by Joe Gillis, Sep 8 2011 // 9:00 AM
When I was growing up it was always ABC’s Monday Night Football with Howard Cosell, “Dandy” Don Meredith and Frank Gifford. Meredith would often sing ‘Turn out the Lights, the partys over” as one team or another dominated the proceedings and Cosell would often clash with Meredith or insult one or more players. It was fun and it seemed like anything could happen at any moment.
That was then, this is now. Monday Night Football has a home on ESPN and has been there since 2006. Now, it seems, ESPN is determined to hold on to the venerable franchise and has announced a new agreement to keep it until 2021. The cost? A reported $15 Billion.
The new agreement will cost ESPN 73% more than its previous NFL deal which likely means the Disney-owned sports channel will ask cable and satellite companies to pay more. Some other terms of the new deal kick off immediately.
Today ESPN’s NFL Live expands to an hour from a half hour. A discussion show based on fan-submitted questions, Audibles, also joins the Thursday night line up. This weekend Sunday NFL Countdown will run three hours, up from two.
On Tuesday ESPN2 will introduce a weekly, hour-long show NFL 32, followed on Friday by another weekly hour long show NFL Kickoff. Click through for all the details from the official ESPN press release.
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Posted in: Announcements · Deals and Dealmaking · News · Sports · TV
Tagged: Deals, Don Meredith, ESPN, ESPN's Monday Night Football, football, Frank Gifford, Howard Cosell, Monday Night Football, Sports, TV
by Chris Ullrich, Mar 31 2011 // 1:00 PM
Not sure how this one got past us as it combines at least three of our favorite things (comics, coffee and sitting on our asses). Maybe its because a lot of the team has been going to Coffee Bean lately? Anyway, let’s get on with it.
Customers at Starbucks stores nationwide can get a bit more with their coffee these days thanks to a new deal announced last week between the company and online publishers like Marvel Digital Comics. Marvel currently offers more than 9,000 comics online, all of which will be available for free on the Starbucks Digital Network, a portal available at 6,800 U.S. Starbucks locations.
Before you get too excited, comics at Starbucks will be available to view, not download. What did you expect?
Don’t like comics but still want to read and sip a giant Frappuccino? Starbucks will also be adding finance news from The Economist, sports news from ESPN Inside Rumor Central, and media jobs search help from Mediabistro.
“Today we’re broadening the offering and will continue to develop the network’s channels with a spectrum of new content,” said Stephen Gillett, Starbucks chief information officer and executive vice president of Digital Ventures, in a statement.
Posted in: Comics · Marvel · Mobile · News · Tech
Tagged: ESPN, Marvel, Marvel Digital Comics, Mediabistro, Starbucks, The Economist, The Internets
by John Carle, Nov 1 2010 // 11:00 AM
Since we know many of our Flickcast listeners (And some Flickcast writers) aren’t the most athletically inclined, it’s likely not many of you were watching Sunday night football to see the debut of the Call of Duty: Black Ops launch trailer. While Treyarch has come under some criticism for their Call of Duty titles not being as strong as those from Infinity Ward, this has not hurt the anticipation one bit for Black Ops.
From what we’ve seen so far, the game looks to be one of the highest selling Call of Duty releases ever. After this trailer, it wouldn’t be surprising to see those numbers increase even more.
One of the more surprising moments comes about half way through when a former President makes a brief cameo. Be sure to check it out after the jump.
Stay tuned to The Flickcast for a review on Call of Duty: Black Ops as soon as we get our hands on it!
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Posted in: Activision · Games · News · PC Games · Playstation 3 · Trailers · Video Games · Wii · Xbox 360
Tagged: Activision, Call of Duty, Call of Duty: Black Ops, ESPN, First Person Shooter, FPS, Games, Nintendo DS, PC Games, Playstation 3, Teaser, Teaser Trailer, Trailers, Treyarch, Video Games, Wii, Xbox 360
by John Carle, Oct 12 2010 // 7:00 AM
As we mentioned yesterday, there was a reveal trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops single player campaign during the Monday Night Football game between the New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings. Due to the late start on the game, it was late in the night when the trailer aired during the game’s third quarter.
And while Brett Favre and the Vikings may have disappointed a lot of people, the trailer sure didn’t. Make sure to take a peek below at the full trailer and give us your thoughts on everything Call of Duty: Black Ops as it gets closer to release.
We have already confirmed with Activision we will be reviewing a copy of the game for the site so keep your eyes peeled for that as well! Check out the full trailer after the break.
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Posted in: Activision · Games · Marketing · News · PC Games · Playstation 3 · Trailers · Video Games · War · Wii · Xbox 360
Tagged: Activision, Call of Duty, Call of Duty: Black Ops, ESPN, First Person Shooter, FPS, Games, Monday Night Football, Nintendo DS, PC Games, Playstation 3, Teaser, Teaser Trailer, Trailers, Treyarch, Video Games, Wii, Xbox 360
by Matt Raub, Jan 5 2010 // 3:30 PM
With Cameron’s Avatar raking in over $1 Billion, and just about every big-budget film coming out in the next year getting the “3D treatment”, it only makes sense that three large companies would decide to partner up so that America would have that technology in their homes, 24/7.
It looks like that’s exactly the case here, as Sony, IMAX, and Discovery announced this morning that they will be developing a 24 hour channel that will broadcast in high-quality 3D. From the New York Times:
Discovery Communications, which operates the Discovery Channel, TLC and other cable channels, will distribute the channel, which has a 2011 start date. It is expected to showcase a mix of 3-D content, including entertainment and sports. It will also show some of the natural history programming for which Discovery is well known.
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Posted in: 3-D · Announcements · Gear · Geek · IMAX · Networks · News · Sony · Tech · TV
Tagged: 3D, Discovery, Discovery Channel, ESPN, IMAX, Sony, TLC