The Fox Sports One schedule is rapidly filling up, and boxing is the newest addition to the slate. Fox and Golden Boy Promotions have agreed to a contract through June 2015 to air 24 Monday night boxing cards per year, with Fox paying upwards of $100,000 per show for the rights to air each event.

The first Golden Boy show on FS One will be on August 19th, just two days after the network's launch on Saturday, August 17th. The Golden Boy event will cap off the weekend launch of FS One, which will also feature a live UFC show on Saturday night from Boston, though no fights have been announced for the card yet.

Aside from Friday Night Fights on ESPN2 (which is buried at 11 PM on a Friday, hardly a great timeslot), boxing on free TV isn't something that is very common. By putting the Golden Boy events on FS One regularly, Fox is going to be able to expose boxing to an audience that may want to watch it more, but doesn't want to drop money on pay-per-view events that are centered around one fight.

It'll benefit Golden Boy too, by giving them the ability to promote their product on free TV, build up contenders, and ramp up PPV buys for a potential fight not involving a superstar, as the current landscape of boxing really only gives attention to Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. The creation of a potential superstar has happened before, like when the UFC built up guys like Rashad Evans and Jon Jones on free TV prior to thrusting them into PPV co-main events and later, main events and stardom.

[Sports Busines Daily]

For this week's podcast we welcome back veteran sports media and golf writer Ed Sherman of The Sherman Report. Ed joins the show to chat about CBS Sports' massive week with the NCAA Tournament Final Four and The Masters and his Q&A with CBS Sports ubervoice Jim Nantz. We break down the coverage of both events including...

-Jim Nantz's position as CBS Sports' #1 announcer and his identity with the Masters.
-Why sports fans don't have passionate feelings regarding Nantz.
-The major headline of CBS and Turner's NCAA Tournament coverage.
-Should Charles Barkley return to next year's tournament?
-Which announcers were most outstanding this year?
-The reverence CBS pays Augusta National and whether it's over the top.
-CBS vs NBC's golf teams.
-Can too much of a good thing really be a good thing with Tiger Woods?
-Ed's dark horses for the Back 9 on Sunday.

All that and more on this week's AA Podcast.

In case you've missed any of our podcasts, check out all of our interviews by subscribing to the AA Podcast on iTunes or our AA Podcast RSS Page.  For more from Ed, follow him at @Sherman_Report.

It's one of the oldest broadcasting tricks in the book during sports events.  "Randomly" find the attractive young girl in the crowd for your fan reaction shots.  It's hardly ever the portly fella who's probably too old to be wearing a jersey in public, isn't it?  The Florida Marlins and the local Fox Sports broadcast took it one step further by showing these scantily clad dancers around a commercial break.

But keep in mind this isn't just a broadcasting trick and a random stadium shot.  These dancers are actually on the job at a bar in the stadium.  How many times do you think the local Marlins broadcast will resort to these shots during the season?  I'd put it in the low three figures.  When you're the Florida Marlins, you have to pull out all the stops to win back fans and viewers I suppose.  I also think Brent Musburger just applied to be the new Marlins play by play man.

Via Business Insider

On TNT's Thursday broadcast of the Thunder-Warriors game, the broadcast booth will have a completely different look: there won't be a play-by-play announcer as reported by USA Today.

Steve Kerr, Chris Webber, and Reggie Miller, all three of whom are analysts for NBA games on TNT, will be manning the booth, creating an innovative, interesting (and potentially disastrous) combination.

Quite frankly, I didn't know Jermaine O'Neal was on the Phoenix Suns roster, let alone still in the league... until last night that is, when he came up with one of the most unique blunders in NBA history.  O'Neal goaltended a shot at the buzzer from James Harden...

Did you know that CBS ubervoice Jim Nantz is a winemaker? It's true. He told Ed Sherman of "The Sherman Report" (and the guest on today's Awful Announcing podcast) that he's serious about his wine "The Calling."

Why "The Calling?" According to the wine's website, "The Calling is about pursuing a passion, inspiring others, and making a great wine." Ok, but why start making wine now? Sherman writes:

We had to know this was coming, right? Now-former Rutgers basketball coach Mike Rice was exposed as a brute and a bully when this video landed on ESPN's Outside the Lines less than a week before Louisville beat Michigan in the national championship game, which gave one jokester just enough time to take Jennifer Hudson's rendition of "One Shining Moment" from 2010 and juxtapose a few real heart-warming March Madness shots with, well, Rice's less-than-shiny moments. 

For us twisted folks who sort of get a kick out of enjoying the less mushy, disturbingly real moments in life, it's perfect. 

H/T Martin B.

Last we checked with NBC Sports Network's ratings, the numbers were very, very, very bleak.  And that's putting it nicely.  Without the NHL, almost no programs drew over 200,000 viewers and three-fourths of the network's most watched shows were hunting and fishing shows.  Now that the NHL has returned to NBCSN and the calendar has flipped over to 2013 there are finally signs of growth that can give the peacock some semblance of hope for flashing its feathers in the future.

There's been a growing movement across the country of people getting rid of their cable or satellite television subscriptions, foregoing even the aerial antenna and watching sports and entertainment programming through their computer, tablets or mobiles. This phenomenom is labeled "Zero TV" by the Nielsen rating service and it has the networks concerned. A study by Nielsen estimates there are five million homes that have "cut the cord." Many are fed up of paying over $100 a month for TV while others have grown up with no cable at all.

On the whole, CBS and Turner offer tremendous coverage of the tournament.  From airing every game on every channel, to the depth and quality of announcers, to the production values.  However, there's definitely some areas CBS should think about tweaking ahead of the 2014 NCAA Tournament.  Some of those suggested tweaks and other thoughts on last night's coverage of Louisville's victory over Michigan in 5 Takeaways from the National Championship Game...

1) The first area CBS needs to address is the studio.  It isn't working.

Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith are fantastic, some of the best and most entertaining in the business at Inside the NBA.  I know many readers find Doug Gottlieb grating, but I actually don't find him to be the worst analyst on television.  Nevertheless, having all of them on the CBS set produced a jumbled, uninformed, argumentative mess that made CBS's infamous Super Bowl blackout coverage look Emmy worthy.  From Kenny Smith mispronouncing names (Spike Allbright?  Shane Buchanan?), to Charles Barkley's obvious fatigue, to the panel arguing over Trey Burke's foul trouble while Louisville was cutting down the nets, it was a bad night for the studio.

So what should CBS and Turner do for next year?  Move Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley back to Inside the NBA where they excel.  Their moonlighting college basketball analyst days should come to an end.  Second, move Doug Gottlieb to the booth full time and have him team with Kevin Harlan for two weekends of the tournament where his strong opinions can take better hold.  Finally, restore the studio team of Greg Gumbel, Greg Anthony, and Seth Davis.  They aren't flashy by any means, but they get the job done.  More networks are taking a "less is more" approach with the studio.  There's a reason.  It actually works.