Sports European Vacation Ends Sunday...

Jim Williams: Summer’s European vacation nears an end
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Jim Williams, The Examiner
Jul 22, 2006 5:00 AM (7 hrs ago)
Current rank: # 2 of 3,966 articles

WASHINGTON - This weekend marks the end of the major European events with the Tour de France and the British Open serving as the caboose to a TV sports summer across the pond.


OLN will have the Tour de France and if you have not yet watched their coverage you really should.

The Tour is part sporting event and part travelogue. The scenes of the French countryside are stunning and the men riding the bikes are true athletes.

I spoke to Phil Liggett, who does a great job covering the event for OLN.

“As far as who is going to win, this has become the most wide open race in over 15 years,” Liggett said. “Ten or more men could win it and it go all the way the final day in Paris.”

TNT and ABC will have wall-to-wall coverage of the British Open this week and the early morning hours will be filled with great golf. XM has the radio coverage for those headed to the beach or pool.


Arbitration good for Nats TV

The Nationals are getting closer to being on TV in Washington. The FCC ruling last week that ordered Comcast and MASN to seek federal arbitration is likely to have a timeline put on it this week.

In the meantime, representatives of both sides are working out a deal with the hopes it can be resolved prior to going before a judge.

The arbitration process works like it does in a baseball case. Each side would put before a judge a figure they think is fair as a monthly cost per subscriber fee. They argue for their figure and then the judge decides if MASN or Comcast is the winner. Either way it speeds up the process of getting Nationals games on the air in the Washington area. We now are down to a “when” not an “if” and that is a good thing for fans.

Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer.
Examiner