Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg might have faces for radio. Starting Jan. 2, they'll get a big TV platform: Their Mike & Mike in the Morning radio show, simulcast in ESPNews' 45 million TV households from 6-10 a.m. weekdays, will move to ESPN2's 89 million homes.
Given that research shows consumers see ESPN2 as "ESPN too," says ESPN senior vice president David Berson, the move is part of an ongoing effort to give ESPN2 "signature programming," such as the ratings-challenged ESPN Hollywood and Stephen A. Smith's Quite Frankly.
Cold Pizza, a 2-year-old morning show, was supposed to be the leader of that pack. But despite tinkering with time slots and tone — the show became more sports-oriented — it now averages 0.1% of cable TV households. It will get pushed back to 10 a.m.-noon ET and repeated at noon-2 p.m. to make way for the Mikes.
Cold Pizza draws 84,000 households, though that represents a 29% increase from last year. But don't, Berson says, jump to conclusions: "This change has nothing to do with the success, or lack of success, of Cold Pizza."
For Greenberg, who joined ESPN in 1996 hoping to be a SportsCenter anchor after working in local TV and radio in Chicago, it's gravy. He says when Mike & Mike launched in 1999, "I wasn't a famous guy. With Mike, some knew his name, but he wasn't a famous guy. I figured two years would be a pretty good run."
Now on 310 radio stations, up from 257 a year ago, the Mikes see themselves as descendants of The Odd Couple's Felix Unger and Oscar Madison.
"He's almost like the boy in the bubble," says Golic, who played football and wrestled at Notre Dame before nine NFL seasons as a lineman. "Manicures, pedicures, facials, designer stuff, bottles of wine I can't pronounce. Get me a pair of jeans out of the hamper, and I'm happy."
Freebie: In a blow to office worker productivity, CBS will offer free live online video coverage of the NCAA men's basketball tournament. The coverage will give users, through CBS-produced ncaasports.com, CBS tournament games that fans don't get on their local TV. This will be the fourth season CBS has put its TV feeds online. And making them free makes sense: CBS, which charged $10-$20 for its Internet package last year, saw its system crash as it tried to accept consumer payments on the tournament's opening day.
CBS won't say how many consumers got last year's online games. But Larry Kramer, CBS Digital Media president, suggests those numbers are prehistoric anyway: "Whatever audiences were in the past, it's almost irrelevant. It's such a new media, there's no history."
Sean McManus, now president of CBS News while continuing to preside over CBS Sports, says selling online ads will more than compensate for giving up user fees — "increasing total revenue far beyond what the subscription model ever could." So, Sean, does this let you move on to concentrating on signing perky Katie Couric to anchor CBS' evening news? "Yeah, right. No comment. Sports is easy compared to this."
On tap: Expect NASCAR to announce Wednesday eight-year TV deals replacing deals ending after next season. The probable lineup and new wrinkles, according to people familiar with the negotiations:
• Fox, now alternating the Daytona 500 with NBC, gets the marquee race annually and retains rights to the first half of NASCAR's season.
• TNT, now in a joint TV deal with NBC, goes solo with six midseason races as NBC exits NASCAR.
• ABC/ESPN inherits NBC's coverage of the second half of the season and adds TV tonnage by getting all of the Busch Series races, which are mainly run on Saturdays. And ESPN will continue its tack of folding all kinds of new media rights, from broadband to cellphones, into its TV deal. How about getting NASCAR media rights for other galaxies?
Out: Scratch TBS from the pack, which probably includes cable operator Comcast, Fox, ESPN and NBC, that's sniffing around a TV package of eight late-season, prime-time NFL games on Thursdays and Saturdays that will start next season. Says Turner's Greg Hughes, "We've decided to concentrate our efforts on other programming opportunities."
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/hiestand-tv/2005-12-06-hiestand-espn2_x.htm
Given that research shows consumers see ESPN2 as "ESPN too," says ESPN senior vice president David Berson, the move is part of an ongoing effort to give ESPN2 "signature programming," such as the ratings-challenged ESPN Hollywood and Stephen A. Smith's Quite Frankly.
Cold Pizza, a 2-year-old morning show, was supposed to be the leader of that pack. But despite tinkering with time slots and tone — the show became more sports-oriented — it now averages 0.1% of cable TV households. It will get pushed back to 10 a.m.-noon ET and repeated at noon-2 p.m. to make way for the Mikes.
Cold Pizza draws 84,000 households, though that represents a 29% increase from last year. But don't, Berson says, jump to conclusions: "This change has nothing to do with the success, or lack of success, of Cold Pizza."
For Greenberg, who joined ESPN in 1996 hoping to be a SportsCenter anchor after working in local TV and radio in Chicago, it's gravy. He says when Mike & Mike launched in 1999, "I wasn't a famous guy. With Mike, some knew his name, but he wasn't a famous guy. I figured two years would be a pretty good run."
Now on 310 radio stations, up from 257 a year ago, the Mikes see themselves as descendants of The Odd Couple's Felix Unger and Oscar Madison.
"He's almost like the boy in the bubble," says Golic, who played football and wrestled at Notre Dame before nine NFL seasons as a lineman. "Manicures, pedicures, facials, designer stuff, bottles of wine I can't pronounce. Get me a pair of jeans out of the hamper, and I'm happy."
Freebie: In a blow to office worker productivity, CBS will offer free live online video coverage of the NCAA men's basketball tournament. The coverage will give users, through CBS-produced ncaasports.com, CBS tournament games that fans don't get on their local TV. This will be the fourth season CBS has put its TV feeds online. And making them free makes sense: CBS, which charged $10-$20 for its Internet package last year, saw its system crash as it tried to accept consumer payments on the tournament's opening day.
CBS won't say how many consumers got last year's online games. But Larry Kramer, CBS Digital Media president, suggests those numbers are prehistoric anyway: "Whatever audiences were in the past, it's almost irrelevant. It's such a new media, there's no history."
Sean McManus, now president of CBS News while continuing to preside over CBS Sports, says selling online ads will more than compensate for giving up user fees — "increasing total revenue far beyond what the subscription model ever could." So, Sean, does this let you move on to concentrating on signing perky Katie Couric to anchor CBS' evening news? "Yeah, right. No comment. Sports is easy compared to this."
On tap: Expect NASCAR to announce Wednesday eight-year TV deals replacing deals ending after next season. The probable lineup and new wrinkles, according to people familiar with the negotiations:
• Fox, now alternating the Daytona 500 with NBC, gets the marquee race annually and retains rights to the first half of NASCAR's season.
• TNT, now in a joint TV deal with NBC, goes solo with six midseason races as NBC exits NASCAR.
• ABC/ESPN inherits NBC's coverage of the second half of the season and adds TV tonnage by getting all of the Busch Series races, which are mainly run on Saturdays. And ESPN will continue its tack of folding all kinds of new media rights, from broadband to cellphones, into its TV deal. How about getting NASCAR media rights for other galaxies?
Out: Scratch TBS from the pack, which probably includes cable operator Comcast, Fox, ESPN and NBC, that's sniffing around a TV package of eight late-season, prime-time NFL games on Thursdays and Saturdays that will start next season. Says Turner's Greg Hughes, "We've decided to concentrate our efforts on other programming opportunities."
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/hiestand-tv/2005-12-06-hiestand-espn2_x.htm
