ESPN has Grantland, which it built itself and is building out digitally. Turner Sports has Bleacher Report, which it acquired last year and has been featuring in TV segments. NBC Sports acquired Pro Football Talk, and now turned it into a TV show.

Might SB Nation be next? To be sure, it is unlikely that SB Nation, which is owned by Vox Media, would sell, but it has one of the strongest brands in sports news, and clearly there is a hankering on the part of legacy companies to get a piece of the young people that flock to the digital sports sites every day.

In an interview with TV trade newsletter Cynopsis, Vox Media CEO Jim Bankoff says that there is TV in the future for SB nation, and hints at what it might be.

We have given [TV] some thought and even had some discussions  though I haven’t shared that information with anyone yet and I should stress that we haven’t entered into any partnerships that we are ready to announce.

As you can imagine, we do get a lot of interest from networks and the TV industry. Especially since there are several new and upcoming sports networks that are looking for high-quality programming, which we have an abundance of. SB Nation can also bring them an established audience to boost ratings.

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Former CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien is joining the team at HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel,” HBO Sports says.

In addition, HBO has signed a “first look” deal with O’Brien’s production company Starfish Media Group, giving it the first crack at scripted projects and “long form programming concepts” that they develop.

O’Brien has a similar first look deal with CNN for doc series, such as the “In America” series. The deal with HBO actually keeps O’Brien in the Turner Broadcasting family, as HBO and CNN are sister networks under the Turner Broadcasting umbrella, which is owned by Time Warner. HBO docs and series are occasionally replayed on CNN.

“Soledad is a perfect fit for ‘Real Sports,’” said HBO Sports president Ken Hershman in a statement. “She’s an extraordinary interviewer and storyteller, and we’re thrilled to be able to add her to a franchise where the emphasis is on finding and presenting thought-provoking stories in the diverse and ever-fascinating world of sports.”

More information after the jump.
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The news that Keith Olbermann had signed a deal with Turner Sports to host the Major League Baseball studio show on TBS during the playoffs this Fall caught many by surprise. Olbermann, who most recently hosted “Countdown” on Current TV, hasn’t been a full-time sports anchor in well over a decade.

“The last time I sat at a telephone news conference to announce that I was leaving politics to go to a baseball pregame show and sports in general in 1999, it was the first time I ever said I have absolutely no idea where my career is going,” Olbermann told reporters on a conference call today, responding to a question about whether he would do another politics show. “I have been so bad at predicting my own career future, as everybody else has, that it would be useless. This is what I’m doing and I can’t wait to get started.”

That said, the former MSNBC host did seem open to the possibility of doing other things… it is just that no other options seem imminent.

“[Am I] open to pursuing other things? Of course. Planning on it? No. Do I need to? Fortunately not. Whatever else might be out there…couldn’t be as compelling as this.”

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Former MSNBC and Current TV host Keith Olbermann is returning to air. Olbermann has been named as the studio host for Turner Sports’ coverage of the Major League Baseball playoffs this Fall.

“It’s well known that Keith is a fan of the game and when you combine that with his studio experience, keen insight and passion for baseball and its history, he’ll add a new dimension to our MLB Postseason studio shows,” Turner Sports president David Levy said in a statement. “We’re excited to have him join Dennis [Eckersley] in studio, and look forward to Keith sharing his in-depth knowledge of the game, MLB teams and players with our viewers for three great weeks in October.”

Turner Sports says it has also signed analyst Ron Darling to a new, long-term deal, and that Cal Ripken Jr. will transition from the studio to the broadcast booth this postseason.

The news was first reported by the well-sourced James Andrew Miller on Twitter, with the equally well-sourced Marisa Guthrie adding the details in an item for The Hollywood Reporter.

The deal puts Olbermann in the same corporate family as Jeff Zucker, who ran NBC Universal when he became a star there. Zucker now runs CNN. As is par for the course in the TV world, Turner Sports talent routinely appear on CNN to promote big games. It is a guarantee that talent will be appearing on CNN to promote TBS’ MLB Playoff coverage. Whether that talent is Olbermann remains to be seen.

More from Guthrie:
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CBS has made a big promotion, upping CBS Sports Network chief David Berson to president of CBS Sports.

Berson will continue to report to CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus, and will add day-to-day responsibility of the division to his plate. He will continue to run CBS Sports Network. His promotion positions him as a strong number two to McManus, and echoes the management structure of CBS News, which has Jeff Fager as chairman and David Rhodes as president.

Berson joined CBS in 2011 to take over what was then CBS College Sports Network. It rebranded to CBS Sports Network shortly thereafter. He was a 16-year veteran of ESPN before joining CBS.

“David’s contributions and expertise in all areas of our business, including programming, production and business affairs, have managed to exceed our high expectations since he joined CBS Sports,” said McManus in a statement. “This is a natural evolution for David to assume additional responsibilities at CBS Sports, working alongside me on the day-to-day management of both CBS Sports and CBS Sports Network.”

More:
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Fox Sports 1 is staffing up ahead of its August launch. Longtime Fox executive Bill Dallman will join the network in July as VP/news director.

Dallman begins at Fox Sports 1 in July and will oversee “Fox Sports Live,” the network’s nightly three-hour news and highlights show.

• Related, TVSpy: KMSP Vice President of News Bill Dallman Joins Fox Sports 1

“Fox Sports Live” has already made a number of on-air hires. Jay Onrait and Dan O’Toole will be the program’s primary anchors. Molly McGrath and Julie Stewart-Binks will be breaking news correspondents, and former professional tennis player Andy Roddick will be a co-host.

More from Fox Sports 1 after the jump. Read more

Just a few short months after the program debuted, NBC Sports Network is completely shaking up its early-evening show “The Crossover,” according to The Big Lead.

Dave Briggs, who joined NBC Sports from Fox News in January specifically to host the program, is being removed as co-host. Starting Monday, the show will have a new set, and Michelle Beadle will host alone, joined by a rotating cast of regulars. Briggs is expected to get hosting duties on another NBCSN program.

Update: Briggs tells TVNewser “I’m ecstatic about the recent developments & very much looking forward to this opportunity.”

“The Crossover” was one of NBCSN’s highest-profile launches in recent memory, as Beadle was poached from ESPN (which wanted badly to keep her) and Briggs came from “Fox & Friends” weekend edition, which, while not as popular as the weekday edition, still does very well for FNC.

Sports media juggernaut ESPN held its upfront presentation in New York City this morning. Yankees closer Mariano Rivera and Soccer star Landon Donovan joined executives in the Best Buy Theater to pitch advertisers on spending big bucks with the Disney-owned company.

ESPN president John Skipper opened up the show by talking about “the elephant in the room” as the elephant mascot for the University of Alabama walked behind him.

“Several broadcast companies have decided–in the early 2010s–that there might be something to this whole national sports network thing,” Skipper quipped, referencing the NBC Sports Network, CBS Sports Network and the upcoming Fox Sports 1. After the event, Skipper told a group of reporters that while he embraces the competition, he thinks ESPN is still in driver’s seat.

“They are going to be in the business, we don’t expect this to be over and done, but what we do expect is to compete vigorously,” Skipper said. “What Fox does have is more live rights. Fox has more to start with, but again, in any comparison between our collection of assets and their collection of assets, we have a significantly broader, and better, portfolio.”

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Fox Sports Radio host Jay Mohr is profiled in this week’s “So What Do You Do?” Feature. Mohr is a comedian and actor who recently transitioned to the world of sports media.

How does doing a daily three-hour radio show compare to doing stand-up, SNL, TV and movies, and what has surprised you most so far?

What surprised me most is how huge a company Fox Sports Radio is and the [interview] access that comes with that, when you can interview a member of the Knicks, a member of the Lakers, a member of the Utah Jazz, Don Mattingly, manager of the Dodgers, and so on. I come in to work every morning and the guests we have lined up are consistently top caliber.
As far as how it compares to other mediums, I’ve always really loved structure. I wake up at the same time every day, come home relatively at the same time each day, and it’s perfect for me. It’s sort of like a shotgun structure: you go like crazy when you first wake up; you just sort of go nuts for five hours, then go home and refuel. And there’s no waiting around, which is the absolute worst and only bad part about acting. You spend 95 percent of your time in a trailer, eating candy and doing push-ups, wondering when they’re going to use you.

You can read the entire interview here.

FS1′s Dan O’Toole and Jay Onrait

It is a big day in the world of sports media, with three big news items about three different sports divisions.

First, Turner Sports and CBS Sports have announced that the March Madness NCAA Final Four and NCAA Championship Game will move to cable, with Final Four games on TBS starting next year, and the Championship Game in 2016. CBS and TBS will switch off the Final Four and Championship Games through the remainder of the long-term deal through 2024.

“Since the inception of our partnership, I don’t think we could have envisioned such a seamless collaboration between our two companies both in front of and behind the cameras,” said David Levy, president of Sales, Distribution and Sports for Turner, in a statement.

NBC Sports is making a major change to “Sunday Night Football,” bringing in Carrie Underwood to perform “Waiting For Sunday Night,” the official theme song of the program.

Finally, Fox Sports took the sports world by storm this week by naming Jay Onrait and Dan O’Toole as the primary highlight team for “Fox Sports Live,” the daily sports news show to launch on Fox Sports 1 later this year.

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