Sports Media Weekly No. 127- Jen Royle, Sports Reel Boston

http://sportsmediajournal.com/ Ken Fang of Fang’s Bites and I have recovered from our Thanksgiving hangovers and are raring to go with another version of Sports Media Weekly. We begin the show looking at the college football scene, specifically ESPN’s agreement to televise the college football playoff championships when the series begins in January of 2015. We stay with college football examining the impact Notre Dame’s undefeated season has had for ESPN and NBC in terms of increased ratings and the prospects for ESPN when the Irish play in the BCS National Championship game on January 7th. Ken and I also look back at the success of the NFL on Thanksgiving, with the Redskins/Cowboys match-up being the most-watched television program thus far this fall. We shift to sports radio and the announcement this week that Dana Jabobson, Tiki Barber, and Brandon Tierney have been tapped to host CBS Sports Radio’s morning show when the network launches on January 2nd. We end our news segment by taking a look at the growth of original talk show programming mornings on sports networks. The MLB Network, NFL Network, Golf Channel, and NBC Sports Network have all added morning shows during the past year. Our guest this week is Jen Royle, former sports reporter in New York and Baltimore who has moved back home to Boston. Jen talks about her new website, Sports Reel Boston, which launches at midnight tomorrow night. Jen discusses about how the site will focus primarily on baseball and the Red Sox. She describes how she’s been able to assemble a good roster of talent to write for the site, and how successful she’s been in getting the support she needs to launch this new venture.