Monday, August 18, 2008

Francesa on the Move Too

No, Mike Francesa is not bailing on WFAN like his tongue-tied partner. But according to the Daily News' Bob Raissman, Francesa's show will be leaving the YES Network when the current contract expires. According to Raissman, Francesa already has a deal in place with MSG to switch the show over there.

The MSG Network took a huge hit with the loss of the Yankees, and though this clearly won't make up for it, it adds some better attention to MSG than Isaiah Thomas' missteps, and some additional revenue.

Raissman is also reporting that Chris Russo's deal with Sirius Satellite radio should be announced shortly. Russo hasn't been forthcoming with his plans, but he's been seen quite often at Sirius HQ.

Now the question is what will YES do with the time vacated by MMD? Since YES is already practically the Michael Kay network, they could simulcast his ESPN radio show, which runs from 3-7 P.M. EDT. That would still leave a gap from 1-3, which they could fill with yet another Yankees-Royals instant classic (sarcasm). They wouldn't be able to air Kay's entire show during the Yankees season since the pre-game show generally begins at 6 P.M..

It would also be hard to imagine that ESPN would allow one of its shows to be simulcast on another television network. YES hasn't been innovative in years so it will be interesting to see what transpires.

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