The arrival of ESPN at the U.S. Open is the big story in these early days of the tournament. The ESPN presence has transformed the broadcast compound (look for another filing later in the day discussing those massive changes) and is also transforming the viewing experience for DirecTV subscribers as ESPN and DirecTV are delivering a six screen mosaic of multiple-court coverage.

New York Giants Entertainment does not have the rights to show the action inside the lines on Sunday afternoons, but the multimedia group does have inside access to the team during the other six days and 21 hours of the week. Giving fans more access than they’ve ever had before, Giants Entertainment has launched a Web TV channel for the 2009 season, rolling out a combination of five to six live and produced features daily. All of the video is available free of charge on www.giants.com.

For the past two years, the USTA has streamed just a handful of matches from the U.S. Open. But thanks to a new cable partnership with ESPN2 and The Tennis Channel, this year, the USTA brought exposure to a new level by live streaming every match that airs on ESPN2 and the Tennis Channel – more than 150 in total. According to Phil Green, USTA senior director of advanced media, streaming the matches this year is not so much an amenity as a necessity.

Chicago’s Olympic bid committee has spent just over $48 million dollars so far in efforts to land the 2016 Summer Games. The committee’s “Stewardship Report,” released Friday, says that, whereas the budget anticipated revenues of $73.2 million, 2016 has actually taken in nearly $77 million. The report notes that the bid has been funded 100% by private donors, making it unique in a four-city competition where the other three candidates receive some level of public funding…

The Sports Video Group will once again host its fourth-annual SVG Sport Reception and Technology Achievement award at IBC: the top European sports broadcasting networking event of the year! This year’s event will feature recipients for two productions: the French Open 3D production, transmitted to theaters in France and Spain by Orange last May, and coverage of the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy, broadcast by ITV, will be front and center during the networking reception and awards ceremony.

While the current buzz about Cowboys Stadium may be focused on punting and big-screen TVs, the production team at the arena has been putting the final touches on the in-stadium video experience.

When the New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer make their first run on goal in the new Red Bull Arena in March 2010, they will count on Panasonic to help enhance the fan experience with the latest multi-media and electronics system solutions. The technology partnership agreement calls for Panasonic to provide the Red Bulls with large screen displays, digital signage and a range of additional electronic equipment for use in the new Red Bull Arena, and designates Panasonic “Official HD TV Supplier” of Red Bull Arena.

USOpen.org, created by the USTA and IBM, will offer live streaming of every match aired by ESPN and Tennis Channel, as previously reported, totaling more than 150 matches.

CBS Sports reports that its ratings for the final round of The Barclays golf tournament on Sunday more than doubled last year’s totals. The network posted an overnight household rating/share of 3.7/8, up 106% from 1.8/4 in the metered markets in 2008 and 76% from a 2.1/5 in 2007.

Orad will hit the IBC show next week with a new stereoscopic 3D system that can render graphics in real time and display them over the stereo image. The solution enables content such as data videos and textures to be updated in real time, controls the depth dimension of the graphics, and provides full control of the stereo parameters such as interaxial (eye separator) and convergence.

Ross Video will debut a new enhanced openGear platform, the DFR-8321 series, at IBC2009 at the RAI Centre in Amsterdam Sept. 11-15. The company says theDFR-8321 offers a full compliment of 20 processing slots with a dedicated 21st slot for remote control and monitoring using the new MFC-8320-N high-end network solution.

Canon U.S.A. introduced the EOS 7D Digital SLR camera, which features a 19-point auto-focus system, a new Canon iFCL metering system (Intelligent Focus, Color, Luminance), and a new intelligent viewfinder.

Live broadcast may be the money maker in sports television but edited highlights and short packages for analysis are also critical elements. EVS is aiming at that market with Xedio, a combined ingest, editing and play-out system that forms a major part of its offering at this year’s IBC.

High-speed camera specialist LMC has released a new version of its Antelope system, allowing up to five clips to be stored during live recording. V4.5 multi-bank software allows operators to save a sequence on one of five banks of memory, while continuing to record on to another segment.

ESPN’s Virtual Playbook is making the move off the virtual field and into the virtual booth, thanks to proprietary software written by ESPN’s technical team led by Anthony Bailey, ESPN VP of emerging technologies. Combined with off-the-shelf hardware, the software forms a system that is expected to make its debut sometime next spring.

Lleyendecker, a rental company based in Wuppertal, Germany, and specializing in lighting and sound for events, exhibitions, and concerts, added a Riedel Communications RockNet system to its arsenal, and the gear has already been used at the Bread & Butter fashion exhibition in Berlin, as well as various concerts and events such as the T-Mobile Street Gigs.

This year, SVG is putting on the whites and heading out to Flushing, NY to cover the final Grand Slam event of the year — the U.S. Open — from serve to celebration. During the next two weeks, SVG staff will be taking the train out to the Billie Jean King Tennis Center to take you behind the scenes of the biggest tennis event of the year with SVG’s U.S. Open Sports Technology Blog. We’ll be blogging all the news and reviews from the compound, starting with a new HD streaming application on USOpen.org and a revamped viewing experience for DirecTV subscribers. Stay current with the U.S. Open by checking our Sports Technology blog daily at http://sportsvideo.org/main/usopen2009/.

Digital-content-solutions provider Prime Focus Technologies is using Front Porch Digital’s DIVArchive system to provide distributed video storage and archiving for clients’ media content in three locations—two in Mumbai and one in Los Angeles.

Cogeco Cable, Canada’s fourth-largest cable operator, with more than 400,000 digital subscribers in Quebec and Ontario, will use the OpenStream Digital Services Platform from TANDBERG Television, part of the Ericsson Group, as its exclusive back-office system.

Hyderabad, India-based newspaper and print-media company Munsif is breaking into the television business, with a little help from Grass Valley. The company is planning a November launch of 24-hour national news channel Munsif TV, and the network’s new facility will include five Grass Valley standard-definition LDK 400 cameras, a Kayak DD2 production switcher, a Concerto Series router and a Grass Valley Aurora multiseat, shared-storage digital-news-editing platform.

Integrated communications-solutions provider Cincinnati Bell integrated the Novar traffic and billing system from Harris into its daily business operation, allowing the company to schedule and insert ads, reconcile logs, and invoice customers.

Wendy’s and ESPN are saying, “Thank God it’s Friday,” as the restaurant chain and the cable network reached an exclusive five-month sponsorship deal under which Wendy’s will be the official sponsor of ESPN’s Football Fridays programming, AdAge.com’s Michael Bush reports.

Fox Business Network and Tennis Channel will share their talent during the 2009 U.S. Open, with the News Corp.-owned business-news channel featuring updates on the day’s tennis action, while Tennis airs a wrap of the day’s stock-market action, reports Marisa Guthrie of Broadcasting & Cable.

The International Olympic Committee will release its evaluation of the four cities bidding to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, and Philip Hersh of the Los Angeles Times expects no surprises, believing the IOC will state that Chicago, Tokyo, Madrid, and Rio de Janeiro all meet its standards.

Pennsylvania-based cable operator Blue Ridge Communications renewed its distribution agreement with Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network, giving Blue Ridge the right to carry the New York Yankees-owned regional sports network, as well as video-on-demand and local streaming rights, Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News reports.

The signal of cable network Versus was removed from satellite-TV service DirecTV when the contract between the two parties expired at midnight Tuesday, and the two sides are still far apart in carriage negotiations, Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News reports.

Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network announcers Michael Kay and Al Leiter did a good job keeping discussion topics fresh over the weekend, and not focusing on Major League Baseball’s New York Yankees’ use of pitcher Joba Chamberlain, writes Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News.

The move by Major League Baseball and ESPN to move the Sunday, Sept. 27, Major League Baseball game featuring the Boston Red Sox visiting the New York Yankees from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. will affect the home club’s Jewish fans, as Yom Kippur begins at sundown, Jeremy Olshan and Phil Mushnick of the New York Post reported.

Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network claims that its 90-minute special, Yankeeography: George Steinbrenner, which debuts on the regional sports network Wednesday night, will present an unbiased look at the owner of Major League Baseball’s New York Yankees, Michael Starr of the New York Post reports.

In what she said would be her “first and last” interview on the subject of being videotaped through a peephole while nude in a hotel room, ESPN reporter Erin Andrews said on The Oprah Winfrey Show that she is “excited to get back to work” and feels “like it’s really going to heal my wounds,” Michael Hiestand of USA Today reports.

The National Football League’s Jacksonville Jaguars and San Diego Chargers are bracing for the likelihood of their home games being blacked out on local TV for not selling out, and at least 10 other teams may be in the same predicament, reports Sean Leahy of USA Today.

TSL Professional Products Group will use IBC2009 at the RAI Centre in Amsterdam Sept. 11-15 to introduce its TallyMan Computer 1, a self contained unit able to control high-speed tally systems for large numbers of peripherals and functions.

The National Football League rolled out specific guidelines for the use of social-networking services such as Twitter and Facebook, including a statement urging any players or other league personnel who feel that they have been victimized by a false account to immediately contact the NFL’s security department.

Ex-Chicago Bulls and National Basketball Association great Michael Jordan will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Friday, Sept. 11, and Comcast SportsNet Chicago will present a two-day celebration of the event.

Gefen will demonstrate its new GefenTV Wireless for HDMI 60Ghz Extender at IBC2009 at the RAI Centre in Amsterdam Sept. 11-15.

Comcast SportsNet is ready for some Philadelphia Eagles football, adding Halftime Live, Eagles Extra, and Eagles Locker Room to its existing shows covering the National Football League team: Eagles Pregame Live Presented by Geico, Eagles Postgame Live Presented by Chevrolet, Inside the Eagles, and Daily News Live Presented by AT&T.

Comcast SportsNet California will take Oakland A’s fans behind-the-scenes for a look at what goes on at Oakland Coliseum before, during and after the Major League Baseball club’s games with special coverage during the team’s home game versus the Kansas City Royals Tuesday, Sept. 1 at 7 p.m. PT.

CBSSports.com and Sports Illustrated announced a partnership under which the two parties will share each other’s content across their online properties and in the print edition of SI, David Kaplan of paidContent reported.

CBS has sold approximately 40 30-second spots for Super Bowl XLIV, or 65% of available commercial spots for the Big Game, reports Steve McClellan of Adweek.

Phil Mushnick of the New York Post laments the fact that television coverage of sports often features the routine plays and leaves out the true big plays.

GolTV’s coverage of Real Madrid’s 3-2 defeat of Deportive La Coruna Saturday kicked off coverage of Spain’s top soccer league by the hybrid Spanish-language and English-language cable network and ESPN, Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News reports.

ESPN locked down its advertising roster for the 2009 U.S. Open, which began Monday, announcing deals with BMW, DirecTV, IBM, JPMorgan Chase, Lexus, and MGD 64, Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News reports.

The first serves of the 2009 U.S. Open boomed off tennis rackets Monday, but Cablevision Systems subscribers hoping to view Tennis Channel’s coverage of the tournament were left out in the dark, as Tennis Channel CEO Ken Solomon appeared on CNBC Monday morning and said the cable network and cable operator had yet to reach a carriage agreement, reports Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News.

National Football League Hall of Famer and former ESPN analyst Michael Irvin will join NFL Network’s NFL GameDay crew beginning Sunday, Sept. 13, reports Alex Weprin of Broadcasting & Cable.

AdAge.com’s MediaWorks wrote, “If you want to understand how ESPN went from a two-story building surrounded by satellites in 1979 to the world’s largest sports-media brand, spend a day at the company’s campus in Bristol, CT. On the eve of ESPN’s 30th anniversary, MediaWorks took a trip up north to the company’s Media Workshop, where dozens of sports-media reporters and bloggers convened for a detailed tour of what makes The Walt Disney Co.’s top-grossing cable property tick. Here are some highlights from the day’s sessions.”

ESPN will mark the 30th anniversary of its signature show, SportsCenter, with a 90-minute special Sunday, Sept. 6 at 11:30 p.m. ET, hosted by the three most tenured SportsCenter anchors—Chris Berman, Bob Ley, and John Saunders.

The New York Yankees have had their stadium’s empty seats featured on national television, and the NBA’s teams — especially the New Jersey Nets — are eager to avoid such public scrutiny. In an effort to fill seats during difficult economic times, many NBA teams are using creative incentives to lure new fans, the New York Times reports. Perhaps no other team has enhanced its marketing game the way the Nets have. They are offering ticket buyers free jerseys, complete with the names of their favorite players — and their favorite opponents. “I don’t think it has ever been done before,” said Chris Granger, the N.B.A.’s senior vice president for team marketing and business operations. “I don’t think any team has ever given premium items as part of a promotion that highlights someone from another team.”

Harmonic has announced to use the IBC Show as a backdrop for showcasing its line of video delivery products. These include its ProStream stream processing platform, Carbon Server transcoding software and MediaPrism applications for multi-screen video delivery.