The Sochi Olympic Games this winter will be streamed on NBC Sports' website, but not through Youtube. NBC announced that they're going to be going in a different direction after Youtube provided the streaming player to NBCOlympics.com for last summer's Olympics in London. In Beijing in 2008 and Vancouver in 2010, NBC used the Microsoft Silverlight player. They recently partnered once again with Microsoft and their Azure division for streaming to devices, but there's no video player included with Azure.

The 2012 Olympics were the most popular in terms of live streaming, with 20.4 million hours of video streamed, more than twice the 9.9 million hours streamed during Beijing. NBC also streamed 64.4 million total live video streams, up 353% from Beijing, despite complaints from some users about frozen videos and other glitches.

Of the 32 highest-rated television programs this past fall, 31 of the them were NFL games. Think about that for a moment. The National Football League isn't just dominating the world of sports television, but it has emerged as the ultimate powerhouse in TV, period. You could argue that there isn't a brand or product in the United States that possesses that much media power, but the trouble with being on top is that everybody else is usually working a little harder to hit the bullseye on the target affixed to your back.

You might remember Toronto Blue Jays' shortstop Munenori Kawasaki from his memorable post-game chat with Sportsnet's Arash Madani back on May 26th. The clip went viral, and Kawasaki became a folk hero in Toronto and across the Major Leagues.

On that Sunday afternoon, Kawasaki took the mic from teammate Mark DeRosa. Over the weekend, the Japanese infielder did it again, this time during DeRosa's interview on MLB Network's Intentional Talk with Chris Rose and Kevin Millar.

In the last year, we've wondered whether Charles Barkley's time on Inside the NBA may be winding down.  Barkley himself has spoken of different challenges and opportunities and the time may be approaching when it's time for Chuck to try something new.  Now comes a report that Barkley's longtime partner - Kenny "The Jet" Smith, may leave Inside the NBA.  Smith has publicly thrown his hat into the ring for the Sacramento Kings GM job as well as saying he's seriously looking at jobs on the sideline and in the front office.

Smith admitted he was "talking" to the Kings and told Sam Amick of USA Today he's seriously looking at new opportunities:

Expect to see headlines like this all over the ESPN family of networks once again this summer.  The New England Patriots signed Tim Tebow Monday, which is pretty much the Doomsday Scenario for the coming season.  If you thought Bristol went overboard withTebowMania 2.0 and the Jets, just imagine what will happen when combined with Bill Belichick and the most high profile franchise in the sport.  It's TebowMania 3.0 - Bigger, Longer, & Uncut (or maybe that was the South Park movie).

Nothing can be written on this subject that hasn't been written ad naseum already.  Just replace "Jets" with "Patriots" and "Rex" with "Belichick" and you'll see the same tired headlines, the same tired debates, the same old song and dance that we've had to suffer through the last two and a half years.  So instead of another "fresh take" wrapped in hot manure, here are some tweets mocking ESPN's reaction to the signing.  As always, these are Real Tweets from Real People...

All Times Eastern

College Baseball
NCAA Division I Tournament
Super Regionals

Chapel Hill Super Regional, Chapel Hill, NC
Game 3: South Carolina vs. North Carolina -- ESPN2, noon

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

Cycling
Tour De Suisse
Day 4: Innertkirchen to Buochs -- beIN Sport, 11:30 a.m.

Monday, June 10

Boston Red Sox @ Tampa Bay Rays (ESPN 7PM) Dave O’Brien, Rick Sutcliffe, Aaron Boone

Tuesday, June 11

San Francisco Giants @ Pittsburgh Pirates (MLBN 7PM) Local Broadcast [Alt: Red Sox @ Rays]
Cincinnati Reds @ Chicago Cubs (WGNA 8PM) Len Kasper, Jim Deshaises

Wednesday, June 12

Cincinnati Reds @ Chicago Cubs (MLBN 2PM) Local Broadcast [Alt: Tigers @ Royals]
Cleveland Indians @ Texas Rangers (ESPN 8PM) Jon Sciambi, Curt Schilling

Thursday, June 13

Boston Red Sox @ Baltimore Orioles (MLBN 7PM) Local Broadcast [Alt: Royals @ Rays]

Friday, June 14

San Francisco Giants @ Atlanta Braves (MLBN 7:30PM)Matt Vasgersian, John Smoltz [Alt: Brewers @ Reds - 7PM]

Saturday, June 15

Boston Red Sox @ Baltimore Orioles (MLBN 4PM) Local Broadcast [Alt: Giants @ Braves]
New York Yankees @ Los Angeles Angels (FOX 7:15PM) Joe Buck, Tim McCarver
Washington Nationals @ Cleveland Indians (FOX 7:15PM) TBA
Detroit Tigers @ Minnesota Twins (FOX 7:15PM) TBA
Chicago White Sox @ Houston Astros (FOX 7:15PM) TBA
Seattle Mariners @ Oakland Athletics (FOX 7:15PM) Rich Waltz, Eric Karros

Sunday, June 16

Chicago Cubs @ NY Mets (WGNA 1PM) Len Kasper, Jim Deshaises
Los Angeles Dodgers @ Pittsburgh Pirates (TBS 1:30PM) Dick Stockton, Dennis Eckersley
San Francisco Giants @ Atlanta Braves (ESPN 8PM) Dan Shulman, Orel Hershiser, John Kruk

H/T Sammy!

No, don't tell me, no, please no, not again...

Just filed to ESPN: The Patriots are signing QB Tim Tebow and expect him to be in minicamp tomorrow

— Ed Werder (@Edwerderespn) June 10, 2013

Thanks for ruining the 2013 NFL season Bill Belichick.  Thanks a lot.

Despite a dominant win by LeBron James and the Heat, Game 2 of the NBA Finals drew just a 10.2 overnight rating, the lowest for a Finals game since Lakers-Magic Game 5 in 2009. Game 2 this year was also down 14% from Heat-Thunder in 2012 (11.8) and 3% from Heat-Mavericks in 2011 (10.5).

There are some interesting notes about this game that throw the reasons behind the low rating into question. Firstly, the 10.2 was actually the highest national overnight of all of the Spurs' Game 2s in the past, topping the 10.0 mark set by the Spurs-Knicks matchup in 1999. The game was also down locally in both Miami and San Antonio, drawing a 29.7 in Miami which was down 3% from 2012's Game 2 (30.3) and 16% from 2011's Game 2 (35.3), and drawing a 32.7 in San Antonio was which down 24% from 2007's Game 2 (Spurs-Cavaliers, 42.9) and down 25% from 2005's Game 2 (Spurs-Pistons, 43.4).

So, what can you make of it? Maybe the Spurs' national appeal is slightly up, while the local interest in them and the Heat are down. Maybe, despite the rise in national popularity for the Spurs, it's still far behind that of the Thunder. Maybe Dwayne Wade, who has had two underwhelming games thusfar this series, is more critical to ratings success for the Heat than we imagined.

There really are several reasons you can think of that could cover the ratings failings of this series so far, but all things considered, I'm willing to bet that these ratings are a best case scenario for ESPN after the Thunder got bounced by the Grizzlies in the Western Conference Semifinals. 

[Sports Media Watch]

During an interview with Lee Hawkins of the Wall Street Journal, NBA commissioner David Stern called Billy Corben's 30 for 30 documentary Broke mildly racist. 

Actually, it's a lot of money for any socioeconomic group. So it wouldn't be fair to think about the image of a poor black kid from the ghetto. That isn't the prototype. The prototype is pretty sophisticated kids who've been guiding their way to get here.

Because so many of them are African American, I viewed the entire story as mildly racist.

This is about part for the course for Stern at this point, and it's more than a little ironic considering his implementation of an NBA dress code that could also be described as mildly racist.