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NBC Could Use Skycam On Sunday Night Football

“He told the reporters on the call that he is considering using the camera angle for parts of the opening night game between the Bears and Packers.”

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Earlier this week, NBC trotted out a new camera angle in its coverage of a preseason game between the Steelers and the Titans. NBC called it “skycam”. Fans called it no good.

It wasn’t the first time fans had ever seen NBC use the camera angle. Sunday Night Football has utilized the cameras above the field for replays in the past. This was the first game that utilized the angle so often during game play.

Despite the negative reviews, Sunday Night Football executive producer Fred Gaudelli said that the camera angle may still be used by NBC during the regular season.

“I’m glad we did it,” he said on a recent conference call. “We learned a lot. There are things that I would do differently than we did on Sunday night, which is the whole purpose of doing a test during a preseason game.”

Gaudelli doesn’t call last Sunday’s broadcast a failure. He told the reporters on the call that he is considering using the camera angle for parts of the opening night game between the Bears and Packers. Still, he noted that some of the criticism was justified, and he doesn’t plan to shoot a full game with skycam during the 2019 season.

“But I’m glad we did the test because we did get a lot of good information and were able to assess where the holes are right now,” Gaudelli said. “We think we can plug some of those holes. I think it’s TBD, but the plan right now is try to do a series or two again.”

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Rece Davis: Nick Saban ‘Wants to be Great’ at Being an Analyst

“He was prepared and ready for the moment.”

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Photo of ESPN analyst Nick Saban
Credit: Athlon Sports

The NFL Draft has come and gone, and people are still talking about a couple of the top performers – on the broadcasts. Nick Saban and Bill Belichick both took part in the draft, albeit from much different sides than usual. Belichick had been on the team side, making picks, while Saban was usually waiting to see just how many of his Alabama players would be taken. This year, Saban was with his new team from College GameDay on ABC while Belichick hung out with his buddies from The Pat McAfee Show on ESPN+.

OutKick’s Glenn Guilbeau caught up with Davis this week and got more insight on Saban’s debut as a fulltime member of the show.

“He was sensational,” Davis told OutKick. “I know that’s easy to say, but he’s a gifted communicator in just about any setting in which he’s at. And it’s going to get just better and better and better because he doesn’t mail anything in. He’s not wired that way. He wants to be great at this. He told me that.”

Many of the comments about Saban’s performance have talked about how prepared he seemed to be and how well he knew players that he couldn’t have possibly been focused on while coaching Alabama.

“He was thoroughly prepared, as you might imagine,” Davis said. “He was very curious and wanted to know goals and how we were approaching things…He had done all the reading. He had everything prepared and organized. He did all of that. He was prepared and ready for the moment.”

Most of the time the public had seen Saban previously, he didn’t come off as someone who had a great personality and many wondered if that would hold him, and Belichick, back from being great on television. Davis said that was not the case at all, and several people commented on social media how relaxed Saban looked.

“As important as preparation is, I thought the most important thing he did over those two days was he became more and more comfortable and was willing to let people see more and more of his personality,” Davis said. “He would crack jokes. Little things, one-liners. He really just fit in with us very well.”

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Diamond Sports Group, Comcast Unable to Reach New Carriage Agreement

The development occurs after Diamond Sports Group had reached a multi-year carriage renewal with DirecTV earlier in the week.

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Bally Sports Logo
(Illustration) Courtesy: Diamond Sports Group

Diamond Sports Group, the owner of 18 regional sports networks that is currently working to find a path out of Ch. 11 bankruptcy, was unable to reach a new carriage agreement ahead of the Tuesday deadline. As a result, customers subscribing to the service are now unable to watch local teams play on their respective regional sports network(s). In fact, subscribers who try to view the channel on their services now see a message explaining what is taking place. Both companies issued statements explaining the manner that officially materialized upon the expiration of the existing deal.

“It’s disappointing that Comcast rejected a proposed extension that would have kept our channels on the air and that Comcast indicated that it intends to pull the signals, preventing fans from watching their favorite local teams,” Diamond Sports Group said in a statement. “Comcast has refused to engage in substantive discussions despite Diamond offering terms similar to those reached with much larger distributors of ours.

“We are a fans-first company and will continue to seek an agreement with Comcast to restore broadcasts, and at this critical juncture for Diamond, we hope that Comcast will recognize the important and mutually beneficial role Diamond and RSNs play in the media ecosystem. In the meantime, fans in Comcast regions can access our networks through subscriptions to Fubo, DirecTV or DirecTV STREAM or through our direct-to-consumer offering, Bally Sports+ for the teams for which Diamond retains DTC rights.”

“We have been very flexible with Diamond Sports Group for months as they work through their bankruptcy proceedings, providing them with an extension on the Bally Sports Regional Networks last fall and a unilateral right to extend the term for another year, which they opted to not exercise,” Comcast said in a statement. “We’d like to continue carrying their networks, but they have declined multiple offers and now we no longer have the rights to this programming. We will proactively credit our customers for the costs associated with them — most will automatically receive $8 to 10 per month in credits.”

The outcome comes two weeks after a bankruptcy judge had approved a disclosure statement with $450 million of debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing, $350 million of which is allocated to pay its first-lien debt holders. As part of the restructuring, Amazon is prepared to invest $100 million into Diamond Sports Group while becoming the primary streaming partner for the company. Moreover, the company was approved to hold a creditor vote on reorganization that the bankruptcy court will take into its decision-making process in a decision regarding restructuring. 

Diamond stated in previous court proceedings that 81% of its affiliate revenue comes from distribution agreements with Charter Communications, DirecTV and Comcast. Earlier this month, the company was able to reach a multi-year renewal of its distribution agreement with Charter. This enabled the provider to continue carrying its networks through the Spectrum TV Select Plus package and allows subscribers to stream the network on the Bally Sports app. Additionally, Diamond came to terms on a multi-year carriage renewal with DirecTV as first reported by John Ourand of Puck News on Monday afternoon.

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Josina Anderson Parting Ways with CBS

“I’m amicably moving on to future ventures. I wish all of the talented insiders, anchors, reporters, producers, executives and support staff the best.”

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Josina Anderson
Courtesy: Miikka Skaffari, Getty Images

CBS Senior NFL insider Josina Anderson announced via her X account she has decided to move on from CBS.

“I want to thank the CBS Sports team for my experience and time there,” she wrote. “I’m amicably moving on to future ventures. I wish all of the talented insiders, anchors, reporters, producers, executives and support staff the best.”

Anderson, 45, started at CBS Sports HQ in September 2021. She had parted ways with ESPN in June 2020 after nine years with the network. At ESPN, she was part of the National ESPN Insider team which at the time consisted of Adam Schefter, Chris Mortensen, John Clayton, Ed Werder, Adam Caplan and Field Yates.

No word yet on what Anderson has planned for the future. BSM will keep you posed as soon as more information becomes available.

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