Apple's coverage of MLB Friday Night Baseball will be now restricted to TV+ subscribers (after offering a free preview last season). Additionally, the announcing line-up changes have been confirmed: in place of the more casual style of last season, a more conventional presentation will be employed, with Wayne Randazzo (who had already filled in in the booth) joining in a full time basis alongside analyst/color commentator Dontrelle Willis (hired from Fox). Heidi Watney will remain on the sideline post for the East Coast game team. Additionally, the West Coast team has been completely changed, with Apple hiring Alex Faust (from Fox and the Los Angeles Kings) as play-by-play announcer, Ryan Spilborghs (former Rockies player and AT&T Sportsnet analyst) as color commentator, and Tricia Whitaker (from Bally Sports Florida) as sideline reporter.
For the studio shows (produced by MLBAM/MLB Network), Lauren Gardner will be joined by a whole new team, with Siera Santos (from MLB Network) hosting in an alternate basis with Gardner, and Xavier Scruggs, Matt Joyce and Russell Dorsey as new analysts. Additionally, given the implementation of new game play rules, former umpires Brian Gorman and Dale Scott will focus their duties on explaining these new guidelines. Additionally, DIRECTV has signed a deal to distribute the games to businesses and non-residential premises in the US. Live coverage will expand to 60 other countries beyond the games' existing coverage in North America, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Australia, Japan, South Korea and the UK; most wraparound programming will be still restricted to the US and Canada.
www.apple.com
(15-03-2023, 12:03 AM)W. Knight Wrote: UPDATE: Bally declares bankruptcy.
www.businesswire.com
The Bally crisis continues... Steve Rosenberg has resigned as President of Diamond Sports Group.
awfulannouncing.com
As told over on American News Presentation, NBCUniversal, as part of now aborted plans to lean its portfolio of regional sports networks (they are now putting them over on Peacock), sold its DC regional sports network to local sports mogul Ted Leonsis (through Monumental Sports and Entertainment). As a result, NBC Sports Washington (as it is currently known) didn't make the move to the newly remodeled WRC facility at Nebraska Avenue, and instead is moving to new facilities inside the CapitalOne Arena in downtown Washington D.C., alongside the move of most non-broadcast employees to Monumental's HQ in Bethesda, Maryland.
Yesterday, Axios' Sara Fischer was told Leonsis is investing in relaunching the network from scratch: the network will have a new name and will fully expand into the streaming fold, by launching its own OTT offering; the app will feature integrations "library of exclusive on-demand content (including original programming), betting integrations and subscriber-only perks, like integration with Ticketmaster"; it also plans to add expanded pre-game coverage, alternative play-by-play feeds, and sports betting-related programming. Leonsis is also investing on rebuilding a section of CapitalOne Arena to house "a two-story production facility that includes two full-scale studios, two smaller studios and six control rooms".
www.axios.com
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