"According to NBC officials, the Kentucky Derby has been designated a 'cross-channel priority,' meaning the network plans to promote the race across its broadcast properties. The "Today" show and its weekend edition will broadcast live from Churchill Downs, as will CNBC and the Weather Channel, the officials said. In addition, two new entertainment channels in the NBC universe, E! and Style, will do segments on the Derby, a strategy that has been endorsed by Churchill officials to expand the event's draw beyond sports fans ..."

"Outside the shuttered parlor near Times Square, a man recognized a reporter from an earlier visit and asked if there had been any developments. Told that NYRA had taken over the television programming, he beamed. 'So NYRA is taking over OTB?' he asked excitedly. No, friend. Just the television part. He sank. 'This is a crazy situation,' he said."

"The latest trend in large-screen television technology seems to be web-enabled televisions that take full advantage of broadcast signals being sent to them via the internet. Multiple views of the same event are possible as well as other interactive features. You could be watching a track that has developed a website and/or an application that enables you to watch the simulcast signal in high definition and pull up past performances on the TV screen as well. Multiple camera angles are possible which I would love to see since I like to watch horses breaking from the gate and going around the turn on the steward's view of the race instead of the pan shot. Having both on the screen simultaneously or allowing me to pick and choose which angle I want to watch would be awesome."

"Like the multiple windows open on our computer screens, like the simultaneous pictures on an episode of 24 -- the other visual hallmark of the War on Terror years -- the ticker said there was simply too much information to send through one channel alone. Big news day or slow news day, the urgency -- alert alert alert -- never stopped."

"But it was clear, even then, that this woman was scared of her, and scared for her daughter. You could see the potential for Betty to heal, in those few scenes. But that wasn’t the message of the scenes themselves. The message was that her chance was gone; she wasn’t a child any more, and she had to be judged by adult standards. She still needs love, so badly, but she just doesn’t deserve it any more, and giving it to her is just too risky. Help came too late. And how many stories is that, really?"

"Over the course of his career, Mann has produced a taut, stylistic and often brutally impersonal filmography that seems most interested in the concept of work. His movies are preoccupied with how men (almost always men) of extraordinary skills practice their craft -- and the price they must pay for doing so."

"Mann said the Milch script for 'Luck' was one of the richest and most compelling that had ever crossed his desk.... Underpinning all of it is the juxtaposition between the majestic horses and the desperate people who exploit them and one another. Mann is especially pleased by the shadows in the plot.... All of it is a puzzle to be solved, and Mann, the detective, seemed giddy to be on the case."

"The network held off a strong challenge from Fox to sign a multiyear deal worth in the neighborhood of $9M per year to keep the rights, sources say. The rights fee was pushed up due to an unexpected bid from Fox, according to several sources. NBC's previous Kentucky Derby deal was over five years and worth $44M."

"Less sport and more style. That's the winning ticket at the racetrack these days, as the horse racing industry is trying to reinvent itself in an effort to attract new, younger and female fans."

Nice! "NBC Sports’ coverage of the Derby, won by Super Saver, earned the highest overnight rating for the race in 18 years, according to data from the Nielsen Company. The 10.3 overnight rating and 23 share for the race showed a gain of 1 percent over last year’s (10.2/22) and was up 7 percent from the 9.5/21 rating in 2008, when Big Brown cruised to victory. ABC earned a 10.9/23 rating when Lil E Tee won in 1992."

Filming starts March 29. "On any given day, we’ll have between 100 and 500 crew, cast and extras on-site here. Mr. Milch and Mr. Mann expressed a strong desire to shoot much of this pilot while we were running live, which we will be, through April 18."

Numbers deemed unspectacular, but good enough: "The show averaged 594,000 viewers, an increase of 11% compared with the year-ago time slot average." Also noted: Resemblance to MTV docu-soaps not coincidental -- production team used some of the techniques pioneered on "Laguna Beach."

Nerd nirvana: "His voice echoed throughout the chamber growing louder until -- I kid you not -- he was yelling, 'So Say We All,' and the crowd answered right back. Hell, even I yelled it, I was in the fraking United Nations with Adama, the gods themselves could not have stopped this moment."

"ESPN is doggedly pursuing the same strategy online that made it a success in the TV world: licensing pipes, not people. And it just might work."