Now that the Olympics are over, we can focus on other sports like the NFL, MLB, the US Open which starts today and college football. It seems as if nothing else went on during the 17 Days of Glory, but we now can lead normal lives after dealing with Tiki Barber and Jenna Wolfe for 10 days.
Let me thank the great Awful Announcing blog for putting Fang’s Bites on its “Friends of AA” roll. If you visit here regularly, you’ll know that I’ll link over there every so often. They have great stuff and I appreciate what Brian Powell does on his blog. It’s not easy, I can tell you doing this as a one man shop.
To your links. USA Today’s Michael Hiestand looks inside the hype over NBC’s Olympics ratings.
Robert Bianco of USA Today has some suggestions for NBC in London four years from now.
The great Darren Rovell of CNBC has the 25 Most Marketable Olympic athletes.
Tripp Mickle and John Ourand in the Sports Business Daily/Journal’s Olympics website write that ESPN is complaining about not gaining access to American athletes in a timely fasion. And the SBD/SBJ says through Saturday, NBC’s Olympics ratings were still averaging over a 16 despite garnering the lowest ratings of the Games on Friday and Saturday.
Jackie Majerus of the Bristol (CT) Press talks with an ESPN producer who was on the ground in Beijing.
Chris Pursell of TV Week writes that the Olympics are part of a trend that ratings for sports are going up, not down. Chris adds that Olympic merchandise is being sold at a brisk pace at NBC’s online store.
James Hibberd of the Hollywood Reporter talks about the Communist China Games being the most watched event in US history.
David Barron of the Houston Chronicle also writes about the Beijing Games being the most watched event.
I have not linked to Tom Jones of the St. Petersburg Times in two weeks. Well, that’s because he’s been on vacation. He chimes in today with his thoughts on the Olympics coverage.
Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News has eight observations on the Olympics now that the Games have concluded.
Dusty Saunder in the Rocky Mountain News is happy he woke at 2 a.m. Sunday to see the end of the US-Spain gold medal men’s basketball game.
Reacting to today’s New York Times story written by Bill Carter that I had in last night’s links, Ron Judd of the Seattle Times says NBC Universal Olympics and Sports Emperor Dick Ebersol pretty much runs the Games.
Steve Springer of the Los Angeles Times has some lingering questions now that NBC’s coverage of the Games has finished.
Vince Horiuchi of the Salt Lake Tribune says while he got sick of the Olympics, he knows America did not.
Bill Bradley of the Sacramento Bee is hoping ESPN will get the 2014 and 2016 Olympics to stop the delays on the West Coast.
Anthony Crupi, Mike Shields and Marc Berman of Mediaweek write that NBC’s multiplatform approach for the Olympics worked beyond expectations.
Kate Taylor of the Toronto Globe and Mail says CBC can pat itself on the back for a job well done at the Olympics. William Houston of the Globe and Mail says CBC is leaving the Olympics with its head held high as CTV comes in to take over in 2010 and 2012.
Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star says the Olympics are the start of a digital revolution.
Ken McMillan of the Hudson Valley Times Herald-Record is ready to move on from the Olympics and focus on the US Open which begins on USA Network today.
John Ourand and Eric Fisher of the Sports Business Journal break news that the Oakland A’s are looking to break away from Comcast SportsNet Bay Area, a channel owned partially by the San Francisco Giants, and possibly move to Comcast SportsNet West and purchase an equity stake there.
Jon Show of the SBJ reports that NBC is moving up the times for two of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoff events due to conflicts with Notre Dame football.
Phil Mushnick in the New York Post goes after ESPN/ABC’s Orel Hershiser for his analysis at the Little League World Series.
Michelle Greppi of TV Week talks about a new online scripted series that will star ESPN’s Kenny Mayne.
Going back to Chris Pursell of TV Week, he looks at the talent lineups for CBS, ESPN, Fox and NBC for the new NFL season.
Joe Favorito looks at how two NASCAR drivers got some interesting mentions this weekend.
You’ve got a lot of links to chew through and I did this while the ESPN/SEC deal was breaking. I’ll have reaction to the new ESPN/SEC contract later in the day. Keep your RSS feeds updated.
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