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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Summerall, 82, died of a heart attack at a Dallas hospital yesterday. He’d gone in for hip surgery. Some tributes on Twitter:

“He was a terrific broadcaster, a great guy, they didn’t come any better on TV,” Larry King.

“The late Pat Summerall was a great broadcaster who once happened to be a good football player. Early on, was a NYC radio morning host. RIP,” Keith Olbermann.

“Pat was not only good, he was easy to listen to. That’s a rarity in today’s show biz TV sports world,” Len Berman.

“For those of us who make a living in front of a microphone, Pat Summerall was one of the guys who defined the job,” Steve Inskeep, NPR

“RIP Pat Summerall. I will remember you as an entrepreneur first and foremost,” Mark Cuban

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• After more than 40 years at Television Centre, BBC News moved into its new home at London’s Broadcasting House this week. The BBC newschannel and news bulletins for BBC One join BBC World News which moved into the new facility in January.
• Bloomberg Media Group and El Financiero will launch a new multi-platform Spanish-language business news service for Mexico and Central America. Broadcasting from El Financiero’s HD studio in Mexico City, the network will launch later this year.
• Denis Horgan, who’s been with MSNBC on and off for 10 years, will be the EP of the new Chris Hayes 8pmET program. Horgan originally joined MSNBC in 2003 as Senior Producer of “Countdown with Keith Olbermann.”

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Terms of the deal will not be disclosed. Olbermann and Current, who sued each other in April 2012 over his dismissal from the liberal-leaning network, are expected to file court documents soon dismissing the case.

A source in the agent community tells TVNewser that the settlement will give Olbermann the opportunity to return to TV in short order, provided there is a network with a job to offer.

Olbermann was fired from Current TV in March of last year, filing a lawsuit promptly thereafter. He left MSNBC in January of 2011, apparently unhappy with management there. He has taken meetings with other networks, notably networks owned by Viacom, AMC and ESPN.

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Olbermann argues that Current disparaged him to his staff and the press, and revealed confidential contract information. He also claims that his likeness was used in an ad for AT&T without his approval, and that he was not given control of the politics specials. He also blames Current for not letting “Countdown” stream online (though carriage agreements with cable operators prevented it) and for not seeking permission when naming guest-hosts for the program.

Meanwhile, at SXSW, a digital conference in Austin, Texas, Current founder Al Gore was interviewed by AllThingsD’s Walt Mossberg about the Current TV/Al Jazeera deal. Things got testy:
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• “NBC Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams is interviewed on actor Alec Baldwin‘s radio show “Here’s The Thing.” It is a candid conversation, with Williams telling Baldwin “I have profound disappointments in my country,” like the lack of a manned space program.

• Howard Kurtz writes for CNN.com, arguing that ESPN should bring Keith Olbermann back to the channel. “Remember: Watching Keith Olbermann is a great spectator sport.”

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MSNBC senior EP of dayside programming Meghan Schaefer Spielberg is joining “Bethenny” as an EP, as is Terence Noonan, who served in that same capacity for “Anderson Cooper‘s daytime talk show “Anderson Live,” which will not be returning in the Fall.

Schaefer Spielberg has been with MSNBC for 17 years, and was there when the network launched back in 1996. During that time she served as EP for “Ashleigh Banfield On Location” and “Countdown with Keith Olbermann,” among other programs. Noonan was a producer for “The Rosie O’Donnell Show” and “The Dr. Oz Show,” among others.

As “Katie,” “Anderson Live” and now “Bethenny” clearly show, there is life after TV news, particularly during the day and in syndication.

More:
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The exceedingly well-sourced James Andrew Miller, the co-author of the terrific book Those Guys Have All The Fun–which chronicles the rise of ESPN–reports in the NY Times that Olbermann wants to return to the iconic sports cable channel in some form. We noted over the weekend that Olbermann appeared in an ESPN “30 for 30″ short film.

Even more amazingly, he got Olbermann, Olbermann’s former “SportsCenter” partner Dan Patrick and ESPN president John Skipper on the record on the matter.

“I had the privilege to spend some time with John Skipper,” [Olbermann] said. “His vision and charm were readily apparent, and judging by his leadership, his family name was prophetic…”

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Now, however, Olbermann is returning to ESPN… sort of. In a short film that is part of ESPN’s “30 for 30″ series, Olbermann appears to talk about the legendary T-206 Honus Wagner baseball card. Olbermann is an avid baseball card collector.

WATCH:

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FishbowlDC reports that the network will be pruning more political contributors from its lineup, naming Roland Martin and Donna Brazile as likely candidates:

Should the calls come down, Brazile likely wouldn’t be too shell-shocked. She’s already got a sweet gig with ABC. Martin, on the other hand, has his “Washington Watch” program on TV One and is a senior analyst for the Tom Joyner radio show.

Deadline reports that CNN has acquired a new weekend series from Ridley Scott called “Crimes of the Century.” The series will examine major news events using cinematic style:
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When I told my 7 year old I had decided to leave, she laid on the sofa for an hour crying that she’d never see Anderson Cooper again. She’s never actually met Anderson Cooper. But I have and I’ll miss him and his team and I’ll miss Wolf and his team, and all the other terrific people I’ve worked with these last three years. I deeply regret never working up the courage to pull on Wolf’s beard.

For all those liberals who lost money thinking Keith Olbermann would outlast me at Current TV, well, sorry.

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Olbermann’s gift will allow WVBR – a commercial radio station run entirely by Cornell students – to move into a new, bigger facility much closer to the Cornell campus. The new building on East Buffalo Street in Ithaca will be named Olbermann-Corneliess Studios, after Olbermann’s late father Theodore Olbermann and Glenn Corneliess, a former program director at the station and a friend of Olbermann’s who died in 1996 at 39.

The amount Olbermann made has not been made public, but the fundraising goal of $935,000 now stands at $555,081. The new, bigger location will include a multimedia center for training in video production, web design and online programming.  Other notable WVBR alums include NBC News anchor Kate Snow and CNBC senior producer Peter Schacknow.

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The new channel will not be Al Jazeera English, the company’s English-language news outlet, but rather a new, U.S.-based network. The channel is tentatively being called Al Jazeera America, but a source close to the company says that it isn’t wedded to the name, and may try to create a new brand. One of the options being considered, according to our source, is calling the channel “beIN,” or “beIN News,” to make it mesh with Al Jazeera’s beIN Sport network, which already has some U.S. distribution.

The impetus for the fresh name would stem from Al Jazeera’s brand in the U.S., which, while strong with journalists in New York and DC, is decidedly mixed across the rest of the country.

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The result will be a new channel, not simply a simulcast of Al Jazeera English, the company’s English-language cable news outlet. As for Current TV’s current slate of staffers and shows, the future remains unclear, but likely grim.

Rather than simply use Current to distribute its existing English-language channel, called Al Jazeera English and based in Doha, Qatar, Al Jazeera will create a new channel based in New York, according to people with knowledge of the deal negotiations. Potentially called Al Jazeera America, roughly 60 percent of the programming will be produced in the United States while the remaining 40 percent will come from Al Jazeera English.

Al Jazeera may absorb some Current TV staff members, according to the people, who insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. But Current’s schedule of shows will most likely be dissolved in the spring.

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Matthews symbolized MSNBC’s growing comfort in being a liberal alternative to Fox News Channel. With Keith Olbermann out of sight, Matthews essentially replaced him as the commentator that most annoyed conservative viewers.

“During the run-up to the Iraq War, he just became really, really partisan and became even more so when MSNBC decided to become the anti-Fox,” said Geoff Dickens, who used to watch Matthews as a fan and now monitors him regularly as part of his job with the conservative Media Research Center.

Griffin, who produced “Hardball” for many years before moving on to other jobs at NBC/MSNBC, knows Matthews better than most. Matthews “is at a place in his life where he’s really comfortable in his own skin,” says Griffin. “He’s a statesman.”

About that idea of running for Senate four years ago. Matthews recently said he would have been “one of the stars of the Democratic Party,” had he run and won. But being a party guy might have worn on him quickly. Matthews tells Bauder: “I never want to do what everybody else is doing. I don’t want to be part of the chorus.”

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