Late Night Links

I’m burning the midnight oil here on the East Coast to give you links. I’ll try to do this quickly as I have to get to bed and get up early for work.

Christopher Byrne from the Eye on Sports Media blog uses readily available data from Nielsen to tell us that 2008 was a record setting year for sports viewing on TV.

Stuart Elliot at the New York Times says the ad card for the Super Bowl is slowly, but surely filling up.

The Sports Media Watch goes over the NFL primetime ratings for Week 13.

Bob Molinaro of the Virginian-Pilot says ESPN’s documentary on the NFL’s Greatest Game Ever Played hearkens back to a time when fans actually mattered.

Matt Anderson of the Greenwood (SC) Index Journal says Northland Cable has no plans to change its NFL Network service which prevents subscribers from seeing games, but allows them to see everything else on the channel.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says he’ll try to delve more into the 3-D thing in his Friday column.

Carolyn Giardina of the Hollywood Reporter says 3-D is making a run at your home TV screen.

Bill Ordine of the Baltimore Sun says Thursday’s 3-D experiment at the Oakland-San Diego game could lead to similar broadcasts into your home.

Ray Frager of the Baltimore Sun says NBC’s reairing of its Paralympics documentary is certainly worth your time to watch.

Erik Kirschbaum of Variety writes about the International Olympic Committee ending its more than 50 year relationship with the European Broadcasting Union.

Let’s give you some hockey-related links now.

Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News says Fox Sports Southwest and KDFI will air 38 of the Dallas Stars’ last 54 games in crystal clear HD.

This is my first opportunity to link to major puckhead and the always lovely Kat Kealy of Press Box Perspective. She writes about the NHL showing games on the Center Ice PPV package in stunning high definition.

Steve Lepore of the Puck The Media blog says Monday’s Prison Break episode had plenty of St. Louis Blues references. That’s funny.

Over to Steven Niciforo’s The Hockeycaster blog and he says he wasn’t surprised to see Barry Melrose land back at ESPN.

The Washington Business Journal says Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic is seeing a 140% increase in the ratings for Capitals games.

John Ryan of the San Jose Mercury News says the NHL’s Sharks are seeing increased ratings this season.

Ken Schott of the Schenectady Gazette says RPI gets some exposure for its hockey program next weekend on ESPNU.

Friend of Fang’s Bites Joe Favorito says NASCAR is managing to buck the trends in a tough economy.

The Big Lead conducted an interview with ESPN college basketball analyst Fran Fraschilla.

I’m always glad to plug Maury Brown’s Biz of Baseball site whenever I can and Maury tells us that he’ll be live blogging from the Baseball Winter Meetings in Las Vegas next week.

SportsByBrooks says Danica Patrick was the most searched athlete in 2008. Ok. She’s hot. I get it. But the most searched athlete?

I found more links than I had planned. And I’m seeing the Friday media columns already. I’ll stop here. Don’t forget later the usual Friday posts, College Football Viewing Picks (last one of the season), NFL Viewing Picks, Friday Megalinks (expect those to be up late) and the first College Basketball Viewing Picks for the season. Also expect to see another webisode of Mayne Street and I’ve seen the preview. It looks decent. See you later.