Seen on Screen: ESPN, TNT Unveil 2016-17 NBA Slates; Fox To Broadcast A-Rod’s Final Game Nationally
Story Highlights
The 2016-17 ABC and ESPN NBA telecast schedule will feature 100 regular-season games, more than ever, as ESPN begins its new, multi-year rights agreement with the NBA. The schedule will include 82 games onESPN, which generally includes NBA doubleheaders on Wednesday and Friday nights, and 18 games onABC, highlighted by season two of NBA Saturday Primetime on ABC and the ABC NBA SundayShowcase franchise. From January to April, ABC and ESPN will combine to televise NBA games four days per week.
ABC’s and ESPN’s biggest schedule ever begins with a doubleheader on Wednesday, October 26: the Oklahoma City Thunder and Russell Westbrook visit the Philadelphia 76ers and the number one 2016 NBA Draft selection Ben Simmons at 8 p.m. ET. At 10:30 p.m., the Los Angeles Lakers begin their new era as they host the Houston Rockets and James Harden.
Once again, ABC and ESPN will combine to serve as the exclusive, national home of the NBA’s biggest day of the regular-season – Christmas –Sunday, Dec. 25. The defending NBA Champion Cleveland Cavaliers and LeBron James and Kyrie Irving will host the Golden State Warriors and Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant in a rematch of the most-watched NBA Finals in ABC history at 2:30 p.m. (ABC). In total, more than 13 hours of continuous NBA coverage will unfold across ESPN platforms…
…Turner Sports, entering its 33rd consecutive year of NBA coverage, will feature an expanded 64-game schedule during the 2016-17 NBA regular season including the addition of a new Monday night package beginning on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The network will showcase the league’s biggest stars throughout the season including 10 appearances by the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Clippers, nine appearances by the defending NBA Champion Cleveland Cavaliers, the New York Knicks, Chicago Bulls, Boston Celtics and San Antonio Spurs, and eight appearances by the Oklahoma City Thunder. TNT will televise 20 Thursday night and 10 Monday night NBA doubleheaders during the regular season.
TNT’s new Monday night game package, part of Turner’s long-term extension with the NBA that includes enhanced multimedia rights throughout its portfolio, will debut with a primetime doubleheader on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (Jan. 16). The marquee doubleheader will feature an NBA Finals rematch between the Cavaliers and LeBron James visiting the Warriors and Steph Curry at 8 p.m. ET, followed by the Clippers and Chris Paul hosting theThunder and Russell Westbrook at 10:30 p.m.
TNT will officially tip off the 2016-17 NBA regular season on Tuesday, Oct. 25, with a doubleheader featuring the defending NBA Champion Cavaliers with James, Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving hosting the new-look Knicks withDerrick Rose, Carmelo Anthony and Kristaps Porzingis at 8 p.m. In the night’s second game, the Warriors – coming off an NBA record 73 regular season wins – will host the Spurs and Leonard at 10:30 p.m….
… New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez is scheduled to play his final game in pinstripes tonight and FOX will broadcast the game to a national audience, as the Yankees host the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium. The YES Network will also televise the game live within its footprint (New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania), with YES’ pregame coverage beginning at 6:00 pm ET. The FOX broadcast network will televise Friday night’s game to a national audience with play-by-play announcer Kevin Burkhardt, analyst John Smoltz and reporter Ken Rosenthal on the call. Pregame coverage, also airing on the FOX broadcast network, begins at 7:00 PM ET with host Chris Myers and analysts Frank Thomas, Tom Verducci and CJ Nitkowski on-site from Yankee Stadium…
Friday’s game will also be available for live and on-demand streaming via the FOX Sports GO app and online at FOXSportsGO.com.
…Sling TV has launched NFL Network and NFL RedZone on its live and on-demand Internet TV service. All Sling Blue customers will automatically receive NFL Network, while NFL RedZone is available to Sling Blue customers as part of the “Sports Extra” add-on pack for an additional $5 per month.During the upcoming regular season, NFL Network will deliver exclusive Thursday Night Football games, popular shows such as NFLGameDay Morning, A Football Life, TIMELINE, and the new morning show, Good Morning Football, which airs live each weekday morning from New York City. Additionally, with NFL Network fans can watch live and delayed coverage of the entire slate of all 64 NFL preseason games…
… ESPN.com has launched a new vertical dedicated to delivering comprehensive coverage of WWE and the world of professional wrestling. The section will serve as a one-stop destination for content including match results, features, wrestler profiles, rankings, international wrestling, video and more. A variety of contributors from across ESPN will contribute to the coverage, including Brian Campbell, Arash Markazi, Darren Rovell and KC Joyner. The vertical will also be the home to Cheap Heat, Peter Rosenberg’s professional wrestling podcast that launched last January, and growing to average 400,000 downloads per month already. On Friday, Aug. 19, the show will record in front of a live audience at the Highline Ballroom in New York City…
… ONE & DONE, the SHOWTIME Sports documentary chronicling the sprawling journey of 2016 NBA No. 1 draft pick Ben Simmons, will premiere Friday, Oct. 21 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on SHOWTIME. The project, which was announced two days before Simmons was selected first overall in the 2016 NBA Draft by the Philadelphia 76ers, is an intimate portrait that examines the coming-of-age of a basketball prodigy. ONE & DONE is set to premiere just days prior to the start of the NBA season…
… ShowTime Sports will also present “A SEASON WITH FLORIDA STATE FOOTBALL”, the all-access, season-long documentary series that chronicles the Florida State Seminoles’ high-stakes quest for the 2016 College Football National Championship. A SEASON WITH FLORIDA STATE FOOTBALL premieres Tuesday, Sept. 6 at 10 p.m. ET/PT, just one day after Florida State’s opening week showdown with the top-15 ranked Ole Miss Rebels (University of Mississippi) on Labor Day. New episodes will premiere each Tuesday night at 10 p.m. throughout the Seminoles’ season…
… For the 2016 NFL season, NFL Films presents 25 documentaries that will air on NFL Network, highlighted by the anticipated returns of two Emmy-nominated series, A Football Life and The Timeline. The sixth season of the highly-acclaimed series A Football Life premieres Friday, September 16 at 9:00 PM ET with a profile of Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Curtis Martin. The second season of the successful series The Timeline airs Wednesdays at 8:00 PM ET beginning September 14 withLast Day in LA, chronicling the last time football was played in Los Angeles in 1994. On Friday, September 9 at 8:00 PM ET, The Timeline airs at a special time with 9/11, which examines how the NFL reacted to the crisis of September 11, 2001…
…Sports Jeopardy!, the 30-minute sports quiz show hosted by Emmy Award-winning sportscaster Dan Patrick debuted on NBCSN on August 6 at midnight ET. Sports Jeopardy! Is airing each evening on NBCSN, for two consecutive weeks, until the conclusion of the Rio Games. As was announced in April, NBC Sports Group has acquired the exclusive television rights to the series, which airs originally on Crackle, Sony’s streaming network. Following a brief hiatus, Sports Jeopardy! will return to NBCSN in the fall of 2016 and air weekly on Wednesday nights, immediately following the network’s coverage of NHL Wednesday Night Rivalry. Sports Jeopardy! episodes airing on NBCSN in the fall will include categories and clues featuring NBC Sports commentators, as well as highlights of NBC Sports Group’s live events…
CSN Mid-Atlantic will present a live simulcast of 106.7 The Fan’s “The Sports Junkies”weekdays from 6 to 10 a.m. beginning Sept. 6, making the popular Washington, D.C.-area sports radio show available on television for the first time in its 20-year history. Hosted by John Auville, Eric Bickel, Jason Bishop and John-Paul Flaim, “106.7 The Fan’s Sports Junkies” will be presented in its entirety throughout the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia on CSN, CSNmidatlantic.com and the NBC Sports app. Through the partnership, CSN will also feature show content across its TV, online, mobile and social media platforms, including daily highlight episodes…
… NFL Network remains the only network to show the entire slate of 64 preseason games, highlighted by a record 16 live games. NFL Network’s live preseason schedule kicks off Thursday, August 11 with the New England Patriots hosting the New Orleans Saints at 7:30 PM ET. Also featured as part of NFL Network’s package of live preseason games are top picks Jared Goff (Chiefs-Rams,August 20 at 10:00 PM ET) and Carson Wentz (Eagles-Steelers, August 18 at 8:00 PM ET), as well as seven playoff teams from 2015. Returning this year are four special preseason editions of NFL RedZone, hosted by Scott Hanson…
…ESPN will televise the 28-hour DraftKings Fantasy Football Marathon in preparation for the 2016 NFL season on Aug. 15-16. The first-time programming initiative – starting Monday, Aug. 15 at 7 p.m. ET through Tuesday, Aug. 16 at 11 p.m. – will feature Fantasy Football specials in primetime both nights, segments on multiple editions of SportsCenter, and Fantasy Football-themed editions of popular ESPN shows, including First Take, Mike and Mike, His & Hers, SportsNation and NFL Live…
… CBS Sports Network will air coverage of eight international soccer friendlies featuring many of the leading clubs of Europe including, from the English Premier League, Chelsea FC, Liverpool FC and Tottenham Hotspur, from Serie A in Italy, Inter Milan, Lazio and FC Bologna, from Spain’s La Liga Athletico Bilbao and Villareal and from the German Bundesliga SV Werder Bremen, FC Schalke and Borussia Monchengladbach. These games will feature some of the top players in the world. CBS Sports Network’s coverage began on Aug. 4 with coverage of one of the leading German Bundesliga team FC Schalke v FC Bologne of the Italian Serie A…
… Continuing its new slate of offseason programming, NHL Network will look ahead to the 2016-17 season and rank the best players across the National Hockey League in four new countdown series starting this week. NHL Network launched the series on August 6 with Top 20 Forwards Right Now, which will be followed by Top 20 Defensemen Right Now on Saturday, August 13 at 7:00 p.m. ET and Top 10 Goalies Right Now on Saturday, August 20 at 7:00 p.m. ET. Sunday’s airing of Top 20 Forwards Right Now will immediately follow the USA vs. Canada matchup at the USA Hockey National Junior Evaluation Camp, live on NHL Network at 7:00 p.m. ET…
…AOL.com will steams its first live soccer match on Aug. 13, as One World Sports will broadcast the New York Cosmos vs. the Tampa Bay Rowdies in the final regular season matchup between the two sides…
