Boston Sports Media Watch

Mixing things up a little bit this Friday, rather than full links, we’ll jump around a little bit.

Patriots Daily is giving you what you need for Sunday’s Patriots/Falcons game. Weekly features like Worry Wart by Chris Warner, Trading Places - a chat with the Falcoholic blog and First Impressions get you warmed up for Sunday. Later today the Buffet Table and Matchups should be posted.

With an NFC opponent coming into town, FOX has the game on Sunday, however, if you live in certain parts of New England that happen to lie close to New York, you’re going to get the Giants game instead. Check Patriots Daily tomorrow for the weekly media notes feature. Check PatriotsLinks.com for all the stories today in the papers.

FOX also has the Red Sox/Yankees game on Saturday. So it’s a big weekend for Butch Stearns and crew.

One story that was kicking around yesterday was the news (first reported by Sports Business Daily) that the Kraft Sports Group has entered a business relationship with ESPNBoston.com to sell ads on the site. Mike Florio of Profootballtalk.com was apoplectic at the news, calling it “one of the most blatant and obvious conflicts of interest we ever have seen.” A bit of exaggeration there, for sure. This is sports. What kills me about how Florio handled this was his followup post nearly 12 hours later on the subject. He admits that ESPN got back him on his questions in the morning, yet he waited all that time to post the reply…because he didn’t have time. Yet, he had time to personally post15  items in between the two ESPNBoston items.

It seems more likely that Florio let the item sit on his site, knowing it was a hot topic, (83 comments and counting) and wanted to milk it as long as he could before posting the ESPN followup later at night. I can’t really fault him for this…it’s good website business. Keep those pageviews coming in. But Mike, don’t say you didn’t have time to post the followup. That’s lame.

Locally, Jenn Abelson in the Globe writes about potential conflicts of interest in the deal. That’s all well and good, and a legitimate concern to bring up. However, how in the world can the Globe not disclose in that article that they themselves are in a similar conflict, with their (for the moment) parent company also owning 17% of the Red Sox? Inexcusable.

My boy Chad Finn makes the same misstep in his media column today. He starts out with quotes from Tim McCarver on Red Sox/Yankees and Troy Aikman on Patriots/Falcons, and then dives into the ESPNBoston/Kraft Sports Group potential conflict of interest without mentioning the Globe’s situation. He describes the news partnership as starting off on “dubious journalistic ground.”  Sure, I think that most people are by now aware of the 17% but I find it a little hard for the Globe to be critical of ESPNBoston in this instance. 

Elsewhere, in real sports, Sean McAdam breaks the news that Jon Lester, not Josh Beckett, will get the game one start in the postseason. I’m shocked that the Red Sox failed to consult Glenn Ordway on this. He spent hours yesterday telling us it was a no-brainer that Beckett would get that honor.

Dom Amore tells us that this Red Sox/Yankees series is a bit more laid back.  Bill Burt tells us that a Red Sox/Yankees postseason series could come down to Daisuke Matsuzaka and Joba Chamberlain. Check RedSoxLinks.com for all the stories today.

Jessica Camerato has a nice piece on new Celtic Shelden Williams, who is married to WNBA superstar Candace Parker. 

It sounds like Gerry Callahan is going to be making an appearance on the Big Show this afternoon, at least that’s what was stated a number of times on the WEEI morning show today, hosted by Butch Stearns and Greg Dickerson. John Dennis is undergoing surgery this morning, and apparently will be out to at least start next week. At the end of the morning show, Dickerson said that Callahan would be back in the morning on Monday.

If you’re able to, I highly, highly recommend checking out Showtime’s Full Color Football series. It’s a history of the AFL, and is simply tremendous. I can’t say enough good things about it.

Popularity: 11% [?]

The New England Patriots are jumping on the social media bandwagon and will use Twitter to announce their 2009 draft picks in real time.

Each of the Patriots’ picks during the NFL Draft this weekend will be announced at Twitter.com/realpatriots, the official Twitter feed of the New England Patriots.

Following the draft, the “RealPatriots” Twitter feed will be used to distribute official Patriots information, including player transactions, player appearances and other official announcements from the team’s public relations staff.

Patriots fans following the Twitter feed might even get the picks before they’re announcing publicly:

“We might even get a few draft picks out via Twitter before they are announced on TV, so any Patriots fans following the draft closely are encouraged to begin following RealPatriots on Twitter,” said Patriots Vice President of Media Relations Stacey James. “Of course this is the first time we are attempting this, so it should be interesting.”

Patriots.com, the team’s official website, also has a Twitter feed available at Twitter.com/patriotsdotcom, where fans can get additional analysis and updates from the Patriots Football Weekly staff along with links to updated content.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Ken from Fang’s Bites with a quickie update today.

This is from WBZ-TV and the New England Patriots. The Patriots All Access show makes the official move from WCVB, its home for 12 seasons to WBZ this week.

Patriots All Access debuts this Friday

Patriots All Access kicks off its 13th season on Friday, March 13 at 7 p.m. on WBZ-TV and will be replayed Sunday, March 15 at 10 a.m. on TV38.

Boston, Mass. – Tuesday, March 10, 2009 – “Patriots All Access” will kick off its 13th season on Friday the 13th when it debuts at its new home, WBZ-TV and TV38. WBZ-TV Sports Anchor Steve Burton will host the first off-season installment of “Patriots All Access” on Friday, March 13 at 7 p.m. on WBZ-TV, beginning a new era for the best and most in-depth Patriots program in New England. “Patriots-All Access” will re-air on Sunday, March 15 at 10 a.m. on TV38 (WSBK-TV).

The first “Patriots All Access” on WBZ-TV and TV38 will feature:

* WBZ-TV Sports Reporter Dan Roche examining a whirlwind of offseason activity for the team, as multiple trades and free agency acquisitions have begun to shape the 2009 Patriots.
* Former Patriots quarterback Scott Zolak sitting down with the Patriots’ new senior football advisor, Floyd Reese, to discuss the offseason and the upcoming NFL Draft.
* WBZ-TV Sports Reporter Alice Cook kicking off a season-long Patriots 50th Anniversary celebration by unveiling the first in a series of Top 10 lists with the “Top 10 Personnel Moves in Franchise History.”
* Patriots defensive lineman Jarvis Green escorting a group of Foxboro High School seniors on their school vacation to his home state of Louisiana to help rebuild a town damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

“I am thrilled to begin a new chapter with WBZ-TV as ‘All Access’ begins its 13th year,” said Matt Smith, executive producer of Kraft Sports Productions. “This is an extension of an already fabulous relationship between the organization and WBZ. Patriots fans will not want to miss a minute, as the WBZ-TV sports team brings a unique and fresh perspective to the show.”

This is the first stage of Patriots programming that WBZ has acquired. It also picked up the Patriots preseason games from Channel 5. This press release has a complete schedule of Patriots programming on WBZ and TV-38.

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The CBS Television Stations group, of which both WBZ-TV and TV38 are a part of, continues to get cozy with Kraft Sports Productions.

A week after announcing that the preseason games of the New England Patriots and the All Access television program were moving to WBZ-TV, the announcement was made today that the sides have agreed to renew their exclusive television rights agreement to broadcast New England Revolution soccer games.

Here is the release:

Boston, Ma – Tuesday, January 27, 2009 – TV38 (WSBK-TV) today announced that it has renewed its exclusive television rights agreement with The New England Revolution and Kraft Sports Productions. Under this three-year agreement, TV38 will continue to be the team’s only television broadcaster in the Boston market airing all non-nationally televised games. This season’s television schedule is expected to be announced by Major League Soccer tomorrow (1/28/2009).

“We are delighted to continue our exclusive broadcast partnership with the Revs and Kraft Sports Productions,” said Ed Piette, President and General Manager of Boston’s TV38 and WBZ-TV. “The matches broadcast on TV38 have been very popular with soccer fans, and we are glad to be able to bring the games to viewers who might not have a chance to see them otherwise.”

“We’re very pleased to extend our partnership with TV38,” New England Revolution Chief Operating Officer Brian Bilello said. “Our first two years with the station were a tremendous success for us and our fans, and it was an easy decision to continue to partner with TV38 for the next three years. We’re looking forward to further developing our relationship and growing the Revolution’s reach in the greater-Boston area.”

The Revolution games on TV38 will be produced by Kraft Sports Productions and will continue to feature Brad Feldman (play-by-play), Greg Lalas (analyst), and Kristina Akra (sideline). In addition to the Revs’ matches on TV38, Major League Soccer’s national broadcast partners ESPN2 and Fox Soccer Channel will showcase select Revolution matches nationally. And, league Spanish language partner Univision (which also includes the Galavision and Telefutura networks) will carry a selection of Revolution matches to compliment the full slate of games shown in English.

Popularity: 12% [?]