The relationship between the WNBA and its players continues to fray as one of the league\u2019s top stars accused the commissioner of inflammatory quotes Tuesday. Plus: YouTube TV wants to \u201cingest\u201d Peacock as its negotiations with NBC go down to the wire; Amazon touts high resolution NBA broadcasts; and more.<\/p>\n
Lynx\/Unrivaled star Collier accuses commissioner of inflammatory quotes<\/p>\n
At a Tuesday press conference<\/a>, Minnesota Lynx F and Unrivaled co-creator Naphessa Collier accused WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert of saying in a private conversation that WNBA players should be \u201con their knees thanking their lucky stars about the media rights deal that I got them\u201d and that Caitlin Clark in particular \u201cshould be grateful\u201d for the money she makes off the court, because \u201cwithout the platform that the WNBA gives her, she wouldn\u2019t make anything.\u201d<\/p>\n Collier said the comments are indicative of \u201ca mentality\u201d that the WNBA \u201csucceeds despite its players, not because of them.\u201d Engelbert said in a statement later Tuesday that she is \u201cdisheartened\u201d by the way Collier characterized the conversations.<\/p>\n Collier\u2019s Lynx were eliminated from the playoffs on Sunday, two nights after she was injured on a late-game play that was not called a foul. That play led to the ejection of Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve, who was then suspended for Sunday\u2019s game after criticizing league officiating in a postgame press conference. But Collier said Tuesday that the officiating is just one symptom of broader problems: \u201cThe real threat to our league isn\u2019t money, it isn\u2019t ratings or even missed calls or even physical play,\u201d Collier said. \u201cIt\u2019s the lack of accountability from the league office.\u201d<\/p>\n At one point, Collier said the WNBA has \u201cthe best players in the world,\u201d \u201cthe best fans in the world\u201d and \u201cthe worst leadership in the world.\u201d The WNBA collective bargaining agreement expires October 31. Late Tuesday, Tom Friend of Sports Business Journal reported<\/a> that sources expect Engelbert to likely step down after those negotiations are completed.<\/p>\n YouTube TV wants to \u201cingest\u201d Peacock<\/p>\n The Google-owned vMVPD YouTube TV is seeking to fully incorporate the NBCUniversal streaming service Peacock into its own app, according to multiple<\/a> reports<\/a>, and that goal has become a sticking point in the sides\u2019 stalled carriage negotiations. YouTube TV previously sought to \u201cingest\u201d the new Fox One app during its negotiations with Fox Corporation.<\/p>\n Unlike Fox One, a direct-to-subscriber app that ultimately carries content already available on YouTube TV via FOX, FS1 and Fox News Channel, Peacock has an extensive lineup of exclusive sports programming not available on linear. If YouTube TV were to successfully integrate Peacock content, users would have no need to ever download the actual Peacock app to watch exclusive programming like the NBA and Big Ten.<\/p>\n It should be noted that Peacock has already been \u201cingested\u201d into the Amazon Prime Video service<\/a> as part of that streamer\u2019s \u201cAmazon Channels\u201d feature.<\/p>\n The NBCU networks will be pulled from YouTube TV at Midnight ET Wednesday in the event that there is no deal or short-term extension. In a strange wrinkle, the potential blackout would result in the suspension of new Pro Football Talk videos on YouTube, the site\u2019s founder Mike Florio wrote Tuesday. It is not clear \u2014 even to Florio \u2014 why a carriage dispute with the YouTube TV vMVPD would prevent NBC from uploading PFT videos to the traditional YouTube website.<\/p>\n Amazon announces 1080p, multiview, for NBA<\/p>\n Amazon announced Tuesday that its Prime Video streaming service will carry NBA games in 1080p HDR resolution, compared to the 720p resolution that has been commonplace on nationally televised NBA games. The streamer also said that it is will use its AWS technology to offer a propriety \u201cultra-low latency\u201d stream that it says will result in less lag than is commonplace on cable and broadcast.<\/p>\n Prime is also offering a multiview option for NBA games that will include its national game windows and NBA League Pass, plus a personalized bet tracking option in partnership with FanDuel.<\/p>\n In other NBA broadcasting news, the NBA is taking over production of NBA TV effective Wednesday, but will not begin airing a full slate of original programming on the network until October 13. In the meantime, the league-owned channel will air live preseason games, season preview shows and simulcasts of SiriusXM shows.<\/p>\n TNT Sports had been operating NBA TV since 2008, but the league has elected to take production in-house. The final TNT-produced original broadcast on NBA TV was the Basketball Hall of Fame pre-show earlier this month.<\/p>\n Plus: Fubo-Hulu, NFL-Tubi, WCBB, Lefkoe-MLB<\/p>\n Fubo shareholders have approved the streamer\u2019s planned merger with Disney-owned Hulu + Live TV, it was announced Tuesday<\/a>. The transaction, which was announced in January, still needs to go through the regulatory process. Assuming it is approved, Fubo and Hulu would continue to be offered separately, but they would be one combined business run by the current Fubo management team and owned primarily by Disney.
\nThe Fox-owned streaming service Tubi will stream Fox Sports coverage of the Packers-Lions NFL Thanksgiving Day game, it was announced Tuesday. Tubi previously streamed February\u2019s Super Bowl, averaging an audience of 13.6 million viewers per Fox. Unlike the Super Bowl stream, the Thanksgiving Tubi stream will have to compete with streams on the Fox Sports app and the new Fox One streaming service.
\nABC will air its first primetime women\u2019s college basketball game \u2014 regular season or postseason \u2014 when it carries South Carolina-LSU on Saturday, February 14<\/a>, according a schedule released Tuesday. The network does not have its usual NBA Saturday Primetime game that day due to All-Star Weekend. In other women\u2019s basketball scheduling news, the 2028 NCAA Women\u2019s Final Four will be held in Indianapolis\u2019 Lucas Oil Stadium, rather than Gainbridge Fieldhouse, marking the first time since 2021 and only the third time since 2005 that the women\u2019s national semifinals will take place in a football stadium, as is routine for the Men\u2019s Final Four.
\nTNT Sports\u2019 Adam Lefkoe will host the company\u2019s Major League Baseball Postseason coverage this year, filling a role held the prior two seasons by Lauren Shehadi. Lefkoe took over as TNT\u2019s primary MLB studio host in July. According to Awful Announcing,<\/a> the TNT Sports studio show will go on-site for the NLCS, marking the first such occurrence since 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The relationship between the WNBA and its players continues to fray as one of the league\u2019s top stars…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,116657,116658,590,116659,60867,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-181904","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-mlb-broadcasters","11":"tag-mlb-on-tbs","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-nba-on-prime-video","14":"tag-nfl-on-fox","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}