By Dave Hughes, DCRTV.com

The latest Nielsen ratings reported that 47.7 million people watched the Ravens beat the Patriots to advance to the Super Bowl on February 3.

The Jan. 20 AFC Championship Game was the most-watched TV program since last year's Super Bowl, according to David Zurawik at The Baltimore Sun.

Locally, the game earned a 51.8 rating and a 71 share via CBS-owned Channel 13/WJZ.

An average of 1.126 million viewers watched the game, with a peak of 1.23 million viewers in the Baltimore market.

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John Klug, who does the morning show at Baltimore classic rocker WZBA, 100.7 The Bay, produced a remix of rock anthems such as Van Halen's "Right Now" and The White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army" for the Ravens' AFC Championship Game.

Click here to check it out.

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The Washington Capitals' season-opening loss in Tampa, Fla., earned a 2.3 rating in the Washington, D.C., market, equal to about 54,000 homes.

That made it one of the most-watched programs in the area on Jan. 19, and the most-watched Caps opener in Comcast SportsNet history, according to Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post, who wrote that the game's ratings were 77 percent higher than last year's season opener.

Comcast SportsNet will carry 41 Capitals games during this shortened season.

The network's live game coverage will be led by play-by-play announcer Joe Beninati, analyst Craig Laughlin and reporter Al Koken. The "Capitals Central" and "Capitals Postgame Live" shows will feature Alan May, while Koken and Rob Carlin alternate as hosts.

Beninati and Laughlin will contribute to the coverage, with Jill Sorenson, the network's Capitals television beat reporter, and CSNwashington.com Capitals insider Chuck Gormley providing reports.

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Ted Leonsis, who owns the Washington Capitals and Washington Wizards, is starting an Internet operation dubbed Monumental Network.

According to the Washington Post's Thomas Heath, the effort is "a search for new revenue to fund his billion-dollar media-entertainment-sports enterprise." It's seen as the first step in a plan to create regional sports TV outlets to carry Leonsis' teams.

The Wizards and Capitals lose between $5 million and $10 million each, and Leonsis must expand the revenue base beyond the traditional tickets, refreshments, merchandise, in-house advertising, radio and television, according to the Post. Heath also pointed out that one path is to own a local sports network, which is where the possibility of real revenue growth lies.

But that path is currently blocked, because both teams have long-term broadcasting contracts with Comcast. Monumental's new media push may be a temporary fix until Leonsis can get his regional sports television network, Heath wrote.

The new Web site "is a precursor to a much bigger media play for us," Leonsis told the Post. "The long-range goal is to own our own means of distribution. The most successful sports teams right now are successful because they own their own regional sports networks."

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A second area radio station will be carrying the new CBS Sports Radio Network.

CBS Radio is dropping the business/government news format on Maryland's 1580 AM, which has been known as WNEW-AM, to put the new CBS Sports Radio on full time in the D.C. market, starting Jan. 28.

The sports radio network was launched on Jan. 2, and it is currently carried on air in Baltimore, via 1300, WJZ-AM.

The new 1580 will be a companion to CBS's D.C. sports talker WJFK, 106.7 The Fan. CBS Sports Radio is also currently heard on a digital subchannel, 106.7.

Posted Jan. 23, 2013