Networks owned by sports leagues gaining on traditional outlets

January 14, 2010

When Mark McGwire and his PR team decided that the former baseball player should make his first on-screen apology for using performance-enhancing drugs on the MLB Network, it was an example of league-owned networks gaining ground on traditional media, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

A year ago, the interview would have been televised by ESPN, Fox, NBC or another established, mainstream network. Choosing Bob Costas to interview McGwire on the channel owned by Major League Baseball to discuss one of the game’s darkest sins “is a historic, seminal event in the evolution of sports media in America,” the Inquirer quotes Tim Franklin, director of the National Sports Journalism Center at Indiana University, as saying.

As networks and media outlets owned by sports leagues and teams gain resources while traditional media continue cutbacks, the lines between news and public relations have blurred, the Inquirer writes. Comcast SportsNet employs reporters who cover the Flyers and Sixers for both TV and the Internet — and parent company Comcast owns both the teams and the network. “It symbolizes the diminishment … of mainstream news organizations,” Franklin said.

“My guess is, a majority of folks said, ‘Hey, this is Bob Costas doing this interview. This is legit,’” Franklin is quoted as saying. “The news source may not matter as much.”  — Greg Beaubien

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