

Written by Ken Fang on .

All Times Eastern

College Baseball
Florida State at North Carolina State -- ESPNU, 7 p.m.

College Football
College Football Live -- ESPN, 3:30 p.m.

Cycling
Tour of California
Stage 2: Murrieta to Greater Palm Springs -- NBC Sports Network, 5 p.m.

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Video: An incredible finish in England's Championship playoffs

Written by Matt Yoder on .

The final place in next year's English Premier League is currently being contested in the Championship playoffs.  Cardiff City and Hull City won automatic promotion on a frantic final day of the regular season in the English Second Division, leaving Watford, Crystal Palace, Brighton & Hove Albion, and Leicester City to fight it out for the third promotion spot in the playoffs.

Earlier today Watford hosted Leicester City in the second leg of their playoff semifinal.  With the score tied at 2-2 on aggregate, Leicester's Anthony Knockaert stepped up to take a penalty kick for the win in the 97th minute after several minutes of stoppage time.  Incredibly, former Arsenal keeper Manuel Almunia made not one, but two saves and Watford launched an immediate counterattack that resulted in a Troy Deeney goal to send the Hornets through and jubilant Watford fans onto the pitch.

It's almost an exact replica of what we saw at the end of April in England's League One when Doncaster saved a Brentford penaly and scored at the other end to win promotion to the Championship.  An inconceivably dramatic finish that keeps Watford's hopes of returning to the Premier League alive and sends them to Wembley Stadium for the richest game in soccer.

And here's how the story was told on Sky Sports' Soccer Saturday...

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Looking at the rise of sports cable fees in Los Angeles

Written by Dave Warner on .

This post originally on Dave's site, What You Pay For Sports. Dave will be contributing from time to time in addition to occasional syndication of his work.

If you need a prime example of just how much money regional sports networks can suck from your wallet, look no further than the City of Angels.

In the last three years, Los Angeles sports fans have been bombarded with news of their local teams signing TV deals with RSNs worth more than $13.3 billion. The L.A. Lakers kicked off this money grab in early 2011 by signing a 20-year, $3 billion deal with Time Warner Cable, which led to the launch of TWC SportsNet. That network then struck a 10-year, $55 million deal with the MLS Cup-winning L.A. Galaxy.

Having lost the Lakers, Fox Sports West ended up making a 20-year, $3 billion deal of their own with the L.A. Angels of Anaheim the following December. Six months later, Fox Sports West and the Stanley Cup-winning L.A. Kings agreed to a 12-year, $250 million extension.

Then came the biggest bombshell. Time Warner Cable struck a deal with the L.A. Dodgers reportedly worth a whopping $7 billion over 25 years. More importantly, this deal called for the creation of yet another new RSN, SportsNet LA, dedicated solely to the Dodgers.

And who gets the honor of footing the bill for all these massive TV contracts? All the cable, satellite and fiber TV customers in the Los Angeles media market. Who else?

Here’s a rough breakdown of the pay TV services in the L.A. area, and the number of people who subscribe to them. 

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Big Break Mexico Premiere retains the series formula

Written by Ken Fang on .

bbmex

On Monday, the 19th season of Big Break premieres on Golf Channel. The network's most popular series heads to Mexico this season with 12 golfers, six men and six women, split into three teams in hopes of getting that one tournament exemption on the LPGA or PGA Tour.

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Viewing Picks for May 12, 2013

Written by Ken Fang on .

All Times Eastern

Australian Rules Football
Melbourne Demons vs. Gold Coast Suns -- Fox Soccer Plus, 2:30 a.m.

College Baseball
Notre Dame at St. John's -- CBS Sports Network, 1 p.m.
Georgia at South Carolina -- Fox College Sports Central, 1:30 p.m.
Vanderbilt at Kentucky -- Fox College Sports Atlantic, 2 p.m.
Oklahoma State at Oklahoma -- Fox College Sports Pacific, 2 p.m.
Arizona State at Cal -- Pac-12 Network, 3 p.m.

College Lacrosse
NCAA Division I Tournament
First Round
Cornell at Maryland -- ESPN2, 1 p.m.
Towson at Ohio State -- ESPNU, 3 p.m.
Loyola (Maryland) at Duke -- ESPNU, 5:15 p.m.
Bryant at Syracuse -- ESPNU, 7:30 p.m.

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What is wrong with you people!?!

Written by Matt Yoder on .

apesending

Grantland was on the fritz yesterday, bringing up an error page when a visitor tried to access the site.  Normally, this would not be newsworthy.  It happens.  It's part of this whole internet experience.

But a funny thing happened when you went to Grantland's homepage.  The site redirected to a page showing ESPN.com's top searches... and I was horrified to see the results below:

WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!?!  #1 First Take?  #2 Skip Bayless?  #3 Stephen A. Smith?  #4 some stupid game?  #6 Tim Tebow???

The top three searches on one of the top sports in the world are related to one of the worst shows on television.

I'm beginning to think ESPN and First Take is not the true problem.

It's us.

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Video: Gus Johnson erupts for Wigan's FA Cup winning goal

Written by Matt Yoder on .

Wigan Athletic upset Manchester City to win their first ever FA Cup in a 1-0 thriller at Wembley Stadium.  Wigan's Ben Watson scored the dramatic game winner off a corner just after the 90 minutes were up.

Fox's Gus Johnson was on the call and absolutely lost his everloving mind when Watson's header found the back of the net.  Johnson's call was so explosive, his partner Ian Wright was clearly heard laughing and clapping along in the booth while Gus's brain matter was surely being wiped off the seats in front of them.  

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ESPN may subsidize your mobile data plans

Written by Joe Lucia on .

ESPN is reportedly having discussions with both AT&T and Verizon about potentially subsidizing data plans for their mobile subscribers. That is, ESPN would pay the carrier so that any bandwidth you accrued on their sites watching videos wouldn't count towards your monthly data cap. Then, you'd get smashed in the face with more advertising, and the situation would be win/win for all parties involved.

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Bomani Jones moving to ESPN full time

Written by Matt Yoder on .

The man with the best facial expressions in sports television, Bomani Jones, is reportedly moving to ESPN for full time work.  After various radio stints, appearances on ESPN programs like Around the Horn, Dan Le Batard is Highly Questionable, and Outside the Lines, as well as a spell at SB Nation, Jones will settle in at Bristol on a permanent basis.

And, as Steve Lepore from SB Nation reports, ESPN had to win a bidding war with Fox to keep Jones on its network airwaves:

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Viewing Picks for May 11, 2013

Written by Ken Fang on .

All Times Eastern

Arena Football
Jacksonville Sharks at San Antonio Talons -- CBS Sports Network, CBS Sports Network, 9:30 p.m.

Boxing
Floyd Mayweather vs. Robert Guerrero (from May 4) -- Showtime, 9 p.m.

College Baseball
LSU at Texas A&M -- ESPN, 1 p.m.
Texas Southern at Texas -- Longhorn Network, 2 p.m.
San Francisco at BYU -- BYU TV, 3 p.m.
Oklahoma State at Oklahoma -- Fox College Sports Central, 3 p.m.
Utah at Washington -- Pac-12 Network (Mountain/Washington), 3 p.m.
Texas Southern at Texas -- Longhorn Network, 4 p.m.
Arizona State at Cal -- Pac-12 Network, 10 p.m.

College Lacrosse
NCAA Division I Tournament
First Round
Lehigh at North Carolina -- ESPN2, noon
Yale at Penn State -- ESPNU, 2:30 p.m.
Detroit at Notre Dame -- ESPNU, 5 p.m.
Albany at Denver -- ESPNU, 7:30 p.m.

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