Jeff Agrest
Deputy sports editor
Jeff Agrest is deputy sports editor at the Chicago Sun-Times.
They’ll play the entire AFC South before facing an NFC North foe for the first time — in Week 11. They have a stretch of three consecutive home games followed by three consecutive road games. What gives?
Standard Media Group will invest in the network and help get it distributed. The content will come from Stadium, which is expected to keep its name when it converts to an RSN this fall.
The teams were set to join Stadium once their agreement with NBC Sports Chicago expires in October. On Saturday, The Athletic reported that the teams will partner with Standard Media Group, a company based in Nashville, Tennessee.
A conversation with NBC horse racing analyst Randy Moss at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, paved the way for the former Blackhawks analyst to join the production.
Schriffen’s call of Andrew Benintendi’s walk-off homer last Saturday was so palpable and succinct that he could’ve stopped talking sooner and let the viewer listen to the crowd before analyst Steve Stone shared his thoughts. But Schriffen continued.
The traditional TV broadcasts will be heavy on the Bears, who own the first and ninth picks of the first round. They’ll be on the clock at 7 p.m.
In 1982-83, White Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks games aired on SportsVision, a pay-TV service devised by business partner Eddie Einhorn. It was so far ahead of its time that it failed, miserably.
“It may be the best option available,” Marc Ganis, the co-founder and CEO of Chicago-based Sportscorp Ltd., said Wednesday. “Sometimes you just have to take the best option available, even if it’s not ideal.”
Behind-the-scenes folks at NBC Sports Chicago, such as producers, directors and production technicians, would help ease the transition. The teams already have informed some current staffers that they would be making the move.