TVSquad

Anyone catch the live broadcast of Costas NOW last night? I was lucky enough to get a few tickets and went to the live taping in Manhattan with my girlfriend. And I really do mean lucky. Not only did we get seated in the front row, but we were seated right in front of all the panelists. Everyone. Joe Buck, Cris Carter, Mitch Albom, Mike Tirico, Michael Wilbon, John McEnroe... the list goes on. And of course, Bob Costas was only a few feet in front of us on stage. For a sports and TV fanatic, it was very impressive. So why am I writing about it? The town hall format of the show covered a lot of hot topics in sports, but there were a couple segments that really stood out because they directly relate to what we're doing here at TV Squad -- blogging and athletes' (or in our case TV celebs, writers, and producers) reactions to the media.

Sports fans who've felt snubbed thus far with iTunes and its downloadable video offerings no longer need to feel rejected. It was announced today that iTunes has entered a deal with ABC Sports and ESPN to offer condensed games (more recent ones such as the current college football bowl games will be included), ESPN commercials (you know, the funny "This is SportsCenter" ones), as well as other content like reality programming and classic games. Expect video segments to be around 15 minutes with a $1.99 price tag. All this is supposed to be happening sometime this month. I'm not sure how much longevity some of this stuff will have though. Other than my favorite teams, I don't really like watching highlight reels over and over again - let alone have to pay for them. If they're smart, they'll upload daily SportsCenter videos and offer them for free... but I don't see that happening.