Ross Greenburg has been fired as HBO Sports President.

(Losing Pacquaio To Showtime Cost Longtime HBO Sports President His Job)

Greenburg’s termination will be announced by HBO as soon as this week. A severance package between the two parties was agreed upon last week.

To cushion the blow of Greenburg’s forced ouster, HBO will not announce his departure as an outright firing - instead noting that Greenburg will contribute to the company in the future as an independent producer.

An email and message left on the cell phone of HBO Vice President of Public Relations Ray Stallone was not immediately returned.

So why was Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel and Inside The NFL creator Greenburg, who during his 32-year run with the company also negotiated countless major boxing broadcast rights agreements, ejected by HBO execs as their sports division president?

Some of the reasons: Read more…

There’s a reason popular art is cyclical. Everyone from the mightiest pharaoh to the lowliest peasant runs out of ideas; even the beginning of this sentence is stolen. When in dire straights, executives take old ideas, put a shiny new twist on it, and trot them out as fresh products. So it’s no surprise that HBO, in desperate need of a hit, is once again considering dipping into the well that is “sports comedy”, whatever weird niche that is.

(Their last shot.)

BC BEAT is reporting that Ross Greenburg, the president of HBO SPORTS, has made it clear he plans on pursuing a new original “sports comedy show” for the network. But that’s not all, kids. He’s also looking to somehow get the Internets to give him feedback!

Read more…