This Just In

Atlanta — TBS will pitch to baseball fans a comprehensive package of on-air and online coverage of Major League Baseball’s divisional playoff series beginning Oct. 3.

On air, TBS’s coverage of the four National and American League divisional playoff series — the first year of a broad rights deal — will be buttressed by an extensive pre- and post-game show and will feature an roster of veteran baseball announcers such Atlanta Braves play-by-play man Chip Caray, veteran sports announcer Dick Stockton, and former baseball stars Steve Stone, Bob Brenly and Tony Gwynn.

Online, the network’s TBS Hot Corner site (www.mlb.com/tbshotcorner) will offer live dugout look-ins, pregame batting practice coverage, a live trivia game and other baseball-related video content, according to Peter Scott, executive interactive producer for Turner Sports New Media.

The network will open each day of MLB playoffs coverage with a pre-game show and post-game show hosted by Inside the NBA’s Ernie Johnson, TBS Sports senior producer Howard Zalkowitz said.

Sister service TNT will carry any games that overlap TBS’s coverage, but the TNT game will eventually switch back to TBS, he said.

“I think that between studio and remote, the viewer will get a full day of baseball that will enhance the storylines and do justice to the drama that will unfold,” Zalkowitz added.

Also on the on-air roster: play-by-play man Ted Robinson, Don Orsillo and Joe Simpson.

TBS’s Hot Corner broadband video service, which launched Sept. 10, will for the first time give fans a live video broadband presence for baseball’s playoffs, Scott said.

As part of its Web coverage, TBS will stream live batting practice sessions of every playoff team.

During the games, TBS will feature a live stream from each team’s dugout.

The site also will offer a live studio show featuring cameo appearances from celebrities, coaches, players or scouts at the game.

Currently, the Hot Corner site is offering daily video segments dubbed “Hot Corner Daily,” which provides updates on the pennant races. Another area on the site, “Off Base Daily,” offers candid interviews with today’s baseball stars.

Also at the Hot Corner: video snippets from actress Alyssa Milano, behind the scenes at ballparks such as Dodger Stadium and interviewing players.

—R. Thomas Umstead

Philadelphia — Comcast launches a specialized video-on-demand and Web initiative today (Sept. 24) called “Breast Cancer Hope,” bringing educational and inspirational content to women facing the disease.

The effort is a partnership with Lifetime, which sponsors the VOD platform, Comcast’s Style Network, Discovery Health Channel, Exercise TV and breastcancer.org. The latter online site provides medically reviewed and up-to-date information about breast cancer.

The effort was inspired in part by the experiences of Aileen Roberts, wife of Comcast CEO Brian Roberts. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006 and this year asked company executives to think about ways to provide information for cancer patients, according to the company.

The VOD initiative will include more than 40 programs, grouped in five topical areas. “Fact or Fiction” will help explain to patients what to expect from visits to radiologists, breast surgeons, oncologists, plastic surgeons and other specialists. “What’s My Risk” includes Discovery Health programming on research and prevention; healthy cooking recipes, and cancer-related episodes from programming from CN8, Comcast’s regional news network. “Inspiration” will be programmed with features on prominent women who’ve faced cancer, plus the Lifetime movie Why I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy.

Cancer information will also be posted at www.comcast.net/breastcancer.

Woburn, Mass. — The broadband destination backing Fox Reality Channel’s Really Awards 2007 program uses Gotuit Media technology to let viewers fans navigate directly to favorite award categories, characters, presenters, musicians and other segment of the programs.

Fans can visit http://really.foxreality.com/reallyawards/ now to watch last year’s awards ceremony and this year will be able to vote for Most Memorable Reality TV Star for 2007.

The award winner will be announced during the premiere of the Really Awards show on Oct. 13 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. After airing, the full awards-show ceremony, including exclusive red carpet footage, will be indexed and available on the site.

New York — Starting today (Sept. 24), Fox News Channel’s Fox Report will sport a fresh look as the Shepard Smith-hosted show shifts to a new state-of-the-art studio.

The new set will showcase a high-tech environment, replete with multiple plasma screens, a single rear-screen projection wall, a double rear-projection wall and a large LED stealth wall. Fox News officials said the components will enable Smith to give viewers even more video and valuable information in real time. And, as news breaks, Smith can handle multiple feeds and graphics, while using the environment to help shape the stories.

Fox Report — which the network says has been first in its time 7 p.m. time slot for 71 consecutive months — also will add a new recurring segment, the “U Report,” a viewer-generated content initiative that also taps into blogs and presents commentary from the worlds of pop culture, politics and current events.

New York — The L Word has landed on Logo.

The MTV Networks service, targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities, has picked up the first five seasons of Showtime’s sapphic drama.

It’s scheduled to begin airing the series, which tracks the romantic, family and professional lives of a coterie of lesbians in Los Angeles, next summer.

Deal terms for the 62 episodes, acquired from CBS Domestic Television, were not disclosed. One person familiar with the deal said it runs through 2014.

The show will benefit from significant online components at Logo’s AfterEllen.com, a leading site for lesbian entertainment and a place that’s already offered L Word reviews, commentary and show synopses after installment premieres. AfterEllen.com, home to weekly online series She Made Me Watch This! is part of Logo’s federation of Web sites that in August landed for the first time at the top spot of LGBT online segment, according to network officials.

Washington — Advance/Newhouse Communications chairman and CEO Robert Miron was named chairman of C-SPAN’s executive committee at the public-affairs cable network’s annual board meeting on Sept. 18.

He succeeds Bresnan Communications chairman and CEO William Bresnan, who chaired the six-member committee since 2005 and remains on the network’s board of directors and the executive committee. Brian Lamb is C-SPAN’s chairman and CEO.

The 20-member board also elected a new member: Bend Broadband CEO Amy Tykeson.

National Cable Television Cooperative CEO Jeffrey Abbas was re-elected an at-large director; MDM Advisors CEO Kelvin Westbrook was named a senior director and Amos Hostetter was re-elected as a senior director.