Welcome to The A Block, Awful Announcing’s daily newsletter where you’ll always find the latest sports media news, commentary, and analysis.

Did someone share this newsletter with you? Sign up for free to make sure you never miss it.

🎤 QUICK START ✍️

🏀 Dončić dominance. Luka’s highly-anticipated return to Dallas on Wednesday resonated with viewers, securing ESPN its largest non-Christmas NBA audience of the year. The Lakers’ win over the Mavericks averaged 2.26 million viewers.

📷 The Kid’s second act. Baseball Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. is bringing his talents to Augusta National Golf Club this week, but not because of his putting stroke. The Mariners great is working as a photographer for Masters.com this week. He talked about his new career in an interview on the Masters YouTube channel. Welcome to the dark side, Junior!

🏌️ Stick. Apple TV has revealed a trailer for its upcoming series Stick starring Owen Wilson as a “washed-up ex-pro golfer.” The streamer will try to replicate the success of its other mega-hit in the sports comedy genre, Ted Lasso. Catch the trailer here.

️‍🚨LEADING OFF 🚨

Will bullying from the Trump admin force Comcast’s hand again?

Something very interesting is going on in the world of regional sports networks. Comcast’s ongoing conquest to place RSNs into premium tiers on its Xfinity cable systems could be about to hit a Trump-sized roadblock.

Up until recently, Comcast was undefeated in forcing RSNs up to a higher tier, lest the channels be dropped entirely. No exceptions.

That changed late last month when YES Network was able to avoid a blackout while staying on Comcast’s basic package, despite efforts from the company to move the channel up, just like it had done to numerous RSNs across the country.

Why is that? Well, YES Network was able to leverage its political connections to coerce Comcast into extending its current deal with the channel. FCC chair Brendan Carr is at the center of it all, having publicly urged YES and Comcast to reach a resolution last month, suggesting that his agency has the “authority to step in and address claims of discriminatory conduct” if they did not.

That threat was seemingly enough to convince Comcast it was worth kicking the can down the road until baseball season ends, when the two sides can reenter negotiations with lower stakes.

Comcast, which owns NBCUniversal, has already become a favorite target of the Trump administration. Last month, President Trump called Comcast CEO Brian Roberts a “pathetic loser” in a social media post, and Carr’s FCC has already opened an inquiry into NBC News over perceived unfavorable media coverage.

It’s a common playbook from Trump, who has already secured an eight-figure settlement from ABC News over frivolous claims about the network’s election coverage, and is trying to extract a much larger payout from CBS News over similarly dubious assertions. Increasingly, media companies are being forced to make a decision about whether to capitulate to the Trump administration’s baseless demands, or risk becoming a victim of his vindictiveness.

Now, Comcast’s YES Network dilemma seems to be resurfacing in another city. Yesterday, FCC chair Carr posted a picture of himself and Chicago Bulls and White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who happens to own and operate a regional sports network that has been unable to secure carriage on Comcast since it launched last year.

It wouldn’t be presumptuous to think that Carr’s discussion with Reinsdorf likely centered around Chicago Sports Network’s inability to strike a deal with Comcast, one of the region’s largest cable providers.

Whether Carr will take the same level of interest in this dispute as he did with YES Network remains to be seen. But if he does, it will be a true test of Comcast’s appetite to challenge the Trump administration.

On the one hand, it doesn’t seem worth it to risk the well-being of other businesses under Comcast’s umbrella just to avoid one unfavorable carriage deal with an RSN. But on the other hand, it’s not just one deal. If it can happen with YES Network, and then the same thing can happen with Chicago Sports Network, when will the bullying stop? Would Comcast continue to cave to political pressure so long as RSNs are able to successfully lobby the FCC?

The agency’s jurisdiction over these matters is questionable, after all.

Eventually, Comcast will have to stand up to the bully. The question is, will they do it this time if history repeats itself?

👀AROUND AA📰

Grade the 2024-25 local NBA announcers

Now that the NBA’s regular season is coming to an end, we want your perspectives on how the various local TV broadcast booths did. There were a lot of changes in where many teams’ local games were shown this year, and a few changes to on-air booths as well. The voting form is below and here. It will be open through 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT on Monday, April 14. The rankings will be announced at Awful Announcing later next week.

📣 SOCIAL EXPERIMENT 🌟

📈💰INDUSTRY INSIGHTS🧐

• Major League Soccer will not be making any wholesale changes to its schedule next year after the league’s Board of Governors did not vote on a proposal to align its season with the global calendar at a meeting on Thursday, per Alex Silverman of Sports Business Journal. Had the proposal been adopted, MLS would have contested its playoffs in May and June rather than late October to early December under the current format. Proponents of the new schedule believe that moving the league’s playoff inventory away from football season and into late spring and early summer would give the product more exposure. In a statement, the league suggested the proposal could be adopted in 2027.

• Major League Baseball is pushing to implement a salary cap. Citing “people familiar with the matter,” CNBC’s Alex Sherman and Lillian Rizzo report that MLB owners and commissioner Rob Manfred have “begun privately contemplating what a new league economic structure could look like as the league heads toward a new Collective Bargaining Agreement with players.” MLB’s current CBA is set to expire on Dec. 1, 2026, with a potential lockout expected if the two sides can’t reach a new deal.

• Media research firm MoffettNathanson predicts that sports media rights fees will take a “slight dip” in 2025 as networks “readjust their budgets.” Companies have exercised more restraint recently in determining what live rights to buy. ESPN recently opted out of a $550 million annual deal with MLB. Formula One is currently struggling to attract a U.S. broadcast partner at its desired price point after ESPN exited its exclusive negotiating window with the racing circuit. Still, the market for live sports rights is still robust. 60% of Fox’s total content budget will be spent on live sports in 2025. Disney will outlay 45% of its content budget to live sports.

🔥 THE CLOSER 🔥

Masters coverage has fallen behind

The 89th Masters Tournament got underway yesterday, but if you wanted to watch morning coverage of the season’s first major championship, your options were limited.

That’s been the case with the Masters for quite some time now. What was once a revolutionary and fan-friendly broadcast experience a decade ago has turned into an antiquated and onerous experience in 2025. Let me explain.

Yesterday’s round began at 7:40 a.m. ET, but not a single golf shot was available to watch until an hour later when coverage began for holes 4, 5, and 6. You could then watch groups trickle through that stretch of holes, but once a group putts out on the sixth green, you won’t see them again until they reach the Amen Corner coverage at hole 11. After that, 15 and 16 will be your last opportunity to catch a glimpse. Mind you, these are on separate feeds, so anytime you’d like to flip from say, Amen Corner coverage to holes 15 and 16, you have to click into a separate stream.

There is the featured groups coverage as well, which began at 9:47 a.m. ET yesterday when Collin Morikawa’s group teed off. This is the only way viewers can watch holes 1-3, 7-10, 14, 17 and 18 before 3 p.m. ET, when ESPN’s main broadcast finally reaches the air. Of course, you’ll only see a select few golfers on the featured groups feed.

Once upon a time, this was an adequate setup. Actually, it was more than adequate. It was a dream for golf fans who used to get next to nothing in terms of morning coverage on Thursdays and Fridays. And credit where credit is due, Augusta National Golf Club has always made these feeds freely accessible on their app and website without requiring any sort of cable login or subscription.

But times have changed, and fans are accustomed to more now.

Any old Thursday or Friday morning on the PGA Tour, fans have access to a fully produced “Main Feed” broadcast that hops around the course, regardless of what hole, and follows the most interesting stories, golfers, and golf shots, just as one could expect from CBS or NBC on a Sunday afternoon. The broadcast is produced and curated so the fan doesn’t have to lift a finger; they’re getting all the action, all in one place.

That’s not the way things work on Thursday and Friday morning at the Masters. The viewing experience is much more restrictive and requires significantly more effort on the part of the viewer.

This wouldn’t be such a huge deal if the actual broadcast didn’t start so late. But Masters fans are stuck with limited coverage (just eight holes + featured groups) for over seven hours of live action until the ESPN broadcast comes on the air mid-afternoon.

In today’s day and age, where golf fans can get soup-to-nuts coverage of some mid-tier Tour event like the Valspar Championship at the crack of dawn on a Thursday morning, we should expect more out of the sport’s biggest event.

It’s past time for the Masters to introduce a main broadcast feed to its Thursday and Friday morning coverage and reclaim its position as the most fan-friendly broadcast experience in sports.