Mets Channel, SNY, has excellent local sports news coverage--please watch

Neil Best's Watchdog notes this today--I've enjoyed SNY's coverage for a long time and am glad Best reminds us it's still the place to go every night (even without Mets games as lead in). If viewers tried it, they'd keep coming back (instead of old habit, ESPN, Inc.):

• "The Bronx isn't burning anymore, but things were heating up Wednesday as the Yankees searched for a new manager at their Tampa branch office.

SNY's "SportsNite" was on the case, leading at 10 o'clock with six-plus minutes on the story, featuring Tony Peña audio, an on-camera interview with Joe Girardi and an in-studio discussion. There would be two more Yankees segments later, including a feature on Peña, Hank Steinbrenner audio and interviews with David Cone and Roy White." Meanwhile, San Diego really was burning, and ESPN was all over that story, leading "SportsCenter" at 11 p.m. with video of the fires and a report on the displaced Chargers from Tempe, Ariz.

• The Yankees' saga was next for 1:16, then a minute on Jets news, which SNY had covered in far more detail earlier.

So it went on a night when both shows were waiting for World Series Game 1 to end, and both did what they do daily - offer the two most comprehensive TV roundups of sports news and analysis in the nation's biggest market.

• Here's the paradox: While talk radio and newspapers long have understood the appeal of local topics over national ones, ESPN's signature news show draws a far larger audience than SNY's, especially when the latter does not have the Mets as a lead-in.

Compared to September, SportsNite's average rating in October (through Tuesday) has fallen by more than 75 percent, to an average of about 7,000 of the 7.4 million homes in the area.

• An hour later, the 11 p.m. SportsCenter is averaging about seven times that many homes in New York this month; it drew more than twice SportsNite's audience in September, when the Mets were playing.

But SNY deserves credit for trying as it seeks to carve an identity beyond the Mets; it is the closest thing on TV to a local newspaper sports section/Web site.

• It produces four news/discussion shows a night and carries live news conferences and other events. The strategy has been tweaked recently to feature more experts for debate and analysis.

"We have a little patience here to build up this news organization," executive producer Curt Gowdy Jr. said. "When we launched, we said we would be comprehensive, we'd be objective, we'd cover all sports ... We've done that." Gowdy said one goal is to continue "building our franchise" and, eventually, to achieve another goal: "ESPN rates fairly decently. Our goal is to overtake them." The months between now and April are SNY's challenge; the news crew is doing what it can.

• Wednesday's SportsNite had the Jets news, interviews with the Giants about their London trip (SNY's Gary Apple will be there), a report from Big East media day, an in-studio talk with a chillingly matter-of-fact Victor Conte of BALCO and interviews with Rutgers football players.

It was a lot. But was it enough for SportsNite to catch on with viewers?"

• From Neil Best's Watchdog blog in Newsday, "SNY Shows its Versatility with Expanded Coverage," 10/26/07

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